ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00407.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper presents unpublished data from an international comparative research project. A ten‐country study analysed change and diversity informs of private life during the 1980s in comparable age groups of women (women of young parental age and women at the start of the postparental phase). Changes in forms of private life and their international diversity make up the sociological background for demographic change. The scientific and political assumptions view demographic diversity in Europe as an expression of the simultaneity of the non‐simultaneous, of a unidimensional trend in changes informs of private life as a result of the dissolution of the traditional family and the subsequent increase in such forms. We show that although Europeans have to deal with similar trends, they are framed by various national and cultural traditions and different social policy guiding principles and actions. Social policy profiles define various “normality weightings” for (prospective) parents’options. Of particular significance is how States differ in reconciling the demands of family and work. Differences in compatibility between family and professional life are exemplified by what Kaufmann (1990) calls the “structural lack of consideration” that politics and society have f

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00408.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The key components of social policy toward the elderly and disabled, and policies for families and their children, have featured what are by now widely employed income and service components. Now, as demographic and social change have motivated increasing numbers of countries to face the need for societal policies for children under the age of 3, exploration reveals the centrality of an additional policy dimension — time. A six‐country study and earlier research targeted on this group finds that several major policy patterns are emerging, with individual country choices reflecting history, culture, religious traditions, political configurations, and resources. Referring to illustrative countries, the paper explicates these options: (a) supporting an at‐home parent in “family work”; (b) backing a pattern of involvement of parents in both family and work; (c) offering parents of very young children the option of concentrating on family or work; (d) stressing programmes in support of the socialization and education of young children and their parents. It is suggested that social security institutions internationally contribute to these new developments through data collection, dissemination activities, and encouragement of discussion and

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00409.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Individual and collective welfare lies at the heart of deliberations about contemporary welfare states. It is not always recognized that social security provisions interact closely with systems for the support of families and for labour market participation. This paper focuses on the interaction of institutional arrangements providing social security for families with children. The analytic framework incorporates family and marital law and social security provisions. Three European welfare states, Belgium Germany and the United Kingdom — with divergent systems of family support — are compared in detail. Among the questions to be posed are: How do these societies organize their support and family‐related activities? And what are the rights for individual women, men and children? Among the indicators to be considered are whether the basis for entitlement to social security is individualized or based on a collective unit such as the couple or the household; the extent to which access relates to marriage status or the legitimacy of the children; and the employment‐related or universal nature of benefit. The different family models underlying institutions are a

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00410.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

One of the most striking trends over the past 20 years is the growth in the number of lone parent families in developed countries. This article provides an analysis of the structure of incentives in benefit systems for lone parents in a cross‐national perspective, using data from a recent comparative study of the systems of support for families with children in 17 countries (the members of the European Union, Australia, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United States). The article compares the level of benefits for lone parents and takes into account the impact of housing costs, health costs, and education and preschool provision. It assesses the possible incentive effects of different systems through a comparison of the financial positions of lone parents not in paid employment, lone parents in the labour market and other family type

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00411.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

During the 1980s, with the growth in divorce, remarriage and births outside marriage, men's responsibilities for children and their mothers have been reviewed. In Great Britain, the Child Support Act 1991, following a decade in which the number of lone parents increased by 50 per cent and the proportion claiming state benefit increased from one‐half to two‐thirds, is attempting to shift lone mothers from dependence on the State to dependence on the biological father of their children. This has raised controversial issues concerning women's and children's claims on the State as citizens in their own rights; the balance between a man's private duty to maintain and provide care for children (by maintaining their mother) and his public duty to reimburse the State for doing so; and the legitimacy of trade‐offs between claims on family “property” and claims to maintenance previously exercised in the courts. The individualistic system of English family law, in contrast to the law in Scotland and continental Europe, is part of the context within which these changes are taking place. So, too, is the fall in economic activity rates of lone mothers, which are among the lowest in the Europ

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00412.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This evaluative research is intended to follow up an experimental project, conducted in Israel, which aims to encourage sole mothers to work and to cease receiving public support, and to take upon themselves the responsibility of earning a living, by providing them with vocational training. To this end, an experimental group of 400 divorced and single mothers was randomly sampled from four local branches of the National Insurance Institute in the centre of the country and was invited to participate in vocational training. The research goal was to evaluate the sole mothers’willingness to participate in the training and the effect of their acquiring a vocation on their actual going to work and, as a consequence, ceasing to receive income support benefit. It was found that immediately following the vocational training, there was a significantly higher percentage of women from the experimental group who worked (63 per cent) than that from the control group (37 per cent). No significant difference was found in the percentage of women who were working two years later. Accordingly no significant difference was found in the percentage of women from both groups who continued to receive income support benefit at this ti

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00413.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

An inquiry into the role of social welfare in the development process in Africa must start by determining the position of the family in the face of all the social changes that are taking place. The role of the traditional African family may be broadly subdivided into its social role, its economic role and its role as an agent for the transmission and renewal of sociocultural values. Intraditional African societies, there is a complex interaction between the members of the family and the community. Social organization centres on the kinship group and the age group. The economic, political and sociocultural values of present‐day Africa, with its sprawling urban centres and industrial zones, differ increasingly from its traditional values. In Africa, the concept of development has been greatly influenced by the colonial experience and Western modernization theory which posited that economic development and growth, mainly through industrialization, would automatically raise the living standards and meet the social needs of the population. Social welfare was viewed as a non‐productive activity and therefore accorded a low priority in national development planning and resource allocation. In such a context, the scope of social policy is limited and cannot deal with the critical problems of mass poverty and deprivation afflicting the majority of African peoples, especially in rural areas. The family is disintegrating and social change has brought in its wake a host of new social problems which remedial social welfare services are not adequate to meet. Using Ghana as an example, this paper will critically examine these key issues and make recommendations for effective social policies and programmes that must be incorporated centrally into national development pl

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00414.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This article is based on a study of the protection afforded to the family under the social insurance schemes of the five Member States of the Arab Maghreb Union, and considers the usefulness of family benefits in economically poor countries gripped by the great problems of population growth and unemployment. This type of social protection is conditional upon the individual being actively employed and covers only a very small part of the working population, leaving out the majority. Should not priority be given to coverage against real occupational risks that threaten employment? This is not an easy question to answer in an increasingly unfavourable economic climate, but it should be possible, in the name of those social and human ethics founded on Maghrebi sentiments of family, local, national and regional solidarity, to mobilize particularly the political will to find better solutions or alternatives. It will, however, be necessary first to reconsider family benefit systems in relation to other, more urgent forms of protection in accordance with a social choice based on the rights and cultural values of Maghrebi citizens. By showing the common features of the Maghrebi schemes at the same time as some of their differences, the article will also present useful elements for their harmonization and even their unification into a regional social security system.

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00415.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This article examines the dimensions which determine whether national social security systems make payments towards the costs of long‐term care needs and whether they do so where these needs are met within the family; what kinds of payments are made and to whom; and what levels these payments are set at. The article is based on empirical material from five European Union countries (the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy and Germany). We argue that differences between countries along three dimensions account for most of the diversity between national systems in this field. These dimensions are the allocation of responsibilities and powers to local versus central levels of government; assumptions of to whom long‐term care represents a “risk”; national principles of subsidiarity and the relationship between the family and the State. This is, however, a field undergoing change (albeit mostly incrementalist and ad hoc) in the face of the demands placed on social welfare systems by growing levels of disability (related to the growth of elderly populations) and demands from women's movements and disability movements for recognition of their needs within social welfare

ISSN:0020-871X    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-246X.1994.tb00416.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY