Children's Well-Being Indicators and Research: Children, Gender and Families in Mediterranean Welfare States 2 (2010, Hardcover) download PDF, EPUB, MOBI
9789048188413 9048188415 Recent decades have seen a growing sophistication in the study of welfare states and social policy in general. This greater depth has come about as a result of more complex theorization; richer case study analysis; and the inclusion of additional sources of provision such as not-for-profit, market-based, informal and family welfare. The fields of study open to social scientists in this arena have also expanded to include issues such as globalization, gender, immigration and children, while benchmarking and performance monitoring within countries have afforded huge quantities of new data that allow for much more detailed cross-national comparative analysis. There is intense interest in the social well-being and the legal and economic status of families, women and children in the welfare state, and this volume deals with the issues from a unique welfare regime' perspective. Casting aside the generally held assumption that national welfare regimes have common characteristics, this book makes the case that the Mediterranean states share a unique set of commonalities. In doing so, it offers a close comparative analysis of policies towards children, families and gender in these nations--Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Israel. Beginning with an overview of these countries' welfare states and a discussion of the issues of children, families and gender in general terms, the volume then provides readers at both undergraduate and graduate level with detailed country-by-country comparative studies of these issues, authored by leading experts from the nations themselves., The study of welfare states and social policy has enjoyed growing popularity in the last three decades. This field has been characterized by a growing level of theorization, richer case study analyses, inclusion of additional sources of welfare provision (non-profit, market-based, informal, family) and fields of study (globalization, gender, ethnicity, immigration, children), and increasingly complex, accurate and up-to-date cross-national comparative analyses. One of the subjects that have been the focus of much interest has been that of families, women and children their social well being and their legal and economic status in the welfare state. The common assumption is that there is a clear relationship and interaction between the structuring of the welfare state and the well-being and social status of these subs groups. Cross-national comparative analyses have shown that this interaction differs significantly from country to country, depending on the culture, religion as well as on its welfare regime. Scholars are engaged in diverse efforts to understand the differences between these policies in diverse welfare states, the reasons for these differences and their results. This volume deals with these issues from a unique welfare regime perspective. While over the last two decades research on welfare states has generally tended to assume that these nations can be divided into welfare regimes with common characteristics, there has been much ambivalence towards, and much less study of, the welfare states in the Mediterranean region. This volume focuses on these welfare states and makes the case for regarding the nations in this region as belonging to a common family of nations. It then seeks to compare policies towards children, families and gender in these nations. The volume will seek to further this research agenda by including an initial section that offers an overview of the Mediterranean welfarestates, and then discusses issues of children, families and gender in general. The second part of the book will offer detailed country studies of these issues, all authored by leading experts in the various countries., This book makes the case that the Mediterranean states share a unique set of commonalities. In doing so, it offers a close comparative analysis of policies towards children, families and gender in these nations Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Israel., countries in this region have been particularly limited (for an exception to this, see Petmesidou & Papatheodorou, 2006). The underlying assumption in this volume is that despite the diversity of welfare states bordering the Mediterranean Sea, some interesting commonalities are shared by these nations. Indeed, in his contribution to this volume Gal has described these nations as belonging to an extended family of welfare states that share some common characteristics and outcomes, one of which is the role of the family. By bringing together case analyses of the welfare states in the Mediterranean which focus on children, gender, and families, we maintain that it is possible to shed light on aspects of social policy that do not necessarily emerge in most discussions of these issues in the literature. The rationale inherent in a volume that focuses on a group of welfare states is of course embedded in the welfare regime typology notion that has dominated much of the comparative social policy literature over the last two decades. The publication of Esping Andersen's seminal work, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism in 1990 (and his related 1999 book), which distinguished between three welfare regimes, became a landmark for comparative work of social policies in various countries. Esping-Andersen regarded his typology as a useful tool for comparison between welfare states because it allowed "for greater analytical parsimony and help s] us to see the forest rather than myriad trees" (1999, p. 73).
9789048188413 9048188415 Recent decades have seen a growing sophistication in the study of welfare states and social policy in general. This greater depth has come about as a result of more complex theorization; richer case study analysis; and the inclusion of additional sources of provision such as not-for-profit, market-based, informal and family welfare. The fields of study open to social scientists in this arena have also expanded to include issues such as globalization, gender, immigration and children, while benchmarking and performance monitoring within countries have afforded huge quantities of new data that allow for much more detailed cross-national comparative analysis. There is intense interest in the social well-being and the legal and economic status of families, women and children in the welfare state, and this volume deals with the issues from a unique welfare regime' perspective. Casting aside the generally held assumption that national welfare regimes have common characteristics, this book makes the case that the Mediterranean states share a unique set of commonalities. In doing so, it offers a close comparative analysis of policies towards children, families and gender in these nations--Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Israel. Beginning with an overview of these countries' welfare states and a discussion of the issues of children, families and gender in general terms, the volume then provides readers at both undergraduate and graduate level with detailed country-by-country comparative studies of these issues, authored by leading experts from the nations themselves., The study of welfare states and social policy has enjoyed growing popularity in the last three decades. This field has been characterized by a growing level of theorization, richer case study analyses, inclusion of additional sources of welfare provision (non-profit, market-based, informal, family) and fields of study (globalization, gender, ethnicity, immigration, children), and increasingly complex, accurate and up-to-date cross-national comparative analyses. One of the subjects that have been the focus of much interest has been that of families, women and children their social well being and their legal and economic status in the welfare state. The common assumption is that there is a clear relationship and interaction between the structuring of the welfare state and the well-being and social status of these subs groups. Cross-national comparative analyses have shown that this interaction differs significantly from country to country, depending on the culture, religion as well as on its welfare regime. Scholars are engaged in diverse efforts to understand the differences between these policies in diverse welfare states, the reasons for these differences and their results. This volume deals with these issues from a unique welfare regime perspective. While over the last two decades research on welfare states has generally tended to assume that these nations can be divided into welfare regimes with common characteristics, there has been much ambivalence towards, and much less study of, the welfare states in the Mediterranean region. This volume focuses on these welfare states and makes the case for regarding the nations in this region as belonging to a common family of nations. It then seeks to compare policies towards children, families and gender in these nations. The volume will seek to further this research agenda by including an initial section that offers an overview of the Mediterranean welfarestates, and then discusses issues of children, families and gender in general. The second part of the book will offer detailed country studies of these issues, all authored by leading experts in the various countries., This book makes the case that the Mediterranean states share a unique set of commonalities. In doing so, it offers a close comparative analysis of policies towards children, families and gender in these nations Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Israel., countries in this region have been particularly limited (for an exception to this, see Petmesidou & Papatheodorou, 2006). The underlying assumption in this volume is that despite the diversity of welfare states bordering the Mediterranean Sea, some interesting commonalities are shared by these nations. Indeed, in his contribution to this volume Gal has described these nations as belonging to an extended family of welfare states that share some common characteristics and outcomes, one of which is the role of the family. By bringing together case analyses of the welfare states in the Mediterranean which focus on children, gender, and families, we maintain that it is possible to shed light on aspects of social policy that do not necessarily emerge in most discussions of these issues in the literature. The rationale inherent in a volume that focuses on a group of welfare states is of course embedded in the welfare regime typology notion that has dominated much of the comparative social policy literature over the last two decades. The publication of Esping Andersen's seminal work, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism in 1990 (and his related 1999 book), which distinguished between three welfare regimes, became a landmark for comparative work of social policies in various countries. Esping-Andersen regarded his typology as a useful tool for comparison between welfare states because it allowed "for greater analytical parsimony and help s] us to see the forest rather than myriad trees" (1999, p. 73).