Agnes Blome's Books

Family and the Welfare State in Europe

Intergenerational Relations in Ageing Societies

By: Agnes Blome,Wolfgang Keck,Jens Alber

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Family and the Welfare State in Europe

Intergenerational Relations in Ageing Societies

By: Agnes Blome,Wolfgang Keck,Jens Alber

The book offers a genuine and innovative research direction that explores the black box of intergenerational relations and in particular how institutions mediate families ability to offer financial resources as well as provide care services to their members. Antonis Roumpakis, Journal of Social Policy . . . the book is an impressive effort, from which both students and academics will benefit, as this reader indeed has. Svein Olav Daatland, Ageing and Society Most European countries are experiencing a dramatic demographic shift. A combination of falling birthrates and rising life expectancy leads to a significant aging of societies. The authors analyze how the state and the family shape generational living conditions in Germany, France, Italy and Sweden and how age-specific attitudes toward welfare policy are affected. One finding is that there is little evidence of conflict between the generations. The book is a very important contribution to a better understanding of the character of new challenges for European welfare states. Stein Kuhnle, The University of Bergen, Norway and the Hertie School of Governance, Germany This insightful book explores the role of both the family and the state in shaping the living conditions of the young and old in Europe. It provides a comparative theoretical and empirical analysis of age-related policies and welfare arrangements in Germany, France, Italy and Sweden. By combining institutional data on changes in public policies with longitudinal micro-data on living arrangements and informal support patterns in families, the authors are able to demonstrate the huge diversity in the organization of intergenerational relations and the changes that have occurred since the early 1990s. Age-specific differences in attitudes towards current social policy issues are also explored. The key finding is that intergenerational bonds of solidarity remain robust, meaning predictions of a potential conflict between the generations are vastly exaggerated. Providing up-to-date information on the perception of public policies and generational conflicts in different welfare states, this book is a must read for researchers in the field of comparative social policy and intergenerational relations. It will also benefit academics in sociology and political science, as well as policy-makers and consultants.

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Page Count

349

Publisher

Edward Elgar Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1849801878

ISBN 13

9781849801874

The Politics of Work-Family Policy Reforms in Germany and Italy

By: Agnes Blome

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The Politics of Work-Family Policy Reforms in Germany and Italy

By: Agnes Blome

One of the fundamental challenges facing modern welfare states is the question of work-family reconciliation. An increasing share of mothers work, but many European welfare states do not adequately support the dual-earner model, especially in southern Europe. After 2005, German policy-makers transformed the nature of Germany’s family policy regime through a number of legislative measures, whilst Italy, a country with many similarities, witnessed little change. Using a multi-methods approach, this book addresses the puzzle of why Germany was able to implement far-reaching reforms in this policy area after a long impasse and Italy was not. As such, it delivers a broad, systematic account of these reforms and sheds light on why similar reforms were not also adopted in other similar welfare states at the same time. More generally, it contributes to understanding the determinants of welfare policy change in modern European welfare states. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and professionals working on topics linked to European politics, welfare and work-family policies, comparative politics, social policy, and more broadly to political science and gender studies.

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