Care Between Work and Welfare in European Societies: (Work and Welfare in Europe)

The book makes an original and innovative contribution to the study of child and elder care in that it analyses new tensions that are related to different types and dimensions of care in the context of recent welfare state reforms. It provides insight into the history of theoretical concepts related to care, and the theoretical framework of 'tensions'. Analyses relate to new tensions that are connected with different types of formal and informal child and elderly care, and with migration related to care. Also, tensions within care cultures, and between the cultural and the institutional framework of care are analysed. Moreover, it is shown if and under which conditions welfare state reforms have contributed to strengthen existing tensions or even to create new tensions, and under which conditions they have contributed to relax such tensions. The volume brings together high-ranking experts in the field of research on welfare and work from different disciplines and from different European countries.

Table of Contents:
Tensions Related to Care in European Welfare States; B.Pfau-Effinger & T.Rostgaard Theorising Care and Care Work; A.Anttonen & M.Zechner Tensions between Care Values and Care Policies in European Societies; B.Pfau-Effinger Tensions in Family Policies in Post-Communist Central Europe; S.Saxonberg Nordic Child Care - a Response to Old and New Tensions?; G.Eydal & T.Rostgaard Tensions Related to the Transition of Elderly Care from an Unpaid to a Paid Activity; P.H.Jensen & R.Juul Moberg Under Tension: Formal Care Work with Older People; T.Kroger Tensions Related to Care Migration - The South-North Divide of Long Term Care; T.Rostgaard, C.Chiatti & G.Lamura Migrant Carers in Eldercare Provision: Interaction of Policy Fields; H.Theobald Tensions Related to Cash for Care Schemes; B.Da Roit & B.Le Bihan

About the Author :
BIRGIT PFAU-EFFINGER is Full Professor of Sociology and Director at the Centre of Globalisation and Governance at the Institute for Sociology, University of Hamburg, Germany. Her main fields of research include cross-national differences of welfare states, family policies, gender arrangements, undeclared work, childcare and elderly care and the cultural and structural forces underlying such differences. She has authored or edited 14 books and many articles in international academic journals. TINE ROSTGAARD is Senior Researcher at The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Denmark. Her previous research focuses on care for children and elderly, often in a comparative perspective, and includes studies of care architecture, conceptualisations of quality in care, care migration and development of indicators of care policies. She has authored many articles and co-edited a number of special issues on these topics. She is the co-organiser with Birgit Pfau-Effinger of the international Transforming care conferences.

Review :
'It is very difficult to provide a convincing account of a field that is changing rapidly. This book achieves that task with a narrative that is both empirically wide-ranging and theoretically coherent. The Europe-wide scope of the book is particularly valuable as is its focus on the nature and impact of change and reform in policies and people's everyday lives. The reader will be invaluably instructed and impressed by the collection.' - Professor Mary Daly, Queen's University Belfast, Ireland