Based on qualitative research carried out with young people aged from 18 to 30 in five European countries, Young Europeans, Work and Family examines young people's pathways to adulthood, and their perspectives on their future work and family lives. This enlightening book investigates young people from a range of social classes and at various phases in their life: in training, in higher education, in insecure work and in steady jobs, including high- and low-status employment. The study was carried out by a cross-disciplinary team of researchers from Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the UK, countries that represent a variety of economic profiles and welfare state regimes.

This collaborative study provides a subtle and multi-layered understanding of the transition to parenthood within a cross-national comparative framework.

The Work and Family Handbook is a comprehensive edited volume, which reviews a wide range of disciplinary perspectives across the social sciences on the study of work-family relationships, theory, and methods. The changing demographics of the labor force has resulted in an expanded awareness and understanding of the intricate relations between work and family dimensions in people's lives. For the first time, the efforts of scholars working in multiple disciplines are organized together to provide a comprehensive overview of the perspectives and methods that have been applied to the study of work and family. In this book, the leading work-family scholars in the fields of social work, psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, human resource management, business, and other disciplines provide chapters that are both accessible and compelling. This book demonstrates how cross-disciplinary comparisons of perspective and method reveal new insights on the needs of working families, the challenges faced by those who study them, and how to formulate policy on their behalf.

This book analyzes how the current generation of young adults enters the labour market and tries to create their own autonomous household, with or without children, exploring questions such as what does it mean to be a young adult in Europe today and what social policies help them to combine work and family life?

As populations age around the world, increasing efforts are required from both families and governments to secure care and support for older and disabled people.At the same time both women and men are expected to increase and lengthen their participation in paid work, which makes combining caring and working a burning issue for social and employment policy and economic sustainability. International discussion about the reconciliation of work and care has previously focused mostly on childcare. Combining paid work and family care widens the debate, bringing into discussion the experiences of those providing support to their partners, older relatives and disabled or seriously ill children. The book analyses the situations of these working carers in Nordic, liberal and East Asian welfare systems. Highlighting what can be learned from individual experiences, the book analyses the changing welfare and labour market policies which shape the lives of working carers in Finland, Sweden, Australia, England, Japan and Taiwan.

"The central aim of this book is to consider to what extent changes in organisations and in the nature of jobs are compatible with the need, increasingly expressed by employees, for greater integration between work and family life. The book questions what sort of dilemmas modern and future employees face, in terms of shaping their careers and organising their lives at home. The authors formulate answers to these problematic questions by shedding light on relevant developments in the European labour markets, the European workplaces, in (flexible) working patterns, changing preferences for working hours and in gender relations at work.".

Comprehensive gender equality remains an unfulfilled goal in many European countries, in spite of important developments and challenges to the traditional gendered division of labour. This volume reviews recent advances of gender policies in different countries in the European Union, together with recent empirical data on gender relations in the labour market and within families. It adopts an international and interdisciplinary perspective through its use of qualitative and quantitative data, and a comprehensive theoretical framework. Particular attention is paid to the latest developments in the field of gender equality in different Scandinavian countries - countries which are customarily seen as forerunners in the area. The title culminates with an in-depth discussion on the possibility of converging alternate gender policy regimes in Europe.

Contemporary social transformations, characterised by multi-dimensional globalisation and technological change, have lent new impetus to the emergence of internationally oriented and interdisciplinary childhood and youth studies. Analysis of sharpened polarisations of chances and risks within and between generations in specific life circumstances meets up with the re-conceptualisation of childhood and youth as social constructions within the life-course. As such, insulated national discourses are no longer an adequate framework to address such issues: economic and cultural globalisation processes exert dual and reciprocal influences, restructuring societies and identities from within and without. This collection offers a three-fold thematic focus: on the social construction of the life-course, privileging gendered and family transitions and transformations; on the contours of (not) belonging, in particular bringing migration and poverty into the spotlight; and on the potential of virtual worlds for creating and enabling new positive and negative forms of individual, social and political action on the part of young people. This collection thus offers a particular snapshot of the current landscape of childhood and youth studies, and it provides a set of exemplars from diverse national contexts. Each chapter can stand for itself – but the contributions are ordered thematically, not according to the corner of the world from which they derive. As the introductory chapter explores, the intention is – via a loose vectoring of theme and context – to encourage multiple opportunities for reflection on relations between the specificities and commonalities of children’s and young people’s lives today. This volume joins the growing library of scholarly resources for international and interdisciplinary childhood and youth studies; it brings together well-established and young scholars writing from an unusual range of national and cultural contexts. The collection will be of interest not simply for specialist researchers and those in related fields, but equally as a teaching and learning resource for higher education professionals and students in social sciences and education, including courses that link theory and research with policy and practice.

The history of family and households has been the subject of intensive research for over a generation. In the 1970s Peter Laslett and others set the agenda with a strong emphasis on geographical differences between northern and southern, eastern and western Europe. Others have challenged this view, pioneering different approaches. This volume takes stock of the field, focussing particularly on family history in South-East Europe in comparison with the rest of Europe. The authors consider what European families have in common, their regional and local differences and changes over time, using the rich and fascinating variety of sources and methods used by family historians today. Contributors include: Guido Alfani, Judit Ambrus, Mirjana V. Bobić, Siegfried Gruber, Peter Guzowski, Violetta Hionidou, Daniela Lombardi, Beatrice Moring, Silvia Sovič, Pat Thane, Alice Velková, Marta Verginella, and Pier Paolo Viazzo.