Caring for Our Own inverts an enduring question of social welfare politics. Rather than ask why the American state hasn't responded to unmet social welfare needs by expanding social entitlements, this book asks: Why don't American families view unmet social welfare needs as the basis for demands for new state entitlements? The answer, Sandra Levitsky argues, lies in a better understanding of how individuals imagine solutions to the social welfare problems they confront and what prevents new understandings of social welfare provision from developing into political demand for alternative social arrangements. Caring for Our Own considers the powerful ways in which existing social policies shape the political imagination, reinforcing longstanding values about family responsibility, subverting grievances grounded in notions of social responsibility, and in some rare cases, constructing new models of social provision that transcend existing ideological divisions in American social politics.
Assembling key experts and activists in the area of Canadian child care policy, this book makes an important contribution to understanding how Canada, with its particular institutions, politics, and values, should design a national child care strategy.
This handbook provides a meaningful overview of topical themes within family sociology as an academic field as well as empirical realities in various societal contexts across Europe. More than sixty prominent European scholars’ original texts present the field’s main theoretical and methodological approaches in addition to issues such as families as relationships, parental arrangements, parenting practices and child well-being, family policies in welfare state regimes, family lives in migration, and family trajectories. Presenting cutting-edge research on findings, theoretical interpretations, and solutions to methodological challenges, it is a timely tool for researchers, teachers, students, and family practitioners who wish to familiarise themselves with the state of family sociology in Europe.
Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive volume investigates modern-day family relationships, partnering, and parenting set against a backdrop of rapid social, economic, cultural, and technological change. Covers a broad range of topics, including social inequality, parenting practices, children’s work, changing patterns of citizenship, multi-cultural families, and changes in welfare state protection for families Includes many European, North American and Asian examples written by a team of experts from across five continents Features coverage of previously neglected groups, including immigrant and transnational families as well as families of gays and lesbians Demonstrates how studying social change in families is fundamental for understanding the transformations in individual and social life across the globe Extensively reworked from the original Companion published over a decade ago: three-quarters of the material is completely new, and the remainder has been comprehensively updated
Concern and debate over changes to family life have increased in the last decade, as a result of evolving employment patterns, shifting gender relations and more openness about sexual orientation. Most politicians and researchers have viewed these changes as harmful, suggesting that the family as an institution should not alter. The `New' Family? challenges these dominant views. Leading academics in the field consider current diverse practices in families, and reveal the lack of balance between policies based on how families should be and how they actually are, illustrating the need for a broader definition of family. This book shows the need to take fluidity and change in family arrangements seriously, rather
This thought-provoking book provides an in-depth analysis of the working poor phenomenon and its causes across welfare regimes, and identifies the most efficient policy mixes and best practices that could be utilized to resolve this problem. Eric Crettaz argues that 'the working poor' is too broad a category to be used for meaningful academic or policy discussion, and that a distinction must be made between different categories of poor workers. He illustrates how different welfare regimes generate different forms of working poverty via in-depth case studies of various OECD countries over the past decade, underpinned by a theoretical and conceptual framework. Using meta-analyses of evaluations of social policy tools, the author addresses the key question of what constitutes the most efficient policies to deal with the problem of working poverty. Fighting Working Poverty in Post-industrial Economies will prove an enlightening and stimulating read for academics, researchers and students across various disciplines including sociology, economics and political science. In addition, policymakers and other stakeholders seeking innovative solutions to the potentially growing problem of working poverty will find this book to be an invaluable point of reference.
The second edition of this compelling and popular book offers a unique global perspective on children’s lives throughout the world. It shows how the notion of childhood is being radically re-shaped, in part as a consequence of globalization. Taking an engaging historical and comparative approach, the book explores social issues such as how children are constituted as raced, classed and gendered subjects; how children’s involvement in war is connected to the globalization of capitalism and organized crime; and how school and work operate as sites for the governing of childhood. The book discusses wide-ranging topics including children’s rights, the family, children and war, child labour and young people’s activism around the globe. In addition to updated literature throughout, the revised edition includes new chapters on migration and trafficking, and the role of play. The book will continue to be of great value to students and scholars in the fields of sociology, geography, social policy and development studies. It will also be a valuable companion to practitioners of international development and social work, as well as to anyone interested in childhood in the contemporary world.
Outlining sociology’s distinctive contribution to childhood studies and our understanding of contemporary children and childhood, The Sociology of Children, Childhood and Generation provides a thought provoking and comprehensive account of the connections between the macro worlds of childhood and the micro worlds of children’s everyday lives. Examining children’s involvement in areas such as the labour market, family life, education, play and leisure, the book provides an effective balance between understanding childhood as a structural phenomenon, and recognising children as meaning makers actively involved in constructing, co-constructing and reconstructing their everyday lives. Through the concept of ′generagency′ Madeleine Leonard offers a model for examining and illuminating how structure and agency are activated within interdependent relationships influenced by generational positioning. This framework provides a conceptual tool for thinking about the continuities, challenges and changes that impact on how childhood is lived and experienced.
Carefully selected and edited by Constance L. Shehan, The Family Issues Reader is a new anthology of recent articles from one of the leading family science publications, the Journal of Family Issues (SAGE). The 47 articles in this collection follow the scope and sequence of family sociology and family relations courses, and provide a wide range of perspectives on families and intimate relationships. Focusing on families in the United States, the readings reflect a diversity of family experiences along dimensions of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, rural-urban residence, gender, age, and sexual identity/orientation.
Learn what trends and factors are influencing families globally How are families the same or different around the world? Families in a Global Context puts the similarities and differences into perspective, presenting an in-depth comparative analysis of family life in 17 countries around the world. Contributors discuss different countries' family life by using a standard framework to review major influences and patterns. The framework allows readers to do comparative reflection across several countries on a variety of daily living elements, including social and economic forces such as urbanization and modernization, changes in gender/courtship/spousal patterns, and war. This book provides an informative illustration of current as well as future trends of family life worldwide. Each chapter in Families in a Global Context describes customary types of family patterns within each country’s social organization and culture. Important social, economic, political, and other trends are explored in detail, and major ethnic, religious, or other subcultures are noted emphasizing marriage and family patterns that differ from the more typical ones. The book is extensively referenced and includes tables to clearly present data. Countries explored in Families in a Global Context include: European countries of Wales, Sweden, Germany, Romania, and Italy African countries of Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Kenya Middle Eastern countries of Turkey and Iran Asian and Oceanian countries of India, China, the Philippines, and Australia Latin American countries of Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba Topics discussed for each country in Families in a Global Context include: demographics mate selection patterns with an emphasis on the dynamics of couple formation marital roles the place and role of children and parenting in families socialization for gender roles differences in education, employment, and other opportunities major stressors affecting families, coping, and adaptation aging and life expectancy issues and much more! Families in a Global Context is an insightful resource for researchers, educators, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students investigating comparative family topics of family life around the world and in cultural context.
