Family Life and Family Policies in Europe Volume 2: Problems and Issues in Comparative Perspective

Volume 2 of Family Life and Family Policies in Europe is a comparative study of family change in Europe and its dependency on social policy regimes. The authors explore family discourse, family law, single parents, gender relations, the 'new fathers', divorce, and abortion within the framework of national policies vis-à-vis the family. Conventional wisdom assumes that policy decisions affecting the life situation of a population shape different opportunities for private living, particularly in relation to children and the family. But, the authors argue, it would be too simplistic to assume a direct causal link between welfare policies for the family and developments in the family sector. Family change is in fact mediated by institutional factors as well as by cultural traditions and political intervention. The chapters in this volume deal with the substantial and methodological problems of ascertaining the impact of different national policy regimes on family change. This volume, in conjunction with Volume 1 (which presents a standardized framework for analysing family development and policies across ten European countries), makes a significant contribution to research in the field of comparative interdisciplinary family science. Together they aim at a better understanding of issues relevant to the European agenda for social policies towards the family.

1 - Comparing Family Life in the Frame of National Policies: An Introduction
2 - Variation and Change in the Forms of Private Life in the 1980s
3 - What Happened to the European Family in the 1980s? The Polarization between the Family and other Forms of Private Life
4 - Trends in the Development of Family Law in Europe -- Comparative Perspectives
5 - Divorce in Europe -- A Cohort Approach
6 - Lone-Parenthood and Social Policies for Lone Parents in Families in Europe
7 - Induced Abortion and Family Formation in Europe
8 - Paths towards Modernization of Gender Relations, Policies, and Family Building
9 - The New Fathers: What Does it Mean for Children, Marriage, and for Family Policy
10 - Family Policy -- How Does it Work?
11 - Which Models of the Family are Encouraged or Discouraged by Different Family Policies?
12 - Politics and Policies towards the Family in Europe: A Framework and an Inquiry into their Differences and Convergences

Franz-Xaver Kaufmann is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bielefeld. Anton Kuijsten (now deceased) was Professor of Demography at the University of Amsterdam. Hans-Joachim Schulze is Professor of Family and Education at the Free University of Amsterdam. Klaus Peter Strohmeier is Professor of Sociology, Urban, and Regional Studies at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.