Overstretched: European Families Up Against the Demands of Work and Care

Combining work and care responsibilities is a challenge faced by families in many industrialized nations. This volume focuses on the everyday life of families who live under particularly strained conditions; that is, lone parent families, immigrant families, dual career families, and families who care simultaneously for both their children and an elderly family member. It provides a new perspective on the reality of European family life where care and paid work need to woven together on a daily basis.
The book develops methods for doing comparative qualitative analysis in practice, bringing an original approach to social research. It offers new insights into the perennial problems of gender balance in caring, and the significance of cultural notions and working hours to the organization of care. Overstretched is based on interviews with families from Finland, France, Italy, Portugal and the UK, and makes it possible to discuss care policies in these and other countries in a new light.
Broadening Perspectives on Social Policy
The object of this series, in this age of re–thinking on social welfare, is to bring fresh points of view and to attract fresh audiences to the mainstream of social policy debate.
The choice of themes is designed to feature issues of major interest and concern, such as are already stretching the boundaries of social policy.
This is the seventh collection of paper in the series.

Spis treści:
Notes on Contributors.
1. Editorial Introduction: European Families Stretched between the Demands of Work and Care (Jorma Sipilä and Teppo Kröger).
2. Atypical Working Hours: Consequences for Childcare Arrangements (Blanche Le Bihan and Claude Martin).
3. Managing Work and Care: A Difficult Challenge for Immigrant Families (Karin Wall and José Sâo José).
4. Combining Work and Family in Two Welfare State Contexts: A Discourse Analytical Perspective (Katja Repo).
5 . Family Commitments under Negotiation: Dual Carers in Finland and Italy (Minna Zechner).
6. Work and Care Strategies of European Families: Similarities or National Differences (Trine P. Larsen).
7. Caregiving in Transition in Southern Europe: Neither Complete Altruists nor Free Riders (Simonetta Simoni and Rossana Trifiletti).
8. Managing the Family: Productivity, Scheduling and the Male Veto (John Baldock and Jan Hadlow).
Index.

Nota biograficzna:
Teppo Kröger is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Jyväskylä and Adjunct Professor at the University of Tampere in Finland. His previous publications include Comparative Research on Social Care (2001) and Families, Work and Social Care in Europe (2003).
Jorma Sipilä is Professor of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Tampere in Finland. His previous publications include The Young, the Old and the State: Social Care Systems in Five Industrial Countries (2003) and Social Care Services: The Key to the Scandinavian Welfare Model (1997).

Okładka tylna:
Combining work and care responsibilities is a challenge faced by families in many industrialized nations. This volume focuses on the everyday life of families who live under particularly strained conditions; that is, lone parent families, immigrant families, dual career families, and families who care simultaneously for both their children and an elderly family member. It provides a new perspective on the reality of European family life where care and paid work need to woven together on a daily basis.
The book develops methods for doing comparative qualitative analysis in practice, bringing an original approach to social research. It offers new insights into the perennial problems of gender balance in caring, and the significance of cultural notions and working hours to the organization of care. Overstretched is b ased on interviews with families from Finland, France, Italy, Portugal and the UK, and makes it possible to discuss care policies in these and other countries in a new light.
Broadening Perspectives on Social Policy
The object of this series, in this age of re–thinking on social welfare, is to bring fresh points of view and to attract fresh audiences to the mainstream of social policy debate.
The choice of themes is designed to feature issues of major interest and concern, such as are already stretching the boundaries of social policy.
This is the seventh collection of paper in the series.