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Employment does not always guarantee sufficient income and a decent standard of living anymore. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between income poverty and material deprivation for employed and unemployed individuals across Europe. To do so, we focus on relevant mechanisms at the individual and institutional levels. We examine how economic, structural and institutional factors shape the relationship between employment, poverty and deprivation. We explore our subject using EU-SILC data from 2015 and cross-national macro-level data from the OECD, Eurostat and UNECE. According to our findings, employment is associated with a higher standard of living even among the poor and when controlling for savings and income level, which may point to the non-monetary benefits of employment. At the macro level, we show that the impact of employment on the living standard of the poor varies according to economic conditions and institutional settings. Our results suggest that policies that promote integration into the labour market without taking into account the quality of jobs and working conditions devalue gainful employment in terms of maintaining a decent standard of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Christian migrant groups make up a sizeable part of the immigrant population in Europe, little is known about their religiosity. This paper studies patterns of intergenerational change and proposes and tests hypotheses that specify when and why changes across generations are stronger. Using data from the European Social Survey (2002–2018) on 33 European countries, it is found that there is a strong pattern of intergenerational decline in the level of religiosity among Christian migrant groups in Europe. This process of religious decline is by no means universal. Results show that children from two foreign-born parents are much more religious than children from intermarried (foreign-born and native) couples. We also observe that intergenerational decline is much less pronounced in European countries that are more religious. Finally, when Christian migrant groups belong to a religious minority group, this is associated with higher levels of religiosity in both the first and second generation. It is argued that these insights can explain the 'puzzling' strong intergenerational religious transmission among Muslim migrant groups in Western European societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus pandemic, which first impacted European societies in early 2020, has created a twofold crisis by combining a health threat with economic turmoil. While the crisis has affected all European societies very significantly, its impact varies across countries, social groups, and societal domains. In an effort to provide a first overview of the effect of the coronavirus crisis, in this editorial we discuss contributions of 58 papers published as part of this special issue. These early research papers illustrate the varied impact of the pandemic on various areas of social life. The first group of studies in this special issue analyzes the effect of the pandemic on social inequalities with respect to gender, ethnic otherness, education, and work. A second stream of research focuses on the psychological consequences of the pandemic, especially with respect to wellbeing and resilience. Thirdly, the crisis is discussed on a societal level, in regard to welfare states, social policies, and approaches to crisis governance. In a fourth line of inquiry, several studies have analyzed the impact of the pandemic on social solidarity and cohesion. A fifth strand of research is devoted to examining the role of culture and lifestyles. This review ends with a discussion of areas for future research trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the growing field of inquiry that investigates migrants' subjective well-being by analysing the role of income, relative to two reference groups: natives and other migrants. Using data collected by the European Social Survey from 2002 to 2018, we constructed two measures of economic distance to compare each migrant's economic situation with that of natives and other migrants with similar characteristics. Our results indicate that when the disadvantage between the migrant and the reference groups becomes smaller, eventually becoming an advantage, the migrant's life satisfaction increases. Such relationship is stronger when migrants' income is examined relative to natives than when compared with migrants'. This suggests that upward comparison is more important than downward comparison for migrants' subjective well-being. We also show that the relationship between relative income and subjective well-being is stronger for second-generation migrants and for those with more formal education. Finally, we show that subjective measures both at the individual (feelings about one's own economic condition) and societal (feelings about the national socio-economic-institutional condition) levels moderate the relationship between relative income and subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak and resultant economic crisis has led to governments in Europe taking extraordinary action to support citizens. Bodies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommend such measures should include targeted support for the most affected population groups. Women form one of these groups, with disproportionate impacts on their employment and economic resources already documented. Although the disruption brought about by the COVID-19 crisis has the potential to reshape gender relations for everyone's benefit, there are concerns that the crisis will exacerbate underlying gender inequalities. Though these impacts are likely to be felt globally, public policy has the potential to mitigate them and to ensure a gender-sensitive recovery from the crisis. This paper introduces a gendered lens on the employment and social policies European countries have established since the crisis, with a brief comparative analysis of short-time working schemes in four countries – Germany, Italy, Norway, and the UK. Ongoing research seeks to extend the comparative, gendered analysis of the design, access and impacts of COVID-19 employment and social policies across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periods of national mourning have been on the rise in the last decades in European societies as part of a wider process of democratization, whereby ordinary citizens have been increasingly granted the honors of state condolences. However, despite their growing incidence, periods of national mourning have not received the due attention in social science scholarship. This study examines the patterns and politics of national mourning observed in European countries between 1989 and 2018, based on an exhaustive dataset compiled for this analytical purpose (N = 415). Periods of national mourning are understood here as instituting states of social exception during which state authorities enact ritual actions consisting in a sequence of choreographically staged performative acts meant to create a national community of grief in the face of what is framed as a socially meaningful loss. Against these considerations, the paper argues that there are two main political cultures of public mourning in Europe. Data analysis reveals that the continent is split diagonally between a sober, Northwestern and Protestant political culture of public mourning and a lavish, Southeastern one informed by the traditions of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between the provision of informal care and three specific feelings important in later life – loneliness, meaningfulness of life, and overload. The paper contributes to the research of this frequently studied topic through examining effects of the intensity and multiplicity of care as well as the availability of formal care at the national level to consider the complexity and context-dependence of the effect of caregiving. Data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for 14 countries is analysed using multilevel regression with important domains of subjective quality of life in older ages as dependent variables. The general effect of providing care is enhancing and this effect is even more pronounced for multiple caregiving. However, this beneficial effect is not significant for very intensive care. Further, higher availability of formal care increases the quality of life, but reduces the beneficial effect of caregiving on loneliness. Overall, the theory of role accumulation is more suitable to explain the provision of care at older ages than the theory of role strain, but the crucial factor for understanding the effect of caregiving is context-sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most cross-country studies on educational systems aim at identifying the net effects of single institutional aspects on students’ outcomes. In this paper, I argue that educational systems are best conceived as configurations of interconnected elements. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic assessment of how selected features of the educational system and of the immigration context combine in countries where second-generation immigrants severely underperform their native peers, net of socio-economic differentials. Using PISA data from 2006 and 2009, I compare the relative mathematics achievement of students with and without an immigrant background in 17 Western-European educational systems. The empirical results, based on fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, point to the existence of functional equivalents and institutional complementarities. Equally severe disadvantages can be found in the rigidly tracking systems of German-speaking and Dutch-speaking countries, but also in the highly comprehensive Scandinavian systems, where a delayed entry in the educational system is coupled with a wide distance from the language of instruction. Moreover, even in the absence of tracking, second-generation immigrants critically lag behind their native peers if they are overrepresented in schools with a poor learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given the importance of trust and confidence for the individual consumer's well-being and societies' overall consumer conditions, this paper intends to conceptualize, investigate and map European consumer markets' trust regimes. Based on statistics from DG Sanco's Consumer Condition Scoreboard 2012, trust dimensions in 29 European countries (EU27 + Norway and Iceland) are reanalyzed and compared. The material reveals large differences in consumer markets' trust regime levels across Europe. This paper suggests that one way people evaluate consumer market institutions, is by their perceptions of food and product safety. The concluding discussion gives attention to possible discrepancies between consumer markets' trust regimes and consumer institutions' trustworthiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to investigate the consequences of the expansion of higher education on two goals of the education system, namely promoting equity of educational opportunities and providing credentials that facilitate the matching of labour supply and demand. The first goal is typically studied by research on inequality of educational opportunity; the second by research on returns to education and credential inflation. The key idea of the paper is that educational expansion can have different and possibly opposite effects on the two goals. (a) If, with educational expansion, equality of educational opportunities increases, while the occupational value of the titles decreases, one has a trade-off scenario. For example, an increase in equality of educational opportunities is matched by a decline in the value of higher education in the labour market. (b) If equality of opportunities does not increase, despite the expansion of higher education, and the returns of higher education degrees decline, one has then a worst-off scenario. (c) Finally, if with educational expansion equality of opportunities increases and there is no credential inflation, one has a best-off scenario. In this paper, we systematically investigate these alternative scenarios. We perform the same empirical analysis on two distinct data sets in order to test the robustness of our findings. We use micro data from EU-SILC 2005 and from the five merged waves of the European Social Survey (2002–2010), covering 23 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research into educational inequalities has shown the importance of decomposing social origins into parental class, status and education, representing economic, socio-cultural and educational family resources, respectively. But we know little about how inequalities in educational attainment at the micro-level map onto institutional characteristics of educational systems at the macro-level, if we treat social origins in a multidimensional way. Drawing on the rich over-time variation in educational systems in four European countries – Britain, Sweden, Germany and Italy – this paper develops and tests a number of hypotheses regarding the effects of various components of social origins on individuals’ educational attainment in different institutional contexts. It is evident from our results that a great deal of similarity exists across nations with different educational systems in the persisting importance for individuals’ educational attainment of parental class, status and education. But our findings also indicate that changes in the institutional features of educational systems have, in some instances although not in others, served to reinforce or to offset the social processes generating educational inequalities at the micro level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that private regulation has been essential to the making of the common European market. The distinction between negative and positive integration, usually used to understand the making of the common European market, only gives us part of the picture, as it focuses on public authorities and the regulation issued by them, and tends to ignore private authorities. A focus on private regulation is suggested to enlarge the focus on positive and negative integration, and this is used in an analysis of EU's removal of barriers to trade from 1958 to 2000. The paper shows that private regulation in the form of technical standardisation has become essential to European market making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While increasing female employment has contributed to reducing gender inequality, it has also exposed women to higher economic insecurity. The contribution of this paper is to understand the social conditions that might expose women to economic insecurity in different European cities. Specific aspects have been considered: (a) reduced (part time) work, (b) hampered labour-market participation (unemployment, involuntary inactivity due to care tasks), (c) different household structures (single/couple; with/without young children) or (d) educational level of both partners in the household. Data are based on a survey carried out in 2012 in seven European cities, representative of the different welfare/gender regimes in Europe. The results show that the most important divide is between women cohabiting/not cohabiting with a partner. Splitting the analysis on these two groups of women, differentiated configurations of conditions exposing women to economic insecurity have emerged in different welfare/care regimes. While Nordic, Central-eastern and Anglo-Saxon cities substantiate an individualised model of exposure to economic insecurity mostly driven by women’s participation in the labour market, in Continental and Mediterranean cities insecurity mainly depends on the educational levels (mainly of the partner in the case of coupled women) and the organisation of the household (presence of children). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the relationship between antisemitism and Islamophobia, focusing on debates in Arab newspapers in the wake of the Second Intifada and 9/11 and then in response to two issues of contention for Muslim communities in Europe, the Danish cartoon crisis in 2006 and the Swiss referendum on building minarets in 2009. The paper relates these debates to major UN and EU resolutions for combating racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. The aim of this paper is to explore how far discussion of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the Arab world is dominated by those who see Islamophobia as the real danger in today's Europe and antisemitism as a Zionist ploy, and how far antisemitism and Islamophobia have become two competing terms relating to two communities that perceive themselves as victims of prejudice and racism and also of each other. The paper seeks to qualify this image. It acknowledges that the entanglement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict adds a political aspect to the discussion of the two terms, intensifies competition between them for recognition as unique forms of racism and discrimination, and curtails the creation of positive ground for dialogue. However, it also demonstrates the presence of other voices which are more open to addressing both forms of exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper is aimed at contributing to the ongoing debate about divergence and convergence of family patterns in Europe. By adding several Eastern European countries and using several additional background indicators of cohabiting unions, the paper explores previous considerations of unmarried cohabitation. The main conclusion is that, as a universal trend, cohabitation is spreading across Europe and that while acquiring a normative value in a country it starts to develop its internal diversity. Besides convergence (with reference to universalistic approach), there is a noticeable trend towards divergence of the cohabitation patterns in Europe. The analysis is based on the European Social Survey, Round 2, 3 and 4 (2004, 2006 and 2008 respectively) and includes the data of 15 European countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, France, Slovakia and Slovenia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholarly interest in family migration is increasing, along with attention to the role of women and children in migration processes, this aspect of mobility continues to be poorly understood, particularly in the European context. Research on migration has tended to focus on primary migrants and to pay less attention to whether migrants arrive with families, resulting in a restricted picture of the impact of migration. This paper examines the presence and participation of families and children in the process of migration. It does so within the specific context of intra-European labour migration. Based on a qualitative study of migration and the integration of Polish families and children in Scotland, the paper explores changes in family structures and migration patterns that result in diverse new household migration behaviours. It argues that the locations of migrants within the European Community have become more fluid, with families being increasingly likely to inhabit more than one residence. It also argues that the uniqueness of the European setting requires a coherent theoretical focus and conceptual framework for understanding the implications of family migration. It suggests that transnational lenses generate useful empirical approaches concerning migration movements within the European Community. The paper explores transnational migration theory in relation to Polish post-enlargement migration and examines the multiple ways in which families may change through migration. It analyses the role of gender (women and men) and generations (grandparents, parents and children) in migration and settlement in the new country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among other social and political changes, post-materialist theory anticipated the need to strengthen democracy in political institutions in post-industrial societies. This change in political values would mean that in addition to growth in post-materialist values, parties would be pushed to take an alternative view of politics that would entail greater assimilation of democratic procedures. This paper partially and empirically tests the validity of this explanation in four European party systems. The Greens are the focus, since they are considered the parties that best fit the post-materialist profile. In particular, the paper aims to ascertain whether the Greens display a significantly better positioning in respect to support for democracy and the congruence of their voters than other parties, as theory leads us to believe. The explanation of higher levels of party congruence is also expected to be related to post-materialist party features. The findings of this research did not show enough evidence to validate our theoretical expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working fewer than full-time hours has been seen as a crucial way in which women workers can balance demands from home and paid work. But working part-time holds a range of negative repercussions for other aspects of worker's lives, in particular their economic well-being. Examining objective and subjective indicators of economic well-being, the paper uses data from the European Community Household Panel Survey to consider the ramifications of working short hours for women in Europe. The paper is concerned with the generalisability of the very weak situation of part-timers in Britain. It asks whether and how the economic problems faced by women at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy differ according to societal context. The papers shows that part-time low level workers had the lowest monthly wages relative to their compatriots in each country examined, though the intensity of wage disadvantage varied substantially across the sample. The research did not uncover a universal positive correlation between women's relative wage positions and individual level measures of economic well-being, however. The most prevalent association between working part-time in a low level occupation and facing a weak economic position occurred at the level of household economies. The paper concludes by asking how we best research economic well-being, including whether it should be approached via an individual or household level analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the regulation of architectural activity in Europe and especially in France and to the ways architects manage this regulation. The globalization of this activity has generated a strong consciousness that supranational regulation is necessary, both among architects' professional associations and in governments. One of the main difficulties is the differences in the division of labour from one country to another. But European regulation supposes that national states will implement the directives into national law. France is an example of the lightest possible adaptation. This is all the more surprising as the architectural profession in France is characterized by structural weaknesses to resist international competition and as the administration is willing to help it adapt to this competition. The history of trade unionism and the structure of representation explain some of the difficulties because of a particular trait of the architectural profession: what I call a weak 'reflective capacity'. The paper is partly devoted to defining this notion and showing its relevance for the sociological analysis of professions. This weakness encourages individual strategies of adaptation to increasing international competition, without the professional associations and their representatives being able to control these strategies and their consequences for the profession. This demonstrates that the various sources of regulation are not exclusive and must be studied together so as to understand their interrelations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building of a European nation challenges entrenched ties between the state and the professions. Yet, in relation to healthcare, European law is especially weak and professional power is particularly strong. Against this background, the present paper aims to map out the specific configurations of the changing governance of healthcare and the dynamics arising from intersecting contexts of change. We argue that the 'healthcare state' is strongly shaped by national regulatory frameworks, while the platform for the power of a self-regulatory medical profession is increasingly international in nature. Across countries managerialism and performance measures together with evidence-based medicine and clinical guidelines are meant to improve the accountability of professionals and the safety of the public. However, the new regulatory tools may also have the opposite effect and indeed serve as a means to reassert professional power; here, the heightened internationalization of healthcare even provides new opportunities. We use material from different countries gathered in a number of research projects to assess the changing governance of healthcare and its contexts. The paper concludes by highlighting the significance of both national regulatory frameworks and (international) professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to disentangle analytically the trends towards the subsidiarization of social policies in Europe addressing how the social policy reforms changed actors' governance arrangements and altered the government scales involved over the last few decades. Following an introductory analysis of the main causes of the subsidiarization of social policies (sections 1 and 2), attention is devoted to the differences between welfare systems in Europe (section 3) and the way they influence the directions of change. The hypothesis is that, despite the fact that the subsidiarization of social policies is a converging rhetoric in most European countries' social policy reforms, the impact of the process varies according to the specificities of the respective regulatory frames at the national or sub-national scales. This is exemplified in the final part of the paper (section 4) which considers the Italian case and the main critical dimensions that emerge through these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper describes the small but constant expansion of the cross-state mobile population within the EU in the two decades preceding the 2004 enlargement. This expansion is puzzling in the light of the economic growth and the income convergence of member states over the same period. While the level of geographical mobility within the EU is frequently held to be 'low', data show that it should have been even lower given the rise of prosperity and the decline of income differentials in the EU15. In fact, it is argued that pro-mobility policies and the rise of non-labour migration have countered the diminishing appeal of intra-EU mobility that might be expected on the basis of purely economic conditions. The second part of the paper discusses the rationales and reasons of mobility. A distinction is drawn between observers' and social actors' views of the benefits of free movement. While the former usually put an emphasis on economic rewards, the latter are more likely to stress emotional and identity-linked returns. Survey data on Western European citizens who have resettled in another EU member state are revealing of the multifaceted causes and consequences of geographical mobility. In particular, these data show that identification with Europe and support for EU institutions in the mobile population are strikingly higher than among the general population. While it is true that cross-state mobility can entail economic benefits raising productivity and innovation, its political dividends are possibly even clearer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to make use of Appadurai's characterization of the contemporary global condition in terms of the disjunctive flows of a series of related'social scapes'. This categorization is applied to an analysis of key recent developments within elite professional football, together taken to represent the'Europeanizaton' of the'soccerscape'. The paper then goes on to consider possible meanings and significance of such developments, in particular whether it is possible to argue that they may contribute, or have the potential to contribute to the emergence of a sense of 'Europeanness' among followers of football, especially the young. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market principles are becoming more prominent in citizen experience of public policy across Europe, as a result of economic globalization and the Maastricht commitment to 'open markets', and cost-constraint, privatization and labour market activation pursued in response to the various pressures confronting welfare states. These principles (inequality, competitiveness, allocation through ability to pay) contradict those traditionally associated with social policy (equity, solidarity, social justice). This paper examines the impact of current changes on welfare values in the various types of European welfare states (including accession states), using international attitude survey data. It shows that most citizens remain committed to mild egalitarianism. Citizen ideology will thus continue to buttress resilience to pressures for restructuring in the various welfare state regimes. The paper goes on to consider the impact of social change by examining the values of groups with particular interests who are likely to expand in significance as a result of labour market and population changes. This analysis shows that change does not lead in one direction. There is every likelihood that tensions between market and welfare values will be compounded by social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the reasons why a form of commodified care work identified as 'routed wages' has developed in many European countries over the past decade. These systems, which are often argued for within an empowerment discourse for the care users, are not often considered in terms of their labour market impact. The paper uses empirical data generated in a cross-national qualitative study of care users and their care givers in five European countries (Austria, France, Italy, The Netherlands and the UK) to outline the different ways in which different types of commodified care schemes impact on the labour market. It is suggested that the schemes differ in their labour market impact, depending on whether or not the scheme is regulated, and on the geographic, social and economic contexts within which the scheme is implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the relationship between models of quality of life and Europe's increasingly diverse older population. European social policy on old age is responding only slowly to the presence of older ethnic minority migrants. People who migrated primarily for economic reasons, and who may never have intended to stay in the host country, are now approaching retirement age and faced with crucial issues of how to manage old age in a foreign country. In view of a growing policy interest in extending the quality of life of Europe's older population, the paper examines current approaches to measuring quality of life. It is argued that existing models are not suited to addressing the particular circumstances of older ethnic minority migrants, as they omit crucial aspects related to migration and their impact on key life domains. The outline of a model will be constructed which takes account of these issues and may thus serve as a basis for a more informed discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I am applying a rights-based approach to childhood social exclusion that, following Sen's capability approach as one formulation of such a rights-based approach, sees social exclusion as the failure of people to have access to critical capabilities relating to their integration into society. The implications of this approach will then be applied to the relation between education and social exclusion, where it is shown that education has a critical impact on mitigating or reinforcing social exclusion. Taking such a capabilities-based approach implies a shift away from a concentration on average achievement generated by an education system to the low end of the achievement distribution and the ability of the education system to raise the performance and integrate the most disadvantaged students. The paper investigates how education systems in Europe and other industrialized countries are achieving this goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies and seeks to resolve the paradox that British social policy appears to have diverged from its EU partners in the period since membership and to have converged with that of the USA. Existing historical institutionalist approaches stress common regime characteristics of Britain and the USA in explanation of British difference from other member states. The present paper challenges such accounts and argues that the explanation lies in the transformation (and demise) of the post-Imperial/Commonwealth system of political economy in which the British economy (and related social policy) was embedded. This transformation has also produced internal problems within the British state giving rise to its reorganization with devolved Assemblies in Scotland and Wales. The final part of the paper addresses how this latter development has created a 'fault-line' in the British social policy debate with the possibility of reversing the trend toward Americanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional football is a highly globalized area. The paper analyses the impact of globalization on football audiences in European countries. It is argued that in the course of globalization, people are not only thrown into a transnational lifestyle, but may also develop a growing interest in what is going on outside their domestic territory. With regard to football, it is hypothesized that audiences may direct more and more attention to high-class football leagues and clubs abroad. This presumed shift of attention is empirically investigated with a new indicator: search engine queries. It is argued that queries addressing football clubs in foreign countries are expressions of transnational attention. These transnational queries are systematically analysed over a period of seven seasons (2005/2006–2011/2012). Results indicate that public attention to foreign football clubs has indeed increased over time, particularly in those countries with weaker domestic football leagues. Furthermore, the fluctuation of attention to these clubs can be explained systematically: attention increases with (a) the success of a club in European and national competitions, (b) the success of domestic players in an expatriate club and (c) the number of matches against domestic clubs in European club competitions. Although transnational attention is generally on the rise, its change over time still seems to depend largely on national identification. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on current European employment policy, promoting the individual's responsibility for remaining employable. Within this supply-oriented framework, general political responsibilities of both increasing the demand for labour and facilitating the development of human capital through training and education opportunities are less emphasized than the individual's own responsibility to remain attractive for employers. In an analysis of perceived opportunities among European employees, we argue that the concept of ‘employment security’ can lift the individualized perspective on employability skills and attributes to a more structural and institutional perspective. To enhance individuals’ chances of finding a job, educational and lifelong learning policies and active labour market measures are believed to be important factors, besides general demand in the labour market. Through multi-level modelling, we analyse the significance of individual and contextual factors on employees’ perception of their chances in the labour market. The data used are from the European Social Survey (2010), including data from 21 countries. Our results indicate that employability cannot solely be regarded as an individual phenomenon relying on individual characteristics. We also need to focus on the institutional context enabling the individual to remain in employment in the existing mobile and risky labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Past research suggests that majority evaluations of welfare deservingness are structured along ethnic dividing lines. The fact that poverty and immigrant status are highly associated across Europe's increasingly ethnically diverse societies may thus lead majorities to withdraw support from welfare programs that transfer money to people who are different from themselves. Utilizing measures of general welfarism, most prior studies have not addressed the interplay between attitudes toward immigrants and support for specific welfare types that rely on different notions of entitlement and attract varying levels of take-up among natives and immigrants. Addressing this gap in the literature and focusing on the example of Germany, this paper asks to what extent anti-immigrant sentiment relates to native-born Germans’ attitudes toward the government's responsibility to care for three recipient groups: the unemployed, the old, and the sick. Anti-immigrant attitudes expressed as ethnic prejudice are associated with lowered support for government intervention to assist the unemployed, while support for old-age and sickness assistance does not appear to be related to levels of negative out-group sentiment. The results suggest that those who harbor ethnic prejudice are more likely to oppose aid that is predominantly means-tested, rather than universal or contribution-based, and that does benefit a large number of non-natives. The negative association between prejudice and support for unemployment assistance is independent of concerns with the economic viability of the welfare system in the face of immigration. This points to the relevance of negative affect beyond subjectively rational motives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Associations are likely to recruit resource rich individuals and they are places where individuals interact, and thus, are likely to exchange social resources. The paper asks which kinds of associations embed individuals holding many social resources. According to theoretical considerations, I distinguish between bridging and bonding associations. Bridging associations are likely to embed heterogeneous individuals while bonding associations embed homogeneous individuals. Therefore, the range of social resources available inside associations may be higher in bridging than in bonding associations. Thinking about the resource exchanging environment inside the associations, a further distinction of bonding associations seems reasonable: some aim at political goals outside the group (e.g., trade unions or professional organizations) and others focus on developing a nice atmosphere inside the group (apolitical bonding associations like elderly leisure associations). I analyze data from Eurobarometer 62.2 using multilevel analyses. Descriptive analyses indicate that active individuals have access to more social resources than inactive individuals. This relation varies for apolitical and political bonding associations according to the European countries. The multilevel analyses controlling for individual characteristics and country variables indicate that potential resources accessible to individuals active in associations depend on the focus of the associations. While bridging and apolitical bonding associations embed individuals accessing more social resources than non-active individuals, political bonding associations are not likely to embed resource rich individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on European trade unionism has discussed whether the tendency towards ‘union diplomacy’ has meant that that unions are largely disinterested in mobilizing members and pursue contentious action at the European level. Other studies have identified activities that suggest an Europeanization of political mobilization, in demonstrations and strikes and in cooperation with NGOs and social movements. The present paper analyzes attitudes towards transnational action among trade unions in Europe, as well as the degree to which national unions actually partake in more and less contentious action. The study, which is based on a survey to trade unions in Europe carried out in 2010–11 (n 250), focuses particularly on the production of joint statements and petitions, demonstrations and boycotts, and strikes. The aim was to identify the similarities and differences between industrial relations regimes and sectors in Europe and the analyses have revealed that there are in fact significant differences. Trade unions in the continental social partnership regime and the southern polarized/state centered regime tend to approve of and partake in European demonstrations and boycotts to a higher degree than unions in the other regimes, while the Nordic unions in the organized corporatist regime tend to be more skeptical and also participate to a lower degree. In addition, unions in services and organizing professionals tend to partake and approve of such action to a lower degree than unions in other sectors and national peak level unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the way in which social capital resources are incorporated, appropriated and distributed by different social classes in Europe. Its main goal is to produce a conceptual framework by linking the concepts of social capital with the different theoretical assessments made by the sociology of social classes. We use multivariate analysis to work a set of quantitative indicators from the European Social Survey 2008 in order to assess the relationship between these concepts. Our methodological approach combines transnational levels, i.e., it is not an international comparison between European countries but an analysis of individual people and their belonging to social classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents unique descriptive and explanatory analyses of cross-national variation in work ethic in 44 European countries (European Values Study 2008). A strong work ethic is the conviction that people have a moral duty to work. To explain differences in the adherence of the work ethic between countries two alternative theories are tested: modernisation theory and social institutional theory. Modernisation theory hypothesises that richer, more highly educated and urbanised countries have a weaker work ethic. Alternatively, social institutional theory predicts that countries' religious heritage, generosity of the welfare state and political history can explain differences in work ethic between countries. Multilevel regression models on an unprecedented set of 44 countries show that the modernisation hypotheses are supported. With regard to institutions, it is shown that work ethic is stronger in countries with an Islamic and Orthodox heritage as compared to a Protestant and Catholic heritage and in ex-communist countries and countries with less generous welfare states. When both theories are tested simultaneously, variance decomposition suggests that social institutional theory has more explanatory power than modernisation theory. Religious heritage is shown to be the most important factor to explain variation in work ethic between countries. Thus, although our modern societies become increasingly secularised, religious heritage still impacts our norms and values about work in a significant manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes stock of recent research on patterns of cultural engagement in various European nations, with specific reference to British and Danish research. It argues that Bourdieu's original theorisation of cultural capital in ‘Distinction’ needs to be significantly updated to register the decline of ‘highbrow’ culture which these studies reveal. However, we argue that this shift does not entail the erosion of cultural capital itself, or the rise of the ‘cultural omnivore’, so much as the emergence of a form of ‘cosmopolitan cultural capital’. We argue that this emerging cultural capital can be associated with the partial creation of a European field and testifies to the continued stakes of cultural engagement today [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates (trends and determinants of) individual combinations of religious believing and belonging in Europe from a cross-national and longitudinal perspective. Individual level data for the period 1981–2007 in 42 countries derived from the European Values Survey and the European Social Survey are harmonised and enriched with contextual characteristics, constituting a more comprehensive data base for Europe than any previous research. Complementary hypotheses from modernisation and market theories are derived systematically and tested rigorously. We find differential trends. In western societies, the popularity of secularity and consistent religiosity has persisted. In former communist societies, the popularity of consistent religiosity has increased whereas secularity has decreased. In both western and former communist societies, solitary religiosity has been a clear yet small phenomenon, somewhat increasing in western societies and somewhat decreasing in former communist societies. A crucial hypothesis derived from modernisation theories, stating that financial and social security would decrease consistent religiosity, is empirically supported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Critical consumption, the purchase or boycott of goods for political, ethical or environmental reasons, is regularly characterised as an example of 'new politics' or 'new' political participation. However, such analysis often neglects work from the sociology of consumption and social movement studies. This paper argues that consumers express their identity through critical consumption, in the form of a pledge of allegiance to the goals of certain social movements. Cross-national data from the European Social Survey identifies critical consumers as belonging to higher class positions and being generally older, highly educated, and more often women than men. Separating analysis of boycotting from that of buycotting, the positive purchase of goods for ethical or political reasons, suggests that buycotting is more resource-dependent and individualistic than boycotting. Substantial differences are found between the impact of people's resources in different countries, particularly between Northern and Central European countries and their Southern and Eastern counterparts. The findings thus recommend an approach to consumer politics that remains sensitive to social structural contexts between countries and different forms of consumer participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether it is possible to recognise specific patterns of institutionally regulated downward (towards children) and upward (towards the old) intergenerational obligations with regard to care and financial support, and to identify specific country profiles and clusters of countries in Europe. Based on the three-fold conceptualisation of familialism by default, supported familialism and de-familialisation, and using a complex set of indicators, we describe how countries, by means of policies, allocate intergenerational responsibilities between families and the state, also paying attention to their gender impact. The study includes all 27 EU countries and for the first time offers a comparative overview of a diversified set of policies with regard to both children and the old. It concludes that although specific policy profiles emerge with regard to the two sets of obligations, these do not always coincide. Furthermore, contrary to widespread opinion, supported familialism and de-familialisation are not always contrasting policy approaches. In some countries, they actually represent part of an integrated approach to public support of intergenerational obligations. Moreover, the gender impact of supported familialism may be different and even contrary, depending on the specific instrument. Finally, once the road of oversimplification is excluded, only one statistically sound cluster of countries emerges. It is, however, possible to detect groups of countries that are similar. These only partly overlap with prevalent welfare regime types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in the 1980s and 1990s, in various European welfare reforms, parts of the social insurance systems and the related resources were transferred to the financial market. In this sense, one can speak of privatisation and marketisation, both examples of a neo-liberal tendency. Now, after 'the Fall of Finance Capitalism', it is often stated that 'the years of neoliberal triumph have come to an end'. This paper argues that there had already been a contrasting and powerful development previously, which might now be reinforced. This political and institutional development was moving towards extensive regulatory policies, in particular after the stock market crisis in 2001, and towards solidarity, two examples of a neo-etatistic tendency. I argue that the traditional exclusionary categorisation significantly underestimates the continuously changing mix. I will introduce a more complex approach which will be much more helpful to comprehend current developments in pension protection, and which might also be considered for providing an understanding of change in social protection schemes and welfare states in general. To my view, current changes in capitalist welfare societies are system-inherent substantiations of complexly intertwined dynamics, which can be comprehended by analysing changes in flows of resources and in the rights over these resources. These changes are manifest in what is termed social citizenship. Consequently, I will come to the conclusion that the observed changes promote new forms of social citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the research question 'Who does not vote and why?' regarding national elections in 24 European countries. We analyse determinants of non-voting both on the individual and the societal level employing a multilevel design. On the micro level, the sociological determinants under consideration are education, cohort and gender. Regarding psychological or motivational factors, we include in the analyses political efficacy, political interest, political trust and satisfaction with politics. On the macro level, we analyse characteristics of the electoral system, including opportunities for 'direct democracy', maturity of democracy, disproportionality factor, and if the participation in elections is compulsory. The data source of the analyses is the European Social Survey 2006. A first main finding is the fact that the probability of non-voting is higher among people with a low level of education and among younger cohorts. The motivational factors have similar impacts on non-voting across all analysed societies. Lack of political efficacy, lack of political interest, lack of political trust and dissatisfaction with politicians and the political system increase the probability of non-voting. Regarding macro influences, countries with compulsory voting and 'old democracies' turn out to have a lower rate of non-voting, although these effects vanish when simultaneously modelled with the social psychological micro level indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines some of the ways in which the problematic of activation is put into play in the European Employment Strategy (EES) and Danish employment policies. The limitations of causal analysis and convergence approaches are discussed and a different analytical framework based on the concept of normalization is proposed. It is argued that while various forms of activation were present in Denmark well before the launching of the EES in 1997/1998, the latter has contributed to the normalization of the Danish employment policies by sustaining activation as the key element of such policies and by disregarding political interventions based on alternative problematizations of labour and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market-enhancing regulations of the European Union (EU) place political and economic constraints on the Member States. This has been expected to induce convergence of social policies, generally in a downward direction. At the same time the notion of a European Social Model has been launched as a strategy to make marketization socially acceptable, pointing to a development in a different direction. This paper examines key aspects of the development of the main social insurance programs during the period 1980-2000 in 14 EU Member States. Are there significant signs of convergence in the replacement rates of social insurance programs and do broader development trends of the social insurance systems indicate converging institutional models? The results indicate divergence rather than convergence of social insurance replacement rates. In terms of institutional models there is no evidence of a common European Social Model in the area of social insurance over the past decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an analysis of the major controversy which occurred between national aviation authorities during their work on the European harmonization of the aircraft technicians' competence. The debate focused on the institutional method to assure the high skills level required for that profession: should Europe introduce a system of personnel licensing or a system of company-led training? Should competence assurance and monitoring be assigned to the aviation authority or should these responsibilities be delegated to approved companies? A series of 20 extensive interviews with aviation stakeholders in France, Germany and the United Kingdom showed: (i) the company training option highlights the fact that 'organization' is a traditional strategy for competence assurance in high-reliability contexts (like aircraft maintenance), the other main alternatives being occupational regulation and sorting by well-informed markets. (ii) The quality recognition required for the international outsourcing of safety-critical services favours the licensing system. In contrast to licensing, the design of the company training system fails to generate the transparency and trust necessary to reassure foreign customers. (iii) Both systems of competence assurance are densely intertwined with specific industrial relation patterns and vested interests. The distortion of these - national or local - equilibriums by European harmonization encounters strong opposition from the industry and/or unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes its starting point in the public discourse, of politicians and academics, that suggests that Europe, specifically the European Union, is suffering from a 'crisis of identity'. This is believed to stem from the recent enlargements, the pending 'problem of Turkey', and disarray over the European Constitution. This issue is addressed in two ways: first, through an exploration of the main current models and meanings of 'Europe', and second, applying an anthropological approach to identity, through examining the relationship between models and meanings of 'Europe' and local, regional, ethnic and national identities. In the first place, this suggests that there is not, and cannot be, agreement over the shape and meaning of 'Europe'. There is, rather, rooted in histories, geographies, politics, and cultures, a range of different Europes, which only coincide imperfectly, at best. In the second place, Europe is always viewed from local, regional, ethnic and national points of view. Each approach converges on the same conclusion: there can never be a clear-cut, consensual unified model of Europe. This is a normal situation, not a crisis, and, if anything, is one of the strengths of the European Union project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation and Europeanisation are complementary and partly overlapping processes that identify the increasingly supranational context in which political and educational systems are operating. This article explores how Turkish youth in two German and English secondary schools relate to the European knowledge economy, and how their political identities are shaped by school dynamics (ethos, curriculum and peer cultures) and social class positioning.1 Drawing upon mainly qualitative data, the paper indicates that when the concept of Europe is allied to multiculturalism, there is the possibility of including minority ethnic groups like the Turkish Muslims and giving them the opportunity of relating to the European knowledge economy. If, however, Europe is understood as a white Christian concept, then Turkish teenagers will struggle to relate positively to Europe as a political identity. The article not only gives voice to young Turkish Muslims in Europe but also assesses the potential for Europe to be a common ground for all youth to negotiate their identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual mobility within the European Union has remained rather low, in spite of large socio-economical differences and the lack of political restrictions for citizens of member states. Taking this as a starting point, this paper sets out to develop a more appropriate view by combing aspects of economic and sociological migration theories both at the macro and micro levels. For this purpose, the Eurobarometer survey 54.2 of 2001 is analysed by applying a three-level regression. Therefore, different characteristics of 15 European countries, 196 nuts-2-regions and about 7,000 respondents aged younger than 45 years are considered. Analyses show that the assumption of push-and-pull models – namely, that people leave less developed places – applies only within countries. In fact, the highest migration intentions can be observed in regions with a developmental gap compared to the overall level of a country. But between countries, the effect is quite the opposite – the highest intentions can be found in highly developed countries. However, the explanatory power of macro-level variables is rather low compared to that of individual characteristics. Therefore, research should place more emphasis on individual characteristics, to estimate a migration potential more accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the availability of social support and psychological attachment to work have been shown to influence mental well-being in unemployment, the main determinant suggested in research is economic strain. Yet, though the level of state support in unemployment is the most crucial determinant of economic strain, there has been little research on the impact of welfare benefit regime on mental well-being among the unemployed. In this paper we compare the impact of benefit regime by comparing the unemployed in Britain, Ireland and Sweden. We find that the type of benefit received is an important determinant of mental distress with income replacement benefits being more beneficial than flat rate benefits. Results also show that different systems differentially impact on different groups with income replacement benefits tending to maintain pre-unemployment differences in distress and flat rate benefits equalising these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale European research programmes have provided an impetus for social science researchers to co-operate more closely not only across national and cultural boundaries but also across disciplines and research paradigms. Attempts to make sense of diversity have led to a blurring of the traditional methodological divide between quantitative and qualitative paradigms, opening up new perspectives and creating opportunities for synergy and complementarity. The paper draws on examples of the methods used in a cluster of European projects and networks in the field of family and welfare to illustrate the epistemological and practical problems raised when applying multi-methods approaches to research into European societies. It argues that, once these problems have been overcome, by combining methods within and across projects, researchers can expect to gain a deeper understanding of social phenomena in different national settings and develop new insights into complex issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines gender differentiation in early labour market outcomes across twelve European countries. In spite of the fact that the educational attainment of women has now surpassed that of men in many countries, differences persist in the type of educational courses taken by young women and men. Countries differ in the extent of educational segregation by gender but certain regularities are evident, with health/welfare, education and arts courses dominated by women and engineering courses dominated by men. Gender differences in field of study are found to play an important role in channelling young people towards gender-typical careers. Thus, countries with higher levels of educational segregation by gender are found to have higher levels of occupational segregation by gender. However, gender continues to have a strong direct effect on labour market outcomes in both track-differentiated and general educational systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]