> From: Mikko Kautto[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 16 February 2001 08:19
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: a note to 'European social policy' mailbase
>
> Dear Angus Erskine,
>
> May I kindly ask you to spread the following information to the mailbase
> 'European social policy'.
>
> Let me know if there are any problems, otherwise thank you very much!
>
> Yours sincerely,
> Mikko Kautto
>
>
>
> Subscribers to this list will find this new book interesting and relevant
> to their work
>
> Nordic Welfare States in the European Context
> Edited by
> Mikko Kautto and Hannu Uusitalo, National Research and Development Centre
> for Welfare and Health, Finland. Johan Fritzell, Swedish Institute for
> Social Research, Stockholm University, Sweden. Bjørn Hvinden, Norwegian
> University of Science and Technology, Norway. Jon Kvist, The Danish
> National Institute of Social Research, Denmark.
> 312 pages, London: Routledge, 2001
> Hb: 0-415-24160-X £55.00
> Pb: 0-415-24161-8 £16.99
>
> Nordic Welfare States in the European Context is an independent follow-up
> study to Nordic Social Policy (eds. Kautto, Heikkilä, Hvinden, Marklund
> and
> Ploug) by Routledge in 1999.
>
> Nordic Social Policy concluded that despite marked economic and other
> pressures in the early-1990s, actual changes in the welfare state
> machinery, its outputs and people's living conditions appeared limited in
> the Nordic countries. Definitely no radical 'retrenchment' or
> 'dismantling'
> of the welfare state had happened in any of the countries, and if there
> was
> overall Nordic similarity in the 1980s, it seemed to have persisted.
>
> After the first study more evidence appeared on policy changes and on
> growing income differentials in the Nordic countries. So, whether
> institutional inertia indeed prevails over the 'irresistible forces'
> (Pierson 1998) of convergence was a main question addressed in the second
> volume, published in February 2001. Nordic Welfare States in the European
> Context addresses changes in Western European social policies and living
> conditions. The main questions asked are whether countries have
> qualitatively different types of social policies, or whether the contrasts
> and disparities that used to exist between countries are narrowing. These
> questions were addressed by comparing social policy development in
> Denmark,
> Finland, Norway and Sweden to that in Germany, the Netherlands and the
> United Kingdom. Other EU countries were included in the analyses when the
> study design allowed this. Again, the 1980s were used as the start of the
> period and data availability determined the end of the period
> (mid/late-1990s).
>
> Topics covered in the eleven chapters include:
>
> · income distribution, health inequalities and gender equality
> · gender policies, health and social care services and policy reaction to
> family changes
> · activation, social security and employment policies
> · financing of welfare states
>
> In the context of globalisation, ageing, changing family and employment
> patterns and rising inequalities, Nordic Welfare States in the European
> Context offers an empirical analysis of welfare state adaptations and a
> lively discussion of the development of European social policy. It finds a
> greater ambiguity regarding variation and trends than is commonly
> suggested. Contrary to expectation, there is little evidence of
> Europeanisation of the Nordic welfare states, rather the reverse.
>
>
> Orders from
> Tel. 44 (0) 8700 768853
> [log in to unmask]
> www.routledge.com (see 'Catalogue')
> Inspection copies available.
>
>
> Mikko Kautto
> Researcher
> Stakes, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health
> Research group 'Welfare Policies and Social Problems'
> po box 220 (street address: Siltasaarenkatu 18), 00531 Helsinki, Finland
>
> tel. - 358 9 3967 2206
> fax. - 358 9 3967 2007
> [log in to unmask]
>
|