Birgit Pfau-Effinger & Birgit Geissler 
Care and social integration in European societies [PDF ebook] 

This book provides invaluable descriptions and comparative analyses of the now complex and highly varied arrangements for the care of children, disabled and older people in Europe, set within the context of changing labour markets and welfare systems. It includes analyses of the modernisation of informal care and new forms of informal care, topics often neglected in the literature. Issues of gender, family change, social integration and citizenship are all explored in a series of chapters that report on original empirical, cross-national research. All contributors are high-ranking experts involved in the COST A13 Action Programme, funded by the European Union. Care and social integration in European societies is essential reading for social policy and sociology academics, particularly those who are interested in comparative policy analysis, gender, labour markets and families. It is also recommended reading for graduate level students in these fields and policy makers, for whom the book provides a unique resource on the latest European developments in this critical policy area.

About the author

Birgit Pfau-Effinger is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Globalisation and Governance Centre, University of Hamburg. She was working group co-ordinator of the COST A13 Action Programme, Changing Labour Markets, Welfare Policies and Citizenship. Birgit Geissler is Professor of Sociology of Work in the Department of Sociology, University of Bielefeld. Her research interests centre on women’s labour market participation, gender specific forms of the life course and life planning, and the interdependence of the welfare state, labour market and family structures.