Welfare Regimes and the Experience of Unemployment in Europe

• Author(s): Duncan Gallie, Professor of Sociology and Emeritus Fellow of Nuffield College Duncan Gallie, Serge Paugam, Serge Auteur Paugam,
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 412
• ISBN_10: 0198280394
  ISBN_13: 9780198280392
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Business & Economics / Labor , Political Science / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare , Political Science / Public Policy / Social Policy ,

Description:... The is the first major study to examine the implications of different welfare regimes for the experience of unemployment in Europe. It addresses three central questions. How far do such regimes protect unemployed people from poverty and financial hardship? Do they reduce or accentuate thetendencies for progressive marginalization from employment that may arise from motivational change, skill loss or the growth of discriminatory barriers? Finally, to what extent do they affect the social integration of unemployed people, in particular with respect to their social networks andpsychological well-being? The book is based on a major cross-cultural research programme funded by the European Union. In addition to systematic comparison of national data, it uses a new important data source - the European Community Household Panel - which provides directly comparable information for most of the EUcountries. The study shows that institutional and cultural differences have vital implications for the experience of unemployment. While welfare policies affect in an important way the pervasiveness of poverty, it is above all the patterns of family structure and the culture of sociability in a society thataffect vulnerability to social isolation. The book concludes by developing a new perspective for understanding the risk of social exclusion.