Anders Ejrnæs

THE IMPACT OF FAMILY POLICY AND CAREER INTERRUPTIONS ON WOMEN'S PERCEPTIONS OF THE NEGATIVE OCCUPATIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF FULL-TIME HOME CARE

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of family policy in shaping mothers’ choice between work and care and the perceived occupational consequences of that choice. A central question concerns how parental/maternal leave and childcare policies affect the occupational consequences for mothers who spend time on full-time caring. Using comparative data from the second round of the 2004/05 European Social Survey, the analysis shows that the duration of career interruption due to care-giving and different care policies influence mothers’ subjective feelings about caring for children having negative consequences for their careers. On the one hand, our findings confirm the hypothesis that long-term absence from the labour market due to full-time care has negative consequences for womens occupational careers. On the other hand, our findings show that countries with well paid leave schemes combined with access to high quality childcare reduce the perceived negative occupational consequences of the time spent on full-time care. This is the case independently of the duration of the career interruption due to care-giving.

The legitimacy of new modes of governance in the EU: Studying national stakeholders' support

The literature on new modes of governance suffers from a gap between the normative and the positive approaches to legitimacy. This article addresses this gap by studying the patterns of national stakeholders’ support for the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). The results of our survey demonstrate that the OMC receives greater support than previously assumed and that the support of national stakeholders is largely associated with their involvement in national procedures. These findings corroborate the assumptions of normative theories of participatory democracy about the importance of involvement. Furthermore, the study’s findings underline the pivotal role that national stakeholders play regarding matters of legitimacy in the EU’s multi-level system of governance.

New Social Risks and Work-Family Balance

The aim of this chapter is to examine how different welfare policy regimes have influence on the social risks which individuals are confronted in managing and reconciling the relationship between work and family life. The influx of women into the labour market, the decline of the male breadwinner family and changing gender norms has created new social risks for both men and women. As a consequence of the emergence of double-earner households, at least part of the unpaid care work that used to be performed in the family by the housewife now needs to be externalised either to the state or to the market. However, women and men with inadequate access to adequately paid leave or care facilities are facing a risk of being forced to either exiting the labour market or reducing their time in paid work because of care responsibilities. This chapter examines how institutional as well as individual dimensions determine the risk of spending more time than wanted outside paid work because of care responsibilities. This chapter uses comparative data from the fourth round of the European Social Survey carried out in 2008.

Deprivation and non-institutional political participation: analysing the relationship between deprivation, institutional trust and political activism in Europe

ABSTRACT This article examines how the relationship between perceived economic deprivation (PED) and non-institutional forms of political activity interacted with institutional trust during the economic crisis in 24 European countries. Using multi-level regression analysis, two broad questions are addressed: (1) does PED have an impact on the level of non-institutional political participation among European citizens? And (2) does the level of institutional trust within countries have an impact on the relationship between PED and political activity among European citizens? The empirical analyses are based on data from the European Social Survey Round Five 2010. Two important conclusions can be drawn. First, on the aggregate level, countries suffering from a high level of PED display fewer instances of non-institutional forms of political activity than countries with a low level of PED, while we find the opposite correlation on an individual level within the countries. Second, the analysis provides evidence that the institutional context shapes the connection between PED and political participation on the individual level. In countries with a high level of institutional trust, economically deprived citizens seem more prone to engage in non-institutional forms of political activity.