Shaping the Life Course: A European Perspective

Abstract

This book investigates the changing patterns and levels of social welfare systems through the lens of key life stage transitions. This provides an insight into the adequacy of welfare systems' response to the changing needs for support at these critical stages of life that shape future life course prospects.The focus on key life stages has three purposes. First it provides a lens through which to analyse a range of different dimensions of social welfare systems. It is at key life stages that social welfare systems are particularly needed to provide support in addition to or instead of employment or the family. These include the key life stages of preparing for and entering work, setting up independent households, surviving interruptions to work, in prime age, whether for parenthood, sickness or unemployment, and withdrawing from work into retirement. The support systems in place at these stages have major impacts in empowering or preventing citizens from fulfilling their potential and their aspirations. These support mechanisms are critical for issues of equity and social inclusion. A focus on key life stages also facilitates an evaluation of how social welfare systems vary in the effectiveness of their support for different groups, defined, for example, by class, gender, age and generation.Second, the key life stage approach can help identify the impact of potentially conflicting pressures for change. These conflicts arise from the short-term pressures to reduce costs or to minimise open unemployment for political reasons, both of which, for different reasons, may jeopardise opportunities to engage in longer-term strategic change. This long-term change is required to keep social welfare systems in step with the major changes actually taking place in the life course, and in the associated behaviour and aspirations of European citizens. The European Employment Strategy (EES) espouses the need for long-term reform to ensure that welfare systems promote an active, and appropriately and flexibly skilled, M2322 -ANXO PRINT.indd 1 28/5/10 14:44:25

Flexible careers across the life course: Advancing theory, research and practice

“…The institutional environment is most often conceptualized at the national or macro level. Countries are typically classified into various groups, which have differential institutional effects on employment outcomes (Anxo et al, 2010;Berg et al, 2014;Esping-Andersen, 1990;Hall and Soskice, 2001). What constitutes the institutional environment related to work or careers can be quite broad.…”

“…Moen and Sweet note that the market plays the primary role in framing the life course in the USA, whereas in Europe the state plays the major role. Turning to the role of the state, Anxo et al (2010) use the life course to assess the impact of different European welfare and work regimes on the equity and social inclusion of different groups defined by class, gender, age and generation. Anxo et al (2010: 5) distinguish five transitions in working life that are both individually and socially constructed: school to work-career; from home to independent living; family formation/parenthood; employment risks in prime age; and retirement.…”

Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

“…More occupationally-specific systems thus tend to be less strongly polarized in terms of the distribution of educational attainment (Anxo, Bosch, & Rubery, 2010), which may mitigate education-based inequality in labor market outcomes. It is beyond the scope of this paper to detail the many ways in which different education systems -the degree to which these are stratified and standardized and the degree to which they feature institutionalized vocational specificity -affect returns to education in interaction with other important institutional factors (e.g., industrial relations, tax systems, family policy).…”

A new labour market segmentation approach for analysing inequalities

“…In light of evidence of the changing heterogeneity of men's and women's life courses, research has also analysed key life stages when welfare support is particularly needed in addition to, or instead of, employment and the family, including the transition from education to employment, surviving interruptions in employment in prime age due to parenthood, sickness or unemployment, and withdrawing from employment into retirement (Anxo et al, 2010;Crompton, 2006;Stier et al, 2001). Social protection systems play a key role in ameliorating or exacerbating work and employment inequalities through inclusive or exclusive models of eligibility.…”