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ESRC-funded Seminar Series, 2003–2004 Seminar 4 Researching Family and Childhood from a European Welfare Perspective
Fred DEVEN and Valérie CARRETTE Following EU Directive 96/34/EC, more interest has been shown in parental leave than in other types of leave arrangements for parents. However, considerable diversity remains between parental leave schemes in European countries, to some extent in terms of objectives and perspectives, and to a greater extent in terms of eligibility conditions, entitlement, flexibility and payment. The research and policy literature deals mainly with parents and employers as the major stakeholders, despite widespread agreement that leave arrangements are a provision that can contribute to the welfare of children. The well being of children may be a formal policy objective of parental leave policy, as in Sweden, but an explicit child perspective is a common omission in related research and policy. Moreover, statistical data rarely takes the child as a unit of analysis. This paper reviews the existing literature regarding the impact of leave arrangements for parents on children. The scant research evidence is analysed in terms of consequences and effects as well as research methodologies used. CBGS research from the perspective of children and adolescents provides a basis for exploring appropriate methodologies in this research domain. Suggestions are offered for improving existing research designs and reflecting on new directions for policy. Fred DEVEN is Scientific Director at the Centrum voor Bevolkings- en Gezinsstudie (Population and Family Study Centre, CBGS) in Brussels. His research has focused on the value of children for parents, covering the processes of family formation, parenting and the work–family interface, and the issue of leave arrangements for parents. His main publications in this area include Parental Leave: progress or pitfall? Research and Policy Issues in Europe (co-edited with P. Moss, 1999, NIDI/CBGS Publications); and a special issue of Community, Work & Family on ‘Leave Arrangements for Parents: research and policies’ (2002, 5/3). Contact details: ; http://www.cbgs.be Valérie CARRETTE is a research fellow at the Population and Family Study Centre (CBGS, Brussels). Her research interests are in parent support and youth protection, using peer research methodology, and also out-of-school childcare provision. Contact details:
Louise ACKERS and Liz OLIVER The paper reports on the specific approach adopted in two comparative socio-legal studies of the reconciliation of work and family life in the case of science careers. Progression in science careers demands a high degree of mobility at both international and internal level, which poses serious challenges to individual male and female scientists who seek to reconcile the demands of professional progression with the needs of their partners and children. The studies have sought to understand the decision-making processes of people in these highly mobile areas of work and their impact on the representation and progression of women. They have involved empirical work in five EU Member States (Greece, Austria, Portugal, Italy and the UK). To contextualise the qualitative work with male and female scientists, partners prepared country reports presenting material on the social policy systems and implementation of EU law in the relevant areas. In-depth interviews were used to develop understanding of how individual subjects negotiate these resource frameworks and exercise agency in their career and migration decision-making. One of the studies sought specifically to gauge the involvement of children in these migratory processes. The paper focuses on the conceptual and operational aspects of the research, describing the processes involved and their success and limitations. The key concepts examined include ‘migration’ or ‘mobility’ and its spatial and temporal dimensions; ‘family’ and its legal and social configurations; ‘time’, in the sense of working time, personal/family time and life course and ‘work’, including both paid and unpaid work. The studies were supported by the European Commission (DG EMPL), and one of them additionally by the UK government (DTI). As such, they have paid close attention to the issue of policy relevance and impact, which is reflected not only in the methodological approach but also in the dissemination strategy.
Louise ACKERS holds a Chair in European Law and is Director of the Centre for the Study of Law and Policy in Europe (CSLPE) at the University of Leeds, UK. Her research focuses on aspects of highly skilled migration within the EU and, in particular, on science mobility. She is currently working on an impact assessment of the Marie Curie Programme and a series of externally funded projects concerned with science mobility. This includes work on the regional effects (‘brain drain’) and gender–family issues. Her publications include: Shifting Spaces: gender, citizenship and migration in the European Union (Policy Press, 1998); ‘The Participation of Women Researchers in the TMR Programme of the European Commission: an evaluation’ (European Commission, DG12, 2001); Senior Citizenship? Retirement, Migration and Welfare in the EU (with P. Dwyer, Policy Press, 2002); A Community for Children? Children, Citizenship and Internal Migration in the EU (with H.E. Stalford, Ashgate, 2003).
Liz OLIVER is a postgraduate research student funded by an ESRC Case Award and supervised jointly by the School of Law and the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, UK. She is working as Research Assistant in partnership with the Women and Equality Unit (DTI) and the Centre for the Study of Law and Policy in Europe at the University of Leeds on the Mobisc Project. Her research interests are in the gender dynamics of mobility and career progression in Europe, specifically with reference to science careers and the importance of fixed term contracts in the career and mobility decisions of men and women scientists in Europe. Her recent publications include: ‘Academic Science Careers in the UK’ (Centre for the Study of Law and Policy in Europe Research Report No.12, 2004). Contact address:
Julia BRANNEN The paper discusses some of the methodological issues that arise in cross-national comparative research. It focuses on a project concerned with children’s views and experiences of family life and how such a project has been used to disseminate research, including cross-nationally. What began as a conventional mix of research methods in a study of children lives – a questionnaire survey and an interview study – became something rather different. The interviews encompassed a range of methods from family trees, vignettes and emotional maps of social relationships. In the dissemination phase of the project children’s voices were used not simply to give voice to children themselves for adult audiences. Rather, video was used to provide a public forum in which children as experts on their own family lives could learn about and evaluate research findings. This exercise turned into a mini research project in its own right concerning the ways in which children exercise competences in their understanding of research and in their performance in a formal setting: a panel of experts in front of the camera. Julia BRANNEN is Professor in the Sociology of the Family at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her research covers parents, children and young people in families, intergenerational relations and the work–family interface, employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches, as well as biographical methods. She is co-founder and co-editor of the International Journal of Research Methodology: Theory & Practice. Her recent books include Connecting Children: care and family life in middle childhood (with E. Heltinstall and K. Bhopal, 2000, Falmer); Young Europeans, Work and Family: futures in transition (ed. with S. Lewis, A. Nilsen and J. Smithson, 2001, Routledge); and Rethinking Care (ed. with P. Moss, 2002, Open University Press). Contact address:
New Methods for Researching Child Poverty:
Amélia BASTOS This paper presents a review of the methodologies used in researching child poverty. Among the key issues examined are understanding of the ‘concept’ of child poverty, the indicators that have been developed and the measurements used. The paper goes on to suggest a new methodological approach in the study of child poverty that considers the child as the statistical unit of observation. This methodology analyses child poverty through family income – child income poverty – and by identifying the socio-economic characteristics of children in poor families, thereby developing a qualitative approach to the problem. Using a Portuguese micro database on the living conditions of children, a logit model is estimated to define a set of indicators associated with child income poverty. On the basis of these indicators, an index of child poverty is constructed to evaluate the intensity of the phenomenon, where the child is the unit of observation. The findings indicate that child income poverty is fundamentally associated with four socio-economic dimensions: education, health, housing and social insertion. The econometric framework used by this approach ensures greater accuracy of the results. The paper shows the value of applying the index of child income poverty in comparative international analysis of the phenomenon and its relevance for policy actors. Amélia Bastos is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Higher Institute of Economics and Management, at the Technical University of Lisbon. Her research interests are in child poverty using qualitative and quantitative research measure methods. Her main publications in this area include ‘Child income poverty and child deprivation. An essay on measurement (International Journal of Social Economics, forthcoming); and ‘Child poverty – a discussion on conceptualization and measurement’ (Proceedings of the 41st Congress of ERSA, August, 2001).
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