Download or read book Family Life and Family Policies in Europe: Problems and issues in comparative perspective written by Franz-Xaver Kaufmann and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 2 of Family Life and Family Policies in Europe is a comparative study of family change in Europe and its dependency on social policy regimes. The authors explore family discourse, family law, single parents, gender relations, the 'new fathers', divorce, and abortion within theframework of national policies vis-a-vis the family. Conventional wisdom assumes that policy decisions affecting the life situation of a population shape different opportunities for private living, particularly in relation to children and the family. But, the authors argue, it would be toosimplistic to assume a direct causal link between welfare policies for the family and developments in the family sector. Family change is in fact mediated by institutional factors as well as by cultural traditions and political intervention. The chapters in this volume deal with the substantial andmethodological problems of ascertaining the impact of different national policy regimes on family change.This volume, in conjunction with Volume 1 (which presents a standardized framework for analysing family development and policies across ten European countries), makes a significant contribution to research in the field of comparative interdisciplinary family science. Together they aim at a betterunderstanding of issues relevant to the European agenda for social policies towards the family.