‘What Adult Worker Model? A Critical Look at Recent Social Policy Reform in Europe from a Gender and Family Perspective

Analyses regularly feature claims that European welfare states are in the process of creating an adult worker model. The theoretical and empirical basis of this argument is examined here by looking first at the conceptual foundations of the adult worker model formulation and then at the extent to which social policy reform in western Europe fits with the argument. It is suggested that the adult worker formulation is under-specified. A framework incorporating four dimensions—the treatment of individuals vis-à-vis their family role and status for the purposes of social rights, the treatment of care, the treatment of the family as a social institution, and the extent to which gender inequality is problematized—is developed and then applied. The empirical analysis reveals a strong move towards individualization as social policy promotes and valorizes individual agency and self-sufficiency and shifts some childcare from the family. Yet evidence is also found of continued (albeit changed) familism. Rather than an unequivocal move to an individualized worker model then, a dual earner, gender-specialized, family arrangement is being promoted. The latter is the middle way between the old dependencies and the new “independence.” This makes for complexity and even ambiguity in policy, a manifestation of which is that reform within countries involves concurrent moves in several directions.

Cities Ready for Energy Crises - Building Urban energy Resilience

Various sources indicate that threats to modern cities lie in the availability of essential streams, among which energy. Most cities are strongly reliant on fossil fuels; not one case of a fully self-sufficient city is known. Engineering resilience is the rate at which a system returns to a single steady or cyclic state following a perturbation. Certain resilience, for the duration of a crisis, would improve the urban capability to survive such a period without drastic measures.
The capability of cities to prepare for and respond to energy crises in the near future is supported by greater or temporary self-sufficiency. The objective of the underlying research is a model for a city – including its surrounding rural area – that can sustain energy crises. Therefore, accurate monitoring of the current urban metabolism is needed for the use of energy. This can be used to pinpoint problem areas. Furthermore, a sustainable energy system is needed, in which the cycle is better closed. This will require a three-stepped approach of energy savings, energy exchange and sustainable energy generation. Essential is the capacity to store energy surpluses for periods of shortage (crises).
The paper discusses the need for resilient cities and the approach to make cities resilient to energy crises.

Independent Ireland

Although many Irish nationalists at the turn of the twentieth century expected Ireland to achieve self-government within their own lifetime, few could have anticipated its form or consequences: the promised land that they envisioned was to be achieved through political means rather than insurrection and partition. But while the violence of the revolutionary decade created the political structures that shape present-day Ireland, the social and economic changes of the final decades of the twentieth century, by rupturing cultural patterns that predated independence, arguably brought about a more profound dislocation. Within Southern Ireland, the focus of this essay, the long era between these periods of upheaval was initially characterised by the pursuit of national sovereignty and self-sufficiency. In contrast, the decades after the Second World War saw the gradual abandonment of that vision in favour of a more pragmatic policy of economic liberalisation. The resulting ‘modernisation’ saw many traditional aspects of Irish society replaced by individualistic values more typical of contemporary European society.

School's out forever: Postsecondary educational trajectories of students with autism

Objective:Postsecondary educational attainment is the key for successful transition to adulthood, economic self-sufficiency, and good mental and physical health.Method:Secondary analyses of school leavers’ data were carried out to establish postsecondary educational trajectories of students on the autism spectrum in the United Kingdom.Results:Findings show that students with autism who had attended mainstream secondary schools enter Further Education (post-16 vocational training) and Higher Education (University) institutions at a similar rate to other students to study the full range ofsubjects on offer. However, they are more likely to be younger, study at a lower academic level, and remain living at home.Conclusion:While course completion data were not yet available, attainment data showed that prospects were improving, although more needs to be done to enable these young adults to a achieving their post secondary educational potential.