Work-life Conflict and Social Inequality in Western Europe

Recent debates on time-use suggest that there is an inverse relationship between time poverty and income poverty (Aguiar and Hurst in Q J Econ C(3):969-1006, 2007), with Hammermesh and Lee (Rev Econ Stat 89(2):374-383, 2007) suggesting much time poverty is 'yuppie kvetch' or 'complaining'. Gershuny (Soc Res Int Q Soc Sci 72(2):287-314, 2005) argues that busyness is the 'badge of honour': being busy is now a positive, privileged position and it is high status people who work long hours and feel busy. Is this also true of work-life conflict? This paper explores the relationship between work-life tension and social inequality, as measured by social class, drawing on evidence from the European Social Survey. To what extent is work-life conflict a problem of the (comparatively) rich and privileged professional/managerial classes, and is this true across European countries? The countries selected offer a range of institutional and policy configurations to maximise variation. Using regression modelling of an index of subjective work-life conflict, we find that in all the countries under study, work-life conflict is higher among professionals than non-professionals. Part of this is explained by the fact that professionals work longer hours and experience more work pressure than other social classes, though the effect remains even after accounting for these factors. While levels of work-life conflict vary across the countries studied, country variation in class differences is modest. We consider other explanations of why professionals report higher work-life conflict and the implications of our findings for debates on social inequality.

The spatial distribution of Holocene cryptotephras in north-west Europe since 7 ka: implications for understanding ash fall events from Icelandic eruptions

We present distribution maps for all cryptotephras (distal volcanic ash layers) younger than 7 ka that have been reported from three or more lakes or peatlands in north-west Europe. All but one of the tephras originates from Iceland; the exception has been attributed to Jan Mayen. We find strong spatial patterning in tephra occurrence at the landscape scale; most, but not all of the tephra occurrences are significantly spatially clustered, which likely reflects atmospheric and weather patterns at the time of the eruptions. Contrary to expectations based on atmospheric modelling studies, tephras appear to be at least as abundant in Ireland and northern Scotland as in Scandinavia. Rhyolitic and other felsic tephras occur in lakes and peatlands throughout the study region, but andesitic and basaltic tephras are largely restricted to lake sites in the Faroe Islands and Ireland. Explanations of some of these patterns will require further research on the effects of different methodologies for locating and characterizing cryptotephras. These new maps will help to guide future investigations in tephrochronology and volcanic hazard analysis.

Comparative growth rates and internal banding periodicity of maerl species (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) from northern Europe

Maerl is a type of rhodolith, found in ecologically important beds of high conservation value; a major conservation objective is to establish growth rates. Maerl shows internal banding of controversial periodicity that may contain a high-resolution record of palaeoceanographic-palaeoclimatic data. To investigate growth rates and banding periodicity, we used the vital stain Alizarin Red in combination with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Three maerl species, Phymatolithon calcareum, Lithothamnion corallioides and L. glaciale, were collected from maerl beds in Ireland. Following staining, maerl was grown in three controlled temperature treatments and at two depths in the field (P. calcareum only), with Corallina officinalis as a control for the stain. Alizarin Red was shown to be a suitable marker for growth in European maerl species and for C. officinalis. The average tip growth rate of P. calcareum from Northern Ireland at 10 m depth and under constant laboratory conditions was c. 0.9 mm yr(-1), double the rates observed at 5 m depth and in L. corallioides. Our measurements and re-examination of reported data allow us to conclude that the three most abundant maerl species in Europe grow about 1 (0.5-1.5) mm per tip per year under a wide range of field and artificial conditions. Internal banding in temperate European maerl revealed by SEM is a result of regular changes in wall thickness; the approximately monthly periodicity of bands in field-grown specimens is consistent with previous suggestions that they may be lunar. The potential for maerl banding to be a high-resolution record of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental change could be realized with this vital stain in conjunction with isotopic or microgeochemical analyses.

Taxonomy and phylogeny of Osmundea (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta) in Atlantic Europe

Two species of Osmundea Stackhouse (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta) that occur in Atlantic Europe have been confused under the names Osmundea ramosissima (Oeder) Athanasiadis and Osmundea truncata (Kutzing) Nam et Maggs, regarded until now as a synonym of O. ramosissima, An epitype from its type locality (Stavanger, Norway) is selected for Osmundea ramosissima Athanasiadis, recognized here as a valid name for Fucus ramosissimus Oeder, nom. illeg. Details of vegetative and reproductive morphology of O. ramosissima are reported, based on material from France, the British Isles, and Helgoland. Osmundea ramosissima resembles other species of Osmundea in its vegetative axial segments with two pericentral cells and one trichoblast, spermatangial development from apical and epidermal cells (filament type), the formation of five pericentral cells in the procarp-bearing segment of the female trichoblast, and tetrasporangial production from random epidermal cells. Among the species of Osmundea, O. ramosissima is most similar to O. truncata. Both species have discoid holdfasts, secondary pit connections between epidermal cells, and cup-shaped spermatangial pits. They differ in that: (a) O. ramosissima lacks lenticular wail thickenings and refractive needle-like inclusions in medullary cells, both of which are present in O. truncata; (b) O. ramosissima has branched spermatangial filaments that terminate in a cluster of several cells, whereas in O. truncata the unbranched spermatangial filaments have a single large terminal sterile cell; and (c) cystocarps of O. ramosissima lack protuberant ostioles but ostioles are remarkably protuberant in o. truncata. Phylogenetic analyses of rbcL sequences of Laurencia obtusa (Hudson) Lamouroux and all five Atlantic European species of Osmundea, including the type species, strongly support the generic status of Osmundea. Osmundea ramosissima and O. truncata are closely related (5.2% sequence divergence) and form a well-supported clade sister to a clade consisting of O. pinnatifida (Hudson) Stack-house, O. osmunda Stackhouse and O. hybrida (A. P. de Candolle) Nam. The formation of secondary pit connections between epidermal cells is a synapomorphy for the O. ramosissima + O. truncata clade. The close relationship between species with cup-shaped spermatangial pits (Osmundea hybrida) and urn-shaped pits (Osmundea pinnatifida and Osmundea osmunda) shows that spermatangial pit shape is not an important phylogenetic character. Parsimony analysis of a morphological data set also supports the genus Osmundea but conflicts with the molecular trees in infrageneric relationships, placing O. hybrida basal within the Osmundea clade and grouping O. osmunda and O. pinnatifida but not O. truncata and O. ramosissima. A key to Osmundea species is presented.

‘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.