Publications

This volume is the final outcome of the research network In Search of Trans- cultural Memory in Europe (istme) which ran from 2012 to 2016. Funded by the eu cost (Cooperation in Science and Technology) programme, the network was able to bring together scholars from 33 European countries and a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The goal of the network was to go beyond what we saw as tendencies within memory studies to be too nationally orientated and to reify the bonds between culture, nation and memory. The ambition was to investigate transcultural dynamics of memory in Europe with special attention paid to memories of the troubled twentieth century, and how they have been transmitted and received across the continent. Moreover, the network aimed to develop European memory studies theoretically and methodologically by focusing on transculturality and reception. It is why this volume is centred on these issues. 

Provisioning for basic human needs is done in three main kind of institutions: the familial household; the commercial enterprise selling goods and services; the institutions of the Welfare State that provide education, medical care and other goods and personal services to all or to some specific groups of citizens in need. The purpose of this book is to study the interplay of these institutions and their impact on well-being, and to analyze key policies and measures that have been implemented in European countries.

Institutions determine labour demand (men and women are hired by the institutions of the Welfare State or by market providers of care), the possibilities of consumption (wages earned can be used to buy goods and services only if such goods and services are provided by the market) and allocate people’s time, in particular women’s time, between paid work and unpaid domestic production and provision of care, shaping both the gender relations and time use of people of both sexes. The proper balance of these institutions is a prerequisite of well-being both of the care givers and of the care receivers, and also for satisfactory gender relations.

The chapters in this book focus on the following sub-topics: gender and welfare regimes; gender, well-being and the provision of care in the family and the household; and gender and well-being in the labour market. They emphasise the interdependence of social and labour market policies in the context of fundamental changes in both working patterns (the increase in female labour-force participation rates) and social needs (including population ageing) and demonstrate that we need a more integrated approach to welfare policy which takes account not only of basic welfare entitlements, but also the need for supportive forms of service provision and employment regulation.

COST Action B13 was launched in 1999 to formulate evidence-based guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of low-back pain. This ambitious pan-European project gathered 48 experts in the field from 14 European countries to analyse more than 70 clinical guidelines and 800 systematic reviews.