Search results for ""Author Katja Repo""

This insightful book examines the meaning of, and impacts on, cash-for-care systems for mothers of small children. The contributors present a comprehensive overview of the major political and economic contradictions, theoretical debates concerning cash-for-care, and explore the possibility of implementing it into the social policy system. In social research, cash-for-care is often described as a reactionary benefit that operates against the women's interests. Economists, in turn, ask why the state should pay for reducing female employment and for care that is given anyway. Nevertheless, `woman-friendly' Nordic countries have introduced cash-for-childcare schemes and many parents are willing to use them. The book examines the payment schemes as a complex whole, where on the one hand the scheme responds to the parents' desires, but on the other, produces some questionable consequences. The authors highlight conditions in which cash-for-childcare schemes would not reflect any anachronism but instead will function as a useful tool of contemporary social policy.This unique book provides a broad theoretical and empirical view on cash-for-childcare. It will prove invaluable for academics of social work and policy. Politicians, social policy administrators and labour market researchers interested in family issues will also find this important resource an enriching read.

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This timely book reveals how policies of childcare and early childhood education influence children's circumstances and the daily lives of families with children. Examining how these policies are approached, it focuses particularly on the issues and pitfalls related to equal access. Chapters explore early childhood education and care policies in different social and geographical contexts, highlighting the different ways in which stakeholders - including parents, administrators and policy makers - approach issues of equality. The book further analyses what is meant by, and expected of, early childhood education and care in society and how this varies between nations. Key case studies in the context of liberal, conservative and universal approaches to welfare are used to show the broad differences between them, problematizing the notion of equal access. Social policy, family studies and sociology scholars will appreciate the new insights into the question of the equality of societies offered in this book. It will also prove incisive for researchers looking at the family and early childhood education, as well as for politicians and administrators working in the field.

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This is a first-class repository of new knowledge on how media and family routines intertwine in daily interactions. The multi-method approach reveals how varying forms of media affect the interaction between children and their parents. Avoiding criticism of these interactions, the contributors instead offer an impartial view of the natural occurrences in media-related family life. The first section of the book maps contemporary family life by providing methodological, theoretical and time-use reflections on media use and family communication. It goes on to reach into the private zone of family interaction through video-documented episodes, providing the reader with detailed interactional analyses. This exposes how the boundaries between virtual interaction and face-to-face interaction have become blurred. Offering a comprehensive picture of the complexity of digital family life, this book exposes the challenges and opportunities of modern parenting. Discussing largely unexplored phenomena that are applicable internationally, this book will appeal to a wide range of researchers and students in the fields of social sciences. Professionals such as psychologists, therapists and social workers will also benefit from the impartial insight this work gives into the media's impact on modern family interaction.Contributors include: I. Arminen, S. Danby, A. Kallio, A.R. Lahikainen, T. Mälkiä, E. Mantere, J. Marsh, P. Nikken, S. Raudaskoski, K. Repo, E. Suoninen, S. Tiilikainen, S. Valkonen

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