Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- one Introduction: social solidarity in Europe: the fourth pillar
- two The concept of solidarity in the European integration discourse
- three Solidarity at the margins of European society: linking the European social model to local conditions and solidarities
- four Towards a globalisation of solidarity?
- five Contested terrains and emerging solidarities within childcare law, policy and practice in Europe
- six Embedding European identity in context: changing social solidarities in Europe
- seven Intra-European energy solidarity at the core of the European integration process: future possibilities and current constraints
- eight Social solidarities and immigration integration policies in South-Eastern Europe
- nine Normative power Europe: a tool for advancing social solidarity within and beyond Europe?
- ten Social solidarity in post-socialist countries
- eleven Trade unions, NGOs and social solidarity in Romania
- twelve Social solidarity and preferences on welfare institutions across Europe
- thirteen Social solidarity, human rights and Roma: unequal access to basic resources in Central and Eastern Europe
- fourteen Conclusion: the future of social solidarity in an enlarged Europe: key issues and research questions
- Index
five - Contested terrains and emerging solidarities within childcare law, policy and practice in Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- one Introduction: social solidarity in Europe: the fourth pillar
- two The concept of solidarity in the European integration discourse
- three Solidarity at the margins of European society: linking the European social model to local conditions and solidarities
- four Towards a globalisation of solidarity?
- five Contested terrains and emerging solidarities within childcare law, policy and practice in Europe
- six Embedding European identity in context: changing social solidarities in Europe
- seven Intra-European energy solidarity at the core of the European integration process: future possibilities and current constraints
- eight Social solidarities and immigration integration policies in South-Eastern Europe
- nine Normative power Europe: a tool for advancing social solidarity within and beyond Europe?
- ten Social solidarity in post-socialist countries
- eleven Trade unions, NGOs and social solidarity in Romania
- twelve Social solidarity and preferences on welfare institutions across Europe
- thirteen Social solidarity, human rights and Roma: unequal access to basic resources in Central and Eastern Europe
- fourteen Conclusion: the future of social solidarity in an enlarged Europe: key issues and research questions
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The ‘lived’ and ‘shared learned experiences’ of children and young people across Europe most clearly define and reflect the condition and contours of the European public realm. Largely shaped by the dynamics of institutionalised social solidarity and delivered through universal education and welfare services, their integration within and across European society pivot on a definitive balance between public and private responsibility (Lorenz, 1998; Lister, 2006; Midgely, 2008). For children in care across Europe, lived and learned experiences lie at the intersection of this balance, revealing how states mediate the relationship between the ‘dis-welfares’ (Gough, 1979) generated by the global economy and the national ‘particularisms’ which shape the implementation of childcare law, policy and practice. Within this context the crises experienced in welfare in recent decades can be regarded as a crisis in social solidarity, with a deleterious impact on the public realm across European settings (Lorenz, 2001; Offe, 2003; Clark, 2004). The majority of children who become ‘looked after’ by the state have experienced various levels of poverty and deprivation (Lister, 2006; Garrett, 2010). Equally, the link between family crises and poverty is also well documented (Madge and Attridge, 1996; Munday, 1996; Munday and Ely, 1996; Lister, 2006; Ellison, 2007). Indeed, contours of inequality across European countries mirror the levels of children taken into public care:
Despite the lack of consistent data, it can be roughly estimated that around 1% of children are taken into public care across the EU [European Union] – approximately one million children. This proportion of course varies between countries. In Latvia around 2.2% of children are taken into public care. In Sweden approximately 0.66% of the child population is affected. In Romania, approximately 1.6% of the child population is under special protection more or less unchanged since 1997 (1.66% of children). (Eurochild Report, 2010)
In Britain, where levels of inequality are among the highest in Europe (UNICEF, 2007), the recent austerity measures introduced by the Coalition government are forecast to lead to ‘an increase in absolute poverty in 2013–14 by about 300,000 children’ (Joyce, 2010). As a result, rising numbers of children are living in alternative care in Britain, with an unprecedented increase between 2008 and 2009 (Fostering Network, 2010). Across Europe, the number of children in institutions is stable or even rising in several EU countries.
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- Reinventing Social Solidarity across Europe , pp. 71 - 82Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2011