Since the advent of the European Union, politicians have increasingly emphasized the notion of a European social model as an alternative to the American form of market capitalism, which is seen as promoting economic growth without regard for solidarity and social progress. As this political discourse has advanced, social scientists and academic policy analysts have raised questions concerning the extent to which the E.U. and U.S. social models exist outside the minds of diplomats and politicians seeking to stitch together a common identity. How much unity is there still within Europe after the Eastern enlargements have considerably increased economic and cultural diversity? To whatever extent one might discern a distinct set of commonalities that represent the core of a European approach, how different are the European characteristics of social, economic, and political life from those of America?

Addressing these issues, this book systematically analyzes how much European countries and the United States have in common and how much variation we find within the enlarged European Union in eight central spheres of socio-economic and political life: employment, equality/mobility, educational opportunity, integration of immigrants, democratic functioning, political participation, rights to welfare, and levels of public spending. Drawing on empirical analyses by U.S. and European scholars who represent multi-disciplinary backgrounds, each of these topics is put under scrutiny. The results of this study illuminate points of convergence and divergence as seen from the perspectives of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic.

This book explores the role of both the family and the state in shaping the living conditions of the young and old in Europe. It provides a comparative theoretical and empirical analysis of age-related policies and welfare arrangements in Germany, France, Italy and Sweden. By combining institutional data on changes in public policies with longitudinal micro-data on living arrangements and informal support patterns in families, the book  demonstrates the huge diversity in the organization of intergenerational relations and the changes that have occurred since the early 1990s. Age-specific differences in attitudes towards current social policy issues are also explored. The key finding is that intergenerational bonds of solidarity remain robust, meaning predictions of a potential conflict between the generations are vastly exaggerated.

This book is the translated and slightly revised version of the 2008 German publication:
Generationenbeziehungen im Wohlfahrtsstaat: Lebensbedingungen und Einstellungen im internatioalen Vergleich
Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2008
ISBN 978-3-531-15660-6
419 Seiten

Jens Alber, Tony Fahey, Chiara Saraceno
London/New York: Routledge 2008
ISBN 10:0-415-42467-4
430 Seiten

Handbook of Quality of Life in the Enlarged European Union

Recent enlargement to the east made the European Union a more diverse social space and brought it into more direct contact with the social and cultural aftermath of communism.
Sound empirical knowledge on heterogeneity and homogeneity in European societies after the EU enlargement is lacking. By bringing together a collection of informative analyses of key domains of social life in the new member states and candidate countries, viewed in comparison both to each other and to the “old” EU-15, this handbook will help social scientists, policy-makers and other observers cope with the unfamiliarity of this new world. In particular, it examines the implications of the new member states’ membership for the future course of EU integration. This substantial text contains 17 chapters with a focus on social conditions, such as:

• poverty and living conditions;
• social inclusion and life satisfaction;
• work and labour markets;
• family and housing.