Children, changing families and welfare states - Jane Lewis

The nature of the relationship between children, parents and the statehas been central to the growth of the modern welfare state and has longbeen a problem for western liberal democracies. Welfare states haveundergone profound restructuring over the past two decades and familiesalso have changed, in terms of their form and the nature of thecontributions that men and women make to them. More attention is beingpaid to children by policymakers, but often because of their importanceas future 'citizen workers'. The book explores the implications ofchanges to the welfare state for children in a range of countries. Children, Changing Families and Welfare States: examines the implications of social policies for children sets the discussion in the broader context of both family change and welfare state change, exploring the nature of the policy debate that has allowed the welfare of the child to come to the fore tackles policies to do with both the care and financial support of children looks at the household level and how children fare when both adult men and women must seek to combine paid and unpaid work, and what support is offered by welfare states endeavours to provide a comparative perspective on these issues.The contributors have written a book that will be warmly welcomed by scholars and researchers of social policy, social work and sociology and students at both the advanced undergraduate and post-graduate level.