A social policy model for the reconciliation of employment and family life from a gender equality perspective

The issue of family–employment reconciliation has rapidly evolved from being ignored to a certain dejá vu perception in public debate, as a result of its media success during the last decade. This is even more the case in Spain, where it was only in the late 1990s, when a law was passed to regulate and extend parental and other leave for workers with close relatives in need of care, that reconciliation policies began to be generally discussed and considered. In a context of quick population aging as a consequence of low fertility, concern on labor force supply in the middle term is high on the agenda. Women are increasingly considered to be necessary both as workers and mothers (of future workers), thus raising awareness of the importance of social policies to make their double presence in both worlds possible. There is now general agreement from the right to the left on the urgency to develop family–employment policies. But what is not generally addressed is the impact of such policies on gender equality, a dimension which tends to be either ignored or taken for granted. Not all reconciliation measures have the same effects on the women and men relationship. Some of them push forward equality, whereas others go backwards. Efficiency in making job and family responsibilities compatible does not always go hand in hand with increasing equality. The paper presents a theoretical model for the reconciliation of work and family life from a gender equality perspective. The three main kinds of instruments available in social policy – services, leave, and cash – are examined in four different cases: care of under-threes, care of sick children, coordination of work and school schedules, and care of children during school holidays. Each case is looked at considering its effects on social and gender equality, as well as child welfare. The model includes as active agents of the system the State (promotes and regulates), families and individuals (those directly implicated), and the market as labor market, on the one hand, and supplier of private services, on the other.     

Adolescent Self‐cutting: An Embodiment of the Unsaid

This paper describes adolescent self‐cutting from a systemic–relational standpoint utilising two key concepts: embodied mind and the unsaid. Varella's notion of embodiment is introduced to understand the body as a field of meaning and the unsaid is conceptualised as what holds ‘said meaning’ and gives a sense of identity. These ideas are illustrated by reflections on a clinical vignette.     

Establishing Design Principles for Wildfire Resilient Urban Planning

This study elaborates on the built and natural environment disciplines’ potential to develop applied understandings of resilience, using the example of land-use planning design guides in wildfire-prone areas. It argues that land-use planning can develop and apply spatial and physical resilience principles to disasters, contributing to developing meaningful ways of achieving resilience by bridging the space between overarching goals and the specificity of individual contexts, focusing on physical resistance. It concludes that there are nine design principles that can improve settlements resilience in wildfire-prone areas to reduce risks, organized under two major categories: acting on resistance and facilitating response.     

Peer Effects and Peer Avoidance: The Diffusion of Behavior in Coevolving Networks

We study the long‐run emergence of behavioral patterns in dynamic complex networks. Individuals can display two kinds of behavior: G (“good”) or B (“bad”). We assume that the exposure of a G agent to bad behavior on the part of peers/neighbors triggers her own switch to B behavior, but only temporarily. We model the implications of such peer effects as an epidemic process in the standard SIS (Susceptible‐Infected‐Susceptible) framework. The key novelty of our model is that, unlike in the received literature, the network is taken to change over time within the same time scale as behavior. Specifically, we posit that links connecting two G agents last longer, reflecting the idea that B agents tend to be avoided. The main concern of the paper is to understand the extent to which such biased network turnover may play a significant role in supporting G behavior in a social system. And indeed we find that network coevolution has nontrivial and interesting effects on long‐run behavior. This yields fresh insights on the role of (endogenous) peer pressure on the diffusion of social behavior and also has some bearing on the traditional study of disease epidemics. (JEL: C71, D83, D85)     

Family networks in Andalusia,Spain

Family networks are a key resource for care in Spain, but this does not mean that they are explained by tradition or ideology. In fact, they are playing an important role in family change towards the dual-earner model supporting the involvement of mothers in paid work. The article analyses the structure of individuals' family networks as circles of non-cohabitant relatives which are kept active by relations, expectations, and mutual services. The information is based on the Family Networks Survey of Andalusia done in 2005 in this Spanish region to a wide sample of 10,000 interviewees.