Overview

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.

Full Product Details

9781849804233

Table of Contents

Reviews

'This book provides an excellent overview and evaluation of one of the most overlooked Nordic child care policies, the Cash for Childcare. Leading scholars in the field investigate and critically discuss the variation in the scheme across the Nordic countries as well as the importance of the development of cash for care options for the otherwise service dominated Nordic welfare state model. The book examines the Cash for Childcare in the perspective of gender equality, consumerism and freedom of choice for families, balance of work and family life and the right of the child to early education, and provides a must needed opportunity for understanding why also the Nordic countries with otherwise high female labour force participation and easy access to day care have introduced the cash for care options.' - Tine Rostgaard, The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Denmark

`This work is one of the first attempts to offer a theoretical discussion of and empirical evidence for a relatively new social policy: CFC. The collection provides an insightful review of the historical and socio-political rationale for these policies within the Nordic context, state-specific and comparative analyses, and offers promising strategies to overcome the noted challenges. . . this work is an excellent resource for those interested in CFC policies specifically and among scholars and students of social and family policy, gender and labour studies, and social care more generally.' -- Rebecca A. Matthew, International Journal of Social Welfare `An excellent choice for social issue collections and reference shelves.' -- The Midwest Book Review `This book provides an excellent overview and evaluation of one of the most overlooked Nordic child care policies, the cash-for-childcare. Leading scholars in the field investigate and critically discuss the variation in the scheme across the Nordic countries as well as the importance of the development of cash for care options for the otherwise service dominated Nordic welfare state model. The book examines the cash-for-childcare in the perspective of gender equality, consumerism and freedom of choice for families, balance of work and family life and the right of the child to early education, and provides a much needed opportunity for understanding why the Nordic countries with otherwise high female labour force participation and easy access to day care have introduced the cash for care options.' -- Tine Rostgaard, The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Denmark

Author Information

Edited by Jorma Sipilä, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work, Katja Repo, Tampere Centre for Childhood, Youth and Family Research, Tampere University and Tapio Rissanen, Research Fellow, Tampere University, Finland

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