Published since January 1, 1955

Zeitschrift für Sozialreform

Journal of Social Policy Research

ISSN: 2366-0295

Editor-in-chief: Werner Eichhorst

Edited by: Martin Brussig, Thomas Gerlinger, Gerhard Igl, Sigrid Leitner, Traute Meyer, Katja Möhring, Frank Nullmeier, Christine Trampusch, Melike Wulfgramm

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About this journal

Herzlich willkommen! Die Zeitschrift für Sozialreform ist eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, die das gesamte Feld der Forschungen zu Sozialstaat und Sozialpolitik in den Sozial-, Wirtschafts- und Rechtswissenschaften abdeckt. Sie wendet sich gleichermaßen an WissenschaftlerInnen wie an all jene, die in der Sozialpolitik oder in sozialen Einrichtungen tätig sind.

Redaktion

Die Redaktion der ZSR ist verantwortlich für die Betreuung von Manuskripten vom Manuskripteingang über den Gutachterprozess bis zur eventuellen Erstellung der Druckfassung. Sie steht auch für alle übrigen Anfragen gerne zur Verfügung.

Verantwortlicher Herausgeber: Prof. Dr. Werner Eichhorst
Redaktion: zsr@uni-due.de

Call for Papers

Arbeits- und Gesundheitsförderung: Neue Analysen zur institutionellen Differenzierung und Interpenetration
Gastherausgeber: Bernhard Boockmann, Martin Brussig, Hans-Dieter Nolting

Der Sozialstaat als „Sortiermaschine" – Kategorien und Kategorisierungsprozesse in der Sozialpolitik
Gastherausgeber*innen: Stefanie Börner (OVGU Magdeburg), Antonio Brettschneider (TH Köln), Thilo Fehmel (HTWK Leipzig)

Social policies as life course policies – between protecting discontinuity and re-establishing continuity
Gastherausgeber: Simone Scherger / Thurid Eggers, SOCIUM, Universität Bremen

Occupational health in a post-pandemic world of work
Gastherausgeber: Anita Tisch / Nadja Dörflinger, BAuA, Germany

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Volume 70 Issue 1

March 2024

Publicly Available March 15, 2024

Frontmatter

Page range: I-III

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March 15, 2024

Editorial: Social policies as life course policies – normative ideas, institutions and individual agency

Thurid Eggers, Simone Scherger

Page range: 1-6

March 15, 2024

Social policies and the life course – a complex relationship re-visited

Simone Scherger

Page range: 7-29

Abstract

Social policies structure individual life courses, cushion individual life course risks, and provide normative orientation. The paper brings together literature from life course sociology and welfare state research in order to provide an updated systematisation of the relationship between individual life courses and social policies. The modern life course regime and its welfare regulation are described as centred around individual actors, and as part and parcel of modernisation processes and the institutional arrangement mediating between the modern (democratic) state and the capitalist economy. Furthermore, the paper discusses these structural roots of life course policies, their resulting characteristics and their normativity. Key aspects in this are individualisation and its limits, the multilevel implementation of social policies and their life course effects with regard to inequalities.

March 15, 2024

Reproduction policy as life course policy: normative modelling of reproductive life courses in Germany

Hannah Zagel

Page range: 31-53

Abstract

This paper investigates how familialist repronormativity, pro-natalism and reproductive autonomy feature as normative models for reproductive life courses in Germany’s current landscape of reproduction policies. Life course research has largely overlooked reproduction as a life course sphere, which is subject to state intervention and strong institutionalised normative assumptions about whether, when and how people should procreate. Drawing on policy documents and a new policy database, this paper compares the current state of reproduction policies in five policy fields (sex education, contraception, abortion, medically assisted reproduction and pregnancy care) to ideal-typical normative orientations towards reproductive life courses. The result is a more systematic understanding of the multidimensionality that is inherent to “life course modelling” (Leisering 2003) of the reproductive life sphere.

Open Access March 15, 2024

Education systems as life course policies? The example of subnational educational regimes and young adults’ family transitions

Ariane Bertogg, Christian Imdorf

Page range: 55-78

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Abstract

This study investigates the role of subnational educational opportunities for three typical transitions in young adulthood: 1) leaving the parental home, 2) starting to cohabit and 3) becoming a parent. Educational opportunities shape young adults’ life courses as they facilitate the accumulation of human capital, labour market entry and financial independence. Education systems and opportunities are part of transition regimes shaped by the specific cultural, economic and policy characteristics of a (subnational) context, and are thus likely to affect moving out and family formation. Drawing on the example of Switzerland with its large cantonal variation in educational opportunities, we use longitudinal data from the TREE panel study to follow a cohort of young adults born in the mid-1980s from ages 16 to 29. Event history models show that larger shares of young people in vocational education at a cantonal level are associated with earlier moving out and parenthood, but later partnership formation. The influence of vocational opportunities is moderated by the presence of a university in the canton.

March 15, 2024

Coping with non-take-up of means-tested benefits: a qualitative longitudinal study on single parents’ life courses in French-speaking Switzerland

Ornella Larenza

Page range: 79-99

Abstract

Many single parents (SPs) receive means-tested benefits (MTBs) in Switzerland. As a risk-management policy, MTBs can alleviate phases of financial hardship in SPs’ life courses. Conversely, when SPs experience non-take-up (NTU), MTBs may turn into a stressor and impinge on their lives. This paper investigates how NTU can shape SPs’ life courses. Thirteen SPs with full custody of their children who experienced NTU while facing economic hardship were interviewed in a qualitative panel in French-speaking Switzerland. A three-step analytical strategy involving thematic, categorical and chronological analysis of the qualitative data was conducted. The results show that SPs can compensate for the lack of MTBs by looking for alternative support from their families, friends and acquaintances or the labour market; by trying to bypass the MTB regulations so as to access them; by making changes to their lives to comply with MTB eligibility criteria or by giving up on the MTBs. NTU not only affects SPs financially but can also delay their professional careers, jeopardise their relationships with the children; delay new couple relationships and force them to live in an unpleasant environment. Intergroup inequalities affect SPs’ paths as MTB clients. By overlooking the implications of SPs’ childcare obligations and the hidden costs linked to separation, targeting practices may lead to tertiary NTU.

March 15, 2024

Between life course regimes and biographical orientations: labour market trajectories of refugee mothers in Germany from a gendered perspective

Katrin Menke

Page range: 101-120

Abstract

After arrival, refugees face the challenge of reordering their biographies in new social contexts that are framed by certain life course policies, institutionalised bureaucratic processes and norms. How do processes of adherence to and adaptation of familiar routines and orientations take shape among refugee women with care responsibilities in Germany? Following on from existing literature on life course, refugee and biographical research, this article enriches current research by adding a gender-sensitive analysis of the labour market trajectories of refugee mothers in Germany. Based on biographically oriented interviews with 22 women with children who fled to Germany from predominantly Arab countries between 2015 and 2020, two findings are presented and discussed: a) different phases of arrival framed by different life course policies and norms unfold in various bureaucratic settings, and b) three different labour market orientations and strategies depending on the women’s biographical orientations, their renegotiation in unfamiliar environments and the life stage the women currently find themselves in. The results provide new insights into the biographical trajectories of refugee women’s labour market participation and challenge a predominantly static view of this group as homogeneous in terms of qualifications, care responsibilities and employment aspirations.

March 15, 2024

Coping with old-age poverty – the role of agency and different forms of societal support

Christopher Grages, Ralf Och

Page range: 121-144

Abstract

Across Europe, there is a substantial but varying number of older people struggling to make ends meet. We examine how older people with a low income make use of their individual resources and those that are available from their family and community as well as public support (in cash and in kind) when coping with poverty. This article is based on the experience of old-age poverty, drawing on 59 life-course interviews with low-income older people in Norway, Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. We introduce a typology of coping strategies with two main dimensions: the capacity for agency and the capacity for transformation. We show that coping strategies vary not only based on individual factors and appropriate social policy support, but also on further societal support provided by civil society, families or social networks that supplements or compensates for gaps in social policy provision.

Volume 70 (2024)

Issue 1 Special issue: Social policies as life course policies – normative ideas, institutions and individual agency Guest editors: Thurid Eggers and Simone Scherger

Volume 69 (2023)

Volume 68 (2022)

Volume 67 (2021)

Volume 66 (2020)

Volume 65 (2019)

Volume 64 (2018)

Volume 63 (2017)

Volume 62 (2016)

Volume 61 (2015)

Volume 60 (2014)

Volume 59 (2013)

Volume 58 (2012)

Volume 57 (2011)

Volume 56 (2010)

Volume 55 (2009)

Volume 54 (2008)

Volume 53 (2007)

Volume 52 (2006)

No ranking information is available for this journal.

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Editorial

Editors　

Prof. Dr. Werner Eichhorst (Editor-in-Chief), IZA Bonn, Germany

Prof. Dr. Martin Brussig, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Gerlinger, Universität Bielefeld, Germany

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Igl, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany

Prof. Dr. Sigrid Leitner, Technische Hochschule Köln, Germany

Prof. Dr. Frank Nullmeier, Universität Bremen, Germany

Prof. Dr. Christine Trampusch, Universität zu Köln, Germany

Prof. Dr. Traute Meyer, University of Southampton, United Kingdom

Prof. Dr. Katja Möhring, Universität Mannheim, Germany

Dr. Melike Wulfgramm, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

Editorial Board

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Davy, Universität Bielefeld, Germany

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger, Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Wien, Austria

Prof. Dr. Miriam Hartlapp, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Dr. Katja Hujo, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva, Suisse

Dr. Clémence Ledoux, Université de Nantes, France

Prof. Dr. Janine Leschke, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Prof. Dr. Jacqueline O’Reilly, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

Prof. Dr. Georg Picot, University of Bergen, Norway

PD Dr. Winfried Süß, Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, Germany

Prof. Dr. Cornelius Torp, Universität Bremen, Germany

(Deutsch)

Online ISSN: 2366-0295
Print ISSN: 0514-2776
Type: Journal
Languages: German, English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
First published: January 1, 1955
Publication Frequency: 4 Issues per Year