This book is the outcome of a very interesting and fruitful cooperation between high-ranking experts in a working group of the COST Action A13, ‘Changing Labour Markets, Welfare Policies and Citizenship’. The purpose of COST Action A13 was to examine the effects of social security systems and welfare institutions on processes of social and political marginalisation. The Action was coordinated by Aalborg University, Denmark. COST is an intergovernmental programme funded by the European Union and the European Science Foundation for the coordination of scientific and technical research and the formation and coordination of networks on a European level between nationally funded research projects. Some 80 experts appointed by 17 countries participated in the COST A13 network, which remained in force for five years (spring 1998-autumn 2003). For more information see www.socsci.auc.dk/cost.

This book discusses at a conceptual/theoretical level what it means to analyse changes in informal care work as well as processes of the formalisation of care work in a comprehensive conceptual framework. It aims to combine theoretical reflections on change in the role and structures of social care in Europe, with empirical results from cross-national research, and to contribute new insights into current processes of change in European societies. Also, suggestions for the further development of theoretical approaches to comparing care arrangements in a comparative perspective are made.

Processes of change in two directions are examined: the formalisation (or informalisation) of care, as well as changes related to informal care and the social rights associated with it. Beyond this the creation of new, semi-formal forms of care in private households is examined, which – until now widely ignored in labour-market and social-policy research – have meanwhile become established in many European societies. Both developments are investigated in the context of new forms of social integration and their quality, and such changes are examined in international comparison from the perspective of change in private households and in the framework of welfare-state policies and labour markets. A further point of reference is the role of the social actors in this process.

The way social care is organised is of basic importance for the production of welfare in European societies. The discussion of theoretical concepts of care work and the presentation of recent empirical results contributes to a better understanding of change in European welfare states and employment systems from a general, as well as gender perspective.