Archives For February 2014

Dr Rossella Ciccia, a postdoctoral researcher working with New Deals will copublish a paper on Childcare services in the next issue of “Social Politics” called “After the Male Breadwinner Model? Childcare Services and the Division of Labor in European Countries”. The paper uses fuzzy set ideal types to assess the conformity of childcare provisions in Europe.

Abstract:

Fundamental reforms in childcare services appear to have eroded traditional support to the male breadwinner model across European states. There has been a strong debate about the direction of these changes, and the ways in which childcare services can alter the division of labor and promote gender equality. This paper deals with these issues by using fuzzy set ideal-type analysis to assess the conformity of childcare service provisions in European economies to Fraser’s four ideal typical models: male breadwinner, caregiver parity, universal breadwinner, and universal caregiver. We find that there is resilience of traditional gender roles in the majority of European countries, while there are different variants of the universal breadwinner shaping different forms of childcare policies. The more equalitarian universal caregiver model maintains its utopian character.

Eoin Flaherty, postdoctoral researcher with the New Deals project and Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, has been appointed to a permanent lecturer position in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen’s University Belfast. Eoin has been appointed as part of the quantitative social science (Q-Step) initiative, one of whose centres is located within QUB Sociology. Eoin completed his PhD on capitalist development and socio-ecological resilience in nineteenth century Ireland in 2013, under the supervision of Dr. Eamonn Slater. He is currently working on the dynamics of declining labour share of national income in advanced capitalist economies, examining the role of factors such as globalisation, financialisation and national institutional regimes. A selection of his papers is available here.   Eoin has been a fantastic citizen of the Department of Sociology and NIRSA over the years – with terrific sociological (and even geographical…) insights mixed with his friendship and collegiality. We look forward to staying in touch with him in the new part of his sociological life.

Dr. Felix Behling presented a seminar on welfare policies provided by employers in Germany and the UK and how these “perks” are linked to the welfare policies of the state.

Abstract:

From Cadburys to Google, from BMW to SAP, many employers have provided their employees with significant ‘perks’. The paper deals with the creation and use of welfare outside the British and German welfare states, showing that employer welfare and governmental welfare are inherently interwoven. It also shows that the modern employment relationship has developed from an ad-hoc idea into an institution that exists independently from its main actors and that can influence their actions. What are the consequences for the position of workers in Germany and the UK of the different ways in which employers and the employment relationship has developed?

Recent Talks

February 14, 2014

This post contains two papers from recent talks by Professor Seán Ó Riain. “The Diversity and Dilemmas of Europe’s Capitalisms” was presented at a seminar in the ESRI, where Seán discussed Europe’s recent crises through the lens of comparative political economy. Details of the event are available here. The second paper “Enterprise Policy and Ireland’s Economic Recovery” was presented at a seminar hosted by NERI. Seán discussed the role of enterprise policy in Ireland’s recovery, and its place in the wider promotion of social and economic investment. Some details of the event are available here.

 

Wednesday, February 12th 10am-12pm

An Foras Feasa Seminar Room

Room 1.33, 1st Floor Iontas Building, NUIM

All Welcome

The increasing importance of finance has been widely recognized both in political terms and in the growing body of academic work around the concept of financialization. This discussion, organised by the Political Economy and Work Cluster at NUIM, brings together a number of researchers to discuss how they conceptualise financialization and how they make use of that conceptualization in their work.
Short inputs from each of the researchers will kick off the session, followed by an open, informal discussion. The event is open to all and registration is not required. For information email michael.byrne@nuim.ie
With the participation of:
> Sinéad Kelly, Dept. of Geography, NUIM
> Eoin Flaherty, National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis, NUIM
> Séan Ó Riain, National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis and Dept. of Sociology, NUIM
> Patrick Gallagher, National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis and Dept. of Sociology, NUIM
> Mick Byrne, National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis, NUIM