Handbook of Family Policies Across the Globe

Covering work practices, work-life balance, childcare, poverty, domestic violence, social inclusion, immigration and disability, this book explores family policies in different countries, including challenges to developing, implementing and evaluating them.

Family policy holds a particular status in the quest for a more equitable world as it intersects the rights of women, children, and workers. But despite local and global efforts and initiatives, the state of family policy in different areas of the world varies widely.

Through a cross-section of countries on six continents, Family Policies Across the Globe offers the current state of the laws concerning family life, structure, and services, providing historical, cultural, and socioeconomic context. Lucidly written chapters analyze key aspects of family definition, marriage, child well-being, work/family balance, and family assistance, reviewing underlying social issues and controversies as they exist in each country. Details of challenges to implementation and methods of evaluating policy outcomes bring practical realities into sharp focus, and each chapter concludes with recommendations for improvement at the research, service, and governmental levels. The result is an important comparative look at how governments support families, and how societies perceive themselves as they evolve. Among the issues covered:

• Sierra Leone: toward sustainable family policies.
• Russia: folkways versus state-ways.
• Japan: policy responses to a declining population.
• Australia: reform, revolutions, and lingering effects.
• Canada: a patchwork policy.
• Colombia : a focus on policies for vulnerable families.
  Researchers , professors and graduate students in the fields of social policy, child and family studies, psychology, sociology, and social work will find in Family Policies Across the Globe a reference that will grow in importance as world events continue to develop.

Presents an in-depth overview of existing family policies in many countries around the world

Discusses the importance of developing and implementing evidenced-based family policies

Reviews the impact of socio-historic, political, and economic context on each country's family policy making process

Offers examples of best practices and challenges

Provides recommendations for policy-makers

Auteur
Mihaela Robila, Ph.D., CFLE, is Associate Professor of Family Studies at Queens College of the City University of New York. Her scholarship is focused on family policies, family relations, economic pressure and immigration. She wrote a book on Eastern European Immigrant Families (2010; Routledge), edited a book on Families in Eastern Europe (2004; Elsevier), and published 21 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She organized several symposiums and presented her work at over 60 national and international conferences. She was invited and participated to two United Nations Expert Group Meetings on Family Policy in 2009 and 2011. Her work has been supported by grants from Spencer Foundation, U.S. Department of State/American Councils for International Education, Fahs Beck Fund for Research, CUNY Research Foundation, and Jacobs Foundation. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and was awarded the Carolyn Attneave Diversity Award by the APA Division 43 Society for Family Psychology.

Contenu

Introduction.- Family Policies across the Globe: Development, Implementation and Assessment.- II. Family Policies in Africa.- Toward Sustainable Family Policies in Sierra Leone: Developments and Recommendations.- Public Policy and Families in Kenya.- Child and Family - focused Policy in Botswana.- Family Policy in South Africa.- III. Europe.- Family Policies in Norway Families and Family Policies in Sweden.- Family Policies The Case of Iceland.- Family Policy in Ireland.- Family Policy in Germany.- Family Patterns of Change in Italy: Challenges, Conflicts, Policies and Practices.- Family Policies in Spain.- Family Policies in Portugal.- Family Policies in Moldova.- Family Policy in Russia: Folkways versus State-ways Revisited.- For Whose Sake Is It Anyway? Evaluation of Explicit Family Policies in Turkey.- IV. Family Policies in Asia.- Family Policy in China: A Snapshot of 1950-2010.- Family Policy in Taiwan: Development, Implementation, and Assessment.- Family in India: Problems and Policies.- Family policy in South Korea : Development , Implementation and Evaluation.- Policy Responses to Population Declining Society: Development and Challenges of Family Policies in Japan.- V. Australia.- Reform, Revolution and Lingering Effects: Family Policies in Australia.VI. North America.- Canada's Patchwork Policy: Family Policy in the Canadian Context.- Romantic/Marit al, Parental and Familial Relationship Policies in the United States.- Families and Policies in Mexico.- The Commonwealth Caribbean: Family Policy in the Caribbean Community.- South America.- Family Policy in Colombia : A Focus on Policies for Vulnerable Families.- Family Policies in Ecuador: A Call for Explicit Family Policies.- Family Policies in Brazil. <p