Documents Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung 111 results

"Ziel des Beitrags ist es, Licht in die Grauzone atypischer Beschäftigung und ihrer arbeits- und sozialrechtlichen Absicherung zu bringen. Als atypische Beschäftigungsverhältnisse definieren wir Teilzeitarbeit, geringfügige Beschäftigung, befristete Beschäftigung und Solo-Selbstständigkeit. Zunächst werden Art und Umfang von atypischer Beschäftigung im Zeitvergleich in sechs Ländern dargestellt (Deutschland, das Vereinigte Königreich, die Niederlande, Italien, Dänemark und Polen). Es zeigt sich, dass atypische Beschäftigungsverhältnisse insgesamt in den letzten Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen haben. Sie sind häufig Bestandteil unsteter Erwerbsverläufe und mit einem erhöhten Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiko verbunden. Daran anschließend wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob und in welcher Weise die nationalen arbeits- und sozialrechtlichen Regelungen die einzelnen Formen atypischer Beschäftigungsverhältnisse umfassen und die mit ihnen verbundenen spezifischen Risiken berücksichtigen."

"Since the late 1970s, all the developed welfare states of the European Union (EU) have been recasting the basic policy mix on which their national systems of social protection were built after 1945. Intensified global competition, industrial restructuring, budgetary austerity, changing family relations and demographic ageing have thrown into question the once sovereign and stable welfare systems of the Golden Age'. Moreover, domestic issues of work and welfare have more recently become ever more intertwined with processes of European political and economic integration. In this respect, it is fair to say that in the EU we have entered an era of semi-sovereign welfare states. Together, these forces have produced a momentum of system change that goes far beyond the popular notion of welfare state ‘retrenchment'. The ‘new' welfare edifice suggests a departure from a ‘politics against markets' social-protection perspective, towards more of a ‘politics with markets', social-investment approach. This paper tries to capture the comprehensive character of the ongoing effort to recast the architecture of the post-war social contract in terms of the concept of welfare recalibration for both heuristic and prescriptive purposes. It also addresses the engagement of the EU in ongoing processes of recalibrating Europe's semi-sovereign welfare states. In the policy debate the term ‘European social model' is often invoked. Yet such generalisations gloss over the immense differences in welfare state development, design and institutional make-up across the EU's 25 member states and, as a consequence, fail to capture the complexity of “contingently convergent” reform trajectories in the recent period."

"This paper investigates how integration policies and welfare state regimes have affected the socio-economic integration of immigrants, focusing on eight European countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and Belgium. It presents comparative data on integration policies and welfare states regimes. The expectations derived from this comparative policy analysis are tested with cross-national data on integration outcomes regarding labour market participation, spatial segregation, and incarceration. The results suggest that multicultural policies, which grant immigrants easy access to equal rights and do not provide strong incentives for host country language acquisition and interethnic contacts, when combined with a generous welfare state, have produced low levels of labour market participation, high levels of segregation, and a strong overrepresentation of immigrants among those convicted for criminal behaviour. Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands, which have combined multicultural policies with a strong welfare state, display relatively poor integration outcomes. Countries that either had more restrictive or assimilationist integration policies (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France) or a relatively lean welfare state (the United Kingdom) have achieved better integration results. These differences are highly consistent across the three domains of integration that are examined, with the exception of segregation rates in the United Kingdom."

"In international comparison, dual systems of vocational education and training are often considered to be more successful than school-based systems for managing sustainable transitions from school to work. This assessment is particularly valid for Switzerland, while the German dual system has increasingly come under criticism since the Covid-19 pandemic, especially with regard to the declining attractiveness of its vocational tracks. The comparative focus is rarely put on Denmark with its promising mix of both principles. A comparison of the two countries therefore seems appealing. The study starts by developing the theoretical framework of transitional labour markets: normatively, it stresses professional sovereignty against labour market fitness, while analytically, it emphasises fair risk and balanced power sharing as principles of good governance. It then considers the actors, regulations, transition paths, current developments and problems of the two countries, enriched with descriptive statistics. Germany can learn from Denmark, especially regarding early career orientation in school, income security that encourages risk-taking during the complex transition process, the continuous updating and modularisation of curricula, and adaptive cooperation between schools, companies, social partners and municipalities. The weaknesses of the Danish system, however, provide also lessons, especially the erosion of the attractiveness of vocational education and training. Reform options for Germany conclude the study."