The Family, the Individual and Welfare: Examining New Policy Approaches

Dear colleagues,

Modern societies are experiencing a great variety of changes at all the institutional levels (economical, political, religious-ideological, social, educational and familial). Among these changes, familial and demographic challenges, such as fertility reduction, the increase of partnership dissolutions, the modification of domestic patterns, a higher female presence in the labour market and the appearance of the so called “new paternities” are contributing to redefining our present and possible our future society. In this scenario, family policies should play an important role in supporting the most vulnerable members of society, either because of their age (children, old adults), their gender, their socio-economical position or their capacities (dependents). In this socio-economic context, it is necessary to reflect on different vectors of change such as Goldscheider et al. 2015 and Lastheage, 2010 have refered to: individualism, precariousness, deinstitutionalization, female revolution and gender equality.

This Special Issue call for studies that contribute to the theoretically or/and empirically analysis of family changes in relation to family policies in different welfare state regimes, with special attention paid to the study of paternity leaves (mothers and fathers), childcare, female employment, the process of partnership dissolution and child custody, children’s well-being, new parenting, gender roles and precarious situations.

This Special Issue welcomes papers analysing the current situation in a specific country or comparing different countries from a cross-sectional or longitudinal perspective. Social, family and gender policy analysis and its impact on family and the society as a whole will be considered of special interest, as will insightful comparisons within and across countries.

Prof. Dr. Almudena Moreno-Mínguez
Prof. Dr. Marta Ortega-Gaspar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.