Book Review: Care and Social Integration in European Societies
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| Author | Ingo Bode |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826270600800109 |
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
conventions directly in court cases and are thus inclined to give these conventions full
legal effect. In other countries, like the UK, the conventions are hardly alive. In the
latter case, the testimony is a mere description of the system, indicating that
apparently it is generally in line with the ILO-Conventions. But what does this say
about the overall (legal) impact of the ILO-Conventions on the given system? Is it by
accident that the national system is ‘generally’ in line with the standards? Is the system
deliberately designed to ensure that it does not come into conflict? Is it because judges
refrain from applying the conventions that the system seems to be in line with them?
On these questions the national reports do not (always) give a proper answer, and
probably cannot give one either. In the conclusions, the contributors do refer to thi s
lacuna by saying that the conventions do have an impact but that is very difficult to
measure what the concrete legal impact is, let alone reach any comparative
conclusions. As a consequence, the book does not address one of its major objectives
but, in the end, this does not affect its overall value. By way of conclusion, I can only
confirm the last sentence of the concluding chapter: ‘this study is the first which
presents an academic overview of the legal impact of ILO social security conventions
in several countries. As such it experienced the problems of pioneering work’ ... It
invites all of us to take up again the discussion on how we should valorise these
instruments for the sake of our globalised society’. In this way, the authors have
achieved their aim. The invitation is taken!
Paul Schoukens
Institute of Social Law
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Birgit Pfau-Effinger and Birgit Geissler (eds.), Care and Social Integration in
European Societies, Bristol, The Policy Press, 2005, 324 pp., ISBN 18-6134-604-2
This book is an outcome of an EU research project on the effects of social security
systems and welfare institutions on processes of social marginalisation. It focuses on
two fields – elderly and child care – which, so far, have been rather neglected by the
social policy academic community. As the editors, two leading German sociologists
working in the sociology of work and social welfare, rightly argue in their introduction
to the fifteen papers of the book, ‘the way social care is organised [is] of basic
importance for the production of welfare in European societies’ (p.15). Indeed, most
of the contributions look at the interrelation between cultural, socio-structural and
institutional elements of care regimes and at the way this interrelation materialises in
human practice. Thus, they allow for a better understanding of both the societal
embeddedness of social welfare and the differences that exist in that respect between
European societies. Taking a feminist stance, the volume particularly stresses the
Book Reviews
3º proef
European Journal of Social Security, Volume 8 (2006), No. 1 119
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