Simultaneously with this issue we launch the European Societies online discussion forum. On the forum web page you will find debate sections on articles from the current issue and on a hot topic for discussion. Please check out the forum at http://www.europeansocietiesforum.com and make your contribution to these discussions. You can comment on previous postings or launch new issues related to the articles and discussion topics. This is an interactive forum that we want all our readers to engage with, so please do make use of it.
The papers in the present issue cover Economic Structure, Migration, and Gender. Our paper on Economic Structure is ‘Political Economy of Informalization’ by Zoran Slavnic of the Department of Social and Welfare Studies, at Linköping University, Sweden. His paper – highlighted in the online forum – challenges the widely-held view that the ‘informal economy’ is structurally distinct from the formal economy and is primarily of significance for migrant groups excluded from the mainstream of economic activity. Slavnic shows the close interdependence between formal and informal economic activities, with actors shifting orientations and associations pragmatically between the two arenas of action. He argues that current economic trends towards neo-liberal deregulation have weakened formal structures and made the resort to informalized activities more common.
The issue includes two papers on Migration: Inclusion and Exclusion. The first, by Tom Turner of the Department of Personnel and Employment Relations at the University of Limerick, Ireland, asks ‘Why are Irish Attitudes to Immigrants Among the Most Liberal in Europe?’ Turner's answer, using evidence from the European Social Surveys, takes a comparative approach and concludes that structural and cultural factors play an important part but are mediated through policy practices and institutions. Michaela Caroline Benson, of Keele University in the UK, argues in her article on ‘The Context and Trajectory of Lifestyle Migration’ – also highlighted in the online discussion forum – that British migration to south-west France shows a diversity of specific lifestyles among the migrants. Specifically, she finds evidence for the importance of family, retirement, and mid-life migrants. Each group has specific reasons for migrating, carrying characteristic attitudes and assumptions with them when they migrate. These variations in cultural outlook shape the degree and nature of their integration into the local community. She aims to challenge current stereotypes of expatriate communities and move discussion away from the dominant viewpoint that focuses exclusively on retirement migration.
Our papers on Gender and Family Relations all focus on Spain. They begin with that by Sandra Dema-Moreno and Capitolina Díaz-Martínez of the University of Oviedo, Spain. In ‘Gender Inequalities and the Role of Money in Spanish Dual-Income Couples’ they identify three types of couple: egalitarian, traditional, and ‘false egalitarian’. These differ in terms of the meanings accorded to income and its distribution within the household, with gender differentiation continuing to have a major impact on economic inequality within households. The paper by Almudena Moreno Mínguez of the Universitad de Valladolid, Spain, on ‘Family and Gender Roles in Spain from a Comparative Perspective’ addresses the issue of individualization and examines arguments and evidence for the move towards an egalitarian family form of the kind that emerged in Scandinavian societies somewhat earlier. Taking evidence from Spain and Finland, she shows different factors seem to be operative in the two countries in explaining continuing commitment to traditional family values. In Spain, it is education and marital status that have the greatest explanatory power, whilst in Finland the most important factor is age. The final paper in this section is by Teresa Martín García of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, who writes on ‘The Impact of Occupational Sex-Composition on Women's Fertility in Spain’. Using event-history analysis, she shows that occupational choice significantly affects fertility behaviour and that women employed in education and health have greater opportunities for balancing career and motherhood. These effects, she argues, are especially marked in Spain where both family attitudes and work relations are strongly patriarchal.
Don't forget to check out the online Discussion Forum – and please make your contributions to our debates.