Social policy in modern industrialised societies is increasingly challenged by new social risks. These include insecure employment resulting from ever more volatile labour markets, new family and gender relationships resulting from the growing participation of women in the labour market, and the many problems resulting from very much longer human life expectancy. Whereas once social policy had to be in step with a standardised, relatively stable and predictable life course, it now has to cope with non-standardised individual preferences, life courses and families, and the consequent increased risks and uncertainties. This book examines these new life courses and their impact on social policy across a range of East Asian societies. It shows how governments and social welfare institutions have been slow to respond to the new challenges. In response, we propose a life-course sensitised policy as an approach to manage these risks. Overall, the book provides many new insights which will assist advance social policy in East Asia.
Introduction PART 1: Changes in Transitions
2. Extended transitions to
adulthood in Japan: Labour market flexibilization and the weakness of social
security for young people
3. Social Policies Addressing the Transition from
School to Work of Post-Secondary Graduates in Taiwan: A Social Investment
Perspective
4. Will Dreams Come True? The Transformation of Social Inequality
Structures in Cambodia Experiences of a New Generation of Youth Managing
the Uncertainties of Their Life Course PART 2: Competing Demands
5.
Reconciling Work and Family in Taiwan: Problems and Policies
6. The Double
Responsibilities of Care in Japan: Emerging New Social Risks for Women
Providing both Childcare and care for the Elderly
7. Migrant Workers in the
New Eldercare Mix in South Korea PART 3: Alternative Ways of Living
8.
Families at Risk: The Lived Experience of Lone Mothers in Hong Kong
9. The
Material Contradictions of Proletarian Patriarchy under Condensed Capitalist
Industrialization: The Instability in the Working Life Course of Male
Breadwinners and Its Familial Ramifications
10. Re-employment after
Retirement: Activation Strategies for Older People in Taiwan
11. Female
Individualization and Implications on Social Policy in Hong Kong
12.
Life-course Sensitised Policy as Risk Management: Directions and Strategies
in East Asia
Raymond K H Chan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Social Studies at the City University of Hong Kong, China
Jens O Zinn is a Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Lih-rong Wang is Professor of Social Work in the College of Social Science at National Taiwan University, Taiwan.
