Against the background of care deficits and an increasing commodification of care provision in European societies, this anthology edited by Margarita Leon focuses on the analysis of social care reforms for children and older adults in selected countries: Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. By bringing together the work of leading international scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds, the book combines conceptual debates, analytically driven case studies and cross-national comparisons. Despite the wide disciplinary and methodological scope, the chapters are well-embedded in a joint conceptual framework with a focus on the interrelationship between carefully selected dependent and independent variables. The framework considers the quantity and quality of care provision and the working conditions of care workers as its dependent variables, all of which are interrelated with the independent variables of cultural values and the institutional and socio-economic context of the care sector.

The volume is divided into two main parts. In the first part, key issues in care policies and developments of cross-national relevance are discussed. In the second part, care policies (changes) and their effects on care provision and the conditions for care workers are examined in greater detail based on national case studies. A concluding chapter revisits the main arguments and trade-offs.

In the first part, three chapters elaborate on the impact of ideas in social policy reform, and in child- and elder-care provision. The increasing focus on universalism as an overarching paradigm in elder- and child-care policies (Leon, Ranci and Rostgaard), the significant role of cultural values (ideal care for small children) in the development of motherly employment (Pfau-Effinger), and egalitarianism and opinion towards female employment as underlying attitudes towards government responsibilities in child-care policies (Chung and Meulemann) are discussed and empirically confirmed in cross-country comparisons. Three further chapters discuss the interrelationship between care policies with indicators on the quantity and quality of care provision and the employment situation of care workers. This concerns an analysis of trends in (changing) coverage, spending and institutional set-up in child- and elder-care policies, and the situation of the care workers based on well-defined indicators (Leon, Pavolini and Rostgaard); distinct types of migrant care work in child and elder care in formal and informal settings and their connections to care and migration regimes (van Hooren); and country-specific patterns of the interplay of formal and informal care provision and their (contradictory) embeddedness in prevalent care regime typologies (Albertini).

In the second part of the book, several case studies elaborate on a variety of facets and effects of care policy changes to illuminate key developments. For Poland, a decline of family resources is expected to result in a new mix of public responsibility, privately financed and privately provided care, and family commitment (Perek-Bialas and Raclaw). New policy directions in Danish child- and elder-care policies emphasise an active social policy, greater freedom of choice and social investment, all of which change care provision, and may call into question the dominant concept of universalism in the long run (Rostgaard). Despite a quantitatively successful regularisation of migrant elder-care work in private households in Austria, significant trade-offs are visibly related to a lack of integration in the formal system, a re-confirming of an idealist family-oriented system, unequal social access and precarious employment conditions (Österle). Child-care policy reforms in Germany and Spain resulted in a country-specific expansion of formal care provision, which is characterised in Germany by the dominant use of day care centres with comparable care quality at a medium level for children between one and six years as well as an age group-specific development in Spain, reflected in strong regulations and high-quality standards for children between three and six years and considerably lower standards for those under three years (Schober; Ibanez and Leon). Finally, two articles stress the situation of care workers. In Italy, the interaction between child- and elder-care policies, labour market regulation and migration rules has resulted in a commodification of care provision characterised by substantial privatisation, features of a secondary labour market and increasing recourse on migrant labour (Ranci and Sabatinelli). In contrast to Italy, migrant care workers in England are mainly active in formal care provision, where they are clearly over-represented in lower-wage or less-secure types of care work (Shutes).

This well-structured and conceptually well-integrated volume provides a sophisticated overview of key issues of child- and elder-care reforms and effects, which are illuminated by rich national case studies revealing the variety of changes embedded in key developments. The mix of an analysis of key issues and detailed case studies based on well-defined variables and the comparison of child and elder care offer innovative insights in the field and make this book a very interesting read for researchers and students alike.