CALL FOR PAPERS

There are three types of resource that can be used in strategies to secure the well-being of a household’s male and female members. First, family resources to provide for their subsistence and care. Secondly, external resources through local and regional employment. And thirdly, institutional resources when paid and unpaid labour is insufficient to guarantee the living standards of individuals and families. Furthermore, it is important to underline the links between wages and other resources as well as to consider total work (paid and unpaid) and the relationships between real wages, extended standards of living (real wages + public benefits and services + unpaid work), and well-being (understood as capabilities and effective personal and social functions).

The strategies that will be analyzed are those that affect the production and distribution of well-being through labor (remunerated and non-remunerated labor), domestic work and public institutions. Families had resources of their own to provide for their subsistence, care and reproduction. In historical populations, what non-monetary resources did families have and use to secure the well-being of their male and female members? How did these resources evolve over time, and why? How did they contribute to the living standards of individuals and households, to consumption patterns and the distribution of wealth (goods, dowries, clothing, care, education, property, etc.)? How did the gender-based use of and contribution to these resources change over time, and why? External resources within the community (through local and regional employment) were also available to contribute and perhaps improve families’ living standards. What types of labour did men and women undertake? To what extent did their salaries contribute to the living standards of their families over time? What has been their contribution in recent years? Did they ensure everyone’s well-being in the past? Do they do so today? Why? What is their impact on the family and individuals? Finally, institutional resources were available to individuals and families when other resources were insufficient to secure their well-being. What communal support was available to secure and perhaps improve the living standards of families and individuals? What kind of services did local and communal institutions provide as part of the welfare system? These services were provided by a range of socio-economic and institutional agencies. What strategies did men, women and families use to capture those services and to evaluate their contribution (compared with other monetary and non-monetary resources) to their living standards and their quality of life?

Contemporary institutional developments have transferred to the state and other institutions the provision and assignment of external support to households, while in the past the largest providers of services were the local institutions (mutual assistance, municipal solidarity, etc.). In addition to being able to call on traditional aid and assistance institutions, families and individuals now enjoy social rights, which give them access to communal support institutions. However, the present debate focuses on the efficiency levels of such institutional services, as well as on the sharing of responsibility between national, local and familial institutions. Hypotheses on family responses to different situations need to be developed, and these hypotheses must encompass patterns in various historical and regional settings. These questions should be analysed through longitudinal micro-historical research on households and families. A comparative, cross-national and historical perspective is also needed to document the path dependence of the present variations and trends in the family strategies of production and distribution of well-being in EU member states.

In the selection of papers, we will particularly consider discussions addressing the above issues within a national and perhaps international context. Participants therefore will be required to make their arguments at least at the national level so that we can then draw a European picture of the variations and trends in the family strategies of well-being. Finally, we will give equal representation to participating states to the symposium as the COST policies require.