Europe enlarged - education, labour and welfare regimes in Central and Eastern Europe

The expansion of the European Union (EU) has put an end to the East-West division of Europe. At the same time it has increased the cultural heterogeneity, social disparities and economic imbalances within the EU, exemplified in the lower living standards and higher unemployment rates in some of the new member states. A new reference work describes the educational systems, labour markets and welfare production regimes in the ten new Central and Eastern Europe countries.

The handbook “Europe enlarged - education, labour and welfare regimes in Central and Eastern Europe” provides policy makers with the tools to assess the institutional changes in CEE countries, and scholars with ways to apply the proposed indicators to their analytic research.

In three comparative chapters, discussing each of these domains in turn, the editors provide a set of theory-driven, comprehensive and informative indicators that allow comparisons and rankings within the new EU member states. Ten country-specific chapters follow, each written by experts from those countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. These chapters provide detailed information on each country's education and training systems, labour market structure and regulations, and its provision of formal and informal welfare support. An important component of each country chapter is the explanation of the historical background and the specific national conditions for the institutional choices in the transitional years.

"Europe Enlarged is essential reading for anyone interested in the social transformation of Europe at the turn of the millennium. An understanding of this transformation is of great historical interest and will be of value for the future development of other countries.", says Robert Erikson, Professor of Sociology, Swedish Institute for Social Research.

Editors:

Irena Kogan is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bamberg. Her main research interests include social stratification, immigration and inequality in comparative perspective.

Michael Gebel is a researcher at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). His main research interests include labour market sociology, especially the school-to-work transition and the role of atypical employment.

Clemens Noelke is a researcher at the MZES. His scientific interests include comparative labour market research, specifically labour market entry dynamics and the labour market consequences of structural change.

Contents:

Introduction: Walter Müller;
Educational systems of Central and Eastern European countries: Irena Kogan;
Labour markets in Central and Eastern Europe: Michael Gebel;
Social protection, inequality and labour market risks in Central and Eastern Europe: Clemens Noelke;
Bulgaria: Dobrinka Kostova;
Czech Republic: Jana Strakova;
Estonia: Ellu Saar and Kristina Lindemann;
Hungary: Erzsébet Bukodi and Péter Róbert;
Latvia: Ilze Trapenciere;
Lithuania: Meilute Taljunaite;
Poland: Anna Baranowska;
Romania: Cristina Mocanu;
Slovakia: Jan Kosta and Rastislav Bednarik;
Slovenia: Angela Ivan?i?

Keywords

• Central and Eastern Europe

Countries

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom