Final Report Summary - WCS (Workcare synergies - Dissemination of synthesized framework programme research findings)
Executive summary:
WORKCARESYNERGIES support action was set up to disseminate research findings of previous European Union (EU) Framework Programme projects in the field of work and care. For this purpose, local information and discussion events were held in Austria, the United Kingdom (UK), Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Portugal. In each country, key mediator teams (consisting of researchers, knowledge transfer and communication specialists) summarised, made understandable and accessible existing research findings and discussed them in a local context.
Dissemination focussed on currently policy relevant issues related to work and care, such as: work-care tensions, quality of work and life, work-life balance across the life course, social quality in work and care, labour market transitions, citizenship, flexibility and diversity in work-care relations, family policies, working time flexibility and social cohesion, gender elites and work-care relations, social care and work-care balance as well as work-care orientations for gender equality in private and public contexts.
In 2010 and 2011, local teams carried out seventy seven local dissemination events with a large range of local stakeholders, i.e. non-governmental organisations (NGOs), policy makers, trade unions, professional organisations, labour chambers, economic chambers, representatives of service sector, regional organisations and authorities, women's networks, companies, media, other local actors and interested parties. Most events were medium-sized workshop type set-ups, with the aim of bringing together various local key players for a two-way exchange of experience and knowledge. Some teams managed to piggy-back regular local (e.g. labour union) events, ensuring a broader audience. Dynamic discussions at events have shown that local stakeholders are quite interested in EU research findings, especially if they support their own arguments and policy targets. Thus, presentations of facts were usually followed by vivid discussions of current policy measures and future initiatives in various fields related to work and care.
Most teams produced documentary films on work-care and related issues, which were shown and discussed in local events. They proved very efficient vehicles to transport messages to the audience and initiate interactive discussions. All films were uploaded to the project homepage for further viewing. Television (TV) and radio interviews, press conferences and articles ensured a larger publicity of discussed research findings and policy issues.
The project also gave an impulse for further dissemination events in various project countries. As word spread, some teams were asked to redo events in other regions or for other organisations. As a result, the total number of events surpassed the planned ones by far.
To allow for a two-way exchange of ideas, each team summarised the main outcomes of their local discussion events and collected policy recommendations. They are to be found in the WORKCARESYNERGIES final publication, a policy review and an overall project policy brief.
Detailed information on local dissemination contents, events, dissemination materials, discussion papers, press releases, documentary films, reports and policy briefs can be found on the WORKCARESYNERGIES project homepage, at http://www.workcaresynergies.eu
Project context and objectives
The WORCARESYNERGIES project presented selected policy relevant research findings from 20 EU Framework Programme research projects and discussed them in a local context. All dealt with work-care issues, i.e. how families in different societal frameworks and settings combine work with childcare and eldercare. Yet, chosen to reflect current local policy concerns and to make use of existing EU research, countries themes varied.
Within the two years of project activity (2010 and 2011) local dissemination teams organised discussion rounds covering diverse topics within their main chosen themes.
The Scottish team at the University of Aberdeen organised a series of events on 'Social quality in work and care'. The Danish team chose 'Flexibility in work and care' and discussed the need of diversity and flexibility of work-care policies and gender equal conditions for participating in paid work, caring activities and unpaid work in politics and organisations. Within their main theme 'Elites and work-care relations', the Polish team discussed values and behaviour of members of different social groups, as well as the reconciliation of work and family life in Polish households. The British team at the University of Brighton addressed 'Labour market transitions' and examined and illustrated the impact of labour market transitions across generations, as well as labour market transitions around family formation. The Austrian team at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS, coordinator) developed dissemination activities with the main theme 'Work-care tensions' to support the local policy debate on higher female labour market participation, on how to balance childcare and work/professional career with children of different ages and on extensive female parental leave versus life course concepts of work and social security. The second Austrian team at the University of Economics and Business (WU) discussed quality of work and life in the time of economic crisis under the main theme 'Work-life balance'. The Hungarian team organised dissemination events on 'Social cohesion' and supported the debate on the reform of family and employment policies to create incentives for increasing the extremely low labour market participation of mothers with young children. With a focus on 'Work-care and gender equality in private and public contexts' the Portuguese team discussed how to shape work care orientations for gender equality in such contexts. Finally, the Italian team looked into 'Social care and work-care balance'.
The main objectives of WORKCARESYNERGIES project were:
1. to synthesise research findings from FP research projects in the field of work-care for target group specific themes and efficient policy us
2. to transform research knowledge into usable dissemination material
3. to hold target audience focussed events
4. to use extensive existing networks of the teams to disseminate policy relevant findings
5. to document the outcome of local discussions with NGOs and policy makers
6. to inform the interested general public (citizens) via mediators
7. to spread information in various official EU languages and to different target audiences
8. to produce a summary of local dissemination materials and discussion outcomes
9. (if possible) to finally present key messages in a policy relevant venue
10. to alert NGOs, local mediators and policy makers, etc. to the usefulness and usability of local (and international) research findings as well as the research community to the need to communicate research to potential local users
11. to create (lasting) bridges between researchers and users, opening the way for two-way discussions between scientist, other stakeholders (e.g. NGOs) and politicians.
Measured in terms of the large number of events and animated discussions held within the two-year project period, we can assume that the project objectives were well attained and that the project proved a huge success.
Project results:
The core activities of the WORKCARESYNERGIES dissemination project were the efficient transfer of research knowledge; the well-organised set up and conduct of dissemination events; the collection of discussion outcomes and policy recommendations.
During the two-year WORKCARESYNERGIES project, local teams prepared various dissemination materials, developed dissemination tools and set up and carried out altogether 77 local dissemination events with various local key actors.
At local country events, teams presented and discussed EU research findings as well as the outcome of previous discussions. Since documentary films proved to be a very efficient means to transport of complex messages in an understandable way, almost all project teams produced films and video material reflecting their topic. From the start, the country teams also tried to increase publicity of their project activities. A project newsletter was periodically sent out to inform interested local actors about (local and international) dissemination activities and new materials. At the end of the project, main policy relevant findings from local dissemination events were re-discussed with key local players and local and central boards were involved throughout the process.
The project homepage (see http://www.workcaresynergies.eu online) was set up to attract the attention of interested parties and inform them about local events in the seven partner countries. It provides general information about the project as well as nine bilingual country pages with detailed information on local dissemination events, discussion papers and other dissemination materials such as poster, folder, press releases, etc. The homepage also offered the possibility to register for events while they were still being held.
All dissemination materials, summaries of discussion and policy briefs as well as final reports and policy reviews were made available on the WORKCARESYNERGIES homepage. Films and video materials can still be viewed in the VIDEO section. Although the project finished in 2012, the homepage will be maintained during the next years to allow for further dissemination of materials and findings. According to user statistics, the WORKCARESYNERGIES homepage was quite successful.
Description of results for each dissemination theme
Work package one (WP1): Work-care tensions
The Austrian Team at the IHS held a total of sixteen events in 2010 and 2011. Selected findings of various EU research projects and actual Austrian statistical data were presented and discussed in a local context. The following special themes were discussed in the dissemination events:
1. the still quite divergent roles of Austrian men and women
2. the higher labour market participation of women with children as opposed to the Austrian tradition of caring for small children in one's own home
3. how to combine (child)care responsibilities and job or career throughout different family phases
4. long (female) parental leaves versus life-course concepts of work (with individual social security rights)
5. the (new) role of fathers.
The events were set up as medium sized discussion rounds inviting discussion by speakers on the podium and the audience. As is the custom in Austria, a broad range of local politicians, representatives of communities, the social partners, company representatives, local NGOs, regional organisations and services from the sectors of childcare, family services, parental education, women's networks, church, youth work, men's networks as well as other local actors and interested parties were invited at the same time. This successful strategy resulted in broad and vivid discussions. Apart from the planned events additional events were also organised on invitation by regional organisations in Carinthia, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The coordinator was also invited by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) to present the project at the monthly forum of ETUI in Brussels.
The team produced three films on work-care tensions in Austria that were shown and discussed in various events and posted onto the project homepage. The first two films deal with various sub-themes related to such tensions, while the third film offers a complete picture of current tensions felt in Austria and how mothers and fathers find solutions to deal with them.
The first workshop held in May 2010 at IHS, Vienna was a huge success and a good start for the local dissemination. Around 40 representatives came together to listen to and to discuss both EU research results and local experiences.
The second workshop held in October 2010 at IHS was centred again on work-care tensions, this time showing the first Austrian IHS short documentary film on work-care tensions and discussing the changes in role models, education/formation and career of women, the gender wage gap, gender budgeting. It brought together 16 discussants.
Due to the observed lack of male participants, a special men's discussion round was set up in December 2010. The 15 participants added a lot to the discussion, i.e. the role of women in society and families, male identity, new male and female role models, the influence of modern media, men's involvement in household work and childcare, parental leave, the role of childcare.
The fourth event, in February 2011 tried to link male and female viewpoints. Around 23 representatives attended the event. Some of them had been to one of the previous events and were interested in how the discussion was evolving. This time, to include a more male viewpoint, the discussion focussed on the role of men as partners, fathers, employees, chefs, etc.
Discussion rounds to targeted audience were held in March and May 2011. One event was organised in a kindergarten in Vienna for representatives of child care services and parents. In another event, the project and its contents were discussed in 'Women at success course' breakfast for employees of the Austrian National Bank.
In a next step, research findings, the film and the outcome of the first discussion rounds were discussed with other researchers and local media people. The event was staged as applied research seminar at IHS and had the aim to re-adjust contents and dissemination strategies to even better match local policy needs and to use inventive and new ways of communication.
On particularly demand from local organisations that had heard about the events in Vienna or to which these events had been recommended through local family and women's networks, three regional events were organised in Austrian federal counties: One event was staged in Klagenfurt, one event took place in Innsbruck and one event was held in Bregenz. All three events were specifically set up to match local policy needs and the current local policy debate. As usual, we presented several research findings and our film and proceeded to a discussion of issues raised in a local context. It was interesting to see how findings fitted with what local actors had experienced too and how new ideas were developed through the discussion process. Especially in the western part of Austria, role models and local structures are still quite traditional which makes it often quite difficult for young women to follow modern ways of life, where work and care is combined. One of the important findings was that changes need strong mediator support, especially if they happen in rural regions.
To gain more international publicity, the coordinator also presented and promoted the WORKCARESYNERGIES project at some international events: In July 2011, there was an opportunity to get a slot at a workshop on 'Gender, state and welfare' in Budapest. In September 2011, the project was presented as a poster session and oral presentation at an international conference in Geneva (ESA 2011) and in the same month, it was possible to piggy-back a regular event at the ETUI in Brussels, within its monthly forum. There, not only the coordinator but also the British team from UoB were able to bring research findings and preliminary discussion outcomes and policy pointers to the attention of members of local and international European networks, ETUI, representatives of the European Commission (EC) and other interested parties.
The main outcomes of local discussion rounds were summarised and re-discussed at the final WORKCARESYNERGIES discussion group in October 2011 in Vienna, with representatives from the employment service, trade union, regional governments and professional organisations. It was devoted to the main problem fields related to work and care and needs for action. The discussion participants tried to focus on current themes in Austria's political debate on work and care and to determine relevant policy pointes.
At the final project public information and discussion round held in November 2011 in Vienna, all consortium partners presented and summarised contents of dissemination activities in their countries. The event was held in English, which we found to be a barrier for local discussion participation. It seems that actors at (very) local level often lack the skills to efficiently participate in foreign language discussions. Yet, with all partners present, the event managed to present a good overview of the project and its dissemination topics and results.
A film viewing and discussion event with local families, to which we also invited some of the parents figuring in our documentary movies, concluded the local IHS dissemination efforts. This final event brought the topic back to the families and offered interesting insights on real life situations, policy perception, parents' choices and family strategies to deal with work-care tensions, emergencies and everyday life within the local family policy framework.
Project publicity
The team used its good local networks and contact to promote the project from its start and advertised through newsletters. Thus it became quickly known to local key players, some of which volunteered to and became speakers at our dissemination events. Project posters and folders were distributed to local agencies and made available at public events. Poster sessions were held at international conferences, folders distributed at various local meetings. Moreover, project information was sent out per email or post, sometimes as a follow up after events at the request of participants. As coordinator, the IHS team made the project and its contents public at various international conferences and meetings and in a special event at ETUI in Brussels. A publication of relevant research and discussion findings in a local policy paper (beziehungsweise, ÖIF) helped the project to gain more visibility. Information on events was also published by the Austrian Press Agency (APA), e.g.: http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20110930_OTS0036/spannungsfeld-beruf-familie
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among others the following points:
1. the variety of factors affecting work-care tensions; the different perceptions of care of men and women
2. the necessity to provide family support in flexible way; the need to inform parents about the negative effects of long parental leave periods and part-time employment on their future income and old age security
3. the new expectations about job and family of young men and women, but the resurface of traditional role models after childbirth; the traditional behaviour reproduced by the existence of 'gender wage gaps'
4. the need of support from all involved parties to ensure reconciliation, i.e. from state, employers, local key players and mediators supporting modern role models and from the families themselves.
For more information on contents and discussion outcomes refer to our discussion summaries and reports on our country page or in the reporting section at http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/. Further information on local discussions and recommendations for policy makers as well as access to all dissemination materials and the documentary films are provided on the AT-IHS country page of the project homepage, http://workcaresynergies.eu/work-care-tensions/.
WP2: Social quality in work and care
The Scottish team at the University of Aberdeen organised a series of dissemination events. The team supported the current local policy debate about fairer deals for parents by contributing to the Scottish Government parenting strategy. After producing dissemination material and having a first round of discussion, the team decided to concentrate on fatherhood and care provided by fathers.
On the event at the Work Foundation, London in February 2011 the team discussed the proposition by the government for flexible paternity leave by dividing the 52 weeks maternity leave between fathers and mothers so that parents could take the leave separately or together to take effect in 2015.
A further event in Paris looked at the main strategies for combining work and care among full time working parents in different European countries. Four strategies were identified, i.e. shift working, flexible work, reliance on formal care and reliance on informal care from relatives, friends and neighbours. The balance of these strategies depends upon the social policy context. One of the conclusions was that increasing involvement of women in the workforce puts greater burdens on them since they are still mainly responsible for childcare as well.
Another event involved a keynote address by Prof. Claire Wallace to the Community Work and Family Conference in Tampere in May 2011 where the argument was made that the quality of life of parents in Europe, as measured by the social quality model, depends upon the gender roles and gender role culture of the country.
Events on 'Policy for working parents with young children' were held in November and December in Edinburgh and Aberdeen with a screening of the film 'Dummies', a humorous look at the problems and dilemmas faced by modern fathers. A blog was developed for the work foundation, where Prof. Wallace discussed findings from the local discussion with NGOs and policy makers. A deliberative forum involved discussing these issues with NGOs, parliamentarians and others interested parties in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Scottish discussion raised the following main points on fatherhood and care provided by fathers:
1. 'Fathering fallacy': fathers believe that fathering is important as it shapes the next generation.
2. 'Lack of respect': many fathers felt that children of our society today have no respect for fathers.
3. 'True' paternal solo childcare is ideological theory and does not exist in real life, among the fathers in our research.
4. Single parent is an oxy-moro. Everybody has two parents. The term 'single mother' should be discouraged and being a single mother should be discouraged in all but the most extreme cases, as part of an effort to reverse the culture of 'father blocking'.
5. Do fathers mother? Yes, but in a different way. Single fathers try to do the 'mother' bits and use the mother as their first point of reference, comparing themselves to the mother thereafter.
6. Fathers are criticised constantly often by women, for not doing enough in the home.
7. Society has problems with male youths who show no respect towards society. Some of these youths are fathers, although may not be acknowledged as fathers by the mother. To begin to alter the perception of fathers as 'responsible', rather than as 'irresponsible', work must begin right away.
Project publicity
The Scottish team was asked to discuss and recommend father's leave by the local government. This gave good publicity to the WORKCARESYNERGIES project and allowed for precise discussions of research findings with policy makers. The keynote address by Prof. Claire Wallace to the Community Work and Family Conference in Tampere in May 2011 promoted the project findings before an international audience. During the project, the Scottish team met a large range of stakeholders in order to raise the awareness for and increase the visibility of father issues. The film 'Dummies' and the blog were good platforms for further discussion and dissemination too.
Oucomes of local discussions:
1. In relation to the Coalition's proposals to extend paternity leave, four key issues regarding the new forms of fathering were keenly debated.
2. Scottish Parenting Strategy: It became clear that both fathers and mothers need to be seen as participants in parenting strategies and that there was a need for flexibility in providing care for young children.
3. Work flexibility and the need of communication of information.
Attention needs to be paid to the role of fathers in addressing work and care. Legislation to help fathers become involved needs to realistically consider financial compensation and the requirement for fathers to take up paternity leave rather than making this optional or transferable. Parenting policies need to take into account the need for working parents to have flexibility both in child care services and in working hours. There needs to be methods for communicating these possibilities in ways that parents are aware of them (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP3: Citizenship, flexibility and diversity in work-care relations
The Danish team has performed eight events, where it presented and discussed in a local context selected research findings from EU projects. Discussions covered gendered citizenship and work-care relations, as well as diversity and flexibility in family policy.
The dissemination activities of the Danish team began in 2010 with the following three events:
1. 'The Social Economy: simply a niche in a capitalist economy or the basis for an alternative?': Two lectures by Prof. Erik Olin Wright, University of Wisconsin, 12 August 2010, University of Copenhagen.
2. 'The impact of Flexibility and diversity on work-life balance'; Two lectures by Loïc Wacquant on 3 June 2010, at Roskilde and Copenhagen University.
3. Seminar 'Citizenship and diversity in work-care relations: Migration, Care and Citizenship', Roskilde University on 7 and 8 June 2010.
The forth event was a policy briefing on work care held in November 2010 at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. The Socialist People's Party (SF) showed interest in such a briefing. As a next step NGO focussed events were organised: the fifth event consisting of two sub-events in June 2010 in collaboration with the NGO 'The Danish national council on social welfare'. The sixth event was a policy briefing: 'What consequences will the coming cutbacks in welfare provision have on the field of day care?' in December 2010, Copenhagen, Trade Union: BUPL, the Danish national federation of early childhood teachers and youth educators. The local events were held in the collaboration with the international centre for studies in citizenship, democratic participation and civil society (CIPACI); Aalborg University, Denmark; centre for gender, power and diversity (CKMM); the Danish national council on social welfare (Socialpolitisk forening).
In 2011, instead of small policy briefing, the purpose of the events was to reach a larger target audience: The event 'Imbalance? Work-care relations and migrant care-work' on 12 April 2011 included one day open arrangement and international conference. The one day open arrangement was held in collaboration with an EU public educational organisation, democracy in Europe (DEO). The international conference on work-care at Roskilde University in collaboration with partners from both academia and different creative networks and was carried out in English. The event was planned and hosted in collaboration with centre for gender, power and diversity and The Danish Sociological Association.
The public event 'The neoliberal Europe', public event, presentation and debate, was held on 5 April 2011, Kulturstaldenes forsamlingshus, Copenhagen City. About 80 people attended this meeting and the participants represented the general public, students and members of NGOs. See more at http://www.deo.dk
Project publicity included:
1. an interview and reportage with Prof. Loïc Wacquant during his stay in Denmark
2. interview and article 'Pædagoger i håbløs kamp' with Assoc. Prof. R. Willig on his findings about care-work relations.
OUTCOMES of local discussions concerned, among others:
1. the various family policy regimes found among the EU member states;
2. the threats for the sustainability of the flexibility and generosity in the Danish welfare model due to lower income compensation in periods outside employment, longer working hours for both women and men and cuts in educated personal in the public institutions providing care services for children
3. the trends to increase working time, cuts on childcare service provision and budget cuts create challenges for both welfare and family policies
4. the Danish debate on how to develop more equal conditions for fathers' and mothers' participation in caring activities for their children (for detailed information refer to project reports in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP4: Quality of work and life; work-life balance across life course
The Austrian WU team carried out fourteen dissemination events in 2010 and 2011. While in 2010, the team has focussed on childcare and work-life balance as well as on working conditions in a changing economy, in 2011 it focussed on the reconciliation of care for (elderly) adults with work obligations as this topic has been strongly debated in Austria since cuttings of the attendance allowance were observed as one result of the economic crisis. The films produced by the WU team covered also both themes.
Dissemination events
The first dissemination event was held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). Around 30 representatives attended the workshop. It was moderated by the communication expert M. Engelhardt-Krajanek (journalist from the national radio ORF, Ö1) and included two sessions, namely 'Work-life balance' and 'The new working conditions'.
A press Conference of an hour's length at the WU: 'Paid work and care in Austria as compared to Europe' (28 June 2011), was held immediately before the public event 'Caring relatives'. It involved the WU team members and the communication experts and two experts on elderly care (B. Haas, Margarethe Engelhardt-Krajanek, August Österle and Ulrike Schneider). Main findings were reported on in the Austrian newspaper 'Salzburger Nachrichten'.
The public event: 'Caring Relatives' was held at the WU (28 June 2011) and included discussion of issues not of childcare but also of caring relatives. The team presented another film 'From case to case: Caring relatives in Austria' dealing with the topic of care for and by dependent adults, going into greater depth about the aspects of work-care balance varying over the life course.
Finally, the public event 'Radio features on three days (on the Austrian radio station Oe1): Working is much easier than living?' has held between 12 and 14 September 2011. The communication expert of the WU team, Margarethe Engelhardt-Krajanek presented main findings from EU projects by holding interviews with various experts in the field.
The focus group formulated policy recommendations for the reconciliation of paid work and childcare as well as adult care (19 September 2011). Dissemination activities included also an internal workshop at the Austrian National Bank, titled 'Women heading for success'.
Public events in the Austrian provinces included:
1. 'How to do it all conflicting priorities of paid work, household and family work' (10 October 2011) at the University of Innsbruck (Tyrol),
2. Presentation 'Attitudes towards the equal division of labour in couples from a comparative perspective across countries' (11 October 2011) at the local branch of the Public Employment Service Austria (Feldkirch, Vorarlberg).
Aim of the WU team was also to discuss the topics in general and to reach a large number of young students (five events).
Project publicity
In addition to above mentioned media events carried out along with the dissemination events the project was promoted by two more interviews:
1. Interview to the national Radio Ö1 ORF concerning the topic 'The advisory society' ('Die Beratungsgesellschaft') held with B. Haas, the WU team leader, about the main insights concerning the societal trends based on (EU) research findings, broadcast in Radiokolleg, ORF Ö1, in several sessions from 27 to 30 December 2010.
2. Newspaper article based on an interview with B. Haas: 'Single Earner, income. The insecure labour market, bad jobs and low qualification of women.' ('Die Alleinverdienerinnen. Einkommen. Der unsichere Arbeitsmarkt, schlecht bezahlte Jobs und immer bessere Ausbildung von Frauen.'), printed on 13 December 2010, by the journalist Andrea Rexer, in the Austrian journal: 'Profit 50', 2010.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. regarding childcare: employers and companies are called to show flexibility and consideration for parents; women tend to be flexible for their families and children, whereas men show more flexibility regarding their jobs; altered time demands towards employees often impact on the 'dissolving boundaries of employment and private lives'; regulation of working hours and discretionary competence is crucial; implications of changing priorities in family and social policies
2. regarding care for elderly: claims to non-pecuniary benefits are frequently considered important, as compared to the comparably well-developed transfer payments; strong agreement was found regarding the necessity of expanding the supply of professional support for caring relatives; politics is called to launch offensive awareness-raising campaigns; the state and the economy are also responsible for the well-being of all parties involved, both the care recipients and the people who work and care (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP5: Family policies, working time flexibility and social cohesion
The Hungarian team presented research findings from EU projects and provided research results from the study on child poverty and child well-being in the European Union. Discussion rounds were related to working time flexibility, work-family conflict and social cohesion, as well as to social outcomes of family policies.
Project publicity
Prior to the dissemination event, the team initiated a media campaign designed to disseminate research results to a broad audience. The campaign consisted of a press release, interviews and even a television debate on the Hungarian TV (ATV) 'Potential conflict between work and household' with Prof. Sik, 5 May 2010 (in Hungarian, see http://www.4shared.com/video/8uSMTahh/100422_homero_1.html online). A document listing the full media coverage was uploaded on the project homepage: http://workcaresynergies.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hu/TARKI_dissemination%20in%20the%20media.pdf
Dissemination events
NGO focussed dissemination event: The dissemination materials were presented at an NGO-focussed workshop on 24 November 2010. Around 30 representatives of local NGOs, trade unions and employers associations attended the workshop. The project team gave a comprehensive summary of the main research findings related to, as well as the media representations of both topics covered. The second session of the workshop was totally devoted to the debate on research results and main policy questions. The debate was intense and lively, during which different views and policy alternatives were discussed. The dissemination material has been then amended by taking into account the results of this debate.
Policy maker-focussed dissemination event: In 2011 a second main dissemination event took place, held on 27 October 2011, involving this time also policy makers beside other stakeholders. Around 30 participants attended the presentation of the research findings. The event was focussed on two main policy tools that in the forefront of the Hungarian public debates when the issue of the work-life balance is: the role of the part-time work and that of the formal child care. The agenda of the discussion was set accordingly. This presentation was followed by additional interventions on the possible ways and on the cost-efficiency of expanding the existing institutional setting in the field of child care, as well as on the perceptions and views of employees and employers on the employability of mothers with young children.
A local event, which took place on 7 December 2011 aimed at discussing main conclusions and policy recommendations within the frame of regular TÁRKI workshops, involving members of the local advisory board.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. the part-time work as possibility to improve work-life balance and to promote social cohesion by attracting inactive people to the labour market and by increasing households' income and reducing the risk of poverty; the fact that part-time jobs provide however low earnings, is the main factor that bottleneck the spread of these work arrangements in Hungary
2. the availability and the affordability of public child care are main problem in Hungary in relation to employment of women with children and work-life balance
3. international best practices promoting work-life balance should be implemented with a deliberate analysis of the local peculiarities (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP6: Gender elites and work-care relations
The Polish team has discussed values and behaviour of members of different social groups with the main sub-themes gender elites in science and politics; gender elites and work-care balance; reconciliations of work and family life in Polish households.
The team implemented local dissemination activities in Poland, in the cities of Warsaw and Podkowa Lesna. Additionally, one presentation, comparing Polish and international data, took place during a conference in the UK. The team prepared a discussion paper and power-point presentations with results from various EU research projects.
The documentary film 'Women in social elites: Reconciliation of family responsibilities with work and social activity' was screened and discussed at the dissemination events. The film provoked great interest in Poland. Copies of the film were requested by women NGO for wider dissemination. Over 600 persons saw the movie in internet during September and October 2011.
Dissemination events
The first dissemination event was held in June 2010 in Warsaw, being a conference 'Gender in Science an obstacle or an advantage? Scientific careers and private lives'. The situation of women in science was discussed in the context of reconciling parental roles and private lives with scientific work. The research results presented were confronted with experiences of persons engaged in masculinised fields of science and dealing with problems of institutional support for families with regard to their duties associated with care. In September 2010 Prof. R. Siemieska had a conference presentation 'Gender and civic involvement' on similarities and differences between men and women regarding their involvement in various types of civil society organisations (CSOs) and forms of political life. Over 100 participants, such as politicians of national and regional levels and activists of women's different CSOs took part in the event organised in the building of the parliament.
In October 2010 the ISS, UWAR in cooperation with the foundation empire of businesswomen has organised a meeting 'Conscious woman motherly business'. Issues discussed: care in case of working mothers and the roles of women in fostering the children. Prof. R. Siemieska spoke about evolution of gender roles and consciousness and its impact on behaviour and values concerning work and care reconciliation. The president of Foundation MaMa (Sylwia Chutnik) stressed the problems faced by modern mothers and the foundation's activities supporting working parents. Also, a candidate for president of Warsaw took part in discussions. The main issues discussed were the perception of women with children as workers, among others the advantages and disadvantages from the point to view of employers. The metaphor of household management was used to underline women managerial abilities, which are of great value on the labour market.
A symposium was co-organised by ISS UWAR with EC project GenSET in October 2010 for dissemination of findings and preparing recommendations on European level and to increase capacity within Polish public bodies and science-connected institutions to address issues of gender equality and bias that affect scientific work and excellence. The main topic for discussion were the results of Workcare project, the experiences of young female scientists receiving scholarships from L'Oreal as well as gender policy in international corporations in Poland. The second part of discussions was focussed on 13 recommendations for institutional action to mainstream gender across four core areas of scientific enterprise, which are a part of consensus report on the gender dimension in science.
In the lecture 'Women in thrall to the stereotypes', held on 22 March 2011 at Kozminski University, Prof. Siemieska presented the lecture 'Women in thrall to the stereotypes'. The discussion focussed on the past and present situation of women in the society in context of stereotypes concerning gender roles, the dominance of men in Polish science, especially on the higher positions at academia as well as in business and politics.
The event 'Women in the local elite. The problems of reconciling family responsibilities with work and social activity' was organised in the centre of culture and civic initiatives in Podkowa Lesna (near Warsaw), 20 May 2011 with the aim to stress that the problem of reconciling family and work should be subject of public debate also at the local level. The presentations of research results and the film screening provoked an engaged discussion resulting from different perceptions of reconciliation of work and care and the role of women as mothers and professionals.
The additional Lecture 'Electing women and elected women and determinants of their electoral behaviour', was organised on 21 July 2011 by The Batory Foundation and ISS UW with centres of public and marketing opinion studies. Prof. Siemienska presented results of her studies conducted from 1992 to 2007 after parliamentary and local elections and cross-cultural surveys focussed on political behaviour and its determinants in case of women and men. The role of social milieu, the styles of living and opinions on relationship between private and public spheres were discussed.
Finally, the additional seminar 'Gender Sociology. Changing Cultural, Sociological and Political Science Perspectives of Women and Men and Their Consequences', was held from 1 October 2011 to 25 January 2012, moderated by Prof. Siemienska and Mgr Matysiak.
Project publicity
1. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemieska 'Niech bd zachowane proporcje' (Proportions should be kept) by A. Korzekwa, 'Kwartalnik Urzdu Patentowego RP, No 1/2011, pp. 23-25. ISSN 2081-5964
2. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemieska 'Women and Politics conversation on stereotypes' by Margielska, Zwierciado (Mirror) journal for women. October 1, 2011
3. Information in local bulletin about the conference in Podkowa Lena 'Women in the local elite. The problems of reconciling family responsibilities with work and social activity'. 'Biuletyn Miasta-Ogrodu Podkowa Lesna', no 3/44/czerwiec 2011, p. 18. ISSN 2083-019X
4. Discussion paper for local event in Podkowa Lesna
5. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemienska 'Let there be proportions' (Niech bd zachowane proporcje), 'Uniwersytet Warszawski' (University of Warsaw Magazine), no 4 (48), pp. 2-4.; published in paper and internet editions June/August 2010
6. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemienska 'Political and Cultural System blocks women' (System blokuje kobiety), Gazeta Wyborcza' (national newspaper) published in paper and internet editions 26 July 2010.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. women's limited access to elites; presence of women in social elites is also important for shaping the perception of future chances and career paths by boys and girls;
2. necessity of different types of support for families according to their need and preferences;
3. childcare is often mistaken with upbringing; hiring babysitter to care for children in pre-kindergarten age is relatively unpopular;
4. partners' active participation in caring and domestic tasks is important;
5. needs of political solution regarding the explosion of educational aspirations of young people; need to promote the involvement of women in technical studies and hard sciences and to facilitating women's presence and success in academia (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP7: Social care and work-care balance
The Italian team carried out 11 dissemination events within the project duration. A very important dissemination tool was the film 'Social care and work-care balance' presented and discussed at the dissemination events.
Dissemination events
1. Five events in secondary schools in Italy involving 199 students and seven teachers. Events took place in Padua, Florence, Rome and Naples. One more event than originally planned was also held in Prato, an industrial context near Florence.
2. Two events in small companies in the outskirts of Rome and Naples. Small companies, rather than companies which already were familiar with family friendly activities were chosen, since we preferred to have a more untouched environment to explore.
3. One public event with NGO representatives. The event, held in Florence, was opened not only to NGO representatives but to the wider representation of Italian third sector.
4. One public event with policy makers (closing event). The event took place in Florence and it was the occasion to present all the results gathered from the previous activities carried out in the project.
The team was invited to perform two additional events in Cordoba and Pescara:
1. One international presentation in Cordoba. The project and its activities in Italy were presented during the International Seminar on 'Work-family dilemmas across Europe' held by the Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados de Cordoba
2. One additional presentation in Pescara. The project and its activities, plus the movie, were presented during a public event the Local Administration in conjunction with the Regional Equality Consultant hosted on 17 December 2011. The aim of this second event was to build the ground to bring the dissemination activities in local schools in 2012, using the same dissemination methodology already used in WORKCARESYNERGIES project.
Project publicity
Presence in a well-known talk show program of a local TV network RTV38 (the program '19.30-25') of Prof. Trifiletti who described the objectives and methods of WORKCARESYNERGIES project in a talkshow whose title was 'Stato sociale cercasi'; photos drawn from the registration were uploaded on the project homepage.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. gender differences among youngsters
2. projects directly or indirectly dealing with work-life balance by NGOs are important
3. work-life balance challenges are mainly related to time in workers' perspective
4. there is a lack of services directed to families within or near their working environment and a lack of information regarding work-life policies and related rights
5. take leave to care for an old parent or other relative is difficult
6. difficulties to overcome gender inequalities persist even after overcoming the 'male breadwinner' model
7. importance of ability to build networks between public and private bodies for promoting work-life balance (for detailed information refer to project reports in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP8: Mapping work-care orientations for gender equality in private and public contexts
The Portuguese team carried out seven events in 2010 and 2011. The discussion rounds focussed on workcare orientation and childcare services and workcare orientations and gender equality on the labour market.
The team produced six short videos with research findings related to work-care orientations for gender equality in private and public contexts that were shown and discussed in various events: 'Project presentation'; 'Family: research findings contradicting stereotypes'; 'Employment and flexibility in Europe'; 'Family and childcare support policies; Gender equality and the labour market' and 'Fertility and employment'. In addition the team created national web-site, in: http://trabalharecuidar.cies.iscte.pt a facebook page in: 2003 friends and an electronic newsletter, edited twice during the project and distributed among the national network members.
Dissemination events
First event, 16 November 2010, was organised with the aim to present this innovative project, key EU research findings and to constitute the national network to be involved in further dissemination events. All partners presented at the event were invited to contribute and voiced their opinions on the presented research findings and about the development of the dissemination activities in Portugal. The event had a broad media exposure.
The team carried out six dissemination events in 2011. The events had the same structure of contents. These were special sessions each one focussed with a specific group of actors. In all these dissemination events the contents were organised in five sets of data:
1. family and childcare support policies
2. quality of life in Europe between work and care
3. fertility and employment
4. gender equality and labour market
5. employment and flexibility.
The discussions held in these dissemination events had media (video) and power point presentations support. The discussion in the different dissemination session was preceded by the viewing of the several thematic short videos. Three events deserve a special mention:
1. the project and its contents were discussed in a special session dedicated to researchers at ISCSP Technical University of Lisbon.
2. the Portuguese team was invited to do a special dissemination session at the municipality of Palmela. This session was directed not only to public servants at the different services of the municipality, but also to several institutions and NGO acting in the field.
3. oarticipation in a TV program specially dedicated to the theme of work and care and gender equality, giving national visibility to the project and a public media platform for the discussion about the theme.
Project publicity
1. Interview for the national radio station (Antena 1)
2. special issue of a TV programme
3. an article in a national reference newspaper (Diário de Notícias).
Oucomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. care policies and children development
2. informal and women-centred care
3. women's consequences from absence of policies
4. work-life balance is important for high quality of life
5. institutional context is also important
6. fertility and employment
7. labour market and workplaces were highly gendered
8. flexibility and employment
9. flexibility should be regulated (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP9: Labour market transitions in comparative perspective
The second British team focussed on the impact of labour market transitions across generations, i.e. on a comparison of younger and older workers and labour market transitions around family formation. The main sub-themes for local dissemination were labour market transitions - a generational comparison of young and older workers - and labour market transitions around family formation. The team held a total of six events in 2010 and 2011.
Dissemination events
First event: 'Looking at Ageing Differently', Brighton, 18 March 2010: The seminar drew on EU research to address three major questions related to ageing and labour market transitions. Approximately 45 participants attended the event.
Second event: 'Intersectionality: from Idea to Implementation', University of Brighton Business School, 10 December 2010. The aim of the seminar was to examine the concept of intersectionality in the management of equality and diversity, to understand how this concept has been institutionalised and translated into legislation and policy and to explore the consequences of these recent legislative changes in the UK. The seminar drew on EU research to address three key questions: What does the concept of intersectionality mean? How can we monitor multiple inequalities? And how is this being implemented in practice?
Third event: 'Families, firms and fairness: Managing Labour Market Transitions in Europe: The Work Foundation', London 4 February 2011. Roundtable, academics and policy specialists discussed research on how the labour market is adapting to the new political climate related to programmes of public sector cuts. The event has addressed how individual employers can spur the transition between full and part-time work; how households make choices about how to balance working and caring responsibilities; which groups of workers are likely to be most affected by public sector spending cuts; how the employment relationship is governed in growing firms.
Fourth event: The 'Changing context of retirement', University of Edinburgh Business School, 25 February 2010, a seminar which had approximately 50 participants. Main topics discussed were how the context of retirement is changing; what are the consequences for work and retirement into older age and to what extent are changes mirrored across countries.
Fifth event: Presentation of Workcare synergies project at the ETUI, 1 September 2011. The aim of this seminar was to present a synthesis to Brussels based policy researchers. The key issues that were discussed at this meeting were related to the concept of fairness and how this had permeated policy debates in the UK. A short interview for the Spanish based family watch group given at the event is available on the WORKCARESYNERGIES homepage.
Sixth event: 'Employment and retirement', Manchester Metropolitan University, 4 November 2011, a seminar organised with the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Around 50 participants have discussed the factors influencing employment in older age in Europe; the consequences of changes for the future of retirement; the extent to which changes are mirrored across countries.
The British team also produced films on the events available at the project homepage ('Videos' section) and in: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/bbs/research/groups/crome/esrc_workcare_video.php?PageId=911
Project publicity
1. The short interview for the Spanish based family watch group given by Prof. J. O'Reilly at the event in ETUI contributed to the visibility of the project
2. the British team publish a range of articles in the press: 'Extended paternity leave 'makes business sense'', The Telegraph, 28 November 2011, London; 'Retirement age rise helps poorest least', The Guardian, 21 January 2011, London; 'Government to launch consultation on flexible parental leave', Employeebenefits.co.uk 17 January 2011, London; 'Most wealthy workers want to work beyond retirement', Personnel today, 27 September 2010, London; 'Getting retirement right', human resources (HR) Zone, 9 December 2010, London.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. regarding the Equality Act (2010) in the UK key issues emerging from discussion were the difficulty of obtaining good quality of data to address intersectionality and multiple inequalities and the emerging pervasiveness of Equality Impact Assessments in public sector organisations;
2. key issues of the impact of public sector cuts in the UK and their consequences for employment in both the public and private sector were discussed with members of the British Chamber of Commerce and representatives from the Trade Union Congress;
3. the seminars addressing labour market transitions in later life focussed on legislative change and the removal of the default retirement age (for detailed information refer to project reports in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
Potential Impact
The dissemination activities within the WORKCARESYNERGIES project promoted the local discussion of current policy relevant issues related to work and care in all partner countries. Within the various discussion rounds addressed to key local actors - policy makers, social partners, local authorities, NGO, economic actors and other interested parties - the selected research results were discussed in relevance to current policy measures and initiatives. Knowledge and experiences' exchange revealed the importance of research findings regarding practical use, e.g. by promotion and implementation of policy measures.
Local awareness for EU research findings was stimulated through the following actions:
1. preparation of usable dissemination material for local events
2. exchange of knowledge and experiences within local discussions, including local NGOs and policy makers.
Enhance communication between researchers and policy makers
A large number of dissemination events were planned and carried out in cooperation with NGOs and other local organisations and networks, which promoted the strengthening of existing and development of new exchanges and cooperations. Dissemination events brought together various local key players. In this way, they were a good opportunity for communication and exchange of knowledge and experiences as well as for creating a good basis for further discussion and working together. Most importantly, all key players were involved and their ideas and wishes introduced into the discussion. Moreover, the successful performance of dissemination events created demand for additional events.
In addition to dissemination events, communication took place by the following main channels set up in order to bring research findings and information to a broader audience:
1. Project homepage (see http://www.workcaresynergies.eu online)
2. Project newsletter with a subscription trough the project homepage. It served to send up-to-date information about events and produced materials and policy briefs.
3. Project leaflet and poster, distributed at dissemination events and made available to a wider public on the project homepage, at http://workcaresynergies.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/WCS_Leaflet.pdf and http://workcaresynergies.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/WCS_Poster.pdf.
4. Mailing list with key stakeholders in each country was used to sending invitations for events as well as relevant information about the dissemination activities.
5. National material and online info, such as flyers, information sheets, national website with facebook site of the local dissemination teams, which were in addition prepared and distributed at various events in the partner countries.
6. Short films were among innovative tools produced by almost all of the project partners. They proved to be an efficient vehicle to directly transport messages and basis for discussion at the dissemination events.
7. Blogs were created by some of the dissemination teams in order to use this interactive new media to inform about dissemination activities and to discuss results with a wider public.
Project publicity and media coverage: numerous TV and radio interviews and press article ensured a large publicity of the project. They provided findings to the wider public. Information on media events was posted at each of the 'Country pages' or at the 'Video' section of the project homepage.
Multilingual dissemination
Information and discussion material as well as thematic summaries of discussion and policy briefs were prepared in English and in the national language of the local teams, i.e. German, Polish, Hungarian, Italian and Portuguese.
Inform policy
Based on the main results of various local discussion rounds with local stakeholders, each key mediator team summarised main outcomes of local discussions and provided recommendations for policy makers on European and national level in the form of thematic summary reports on local discussions and thematic policy briefs.
Exchange of best dissemination practices
Throughout the project duration, partners exchanged ideas on dissemination set-ups and discussed more or less successful approaches and methods. It soon became clear that 'piggy-backing already existing events with regular, well-spread audiences' was one of the best strategies to gain publicity and expert plus local feedback on dissemination contents. Often such set-ups proved to be good multiplier events too, since representative of organisations communicated information to other members of their team, colleagues and friends as well.
Main dissemination activities and the exploitation of results
The preparation, set up and holding of dissemination events represented the core content of the WORKCARESYNERGIES dissemination project. For details, refer to above description or overall and local dissemination efforts, or download information, films and documents from our WORCARSYNERIGES homepage, in http://www.workcaresynergies.eu
Main target user groups
The core user group of disseminated EU research findings were interested local policy makers, NGOs, authorities, local key players, labour and trade unions, kindergarten teachers and providers, parents, state officials, local communities, regional councils, national policy makers, local associations and organisations, firms, etc. and other interested local parties. Since the was not restricted to events only but was initiated to a much larger degree, a broader range of stakeholders, interested parties and also the wider public could be reached. At the ETUI in Brussels, the project was brought to the attention of representatives from European networks, research institutes, ETUI, the EC etc.
Applicability for policy
Recommendations to policy makers at European and national level (for detailed information refer to thematic policy briefs, the overall project policy brief and the overall policy review in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/) were provided in care provision for children and elderly people; labour market; leave policies; awareness building; family friendly policies of companies; promotion women in academia and higher position in science, business and policies; networking between public bodies, NGOs, private companies and citizens.
Applicability for education
Students from school and university were also invited to dissemination events or sometimes formed one of the core groups of dissemination activity.
List of websites:
http://www.workcaresynergies.eu
Coordinator
Dr Michaela Gstrein (gstrein@ihs.ac.at via e-mail)
Dr Liliana Mateeva (mateeva@ihs.ac.at contact via e-mail)
WORKCARESYNERGIES support action was set up to disseminate research findings of previous European Union (EU) Framework Programme projects in the field of work and care. For this purpose, local information and discussion events were held in Austria, the United Kingdom (UK), Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Portugal. In each country, key mediator teams (consisting of researchers, knowledge transfer and communication specialists) summarised, made understandable and accessible existing research findings and discussed them in a local context.
Dissemination focussed on currently policy relevant issues related to work and care, such as: work-care tensions, quality of work and life, work-life balance across the life course, social quality in work and care, labour market transitions, citizenship, flexibility and diversity in work-care relations, family policies, working time flexibility and social cohesion, gender elites and work-care relations, social care and work-care balance as well as work-care orientations for gender equality in private and public contexts.
In 2010 and 2011, local teams carried out seventy seven local dissemination events with a large range of local stakeholders, i.e. non-governmental organisations (NGOs), policy makers, trade unions, professional organisations, labour chambers, economic chambers, representatives of service sector, regional organisations and authorities, women's networks, companies, media, other local actors and interested parties. Most events were medium-sized workshop type set-ups, with the aim of bringing together various local key players for a two-way exchange of experience and knowledge. Some teams managed to piggy-back regular local (e.g. labour union) events, ensuring a broader audience. Dynamic discussions at events have shown that local stakeholders are quite interested in EU research findings, especially if they support their own arguments and policy targets. Thus, presentations of facts were usually followed by vivid discussions of current policy measures and future initiatives in various fields related to work and care.
Most teams produced documentary films on work-care and related issues, which were shown and discussed in local events. They proved very efficient vehicles to transport messages to the audience and initiate interactive discussions. All films were uploaded to the project homepage for further viewing. Television (TV) and radio interviews, press conferences and articles ensured a larger publicity of discussed research findings and policy issues.
The project also gave an impulse for further dissemination events in various project countries. As word spread, some teams were asked to redo events in other regions or for other organisations. As a result, the total number of events surpassed the planned ones by far.
To allow for a two-way exchange of ideas, each team summarised the main outcomes of their local discussion events and collected policy recommendations. They are to be found in the WORKCARESYNERGIES final publication, a policy review and an overall project policy brief.
Detailed information on local dissemination contents, events, dissemination materials, discussion papers, press releases, documentary films, reports and policy briefs can be found on the WORKCARESYNERGIES project homepage, at http://www.workcaresynergies.eu
Project context and objectives
The WORCARESYNERGIES project presented selected policy relevant research findings from 20 EU Framework Programme research projects and discussed them in a local context. All dealt with work-care issues, i.e. how families in different societal frameworks and settings combine work with childcare and eldercare. Yet, chosen to reflect current local policy concerns and to make use of existing EU research, countries themes varied.
Within the two years of project activity (2010 and 2011) local dissemination teams organised discussion rounds covering diverse topics within their main chosen themes.
The Scottish team at the University of Aberdeen organised a series of events on 'Social quality in work and care'. The Danish team chose 'Flexibility in work and care' and discussed the need of diversity and flexibility of work-care policies and gender equal conditions for participating in paid work, caring activities and unpaid work in politics and organisations. Within their main theme 'Elites and work-care relations', the Polish team discussed values and behaviour of members of different social groups, as well as the reconciliation of work and family life in Polish households. The British team at the University of Brighton addressed 'Labour market transitions' and examined and illustrated the impact of labour market transitions across generations, as well as labour market transitions around family formation. The Austrian team at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS, coordinator) developed dissemination activities with the main theme 'Work-care tensions' to support the local policy debate on higher female labour market participation, on how to balance childcare and work/professional career with children of different ages and on extensive female parental leave versus life course concepts of work and social security. The second Austrian team at the University of Economics and Business (WU) discussed quality of work and life in the time of economic crisis under the main theme 'Work-life balance'. The Hungarian team organised dissemination events on 'Social cohesion' and supported the debate on the reform of family and employment policies to create incentives for increasing the extremely low labour market participation of mothers with young children. With a focus on 'Work-care and gender equality in private and public contexts' the Portuguese team discussed how to shape work care orientations for gender equality in such contexts. Finally, the Italian team looked into 'Social care and work-care balance'.
The main objectives of WORKCARESYNERGIES project were:
1. to synthesise research findings from FP research projects in the field of work-care for target group specific themes and efficient policy us
2. to transform research knowledge into usable dissemination material
3. to hold target audience focussed events
4. to use extensive existing networks of the teams to disseminate policy relevant findings
5. to document the outcome of local discussions with NGOs and policy makers
6. to inform the interested general public (citizens) via mediators
7. to spread information in various official EU languages and to different target audiences
8. to produce a summary of local dissemination materials and discussion outcomes
9. (if possible) to finally present key messages in a policy relevant venue
10. to alert NGOs, local mediators and policy makers, etc. to the usefulness and usability of local (and international) research findings as well as the research community to the need to communicate research to potential local users
11. to create (lasting) bridges between researchers and users, opening the way for two-way discussions between scientist, other stakeholders (e.g. NGOs) and politicians.
Measured in terms of the large number of events and animated discussions held within the two-year project period, we can assume that the project objectives were well attained and that the project proved a huge success.
Project results:
The core activities of the WORKCARESYNERGIES dissemination project were the efficient transfer of research knowledge; the well-organised set up and conduct of dissemination events; the collection of discussion outcomes and policy recommendations.
During the two-year WORKCARESYNERGIES project, local teams prepared various dissemination materials, developed dissemination tools and set up and carried out altogether 77 local dissemination events with various local key actors.
At local country events, teams presented and discussed EU research findings as well as the outcome of previous discussions. Since documentary films proved to be a very efficient means to transport of complex messages in an understandable way, almost all project teams produced films and video material reflecting their topic. From the start, the country teams also tried to increase publicity of their project activities. A project newsletter was periodically sent out to inform interested local actors about (local and international) dissemination activities and new materials. At the end of the project, main policy relevant findings from local dissemination events were re-discussed with key local players and local and central boards were involved throughout the process.
The project homepage (see http://www.workcaresynergies.eu online) was set up to attract the attention of interested parties and inform them about local events in the seven partner countries. It provides general information about the project as well as nine bilingual country pages with detailed information on local dissemination events, discussion papers and other dissemination materials such as poster, folder, press releases, etc. The homepage also offered the possibility to register for events while they were still being held.
All dissemination materials, summaries of discussion and policy briefs as well as final reports and policy reviews were made available on the WORKCARESYNERGIES homepage. Films and video materials can still be viewed in the VIDEO section. Although the project finished in 2012, the homepage will be maintained during the next years to allow for further dissemination of materials and findings. According to user statistics, the WORKCARESYNERGIES homepage was quite successful.
Description of results for each dissemination theme
Work package one (WP1): Work-care tensions
The Austrian Team at the IHS held a total of sixteen events in 2010 and 2011. Selected findings of various EU research projects and actual Austrian statistical data were presented and discussed in a local context. The following special themes were discussed in the dissemination events:
1. the still quite divergent roles of Austrian men and women
2. the higher labour market participation of women with children as opposed to the Austrian tradition of caring for small children in one's own home
3. how to combine (child)care responsibilities and job or career throughout different family phases
4. long (female) parental leaves versus life-course concepts of work (with individual social security rights)
5. the (new) role of fathers.
The events were set up as medium sized discussion rounds inviting discussion by speakers on the podium and the audience. As is the custom in Austria, a broad range of local politicians, representatives of communities, the social partners, company representatives, local NGOs, regional organisations and services from the sectors of childcare, family services, parental education, women's networks, church, youth work, men's networks as well as other local actors and interested parties were invited at the same time. This successful strategy resulted in broad and vivid discussions. Apart from the planned events additional events were also organised on invitation by regional organisations in Carinthia, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The coordinator was also invited by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) to present the project at the monthly forum of ETUI in Brussels.
The team produced three films on work-care tensions in Austria that were shown and discussed in various events and posted onto the project homepage. The first two films deal with various sub-themes related to such tensions, while the third film offers a complete picture of current tensions felt in Austria and how mothers and fathers find solutions to deal with them.
The first workshop held in May 2010 at IHS, Vienna was a huge success and a good start for the local dissemination. Around 40 representatives came together to listen to and to discuss both EU research results and local experiences.
The second workshop held in October 2010 at IHS was centred again on work-care tensions, this time showing the first Austrian IHS short documentary film on work-care tensions and discussing the changes in role models, education/formation and career of women, the gender wage gap, gender budgeting. It brought together 16 discussants.
Due to the observed lack of male participants, a special men's discussion round was set up in December 2010. The 15 participants added a lot to the discussion, i.e. the role of women in society and families, male identity, new male and female role models, the influence of modern media, men's involvement in household work and childcare, parental leave, the role of childcare.
The fourth event, in February 2011 tried to link male and female viewpoints. Around 23 representatives attended the event. Some of them had been to one of the previous events and were interested in how the discussion was evolving. This time, to include a more male viewpoint, the discussion focussed on the role of men as partners, fathers, employees, chefs, etc.
Discussion rounds to targeted audience were held in March and May 2011. One event was organised in a kindergarten in Vienna for representatives of child care services and parents. In another event, the project and its contents were discussed in 'Women at success course' breakfast for employees of the Austrian National Bank.
In a next step, research findings, the film and the outcome of the first discussion rounds were discussed with other researchers and local media people. The event was staged as applied research seminar at IHS and had the aim to re-adjust contents and dissemination strategies to even better match local policy needs and to use inventive and new ways of communication.
On particularly demand from local organisations that had heard about the events in Vienna or to which these events had been recommended through local family and women's networks, three regional events were organised in Austrian federal counties: One event was staged in Klagenfurt, one event took place in Innsbruck and one event was held in Bregenz. All three events were specifically set up to match local policy needs and the current local policy debate. As usual, we presented several research findings and our film and proceeded to a discussion of issues raised in a local context. It was interesting to see how findings fitted with what local actors had experienced too and how new ideas were developed through the discussion process. Especially in the western part of Austria, role models and local structures are still quite traditional which makes it often quite difficult for young women to follow modern ways of life, where work and care is combined. One of the important findings was that changes need strong mediator support, especially if they happen in rural regions.
To gain more international publicity, the coordinator also presented and promoted the WORKCARESYNERGIES project at some international events: In July 2011, there was an opportunity to get a slot at a workshop on 'Gender, state and welfare' in Budapest. In September 2011, the project was presented as a poster session and oral presentation at an international conference in Geneva (ESA 2011) and in the same month, it was possible to piggy-back a regular event at the ETUI in Brussels, within its monthly forum. There, not only the coordinator but also the British team from UoB were able to bring research findings and preliminary discussion outcomes and policy pointers to the attention of members of local and international European networks, ETUI, representatives of the European Commission (EC) and other interested parties.
The main outcomes of local discussion rounds were summarised and re-discussed at the final WORKCARESYNERGIES discussion group in October 2011 in Vienna, with representatives from the employment service, trade union, regional governments and professional organisations. It was devoted to the main problem fields related to work and care and needs for action. The discussion participants tried to focus on current themes in Austria's political debate on work and care and to determine relevant policy pointes.
At the final project public information and discussion round held in November 2011 in Vienna, all consortium partners presented and summarised contents of dissemination activities in their countries. The event was held in English, which we found to be a barrier for local discussion participation. It seems that actors at (very) local level often lack the skills to efficiently participate in foreign language discussions. Yet, with all partners present, the event managed to present a good overview of the project and its dissemination topics and results.
A film viewing and discussion event with local families, to which we also invited some of the parents figuring in our documentary movies, concluded the local IHS dissemination efforts. This final event brought the topic back to the families and offered interesting insights on real life situations, policy perception, parents' choices and family strategies to deal with work-care tensions, emergencies and everyday life within the local family policy framework.
Project publicity
The team used its good local networks and contact to promote the project from its start and advertised through newsletters. Thus it became quickly known to local key players, some of which volunteered to and became speakers at our dissemination events. Project posters and folders were distributed to local agencies and made available at public events. Poster sessions were held at international conferences, folders distributed at various local meetings. Moreover, project information was sent out per email or post, sometimes as a follow up after events at the request of participants. As coordinator, the IHS team made the project and its contents public at various international conferences and meetings and in a special event at ETUI in Brussels. A publication of relevant research and discussion findings in a local policy paper (beziehungsweise, ÖIF) helped the project to gain more visibility. Information on events was also published by the Austrian Press Agency (APA), e.g.: http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20110930_OTS0036/spannungsfeld-beruf-familie
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among others the following points:
1. the variety of factors affecting work-care tensions; the different perceptions of care of men and women
2. the necessity to provide family support in flexible way; the need to inform parents about the negative effects of long parental leave periods and part-time employment on their future income and old age security
3. the new expectations about job and family of young men and women, but the resurface of traditional role models after childbirth; the traditional behaviour reproduced by the existence of 'gender wage gaps'
4. the need of support from all involved parties to ensure reconciliation, i.e. from state, employers, local key players and mediators supporting modern role models and from the families themselves.
For more information on contents and discussion outcomes refer to our discussion summaries and reports on our country page or in the reporting section at http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/. Further information on local discussions and recommendations for policy makers as well as access to all dissemination materials and the documentary films are provided on the AT-IHS country page of the project homepage, http://workcaresynergies.eu/work-care-tensions/.
WP2: Social quality in work and care
The Scottish team at the University of Aberdeen organised a series of dissemination events. The team supported the current local policy debate about fairer deals for parents by contributing to the Scottish Government parenting strategy. After producing dissemination material and having a first round of discussion, the team decided to concentrate on fatherhood and care provided by fathers.
On the event at the Work Foundation, London in February 2011 the team discussed the proposition by the government for flexible paternity leave by dividing the 52 weeks maternity leave between fathers and mothers so that parents could take the leave separately or together to take effect in 2015.
A further event in Paris looked at the main strategies for combining work and care among full time working parents in different European countries. Four strategies were identified, i.e. shift working, flexible work, reliance on formal care and reliance on informal care from relatives, friends and neighbours. The balance of these strategies depends upon the social policy context. One of the conclusions was that increasing involvement of women in the workforce puts greater burdens on them since they are still mainly responsible for childcare as well.
Another event involved a keynote address by Prof. Claire Wallace to the Community Work and Family Conference in Tampere in May 2011 where the argument was made that the quality of life of parents in Europe, as measured by the social quality model, depends upon the gender roles and gender role culture of the country.
Events on 'Policy for working parents with young children' were held in November and December in Edinburgh and Aberdeen with a screening of the film 'Dummies', a humorous look at the problems and dilemmas faced by modern fathers. A blog was developed for the work foundation, where Prof. Wallace discussed findings from the local discussion with NGOs and policy makers. A deliberative forum involved discussing these issues with NGOs, parliamentarians and others interested parties in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Scottish discussion raised the following main points on fatherhood and care provided by fathers:
1. 'Fathering fallacy': fathers believe that fathering is important as it shapes the next generation.
2. 'Lack of respect': many fathers felt that children of our society today have no respect for fathers.
3. 'True' paternal solo childcare is ideological theory and does not exist in real life, among the fathers in our research.
4. Single parent is an oxy-moro. Everybody has two parents. The term 'single mother' should be discouraged and being a single mother should be discouraged in all but the most extreme cases, as part of an effort to reverse the culture of 'father blocking'.
5. Do fathers mother? Yes, but in a different way. Single fathers try to do the 'mother' bits and use the mother as their first point of reference, comparing themselves to the mother thereafter.
6. Fathers are criticised constantly often by women, for not doing enough in the home.
7. Society has problems with male youths who show no respect towards society. Some of these youths are fathers, although may not be acknowledged as fathers by the mother. To begin to alter the perception of fathers as 'responsible', rather than as 'irresponsible', work must begin right away.
Project publicity
The Scottish team was asked to discuss and recommend father's leave by the local government. This gave good publicity to the WORKCARESYNERGIES project and allowed for precise discussions of research findings with policy makers. The keynote address by Prof. Claire Wallace to the Community Work and Family Conference in Tampere in May 2011 promoted the project findings before an international audience. During the project, the Scottish team met a large range of stakeholders in order to raise the awareness for and increase the visibility of father issues. The film 'Dummies' and the blog were good platforms for further discussion and dissemination too.
Oucomes of local discussions:
1. In relation to the Coalition's proposals to extend paternity leave, four key issues regarding the new forms of fathering were keenly debated.
2. Scottish Parenting Strategy: It became clear that both fathers and mothers need to be seen as participants in parenting strategies and that there was a need for flexibility in providing care for young children.
3. Work flexibility and the need of communication of information.
Attention needs to be paid to the role of fathers in addressing work and care. Legislation to help fathers become involved needs to realistically consider financial compensation and the requirement for fathers to take up paternity leave rather than making this optional or transferable. Parenting policies need to take into account the need for working parents to have flexibility both in child care services and in working hours. There needs to be methods for communicating these possibilities in ways that parents are aware of them (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP3: Citizenship, flexibility and diversity in work-care relations
The Danish team has performed eight events, where it presented and discussed in a local context selected research findings from EU projects. Discussions covered gendered citizenship and work-care relations, as well as diversity and flexibility in family policy.
The dissemination activities of the Danish team began in 2010 with the following three events:
1. 'The Social Economy: simply a niche in a capitalist economy or the basis for an alternative?': Two lectures by Prof. Erik Olin Wright, University of Wisconsin, 12 August 2010, University of Copenhagen.
2. 'The impact of Flexibility and diversity on work-life balance'; Two lectures by Loïc Wacquant on 3 June 2010, at Roskilde and Copenhagen University.
3. Seminar 'Citizenship and diversity in work-care relations: Migration, Care and Citizenship', Roskilde University on 7 and 8 June 2010.
The forth event was a policy briefing on work care held in November 2010 at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. The Socialist People's Party (SF) showed interest in such a briefing. As a next step NGO focussed events were organised: the fifth event consisting of two sub-events in June 2010 in collaboration with the NGO 'The Danish national council on social welfare'. The sixth event was a policy briefing: 'What consequences will the coming cutbacks in welfare provision have on the field of day care?' in December 2010, Copenhagen, Trade Union: BUPL, the Danish national federation of early childhood teachers and youth educators. The local events were held in the collaboration with the international centre for studies in citizenship, democratic participation and civil society (CIPACI); Aalborg University, Denmark; centre for gender, power and diversity (CKMM); the Danish national council on social welfare (Socialpolitisk forening).
In 2011, instead of small policy briefing, the purpose of the events was to reach a larger target audience: The event 'Imbalance? Work-care relations and migrant care-work' on 12 April 2011 included one day open arrangement and international conference. The one day open arrangement was held in collaboration with an EU public educational organisation, democracy in Europe (DEO). The international conference on work-care at Roskilde University in collaboration with partners from both academia and different creative networks and was carried out in English. The event was planned and hosted in collaboration with centre for gender, power and diversity and The Danish Sociological Association.
The public event 'The neoliberal Europe', public event, presentation and debate, was held on 5 April 2011, Kulturstaldenes forsamlingshus, Copenhagen City. About 80 people attended this meeting and the participants represented the general public, students and members of NGOs. See more at http://www.deo.dk
Project publicity included:
1. an interview and reportage with Prof. Loïc Wacquant during his stay in Denmark
2. interview and article 'Pædagoger i håbløs kamp' with Assoc. Prof. R. Willig on his findings about care-work relations.
OUTCOMES of local discussions concerned, among others:
1. the various family policy regimes found among the EU member states;
2. the threats for the sustainability of the flexibility and generosity in the Danish welfare model due to lower income compensation in periods outside employment, longer working hours for both women and men and cuts in educated personal in the public institutions providing care services for children
3. the trends to increase working time, cuts on childcare service provision and budget cuts create challenges for both welfare and family policies
4. the Danish debate on how to develop more equal conditions for fathers' and mothers' participation in caring activities for their children (for detailed information refer to project reports in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP4: Quality of work and life; work-life balance across life course
The Austrian WU team carried out fourteen dissemination events in 2010 and 2011. While in 2010, the team has focussed on childcare and work-life balance as well as on working conditions in a changing economy, in 2011 it focussed on the reconciliation of care for (elderly) adults with work obligations as this topic has been strongly debated in Austria since cuttings of the attendance allowance were observed as one result of the economic crisis. The films produced by the WU team covered also both themes.
Dissemination events
The first dissemination event was held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). Around 30 representatives attended the workshop. It was moderated by the communication expert M. Engelhardt-Krajanek (journalist from the national radio ORF, Ö1) and included two sessions, namely 'Work-life balance' and 'The new working conditions'.
A press Conference of an hour's length at the WU: 'Paid work and care in Austria as compared to Europe' (28 June 2011), was held immediately before the public event 'Caring relatives'. It involved the WU team members and the communication experts and two experts on elderly care (B. Haas, Margarethe Engelhardt-Krajanek, August Österle and Ulrike Schneider). Main findings were reported on in the Austrian newspaper 'Salzburger Nachrichten'.
The public event: 'Caring Relatives' was held at the WU (28 June 2011) and included discussion of issues not of childcare but also of caring relatives. The team presented another film 'From case to case: Caring relatives in Austria' dealing with the topic of care for and by dependent adults, going into greater depth about the aspects of work-care balance varying over the life course.
Finally, the public event 'Radio features on three days (on the Austrian radio station Oe1): Working is much easier than living?' has held between 12 and 14 September 2011. The communication expert of the WU team, Margarethe Engelhardt-Krajanek presented main findings from EU projects by holding interviews with various experts in the field.
The focus group formulated policy recommendations for the reconciliation of paid work and childcare as well as adult care (19 September 2011). Dissemination activities included also an internal workshop at the Austrian National Bank, titled 'Women heading for success'.
Public events in the Austrian provinces included:
1. 'How to do it all conflicting priorities of paid work, household and family work' (10 October 2011) at the University of Innsbruck (Tyrol),
2. Presentation 'Attitudes towards the equal division of labour in couples from a comparative perspective across countries' (11 October 2011) at the local branch of the Public Employment Service Austria (Feldkirch, Vorarlberg).
Aim of the WU team was also to discuss the topics in general and to reach a large number of young students (five events).
Project publicity
In addition to above mentioned media events carried out along with the dissemination events the project was promoted by two more interviews:
1. Interview to the national Radio Ö1 ORF concerning the topic 'The advisory society' ('Die Beratungsgesellschaft') held with B. Haas, the WU team leader, about the main insights concerning the societal trends based on (EU) research findings, broadcast in Radiokolleg, ORF Ö1, in several sessions from 27 to 30 December 2010.
2. Newspaper article based on an interview with B. Haas: 'Single Earner, income. The insecure labour market, bad jobs and low qualification of women.' ('Die Alleinverdienerinnen. Einkommen. Der unsichere Arbeitsmarkt, schlecht bezahlte Jobs und immer bessere Ausbildung von Frauen.'), printed on 13 December 2010, by the journalist Andrea Rexer, in the Austrian journal: 'Profit 50', 2010.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. regarding childcare: employers and companies are called to show flexibility and consideration for parents; women tend to be flexible for their families and children, whereas men show more flexibility regarding their jobs; altered time demands towards employees often impact on the 'dissolving boundaries of employment and private lives'; regulation of working hours and discretionary competence is crucial; implications of changing priorities in family and social policies
2. regarding care for elderly: claims to non-pecuniary benefits are frequently considered important, as compared to the comparably well-developed transfer payments; strong agreement was found regarding the necessity of expanding the supply of professional support for caring relatives; politics is called to launch offensive awareness-raising campaigns; the state and the economy are also responsible for the well-being of all parties involved, both the care recipients and the people who work and care (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP5: Family policies, working time flexibility and social cohesion
The Hungarian team presented research findings from EU projects and provided research results from the study on child poverty and child well-being in the European Union. Discussion rounds were related to working time flexibility, work-family conflict and social cohesion, as well as to social outcomes of family policies.
Project publicity
Prior to the dissemination event, the team initiated a media campaign designed to disseminate research results to a broad audience. The campaign consisted of a press release, interviews and even a television debate on the Hungarian TV (ATV) 'Potential conflict between work and household' with Prof. Sik, 5 May 2010 (in Hungarian, see http://www.4shared.com/video/8uSMTahh/100422_homero_1.html online). A document listing the full media coverage was uploaded on the project homepage: http://workcaresynergies.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hu/TARKI_dissemination%20in%20the%20media.pdf
Dissemination events
NGO focussed dissemination event: The dissemination materials were presented at an NGO-focussed workshop on 24 November 2010. Around 30 representatives of local NGOs, trade unions and employers associations attended the workshop. The project team gave a comprehensive summary of the main research findings related to, as well as the media representations of both topics covered. The second session of the workshop was totally devoted to the debate on research results and main policy questions. The debate was intense and lively, during which different views and policy alternatives were discussed. The dissemination material has been then amended by taking into account the results of this debate.
Policy maker-focussed dissemination event: In 2011 a second main dissemination event took place, held on 27 October 2011, involving this time also policy makers beside other stakeholders. Around 30 participants attended the presentation of the research findings. The event was focussed on two main policy tools that in the forefront of the Hungarian public debates when the issue of the work-life balance is: the role of the part-time work and that of the formal child care. The agenda of the discussion was set accordingly. This presentation was followed by additional interventions on the possible ways and on the cost-efficiency of expanding the existing institutional setting in the field of child care, as well as on the perceptions and views of employees and employers on the employability of mothers with young children.
A local event, which took place on 7 December 2011 aimed at discussing main conclusions and policy recommendations within the frame of regular TÁRKI workshops, involving members of the local advisory board.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. the part-time work as possibility to improve work-life balance and to promote social cohesion by attracting inactive people to the labour market and by increasing households' income and reducing the risk of poverty; the fact that part-time jobs provide however low earnings, is the main factor that bottleneck the spread of these work arrangements in Hungary
2. the availability and the affordability of public child care are main problem in Hungary in relation to employment of women with children and work-life balance
3. international best practices promoting work-life balance should be implemented with a deliberate analysis of the local peculiarities (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP6: Gender elites and work-care relations
The Polish team has discussed values and behaviour of members of different social groups with the main sub-themes gender elites in science and politics; gender elites and work-care balance; reconciliations of work and family life in Polish households.
The team implemented local dissemination activities in Poland, in the cities of Warsaw and Podkowa Lesna. Additionally, one presentation, comparing Polish and international data, took place during a conference in the UK. The team prepared a discussion paper and power-point presentations with results from various EU research projects.
The documentary film 'Women in social elites: Reconciliation of family responsibilities with work and social activity' was screened and discussed at the dissemination events. The film provoked great interest in Poland. Copies of the film were requested by women NGO for wider dissemination. Over 600 persons saw the movie in internet during September and October 2011.
Dissemination events
The first dissemination event was held in June 2010 in Warsaw, being a conference 'Gender in Science an obstacle or an advantage? Scientific careers and private lives'. The situation of women in science was discussed in the context of reconciling parental roles and private lives with scientific work. The research results presented were confronted with experiences of persons engaged in masculinised fields of science and dealing with problems of institutional support for families with regard to their duties associated with care. In September 2010 Prof. R. Siemieska had a conference presentation 'Gender and civic involvement' on similarities and differences between men and women regarding their involvement in various types of civil society organisations (CSOs) and forms of political life. Over 100 participants, such as politicians of national and regional levels and activists of women's different CSOs took part in the event organised in the building of the parliament.
In October 2010 the ISS, UWAR in cooperation with the foundation empire of businesswomen has organised a meeting 'Conscious woman motherly business'. Issues discussed: care in case of working mothers and the roles of women in fostering the children. Prof. R. Siemieska spoke about evolution of gender roles and consciousness and its impact on behaviour and values concerning work and care reconciliation. The president of Foundation MaMa (Sylwia Chutnik) stressed the problems faced by modern mothers and the foundation's activities supporting working parents. Also, a candidate for president of Warsaw took part in discussions. The main issues discussed were the perception of women with children as workers, among others the advantages and disadvantages from the point to view of employers. The metaphor of household management was used to underline women managerial abilities, which are of great value on the labour market.
A symposium was co-organised by ISS UWAR with EC project GenSET in October 2010 for dissemination of findings and preparing recommendations on European level and to increase capacity within Polish public bodies and science-connected institutions to address issues of gender equality and bias that affect scientific work and excellence. The main topic for discussion were the results of Workcare project, the experiences of young female scientists receiving scholarships from L'Oreal as well as gender policy in international corporations in Poland. The second part of discussions was focussed on 13 recommendations for institutional action to mainstream gender across four core areas of scientific enterprise, which are a part of consensus report on the gender dimension in science.
In the lecture 'Women in thrall to the stereotypes', held on 22 March 2011 at Kozminski University, Prof. Siemieska presented the lecture 'Women in thrall to the stereotypes'. The discussion focussed on the past and present situation of women in the society in context of stereotypes concerning gender roles, the dominance of men in Polish science, especially on the higher positions at academia as well as in business and politics.
The event 'Women in the local elite. The problems of reconciling family responsibilities with work and social activity' was organised in the centre of culture and civic initiatives in Podkowa Lesna (near Warsaw), 20 May 2011 with the aim to stress that the problem of reconciling family and work should be subject of public debate also at the local level. The presentations of research results and the film screening provoked an engaged discussion resulting from different perceptions of reconciliation of work and care and the role of women as mothers and professionals.
The additional Lecture 'Electing women and elected women and determinants of their electoral behaviour', was organised on 21 July 2011 by The Batory Foundation and ISS UW with centres of public and marketing opinion studies. Prof. Siemienska presented results of her studies conducted from 1992 to 2007 after parliamentary and local elections and cross-cultural surveys focussed on political behaviour and its determinants in case of women and men. The role of social milieu, the styles of living and opinions on relationship between private and public spheres were discussed.
Finally, the additional seminar 'Gender Sociology. Changing Cultural, Sociological and Political Science Perspectives of Women and Men and Their Consequences', was held from 1 October 2011 to 25 January 2012, moderated by Prof. Siemienska and Mgr Matysiak.
Project publicity
1. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemieska 'Niech bd zachowane proporcje' (Proportions should be kept) by A. Korzekwa, 'Kwartalnik Urzdu Patentowego RP, No 1/2011, pp. 23-25. ISSN 2081-5964
2. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemieska 'Women and Politics conversation on stereotypes' by Margielska, Zwierciado (Mirror) journal for women. October 1, 2011
3. Information in local bulletin about the conference in Podkowa Lena 'Women in the local elite. The problems of reconciling family responsibilities with work and social activity'. 'Biuletyn Miasta-Ogrodu Podkowa Lesna', no 3/44/czerwiec 2011, p. 18. ISSN 2083-019X
4. Discussion paper for local event in Podkowa Lesna
5. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemienska 'Let there be proportions' (Niech bd zachowane proporcje), 'Uniwersytet Warszawski' (University of Warsaw Magazine), no 4 (48), pp. 2-4.; published in paper and internet editions June/August 2010
6. Interview with Prof. Renata Siemienska 'Political and Cultural System blocks women' (System blokuje kobiety), Gazeta Wyborcza' (national newspaper) published in paper and internet editions 26 July 2010.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. women's limited access to elites; presence of women in social elites is also important for shaping the perception of future chances and career paths by boys and girls;
2. necessity of different types of support for families according to their need and preferences;
3. childcare is often mistaken with upbringing; hiring babysitter to care for children in pre-kindergarten age is relatively unpopular;
4. partners' active participation in caring and domestic tasks is important;
5. needs of political solution regarding the explosion of educational aspirations of young people; need to promote the involvement of women in technical studies and hard sciences and to facilitating women's presence and success in academia (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP7: Social care and work-care balance
The Italian team carried out 11 dissemination events within the project duration. A very important dissemination tool was the film 'Social care and work-care balance' presented and discussed at the dissemination events.
Dissemination events
1. Five events in secondary schools in Italy involving 199 students and seven teachers. Events took place in Padua, Florence, Rome and Naples. One more event than originally planned was also held in Prato, an industrial context near Florence.
2. Two events in small companies in the outskirts of Rome and Naples. Small companies, rather than companies which already were familiar with family friendly activities were chosen, since we preferred to have a more untouched environment to explore.
3. One public event with NGO representatives. The event, held in Florence, was opened not only to NGO representatives but to the wider representation of Italian third sector.
4. One public event with policy makers (closing event). The event took place in Florence and it was the occasion to present all the results gathered from the previous activities carried out in the project.
The team was invited to perform two additional events in Cordoba and Pescara:
1. One international presentation in Cordoba. The project and its activities in Italy were presented during the International Seminar on 'Work-family dilemmas across Europe' held by the Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados de Cordoba
2. One additional presentation in Pescara. The project and its activities, plus the movie, were presented during a public event the Local Administration in conjunction with the Regional Equality Consultant hosted on 17 December 2011. The aim of this second event was to build the ground to bring the dissemination activities in local schools in 2012, using the same dissemination methodology already used in WORKCARESYNERGIES project.
Project publicity
Presence in a well-known talk show program of a local TV network RTV38 (the program '19.30-25') of Prof. Trifiletti who described the objectives and methods of WORKCARESYNERGIES project in a talkshow whose title was 'Stato sociale cercasi'; photos drawn from the registration were uploaded on the project homepage.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. gender differences among youngsters
2. projects directly or indirectly dealing with work-life balance by NGOs are important
3. work-life balance challenges are mainly related to time in workers' perspective
4. there is a lack of services directed to families within or near their working environment and a lack of information regarding work-life policies and related rights
5. take leave to care for an old parent or other relative is difficult
6. difficulties to overcome gender inequalities persist even after overcoming the 'male breadwinner' model
7. importance of ability to build networks between public and private bodies for promoting work-life balance (for detailed information refer to project reports in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP8: Mapping work-care orientations for gender equality in private and public contexts
The Portuguese team carried out seven events in 2010 and 2011. The discussion rounds focussed on workcare orientation and childcare services and workcare orientations and gender equality on the labour market.
The team produced six short videos with research findings related to work-care orientations for gender equality in private and public contexts that were shown and discussed in various events: 'Project presentation'; 'Family: research findings contradicting stereotypes'; 'Employment and flexibility in Europe'; 'Family and childcare support policies; Gender equality and the labour market' and 'Fertility and employment'. In addition the team created national web-site, in: http://trabalharecuidar.cies.iscte.pt a facebook page in: 2003 friends and an electronic newsletter, edited twice during the project and distributed among the national network members.
Dissemination events
First event, 16 November 2010, was organised with the aim to present this innovative project, key EU research findings and to constitute the national network to be involved in further dissemination events. All partners presented at the event were invited to contribute and voiced their opinions on the presented research findings and about the development of the dissemination activities in Portugal. The event had a broad media exposure.
The team carried out six dissemination events in 2011. The events had the same structure of contents. These were special sessions each one focussed with a specific group of actors. In all these dissemination events the contents were organised in five sets of data:
1. family and childcare support policies
2. quality of life in Europe between work and care
3. fertility and employment
4. gender equality and labour market
5. employment and flexibility.
The discussions held in these dissemination events had media (video) and power point presentations support. The discussion in the different dissemination session was preceded by the viewing of the several thematic short videos. Three events deserve a special mention:
1. the project and its contents were discussed in a special session dedicated to researchers at ISCSP Technical University of Lisbon.
2. the Portuguese team was invited to do a special dissemination session at the municipality of Palmela. This session was directed not only to public servants at the different services of the municipality, but also to several institutions and NGO acting in the field.
3. oarticipation in a TV program specially dedicated to the theme of work and care and gender equality, giving national visibility to the project and a public media platform for the discussion about the theme.
Project publicity
1. Interview for the national radio station (Antena 1)
2. special issue of a TV programme
3. an article in a national reference newspaper (Diário de Notícias).
Oucomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. care policies and children development
2. informal and women-centred care
3. women's consequences from absence of policies
4. work-life balance is important for high quality of life
5. institutional context is also important
6. fertility and employment
7. labour market and workplaces were highly gendered
8. flexibility and employment
9. flexibility should be regulated (for detailed information refer to project reports in: http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
WP9: Labour market transitions in comparative perspective
The second British team focussed on the impact of labour market transitions across generations, i.e. on a comparison of younger and older workers and labour market transitions around family formation. The main sub-themes for local dissemination were labour market transitions - a generational comparison of young and older workers - and labour market transitions around family formation. The team held a total of six events in 2010 and 2011.
Dissemination events
First event: 'Looking at Ageing Differently', Brighton, 18 March 2010: The seminar drew on EU research to address three major questions related to ageing and labour market transitions. Approximately 45 participants attended the event.
Second event: 'Intersectionality: from Idea to Implementation', University of Brighton Business School, 10 December 2010. The aim of the seminar was to examine the concept of intersectionality in the management of equality and diversity, to understand how this concept has been institutionalised and translated into legislation and policy and to explore the consequences of these recent legislative changes in the UK. The seminar drew on EU research to address three key questions: What does the concept of intersectionality mean? How can we monitor multiple inequalities? And how is this being implemented in practice?
Third event: 'Families, firms and fairness: Managing Labour Market Transitions in Europe: The Work Foundation', London 4 February 2011. Roundtable, academics and policy specialists discussed research on how the labour market is adapting to the new political climate related to programmes of public sector cuts. The event has addressed how individual employers can spur the transition between full and part-time work; how households make choices about how to balance working and caring responsibilities; which groups of workers are likely to be most affected by public sector spending cuts; how the employment relationship is governed in growing firms.
Fourth event: The 'Changing context of retirement', University of Edinburgh Business School, 25 February 2010, a seminar which had approximately 50 participants. Main topics discussed were how the context of retirement is changing; what are the consequences for work and retirement into older age and to what extent are changes mirrored across countries.
Fifth event: Presentation of Workcare synergies project at the ETUI, 1 September 2011. The aim of this seminar was to present a synthesis to Brussels based policy researchers. The key issues that were discussed at this meeting were related to the concept of fairness and how this had permeated policy debates in the UK. A short interview for the Spanish based family watch group given at the event is available on the WORKCARESYNERGIES homepage.
Sixth event: 'Employment and retirement', Manchester Metropolitan University, 4 November 2011, a seminar organised with the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Around 50 participants have discussed the factors influencing employment in older age in Europe; the consequences of changes for the future of retirement; the extent to which changes are mirrored across countries.
The British team also produced films on the events available at the project homepage ('Videos' section) and in: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/bbs/research/groups/crome/esrc_workcare_video.php?PageId=911
Project publicity
1. The short interview for the Spanish based family watch group given by Prof. J. O'Reilly at the event in ETUI contributed to the visibility of the project
2. the British team publish a range of articles in the press: 'Extended paternity leave 'makes business sense'', The Telegraph, 28 November 2011, London; 'Retirement age rise helps poorest least', The Guardian, 21 January 2011, London; 'Government to launch consultation on flexible parental leave', Employeebenefits.co.uk 17 January 2011, London; 'Most wealthy workers want to work beyond retirement', Personnel today, 27 September 2010, London; 'Getting retirement right', human resources (HR) Zone, 9 December 2010, London.
Outcomes of local discussions concerned among other the following points:
1. regarding the Equality Act (2010) in the UK key issues emerging from discussion were the difficulty of obtaining good quality of data to address intersectionality and multiple inequalities and the emerging pervasiveness of Equality Impact Assessments in public sector organisations;
2. key issues of the impact of public sector cuts in the UK and their consequences for employment in both the public and private sector were discussed with members of the British Chamber of Commerce and representatives from the Trade Union Congress;
3. the seminars addressing labour market transitions in later life focussed on legislative change and the removal of the default retirement age (for detailed information refer to project reports in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/).
Potential Impact
The dissemination activities within the WORKCARESYNERGIES project promoted the local discussion of current policy relevant issues related to work and care in all partner countries. Within the various discussion rounds addressed to key local actors - policy makers, social partners, local authorities, NGO, economic actors and other interested parties - the selected research results were discussed in relevance to current policy measures and initiatives. Knowledge and experiences' exchange revealed the importance of research findings regarding practical use, e.g. by promotion and implementation of policy measures.
Local awareness for EU research findings was stimulated through the following actions:
1. preparation of usable dissemination material for local events
2. exchange of knowledge and experiences within local discussions, including local NGOs and policy makers.
Enhance communication between researchers and policy makers
A large number of dissemination events were planned and carried out in cooperation with NGOs and other local organisations and networks, which promoted the strengthening of existing and development of new exchanges and cooperations. Dissemination events brought together various local key players. In this way, they were a good opportunity for communication and exchange of knowledge and experiences as well as for creating a good basis for further discussion and working together. Most importantly, all key players were involved and their ideas and wishes introduced into the discussion. Moreover, the successful performance of dissemination events created demand for additional events.
In addition to dissemination events, communication took place by the following main channels set up in order to bring research findings and information to a broader audience:
1. Project homepage (see http://www.workcaresynergies.eu online)
2. Project newsletter with a subscription trough the project homepage. It served to send up-to-date information about events and produced materials and policy briefs.
3. Project leaflet and poster, distributed at dissemination events and made available to a wider public on the project homepage, at http://workcaresynergies.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/WCS_Leaflet.pdf and http://workcaresynergies.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/WCS_Poster.pdf.
4. Mailing list with key stakeholders in each country was used to sending invitations for events as well as relevant information about the dissemination activities.
5. National material and online info, such as flyers, information sheets, national website with facebook site of the local dissemination teams, which were in addition prepared and distributed at various events in the partner countries.
6. Short films were among innovative tools produced by almost all of the project partners. They proved to be an efficient vehicle to directly transport messages and basis for discussion at the dissemination events.
7. Blogs were created by some of the dissemination teams in order to use this interactive new media to inform about dissemination activities and to discuss results with a wider public.
Project publicity and media coverage: numerous TV and radio interviews and press article ensured a large publicity of the project. They provided findings to the wider public. Information on media events was posted at each of the 'Country pages' or at the 'Video' section of the project homepage.
Multilingual dissemination
Information and discussion material as well as thematic summaries of discussion and policy briefs were prepared in English and in the national language of the local teams, i.e. German, Polish, Hungarian, Italian and Portuguese.
Inform policy
Based on the main results of various local discussion rounds with local stakeholders, each key mediator team summarised main outcomes of local discussions and provided recommendations for policy makers on European and national level in the form of thematic summary reports on local discussions and thematic policy briefs.
Exchange of best dissemination practices
Throughout the project duration, partners exchanged ideas on dissemination set-ups and discussed more or less successful approaches and methods. It soon became clear that 'piggy-backing already existing events with regular, well-spread audiences' was one of the best strategies to gain publicity and expert plus local feedback on dissemination contents. Often such set-ups proved to be good multiplier events too, since representative of organisations communicated information to other members of their team, colleagues and friends as well.
Main dissemination activities and the exploitation of results
The preparation, set up and holding of dissemination events represented the core content of the WORKCARESYNERGIES dissemination project. For details, refer to above description or overall and local dissemination efforts, or download information, films and documents from our WORCARSYNERIGES homepage, in http://www.workcaresynergies.eu
Main target user groups
The core user group of disseminated EU research findings were interested local policy makers, NGOs, authorities, local key players, labour and trade unions, kindergarten teachers and providers, parents, state officials, local communities, regional councils, national policy makers, local associations and organisations, firms, etc. and other interested local parties. Since the was not restricted to events only but was initiated to a much larger degree, a broader range of stakeholders, interested parties and also the wider public could be reached. At the ETUI in Brussels, the project was brought to the attention of representatives from European networks, research institutes, ETUI, the EC etc.
Applicability for policy
Recommendations to policy makers at European and national level (for detailed information refer to thematic policy briefs, the overall project policy brief and the overall policy review in http://workcaresynergies.eu/reports/) were provided in care provision for children and elderly people; labour market; leave policies; awareness building; family friendly policies of companies; promotion women in academia and higher position in science, business and policies; networking between public bodies, NGOs, private companies and citizens.
Applicability for education
Students from school and university were also invited to dissemination events or sometimes formed one of the core groups of dissemination activity.
List of websites:
http://www.workcaresynergies.eu
Coordinator
Dr Michaela Gstrein (gstrein@ihs.ac.at via e-mail)
Dr Liliana Mateeva (mateeva@ihs.ac.at contact via e-mail)