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As Europe's public realms face upheaval, this text identifies how social solidarity is being re-invented from below and redefined from above. Interdisciplinary transnational approaches provide new insights into the relationship between national and transnational social solidarity across Europe

As Europe's public realms face upheaval, this text identifies how social solidarity is being re-invented from below and redefined from above. Interdisciplinary transnational approaches provide new insights into the relationship between national and transnational social solidarity across Europe.

European welfare states have a tradition of compensating for social risks. But across Europe, remarkable transformations may be observed that shift the focus from a needs/rights based compensatory approach towards a more individualistic 'social risk management' approach to welfare (see Schmid, 2006; Abrahamson, 2010). The basic idea of social risk management is that citizens have their own responsibility for preventing social risks. The 'new' welfare state mirrors this approach by adopting the role of equipping individual citizens for this task. The concept of the 'new welfare state' has been discussed under different labels, including 'positive welfare' (Giddens, 1998), 'enabling welfare' (Gilbert, 2002), 'new welfare' (Taylor-Gooby, 2008) and 'social investment state' (Engelen et al., 2007).

The welfare state is one of the hallmarks of a civilised society. All developed countries have them and the less developed ones are striving to establish their own. Welfare states depend on a fair collection and redistribution of resources, which in turn rests upon the maintenance of trust between different sections of society and across generations. Misleading rhetoric concerning those who have to seek support from the welfare state, such as the contrast between 'strivers' and 'shirkers', risks undermining that trust and, with it, one of the key foundations of modern Britain. (Alcock et al., 2013)

PurposeThis paper sets out to explore the relationship between gender, New Public Management (NPM), citizenship and professional and user group identities and relationships within child care social work practice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilises findings from a major comparative survey undertaken in Denmark and the UK as part of Doctoral research. In addition the paper draws upon more recent empirical research carried out by the author in Sweden.FindingsParadigms imported from the private sector have led to the adoption of NPM, fiscal austerity and the reorganisation of childcare social work throughout Europe. This paper illustrates the connectivities between NPM, gender, citizenship and the contested terrains within which professional and user group relationships and identities are being forged. The paper offers a unique insight into the operationalisation of NPM and gender within childcare professional social work practice in different European settings.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper's findings may be used to contribute to existing theoretical and empirical knowledge within the field of professional childcare social work and practice.Originality/valueThe paper offers a unique insight into the operationalisation of gender equality as a normative ideal premised on the development of organisational and legal settings which embrace an awareness of the duality of public and private spheres and the impact of different European welfare settings on the articulations of notions of gender and citizenship, which in turn operationalise processes of inclusion and exclusion of women as citizens, workers and parents.

As Europe's public realms face upheaval, this is the first book to identify how social solidarity is being reinvented from below and redefined from above. Interdisciplinary transnational approaches provide new insights into the relationship between national and transnational social solidarity across Europe.Valuable to students, policy makers and scholars, it reveals social solidarity as the defining pillar of European integration, bringing a greater dimension and integrity beyond democracy across nation states