Suchergebnisse

Slovenia makes a compelling case for care policy analysis since it is marked by extreme dichotomy in care. Therefore, placing Slovenia on a continuum of care regimes ranging from defamilialised to familialised with respect to care is difficult, with care for children being highly defamilialised, and care for older people highly familialised. The country's childcare policies build on a historically well-developed system of public childcare provision and generous leave policies, together with a well-developed social protection system targeting families. These have been retained and, in some cases, were expanded, still following the 2009 economic crisis, certain austerity measures were introduced. On the other hand, care policies for older people started to develop later and after the initial growth they relatively stagnated (especially the social home-care system). A comprehensive long-term care system has yet to be developed and become a subject of ongoing political debates. Further, unlike in childcare, the increasing role of private actors can be observed in this sector. In the article, we discuss these care policy developments in Slovenia in terms of the role of relevant actors (state, family, private actors) with an emphasis on the views of people regarding care, based on data gathered within an innovative method of democratic forums. The article reveals that the dichotomy of care policies, as well as the differing recent trends in family policies for children and care for older people, is not present in people's attitudes and their preferences for the arrangement of such policies. ; Slovenija pruža dobre argumente za analizu politike skrbi jer je obilježava izrazita dihotomija u području skrbi. Stoga je teško smjestiti Sloveniju u kontinuum režima skrbi koji se proteže od defamilijaliziranog do familijaliziranog, gdje je skrb za djecu izrazito defamilijalizirana, a skrb za starije osobe izrazito familijalizirana. Mjere skrbi za djecu u zemlji oslanjaju se na povijesno dobro razvijeni sustav javne skrbi za djecu i izdašne politike o dopustu, zajedno s dobro razvijenim sustavom socijalne zaštite usmjerenom na obitelji. Te su mjere zadržane i, u nekim slučajevima, proširene, no uslijed ekonomske krize iz 2009. godine uvedene su određene mjere štednje. S druge strane, politike skrbi za starije osobe počele su se razvijati kasnije i nakon početnog rasta relativno su stagnirale (posebice sustav socijalne usluge pomoći u kući). Sveobuhvatni sustav dugoročne skrbi tek se treba razviti i postati tema kontinuiranih političkih debata. Nadalje, za razliku od skrbi za djecu, u ovom se sektoru može uočiti povećana uloga privatnih aktera. U radu raspravljamo o razvitku tih politika skrbi u Sloveniji u odnosu na ulogu relevantnih aktera (država, obitelj, privatni akteri), s naglaskom na stavove ljudi o skrbi na temelju podataka prikupljenih u sklopu inovativne metode demokratskih foruma. Rad ukazuje na to da dihotomija politika skrbi, kao i različiti noviji trendovi u obiteljskim politikama za djecu i u skrbi za starije osobe, nisu prisutni u stavovima ljudi i u njihovim preferencijama za uvođenje takvih politika.

Slovenia makes a compelling case for care policy analysis since it is marked by extreme dichotomy in care. Therefore, placing Slovenia on a continuum of care regimes ranging from defamilialised to familialised with respect to care is difficult, with care for children being highly defamilialised, and care for older people highly familialised. The country's childcare policies build on a historically well-developed system of public childcare provision and generous leave policies, together with a well-developed social protection system targeting families. These have been retained and, in some cases, were expanded, still following the 2009 economic crisis, certain austerity measures were introduced. On the other hand, care policies for older people started to develop later and after the initial growth they relatively stagnated (especially the social homecare system). A comprehensive long-term care system has yet to be developed and become a subject of ongoing political debates. Further, unlike in childcare, the increasing role of private actors can be observed in this sector. In the article, we discuss these care policy developments in Slovenia in terms of the role of relevant actors (state, family, private actors) with an emphasis on the views of people regarding care, based on data gathered within an innovative method of democratic forums. The article reveals that the dichotomy of care policies, as well as the differing recent trends in family policies for children and care for older people, is not present in people's attitudes and their preferences for the arrangement of such policies. Key words: care, social policy, Slovenia, older people, childcare, democratic forum, attitudes.

The transformations in the welfare state regimes that have occurred globally, over the last three decades or so, have seriously affected the capacity of states to sustain the previous levels of social care and protection. These changes, already being manifested, inter alia, in trends in declining earnings of pensioners have inspired some researchers in this field to explore alternative ways of mitigating their impact on the well-being of the elderly during the retirement period. One of the theories that has been advanced to this effect is the so-called asset-based welfare concept which suggests that the wealth accumulated by people in the form of housing assets presents a financial reservoir that may serve as a source of income for pensioners in time of need. To address these issues, a variety of mechanisms have been developed and presented as 'equity release products' that may be used by senior homeowners to improve their living situation. This article contributes to the debate from the perspective of a country in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), a region that has been rarely included in the scholarly discourse on the topic. While there might have been some level of success in the implementation of these instruments in some countries, the survey findings presented and discussed in this article show that Slovenian elderly homeowners strongly reject all the equity release products that were presented to them as potential options for alleviating financial hardship in old age. These findings lead us to the conclusion that it is highly unlikely that Slovenian elderly homeowners would ever accept and exploit, at any meaningful level of uptake, the investigated equity release mechanisms.

"This themed issue of Social Inclusion provides a timely opportunity to reflect on how contemporary research is addressing the multi-dimensional issue of homelessness around the world. The papers presented here provide a wide range of new evidence on homelessness including theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions. They draw on a range of national experiences in Europe and beyond, and addressing the issue of social inclusion and social exclusion of homeless or previously homeless people from a range of perspectives and approaches. It is hoped that the contributions to this themed issue will prove influential in terms of both scholarship and potential to enhance policy making and service delivery to some of our most excluded citizens." (author's abstract)

Starenje stanovništva jedna je od najvećih strukturnih promjena koje trenutno utječu na razvoj svih europskih socijalnih država. Različite države se suočavaju s tim promjenama na različite načine. Kao odgovor na svjetsku gospodarsku krizu, mnoge su države reformirale svoje mirovinske sustave i način na koji odgovaraju na rastuće potrebe za skrbi. Te promjene znatno utječu na stavove ljudi o perspektivi socijalne države i na njihova očekivanja u budućnosti vezano uz buduću raspodjelu odgovornosti u pružanju skrbi za starije osobe. Temelj za analizu su podatci prikupljeni u poredbenom europskom projektu uz metodu korištenje demokratskih foruma. Stavove i očekivanja sudionika – kao i razloge i argumente koje su iznijeli – upotrijebili smo kako bismo rasvijetlili čimbenike koji će vjerojatno oblikovati buduće oblike skrbi za starije osobe i mjere mirovinske politike. Analizirali smo četiri države koje imaju različite socijalne režime – Norvešku, Sloveniju, Njemačku i Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo – i usredotočili se na podjelu odgovornosti između države, tržišta i obitelji, kao i na sličnosti i razlike u prioritetima i proizlazeće argumente iznesene u te četiri države. ; Population ageing is one of the biggest structural changes currently affecting the development of all European welfare states. Countries have tackled these changes in different ways. In reaction to the global economic crisis, many countries have reformed their old-age pension systems and how they address the rising care needs. These changes are bound to influence how citizens view the welfare state's prospects and what they expect from it in the future in relation to policies for the elderly. The paper explores citizens' attitudes and expectations with regard to the future division of responsibilities for the provision of welfare for the elderly. The basis for the analysis is data gathered in a comparative European project adopting coordinated democratic forums as a methodology. We use the participants' views and expectations – as well as the reasons and arguments they presented – to shed light on the factors likely to shape future elderly care and old-age pension policies. We analyse four countries – Norway, Slovenia, Germany and the UK – belonging to four different welfare regimes and focus on the division of responsibilities between the state, the market and the family and the differences and similarities in priorities and subsequent arguments put forward in the four countries.