How will Brexit affect the social security rights of EU migrants in the UK, and how the social protection of EU staff?

Linda Hantrais focuses on two ways in which social security provisions may be affected by Brexit: the social security rights of EU migrants to the UK, where EU institutions have come to play an important coordinating role; and, the social protection rights of British officials working for EU institutions, where benefits and employers' contributions are paid from the EU administrative budget to which the UK contributes

Comparing European reactions to Covid-19: why policy decisions must be informed by reliable and contextualised evidence

How meaningful, reliable and useful are the comparisons being made by the media and politicians of the impact of Covid-19 on different EU member states? Linda Hantrais examines how the value of comparisons for policymaking within the EU can be improved. She argues that analysis of information about the numbers of Covid-19 cases, deaths and policy measures should take account of the reasons for variations in national and regional policy responses, and their outcomes

Containing COVID, part 3. Learning (or not) from past crises

Historians of previous pandemics and crises offered lessons on how to deal with COVID-19, write Linda Hantrais (LSE) and Susanne MacGregor (LSHTM), though they were not always heeded

Incorporating complexity into policy learning: the case of COVID-19 in Europe

Across the three waves of the Covid-19 pandemic that hit European countries in the space of twelve months, outcome indicators for Covid-19 cases and deaths diverged, as did policy responses. Linda Hantrais and Susanne MacGregor examine evidence about what societies and their institutions could have learnt from each other and from their own experiences during successive waves of the pandemic. They ask whether policy learning seemed to be more effective in some societies than in others, and if so why

Women’s Choices in Europe: Striking the Work-life Balance

The article presents evidence from interviews in France, Spain and Poland to explore how individual actors make choices about their work-life balance. It shows that choice is a complex, contingent, and relative concept, which is both facilitated and obstructed by public policies and working regulations. Despite differences in national and sub-national policy contexts, institutional and cultural norms and expectations, the article draws the conclusion that family-friendly issues need to be mainstreamed and that the concerns of families should be added to those of the state, trade unions and employers on the agenda for negotiating work-life balance. It is also argued that the focus and scope of industrial relations need to be rethought to take account of the gendered nature of employment relationships

Containing COVID, part 4. The limits of knowledge exchange

It is tempting to think that we can learn lessons from how other countries have handled COVID-19, and from studying those outcomes. But, warn Linda Hantrais (LSE) and Susanne MacGregor (LSHTM), we should avoid drawing simplistic conclusions

Containing COVID, part 2. The problem of unreliable and incompatible evidence

Calculating and comparing COVID-19 death rates is not a simple matter. Linda Hantrais (LSE) and Susanne MacGregor (LSHTM) explain why, and how these complex processes enabled public figures, journalists and social media users to spread misleading information

Containing COVID, part 1. First things first: the difficulty of building an evidence base

Unprecedented cooperation meant that scientists quickly built a picture of the novel coronavirus. Yet the evidence they accumulated should not be taken at face value. Linda Hantrais (LSE) and Susanne MacGregor (LSHTM) introduce a series about the challenges of learning from statistical datasets and other scientific evidence

International Social Research Methods case studies: supporting materials

A number of books provide an overview of the many aspects of researching in international contexts, and several have become classics in the theoretical and methods literature. The works listed below are grouped according to their disciplinary field