Integrating children's perspectives in policy-making to combat poverty and social exclusion experienced by single-parent families: a transnational comparative approach

This is the final report of a research project that addressed social exclusion and poverty as it relates to single parent families and their children in particular. The rising numbers of single parent families and children throughout the EU and the increased likelihood that these families will live in poverty and experience many different forms of social exclusion in their daily lives brings in sharp focus the need to address the issue as an urgent one in our efforts to eradicate poverty and social exclusion. The focus on the children of single parent families seeks to rectify a long-standing problem in our knowledge and understanding of single parent families and the social problems they face, namely, the fact that little, if anything, is known about how these children experience and understand their lives as members of these families. The research set out to contribute to policy development and the transnational exchange of best practice by adding a much-neglected dimension on single parent families. The project used a cross-national comparative qualitative research design and methods (Mangen 1999) which involved all partners in the design of each research phase including the analysis; partners were England, Cyprus and Greece

Pythagoras project: Development of an innovative training package on Indoor Environment Quality

The aim of the Pythagoras project is the development and assessment of Greek national training material in the sector of indoor environmental quality. The need for education in this specific sector is dictated by the significant indoor environment deterioration and associated health hazards, which are caused by low ventilation levels, combined with the use of many modern building materials that aggravate pollutants emissions. Early in the project, a review is undertaken of the international literature and the syllabuses of foreign research and educational institutions active in indoor environment quality issues. At the same time, the requirements of the Greek educational and broader society, related to issues of indoor pollution and health, are determined. A training methodology is consequently developed, with the objective to optimally cover all the parameters associated with the indoor environment quality, for trainees of various disciplines. The training material is produced both in printed (book) and integrated electronic (e-learning) format. Additionally, four seminars are organized covering the respective sections of the training package. The training package is being assessed both by the trainees but also by international experts in the sector of indoor environment quality

Flexibility and security: an asymmetrical relationship? The uncertain relevance of flexicurity policies for segmented labour markets and residual welfare regimes

Against a background of growing international competition and of pervasive uncertainty and fluidity, flexicurity policies are being actively promoted in the EU policy agenda as a useful policy tool to address the needs of business to respond to rapid changes, while providing workers with a safety net. On one hand, businesses need to be able to adjust to new challenges and improve their competitiveness. On the other, the European social model needs to be reinforced and provide workers with protection, but also opportunities, in a volatile and threatening environment. The flexicurity model seems to provide the link between these seemingly incompatible goals. However, some critical questions arise as to the universal relevance of this model: 1.Is the flexicurity model the only way forward to achieve ecoomic efficiency for business and adequate protection or workers? What is the cost of not introducing flexicurity measures in an economy that struggles to remain competitive? 2.Can flexicurity policies (however broad their scope) be adjusted to fit in with the idiosyncrasies of widely varied national and institutional backgrounds, whilst retaining their main characteristics? 3.Does the flexicurity trade-off by definition always lead to a "win-win situation" for all the actors involved, regardless of the national context? The aim of this work is to address the above questions, as well as to shed some light on four particular aspects of the flexicurity agenda and the concurrent debate: 1.The flexicurity policy agenda is based on an asymmetrical relationship, as it involves a trade-off between unequal partners, with winners and losers both across, as well as within the ranks of the social actors; 2.The flexicurity model is not a "one-size-fits-all" model, as there exist huge national differences that need to be taken into consideration in the process of policy implementation; 3.The importance of institutional and cultural factors (for example, the institutional background, the consensus culture, the level of trust, indiidual and collective expectations from the future) in the implementation of flexicurity policies are often over-shadowed by economic and political considerations; 4.Alternative policy agendas need to be established that are more tailored to the needs and the idiosyncrasies of particular national contexts. Special attention in this paper is devoted to the question whether flexicurity policies can be successfully promoted in a national context characterised by segmented labour markets and widespread atypical and often unregulated employment, sub-protective welfare systems, a weak social consultation tradition, and the defensive responses of business to the challenges of globalisation. To this end, a considerable part of the work compares the experience of adopting flexibility and security measures in 4 EU countries (chosen on the basis of their distinct employment and welfare regimes and their vastly different degree of endorsement of flexicurity policies in their national policy agendas): 2 success stories - Denmark and the Netherlands- on one hand, and 2 reluctant supporters- Spain and Greece- on the other. The purpose of this comparative approach is to highlight the importance of institutional factors, as well as the (often under-estimated) key role of social attitudes and norms, in determining the direction and outcome of particular welfare and labour market initiatives. The first 5 sections of this work provide an overview of the main components of the flexicurity policy agenda, as spelled out in detail by the EU documents and as implemented on the terrain in the two success stories, Denmark and the Netherlands. Sections 6, 7 and 8 attempt a comparative analysis of the impact of the national context (economic, social, institutional and cultural) on the outcome of the flexicurity agenda in the 4 countries under consideration. Finally, section 9 discusses the main findings of the report and questions the relevance of the flexicurity agenda in times of growing uncertainty and global economic crisis

Flexible working Towards further degradation of work or escaping from stereotypes?

SIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Health in crises. Migration, austerity and inequalities in Greece and Europe: introduction to the supplement

This introduction summarizes and discusses the main findings of the supplement ‘Health in crises. Migration, austerity and inequalities in Greece and Europe’ to the European Journal of Public Health. The supplement applies data from the ESS (2014) health module in combination with the MIGHEAL study, which is a new source of data on the Greek population specially designed to examine health inequalities among and between migrants and natives. This has enabled the authors of the nine articles that constitute this supplement to address several pressing issues about the distribution of health and its determinants in Greece and other European countries. The main finding of the present supplement is the exceptionally high rates of reported depressive symptoms across the whole population residing in Greece and particularly among women. Levels of unmet need for healthcare were also found to be alarmingly high in Greece compared with other European countries, suggesting that the crisis and subsequent austerity policies may have impacted the provision of healthcare services and access to healthcare for broad sections of the population, whether native or migrant.publishedVersion© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Training for the Indoor Environmental Quality

The aim of the specific paper is to present the methodology followed for the development of a training package in the field of indoor environmental quality. The need for education in this specific sector is dictated by the significant indoor environment problem and associated health hazards as these become evident through a series of studies and measurements. A training methodology is developed and the overall training material is structured in thirteen modules covering all the parameters associated with the indoor environment quality, for trainees of various disciplines. The training modules were evaluated through questionnaires distributed in the framework of indoor environmental quality seminarsJRC.I.2-Chemical assessment and testin