ABSTRACT

Social policy in modern industrialised societies is increasingly challenged by new social risks. These include insecure employment resulting from ever more volatile labour markets, new family and gender relationships resulting from the growing participation of women in the labour market, and the many problems resulting from very much longer human life expectancy. Whereas once social policy had to be in step with a standardised, relatively stable and predictable life course, it now has to cope with non-standardised individual preferences, life courses and families, and the consequent increased risks and uncertainties. This book examines these new life courses and their impact on social policy across a range of East Asian societies. It shows how governments and social welfare institutions have been slow to respond to the new challenges. In response, we propose a life-course sensitised policy as an approach to manage these risks. Overall, the book provides many new insights which will assist advance social policy in East Asia.

chapter 1|20 pages

New life courses and social risks

Implications for social policy in East Asia

part I|54 pages

Changes in transitions

chapter 2|17 pages

Extended transitions to adulthood in Japan

Labour market flexibilization and the weakness of social security for young people

chapter 4|17 pages

Will dreams come true?

The transformation of social inequality structures in Cambodia: experiences of a new generation of youth managing the uncertainties of their life course

part II|55 pages

Competing demands

chapter 5|18 pages

Reconciling work and family in Taiwan

Problems and policies

chapter 6|17 pages

The double responsibilities of care in Japan

Emerging new social risks for women providing both childcare and care for the elderly

part III|69 pages

Alternative ways of living

chapter 8|16 pages

Families at risk

The lived experience of lone mothers in Hong Kong

chapter 9|18 pages

The material contradictions of proletarian patriarchy in South Korea's condensed capitalist industrialization

The instability in the working life course of male breadwinners and its familial ramifications

chapter 10|17 pages

Re-employment after retirement

Activation strategies for older people in Taiwan

part IV|18 pages

Towards a life-course sensitized social policy

chapter 12|16 pages

Life-course sensitized policy as risk management

Directions and strategies in East Asia