Domestic Reconciliation Policies and the Usages of Europe

In recent years, European institutions have promoted the development of reconciliationpolicies in an overall context where most European countries are saying 'farewellto maternalism' (Orloff 2006) and are now implementing policies aimed at helpingindividuals (especially women) to combine paid work and family responsibilities. Isit possible to consider that these changes in national reconciliation policies have beendue to EU actions in this policy field and, if so, what are the mechanisms of possibleEU influence? In section one, we review the Europeanisation literature in order tosituate our own perspective. In the second section, we present our approach in termsof 'national usages of Europe" In section three, we come back to the policy content tobe analysed, presenting the EU definitions of reconciliation policies, and reviewingthe tools we have used to situate each national case of care regimes and reconciliationpolicies. In the fourth section, we introduce our common hypotheses and the analyticalframework that is used in all the articles of this special issue. Finally, in section five,we summarise our main findings