• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.5-30
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• 2010

This paper offers an alternative approach to measure the welfare state change by using fuzzy-set methodology. The fuzzy-set method is particularly useful for assessing change across a limited number of cases, and that it can help to translate interval fuzzy membership scores into verbal qualifiers. Applying the measurement of welfare state change, four sets(accessibility, generosity, activation, state's care responsibility) in two dimensions(old and new social risks) have been identified, which reflect theoretical importance. The analysis sets out fuzzy membership scores for 12 OECD countries in the 16 possible welfare state ideal types. This paper found that each country has its own strategies to deal with the changes, however, the changes are not dramatic or a qualitative one. This does not mean that there are no changes, but that are no paradigm shifts or path breaking in the welfare state changes.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.51-79
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• 2013

This study was done to find out how women acquire their work citizenship through work-family reconciliation policies from the point of view of labour right and care right. This study investigated how labour right and care right, established by work-family reconciliation policies, are organized on a national level through the methods of socialization of the care such as the strategies of familization, de-familization, commodication and decommodication because paid labour and unpaid care work can be concretely embodied by such strategies. Actually in the care systems in the UK and Sweden, gender roles related to the responsibility for care was assumed differently. For that reason, the socialization of the care in these countries have been developed in a different way. And different results have been created from the two different countries in labour rights and care righst of man and women. The matter whether a society regards a woman as a laborer or caregiver especially has been an important starting point for the way in which social sharing of care develops. Work-family reconciliation policies stated in this study are very important factors. We can understand that care is not simply a duty of a man or a woman but an important human desire, which has to be granted to both a man and a woman as one of their own individual rights.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.137-161
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• 2012

Traditionally, caring for young children and the elderly has been largely assumed and practiced intensively within the family in Korea. The Korean government established residual protection systems for the elderly as well as children whose needs could not be met by their family members alone. However, in the 21st century, a number of social forces have made it necessary to expand the state's intervention in the care provisions. The primary forces include the ageing process, low fertility, change in the women's labour market participation, changes in the family formation and dissolution, and changes in the people's perceptions of familial responsibilities regarding caring for other family members. This paper employs and further develops the idea of the care diamond conceived by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Project in relation to the political and social economy of care and applies it to Korea's social care expansions. The analysis demonstrates that the roles of the public and the market sector, in case of child care, increased while those of the third sector decreased. Apropos of the elderly care, the role of the market expanded dramatically, followed by that of and the state and the third sector. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the fundamental characteristics of Korea's care provision for children and the elderly have remained unchanged and even strengthened where the elderly care is concerned. The bulk of personal care demand is still met within the family, particularly by female members of the household.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.169-193
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• 2013

This paper examines how a social investment approach can be applied in a comparative analysis of childcare arrangements. We compared changes in Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, Japan and Korea during the 2000s, focusing on four dimensions of social investment: activation, gender equality, quality of care, and the degree of state's intervention in the family. We considered leave systems and the number of children enrolled in formal care and education facilities as indicators for labour market activation. For gender equality, women's position in employment is considered with respect to labour market participation rates, proportion of permanent employment, and wage-sex ratio. Quality of care concerns child-to-staff ratio and care provided with government quality control. The state's intervention was measured as social spending on families as proportions of GDP and total social spending. Our analysis provides empirical evidence that Sweden and France are pioneers in this arena and that the UK, Germany, Korea, and Japan are path-shifters in their care paradigms, albeit to varying degrees. Is the social investment approach an adequate paradigm for care? In a normative sense, this approach has potential. However, the following issues remain unaddressed: gender equality should be achieved through an expansion in good-quality jobs, fathers should be encouraged to take on childcare duties, and families should have universal access to good-quality childcare services controlled by the government.