This edited text sets out to present a comparative analysis of the changes to social policy and welfare across Europe with particular reference to the impact on citizenship. In so doing, it strives to adopt a multilevel and interdisciplinary approach to inform this comparative analysis. Causes of change are examined from a macro level, for example with the shift from Fordist to post-Fordist arrangements, institutional welfare (with an emphasis on flexible labour markets), changing family structures, changes in the life-cycle, and changes at the individual (actor) level. All of this, it is argued, is resulting in new relationships between welfare states and their consumers, which are changing in the nature of citizenship.

Within this framework, this book sets out to answer the following questions:

• • To what extent do welfare states undergo profound change?

• • Is the welfare state [or welfare states] moving in qualitatively different directions?

• • What generates change?

• • What are the outcomes of change in terms of social cohesion?

The book's structure is one where the first chapters (Chapters 2–4) concentrate on the trend towards individualisation and what this means for social welfare and citizens. This is followed by a number of chapters which explore new varieties of citizenship in terms of work, migration, gender, active citizenship (‘activation’), and older people. In all of the chapters, examples and context are provided from one or more of four geographic areas: the UK, France, Denmark and the Nordic countries generally.

Following a useful introductory chapter setting out this argument, Chapter 2 very clearly outlines the changing goals of social policy, in part using the example of how tax and benefits and tax payers and benefit recipients have been reconstructed: ‘In reality, means-tested conditionality for the poorer-off is generally accompanied by concealed public subsidies through the tax system which help the better-off to purchase their own protection’ (citing Sinfield, 2005: 23). This leads to a redefining of fairness – no longer a concept of collective sharing, but, instead, a calculation made by each individual of whether ‘they get out what they have put in’.

In Chapter 3, the theme of the reframing of social justice is further developed by asking whether European welfare states, and the EU itself, will promote social inclusion by emphasising either social justice for all or solely for the most needy or most deserving. It argues that neo-liberal economic globalisation has led to a transformation of European welfare systems on at least two dimensions:

• • Deregulation, privatisation and marketisation,

• • Shift from social justice to economic investment (the productive role of welfare).

Such changes, it is argued, may lead to a greater risk of societal fragmentation in terms of poverty and social exclusion. The chapter concludes by arguing for ‘quality citizenship’ rather than a minimum standards definition of citizenship. Social quality requires four conditions: socio-economic security, social inclusion, social cohesion and social empowerment. This model will only be realised if those responsible for European social policy raise their horizons above the minimum, economic deterministic vista. It is, therefore, a political rather than a technical matter.

In Chapter 4 it is argued that social policy analysts would benefit from adopting a life-course perspective when analysing welfare policy changes and their impact on individuals; that is, the usual two-dimensional analysis of citizens' economic status as wage earners and welfare recipients. A concern with protection against risk needs to add a third dimension – a life-course approach taking account of three key stages: education pre-work; work during adulthood; and retirement during old age. Taking this approach, the chapter suggests how the welfare state might be reconfigured in order to protect individuals in the flexible life courses that they now experience.

Chapters 5–14 analyse the redefining of welfare and citizenship as it applies to work, ethnicity, gender and in relation to particular European states. Chapter 5 tackles ‘unemployment and welfare policy’ and, as part of this, provides a useful elaboration and clarification of citizenship, not least in terms of its multi-layered meanings within a European context. Indeed, this chapter is a useful run through of key aspects of the social and political discourse of citizenship. This is followed by a discussion in Chapter 6 of how European states are witnessing the influx of new social groups of migrants without legal status and, therefore, excluded the status of citizenship and access to the accompanying social rights.

Chapters 7–9 deal with ‘activation’. Chapters 8–9 focus on activation policy as applied in Denmark in relation to labour market participation. In Chapter 9 this is used to explore the ways that citizenship is being individualised. Chapter 7 presents a comparative account of how the slogan of activation (the link between social protection and being active in the labour market) has been used across Europe, specifically within the UK and Denmark. While the term has gained prominence, it has not been applied uniformly, with both liberal and universalist interpretations. In relation to France for example, there is an integration of both interpretations. It is illustrated that a Pan-European uniform definition of citizenship is not yet emerging.

Chapter 10 considers gender equality in relation to citizenship within the context of welfare state restructuring. It is argued that we have seen a greater integration of women into the labour market, the core institution for social integration in European welfare states. However, at the same time, we have witnessed an increase in individualisation and changes in the organisation of care – which complicates any analysis of changes to women's social position and experience of citizenship. Importantly, it is noted that any analysis of gender equality/inequality is further complicated by the inter-relationship with class and ethnicity inequalities.

Chapter 11 takes up the issue of gender and citizenship specifically in relation to: who is responsible for providing childcare; what is the place of childcare in defining citizenship; and how do we define citizenship in relation to active labour market participation and responsibilities for providing childcare. It argues that we have witnessed examples of welfare states in which there is recognition of the split between ‘citizen worker’ and ‘state as carer’ and other welfare states which have recognised the fluidity between work and care whereby citizens move between fulfilling their responsibilities to be active in labour markets and their responsibilities to provide care. It is suggested that what has, arguably, emerged is a new social ‘right’ – the right to give care.

Chapters 12–13 focus on the outcomes of early retirement or exit from labour markets in Nordic countries and the UK respectively. Chapter 12 concentrates particularly on the impact of early retirement on social integration (normally achieved my involvement in labour markets, i.e. through work), while Chapter 13 reviews the patterns of early exit over the last 29 years and its impact on social exclusion and marginalisation. Chapter 13 also examines the more recent phenomenon of (re)integration of older workers into the labour market. This phenomenon, it is argued, has been due to the twin pressures on national governments of demographic change and European Union directives on equal treatment.

The text also addresses the changes to governance arrangements, not least in terms of the changing roles of social actors and how they inter-relate with one another. Contemporary welfare states operate at multiple tiers, including local, national and supranational levels. At the same time, the relationships between public and private domains, the rise of civil society and the impact of grass roots movements all impact on the changing nature of governance structures. In this context, Chapter 14 explores the emergence and impact of the different voices that have traditionally been the ‘victims’ of financial and social exclusion by looking at social security claimants in Norway. Chapter 15 successfully brings the analysis throughout the book together, drawing on preceding discussions of the impact of individualisation, varieties of active citizenship – including issues retirement and caring – and what this all means for welfare regimes.

The book overall succeeds in analysing the nature of welfare provision and what that means for citizenship in terms of: discourse, rights and obligations, participation, and role perception – that is the perception that citizens have of their own role. It is suggested that within these four dimensions of citizenship, citizens have moved from being passive to active in terms of being more autonomous, ‘self-responsible’, flexible and mobile. Citizens are no longer passive and constrained by traditional roles and responsibilities. Rather, citizens now operate within a context of greater individualism. I wonder, however, whether this change is over-stated. One can argue, for example from the work of Ellison (Reference Ellison1997, Reference Ellison1999) on variegated citizenship, Lister (Reference Lister1997) on differentiate citizenship, or Dwyer (Reference Dwyer1998, Reference Dwyer2000) on conditional citizenship, that such individualism (indeed, the fruits of citizenship in the round) is not shared and enjoyed by all citizens. The book also suggests that the redefining of citizenship has been contradictory: the changes to social policy and welfare regimes have meant that some elements of citizenship have been weakened whilst other aspects have been enhanced. The authors use the example of social rights and participation (political rights a la T. H. Marshall (Reference Marshall, Marshall and Bottomore1950)). Personally, I would disagree on the precise detail here in that, at least within a UK context, it is possible to argue that we have witnessed a diminution of certain social rights (for example in relation to social care) but an enhancement of political and civil rights (see Daly, Reference Daly2001).