No abstract

This article provides an empirical examination of how lone mothers who receive state benefits in Germany and Britain create meaning with regards to mothering and state dependency. It uses the concept of individualisation as it requires women to negotiate their own lives. But the concept of individualisation is limited as it insinuates a convergence in men's and women's work identities and aspirations and is in danger of reducing women's identity to their ‘family-work’ preferences that does not encompass the complexity of their lives. The article has both a methodological claim and a substantive claim: Methodologically, it explores how new type categories can be used as an analytical tool to help us understand how lone mothers create meaning and to make sense of the differences between the mothers’ complex identities. Substantively, these type categories demonstrate that there are great variations and dynamics in mothers’ identities despite their state dependency. Based on lone mothers’ perceived choices and constraints they are categorised as pioneers, copers or strugglers. The pioneers view their situation as an opportunity to construct their lives actively in non-traditional ways. In contrast, the coper and the struggler types perceive a lack of choices and tend to have traditional gender role values. While copers view their situation as temporary and improvable, strugglers feel overwhelmed by constraints and perceive themselves to have no choices at all. This article discusses the construction and the characteristics of these categories while detailed case studies bring each type category to life and give them more substance. The data analysis also shows that besides values, lone mothers’ structural background as well as the number and age of their children seems to be related to lone mothers’ creation of meaning.

No abstract

No abstract

Adopting an ethnographic approach, this paper analyses the interpretation, application and consequences of the most relevant tool for the protection of victims’ rights in the European Union – the so-called Victims’ Rights Directive (Directive 2012/29/EU). The analysis is grounded on multi-sited fieldwork that includes 106 in-depth interviews with professionals working with victim support in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain. The results unravel the perspectives and experiences of the professionals working on the ground and the uneven implementation of the Directive across the EU and in highly diverse contexts. The analysis shows the tensions and deficits in its implementation that are inseparable from the social construction of the ‘ideal victim’ that informs the prioritising of support. This paper will evidence how the ‘hierarchisation of victims’ is echoed in the unequal transposition and implementation of the Directive throughout the EU, from law enforcement agencies to prosecution, courts and victim support.