In the era of globalisation, family policies and social care services are at the intersection of increasingly diverse family situations and complex welfare state environments. This project contributes to Norface Call themes 1,2, and 5; People, Inequalities/diversity, and Shifting responsibilities, and will compare policies and family-based social work in different family policy regimes and service areas: child welfare, drug/alcohol abuse, migrating families and disabilities. The purpose is to analyse how social workers across different contexts understand notions of family and how they describe their own practices and outcomes with families. This study uses empirical data from eight countries (Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Chile, Mexico, Lithuania and Bulgaria) representing four different family policy regimes (de-familialised, partly de-familialised, familialised and re-familialised). Existing data relevant to family policies from Eurostat, the OECD and other databases will be used. Additional national statistics and documents detailing the organisational structure of services will be collected. Thirty two focus groups (eight countries; four service areas) will be held using semi-structured interviews and case vignettes, engaging researchers from the three university partners of Sweden, Norway and UK, with co-operation partners in the other five countries. The project will add to theoretical analyses of welfare regimes, family policy, professional discretion, and contribute methodologically to cross-national research. End-users from policy-makers to social workers will benefit from new knowledge about different conceptions of the family and how these impact services provided.

In the era of globalisation, family policies and social care services are at the intersection of increasingly diverse family situations and complex welfare state environments. This project will compare family policies and family-based social work in four different welfare systems and fundamental service areas: child welfare, drug/alcohol abuse,migrating families and disabilities. Its purpose is to analyse how social workers across different contexts understand notions of family and how they describe their own practices and outcomes with families.

This project will reconceptualise welfare theory through responding to the question of how all residents living in superdiverse neighbourhoods access healthcare. Such a focus is pertinent given increasing population complexity, heterogeneity and pace of change under globalisation, and the subsequent need to rethink welfare design, alongside issues of engagement, approachability and effectiveness. Using innovative techniques including street-mapping, community research and a mobile phone "app" alongside a neighbourhood survey, we explore the multiple approaches that residents living in superdiverse neighbourhoods use to meet their health needs, encompassing the perspectives of service users and providers. We will generate new theoretical and practical insights through the development of models of welfare bricolage: the practice by which individuals combine formal, informal and virtual health services across public, private and third sectors in an attempt to meet need. We use a comparative/sequential approach to interrogate local welfare states across eight deprived and upwardly mobile superdiverse neighbourhoods in four different national welfare states (UK, Portugal, Germany and Sweden) each with different welfare, health and migration regimes. By focussing on key features of superdiverse neighbourhoods where residents are differentiated according to faith, income (including socio-economic status), age, gender and legal status, we bring new insights with societal, practical and policy relevance. The study will illuminate inequalities and diversity in respect of individuals? relationship with healthcare, different modes of provision, and responsibilities for welfare allocation.