Reconciling Family and Work in Central and Eastern European Countries

This paper presents an alternative view of work-family policies and looks especially at how families in different European countries are addressing issues of reconciliation between work and family at the present time. This relational differentiation influences the make-up of the sub-systems of family and work by creating new forms of interchange. These interchanges, which entail a mutual referencing code that enables the specialization of the interrelations between the sub-systems, are characterized by spill-over functions. This paper aims to address the questions of how - and toward which model (functional– or relational- differentiation) - the situation in Europe is evolving, questions which are ever more pressing in Europe’s current social and political climate. As new countries join the European Union, a change in both balances and structures, as well as a commitment on the part of member nations to modify existing polices and to develop new policies and legislative apparatus in accordance with an EU master plan regarding work-family issues, is taking place. Thus, this paper highlights emerging tendencies regarding family and work on the personal as well as the policy level in Central and Eastern Europe.