Our third working paper examines whether and how social policy can be effective in supporting family resilience. The concept of resilience is increasingly used in European policy making but there is little clarity in how this can apply to families. In this paper we advance this through formulating the first version of the inequalities in (family) resilience framework, that differentiates between two distinct types of inequalities: inequalities in who experiences risks, and inequalities in how well people and families are resourced to respond to those risks. Based on that, we select and analyse a number of policies and examine their potential for supporting family resilience across European countries, with a special focus on Belgium, Croatia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and (to the extent that data availability allows) the United Kingdom. This examination will be based on a critical literature review and descriptive visualisations of (quantitative) indicators of social policy. This is followed by two policy case-studies used to demonstrate and test the framework developed here. The final section concludes and formulates recommendations and considerations to further develop family resilience in a policy context.
Authors: Rense Nieuwenhuis, Max Thaning, Wim Van Lancker, Alzbeta Bartova, Lovisa Backman