Daniela
Grunow, University of Amsterdam, and Marie Evertsson, SOFI, Stockholm
University, introduced the transPARENT comparative framework at the
EQUALSOC FAMNET meeting in Berlin in May 2009. At that point, the
collaboration included the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. At the
meeting, researchers from Italy and Spain decided to joining the
Network. Italy and Spain are welfare states that traditionally rely on
family and kinship networks rather than the state to provide care and
security and as such welfare states, they make for an interesting
comparison to the conservative (Germany and the Netherlands) and the
social-democratic (Sweden) welfare state regimes.
The foundation for the cross-national collaboration in the transPARENT framework was laid in Germany in 2005 (
link).
Today qualitative data from two waves of interviews1 are compiled.
Comparable qualitative data also exist for the Netherlands (NKPS mini
panel, Wiesmann, see http://www.nkps.nl/NKPSEN/nkps.htm). Sweden
entered the project in 2009 and data from the first round of interviews
have now been collected. The follow up interviews take place starting
in the fall of 2010.
In 2009-10 the Spanish and Italian projects received funding and in
April 2010 the first transPARENT workshop was held. The workshop served
3 main goals:
• To start up a cross-national collaboration and sketch a work-plan.
• Discuss the guidelines used for the qualitative interviews
in order to minimize discrepancies and ensure comparability between
countries.
• Create an inventory of available longitudinal and cross-sectional data for all countries included.
The first wave of interviews with nascent parents in Italy and Spain are made in summer/autumn 2010.
In June 2010 Daniela Grunow was nominated for an ERC starting grant for
the research project “Transition to parenthood: International and
national studies of norms and gender division of work at the life
course transition to parenthood (APPARENT).” From January 2011 to
December 2015, directed by Daniela Grunow and based on continuing
collaboration with the partners from the transPARENT Network, the
longitudinal and multi-method approach will be developed further. The
APPARENT project will collect data on several post-socialist countries,
such as Poland and the Czech Republic, following the rigorous design of
the German qualitative pilot study.
Marie Evertsson is the project leader of the Swedish Research team.
This group consists of Katarina Boye, Stockholm University, together
with Jenny Ahlberg and Christine Roman, Örebro University. The
project “Between dream and reality. International and national
studies of parenting and work from a gender perspective” is
financed through a three year grant from the Swedish Research Council
(Dnr: VR 2008-1816).
The Spanish project is a collaboration between seven universities and
research institutions and is based in four large cities; Barcelona,
Madrid, Pamplona and Sevilla. The research group consists of
María José González, Teresa Jurado-Guerrero, Paco
Abril, Carmen Botía, Teresa Castro, Marta Domínguez,
Irene Lapuerta, Teresa Martín, Jordi Monferrer, Alfons Romero,
Marta Seiz and Sílvia Claveria. The first project
“Co-responsibility before and after the birth of the first child
in Spain” is a three-year study financed by the Spanish
Women’s Institute (43/09) and the second one “Employment
and Family Decisions in the transition to the first child in
Europe” is financed through a three-year grant from the Ministry
of Science and Innovation (CSO2010-17811).
The Italian research group is based at the University of Turin,
Department of Social Sciences. Members are Sonia Bertolini, Manuela
Naldini, Paola Torrioni, Cristina Solera and Rosy Musumeci. The Italian
research team received an 18 months grant from CRT (Cassa Risparmio
Torino) Foundation for a Master of Excellence on the project
“Transition to Parenthood. Pregnancy, Motherhood and Services.
The study of case of Turin”.