This paper uses the social model of disability to examine visually impaired children's experiences of their housing and neighbourhoods and finds that they did not experience any significant problems with the design of them. The source of their problems was within these environments, and was caused by factors such as the intensity of movement, for example, from flows of traffic. We conclude by discussing the social policy implications of these findings.

The Norwegian Parliament passed new rules for child maintenance determination in 2001. This article discusses the 2001 reform, and the debate preceding it, in the light of literature on changing ‘breadwinner assumptions’ in social policy. It is argued that the reform was a clear example of the politicisation of fatherhood in Norway, in that a key concern was to encourage continued care from non-resident fathers. Much less attention was paid to the situation of custodial parents, and to children's material needs. In assuming that parents living apart will conform to the (yet unusual) dual earner/dual carer model, policy makers may be putting undue stress on vulnerable families.

This article reports the findings of a longitudinal study of the impact of government coalfield regeneration policy on the Nottinghamshire ex-mining community of Warsop Vale, whose colliery closed in 1989. Based on interviews with local residents, community development workers and representatives of regeneration agencies, the study highlights tangible improvements in community resources and the recent introduction of an innovative new housing scheme as evidence of a positive impact of government measures. Particular importance is attached to the key role of local government, the voluntary sector and regeneration agencies in carefully cultivating the local social capital and raising Warsop Vale's political profile since 1989, enabling it to seize the opportunities inherent in New Labour's coalfield policy.

This paper will present evidence from the interim results of a large scale longitudinal project designed to track the development of partnership working between the new primary care organisations (Primary Care Groups and Trusts) entrusted with the commissioning and in some cases provision of health care, and local authority social services departments, regarding health and social care services for older people in the UK. Drawing on theoretical work concerning the role of partnership working in the governance of welfare, the author uses a framework originally devised by the Nuffield Centre for Health at the University of Leeds to analyse the interim data, and to draw conclusions about the feasibility of current policy pushes towards partnership working and service integration around health and social care for older people.

There are many debates about individualisation. In this section of the journal we are most concerned to probe the nature of the concept itself and how it is gendered, and the extent to which ideas about individualisation are underpinning the extensive restructuring of social provision that has been going on in welfare states during the last decade. As a set of processes, individualisation has major implications for family formation, labour supply and gender equality. There is some evidence that policymakers' assumptions about the progress of individualisation are outrunning changes in behaviour on the part of both men and women, with particularly serious implications for women. There is also some evidence that other policy developments may lag behind women's aspirations for greater autonomy or impede their efforts to achieve greater economic independence.

‘Individualisation’ did not enter German social policy debates until the end of the 1980s. Mainstream feminists argued first in favour of individualised benefits for women, and labour market individualisation, for women as well as for men, now scores high on the German social policy agenda. Benefits and other provisions are being increasingly (re-)designed in the expectation that both men and women in households will be employed. This article briefly examines the original meaning of individualisation and the way in which it was transformed in the influential writings of Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. It then argues that the current social policy reforms in Germany reveal ambiguities in respect of individualisation which were debated in the earlier sociological literature.

This article evaluates recent transformations in social policy that reflect the tendency towards individualisation in The Netherlands. Such transformations have taken place in old age pensions, widows' pensions, social assistance and taxation, and in respect of child support following divorce. Interestingly most reforms have not resulted in ‘full individualisation’, but rather have taken into account the fact that people, in particular women, are not or cannot be assumed to be full-time adult workers. Such a ‘moderate individualisation’, however, is not without risks for women's economic independence, especially when the developments of the Dutch ‘life course perspective’ on social security are considered.

As means-tested benefits have come to occupy a more central place in the UK system of income transfers, so the goal of an individualised system seems to have receded. However, there is also a developing policy interest in the situation and status of the individual in the social welfare system. Individual assessment of labour market circumstances is central to the New Deal programmes, and the ‘partners’ of those receiving social security benefits have become a target group for policy in their own right. This article outlines the policy issues, describes the measures that have been introduced so far, compares these with the Australian moves towards ‘partial individualisation’, and discusses some key issues in the reform agenda.

Within the European Union (EU) policy framework, individualisation is cast in terms of self-sufficiency and independence, and coupled to the market activation of all individuals and groups. How will this model be translated into European societies with different histories, policy environments and political actors? I analyse how an individualised system of benefits emerged in Sweden and was anchored in the broader social policy model and discourse of participation parity. Using the Swedish example, I map out the differences between individualisation, participation parity and gender equity, each representing models with different policy goals and outcomes. In the final section of the article, I focus on retrenchment and restructuring in the Swedish welfare state and its impact on the gender participatory model.