Conference Agenda

With population ageing and generational divides structuring themselves around new, salient issues, understanding how solidarity between different generations can be fostered is essential for social cohesion and the viability of the generational contract in the welfare state. The arena where we most frequently interact across generations is the family, and the personal experiences in this sphere can give insight into other generations’ viewpoints and increase the willingness to support them. However, the role of inter-generational family ties in informing attitudes towards and solidarity with other age groups has rarely been taken into account when studying opinion formation.

This paper investigates how attitudes towards and solidarity with other age groups relate to the existence and strength of inter-generational family ties with people in these age groups. Specifically, it utilizes data from the rotating modules on ageism and attitudes on welfare provision from the fourth round of European Social Survey to examine how attitudes towards people in their 20ies and their 70ies relate to having family members in these age groups.

The analysis is threefold: First, I examine whether the different questions on attitudes towards people in their 20ies and in their 70ies measure the same or different underlying dimensions. Second, I investigate the relationship between attitudes towards people in certain age groups and i) the existence of family ties to people in these age groups, ii) the strength of these ties. Third, I examine if attitudes towards other age groups are related to attitudes on redistribution in the welfare state specifically aimed at these age groups.

The paper has three key findings corresponding to the three parts of the analysis: (1) the heuristics people use when forming attitudes towards different age groups vary: when forming opinion on people in their 20ies, contribution to economy and costumes and values are linked with overall feeling towards the group. In contrast, these items are not linked for older adults. (2) Individuals tend to hold more positive attitudes towards their own age group but both existence and strength of ties to family members in other age groups relates positively to respondents’ feelings towards these groups. (3) Positive attitudes towards certain age-groups are linked to support for redistribution of resources to these groups.

The study contributes (1) to the understanding of how both the existence and the strength of inter-generational family ties relate to attitudes towards other age groups and (2) by investigating if these relations are interlinked with attitudes on redistribution within the welfare state. Overall, it provides knowledge on the link between family ties, ageism, and support for welfare policies in ageing democracies.

There is an ongoing debate about the factors fostering engagement in and volunteering for civil society organizations (CSOs). Some studies emphasize socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age or education and socio-economic status (Wilson, 2000). Other studies try to relate civic participation and volunteering to individual level attitudinal and behavioural factors (Reznik, 2016). Also, it has been shown that levels of volunteering for CSOs vary considerably across countries (Wollebæk, Seller, 2010, Enjolras, 2021). These findings show that volunteering for not-for-profit and charitable organizations is a complex, multi-layered process that might be influenced by different micro and macro level factors. In this paper we use data from European Social Survey Round 10 to investigate patterns of volunteering for non-for-profit and charitable organizations across European countries focusing on two aspects: (1) levels of cross-national variation, and (2) relative importance of the individual and country level determinants on participation in voluntary work at non-for-profit and charitable organizations. In order to account for cross-country and individual level variation of volunteering for non-for-profit and charitable organizations around Europe we employ multilevel modelling. The results show that individual level factors (most notably, active participation in politics and religious services) are important factors explaining levels of volunteering for non-for-profit and charitable organizations across analysed European countries. However, an important part of the variation of the studied phenomenon is also explained by country effects and lends itself to further investigation. The paper was developed under the project RECONECT, funded by Research Council of Lithuania (no. SV3-127).

This paper aims to provide a cultural explanation for the rise of cohabitation of the last decades in Europe. For doing so I approach this phenomenon from the field of historical legacies of pre-industrial family systems. The literature regarding the history of marriage and cohabitation points that, before the institutionalization of marriage, different characteristics on the family systems and family norms (such as co-residence of parents with their adult children, dowry or inheritance) were relevant to explain why some regions in Europe had a higher use of cohabitation (called back them informal marriage). Regarding the current rise of this practice, the Second Demographic Transition theory (SDT) has pointed the ideational change towards individualism and anti-conformism is the main cause of the rise of cohabitation. And, not surprisingly, the literature about legacies of historical family systems recently connected preindustrial family features (such as number of generations living in the same household) with the persistence of the values and attitudes that seem to be linked to the recent changes in family formation. These 3 literatures highlight the potential of the field of historical legacies of family to explain current family behavior such as cohabitation. Which is the goal of this paper.

Emmanuel Todd (1996) provided a clear classification of historical family systems in Europe and a theory to explain why these systems are linked to the different persistent ideologies in different European regions. By using his data and theory I provide an empirical study that connects statistically the features of the pre-industrial family systems with current levels of cohabitation. I count with data for 14 European countries at sub national level, Nuts3 (province), for the census of 2001 and 2011, and the waves 3 and 9 of the European Social Survey (at levels Nuts 1, 2 and 3), I control for GDP and tertiary education, as well as Country F.I. I test first for the cross-sectional correlations between historical family and the current levels of cohabitation; and second for the patterns of change, using survival analysis to test for the moment of rise of this practice for each family type.

Results remain significant for both the census and the ESS samples, showing that historical family structure is a good predictor of the practice of cohabitation today, and also on the patterns of adoption of this practice. Contrary to the expectations, the inheritance systems seem to be more salient than the generational composition of the household. The areas of Europe with absolute nuclear historical family types were the fist ones adopting this practice and are the ones with higher levels of cohabitation. To this group follows the areas with an Stem historical family system (extended inegalitarian). Those oppose with the Nuclear Egalitarian and Communitarian family systems, being these the ones adopting this practice the latest