Abstract This paper explores how political actors select reform pathways in the context of institutional hybridity, with an analysis of the cognitive and normative foundations of reform plans. Focusing on two healthcare reform plans approved by Irish governments between 2011-17, I seek to explain why political actors proposed divergent reform paths, building on different elements of the existing system. I account for the content of reform plans by analysing political actor’ accounts of the development of and context surrounding the reform plans. I conduct thematic analysis on interview data, official documents and political debates, along with secondary literature and media articles. I find that, in line with expectations derived from sociological institutionalist scholarship on hybridity, cognition and logics of appropriateness, existing hybrid institutional arrangements and changes in their legitimacy as bases for reform have considerable influence on political actors’ selection of reform plans. I also find that culture and political ideology shape the programmes, though to a lesser extent and less consistently.
Abstract Personal political interest is key to being an active citizen in a democracy, but not everyone develops it equally. Although higher education is often seen as a main factor in promoting political engagement, recent studies have questioned how much it really matters, pointing instead to self-selection and field-specific educational experiences. This study brought together several theories and applied growth curve analysis using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) to examine how academic disciplines affect political interest over time. We found that political interest differed by discipline, but these differences changed only modestly over time. In terms of absolute levels, cultural fields showed the highest, followed by STEM and business fields, and lastly service fields. Regarding trajectories, cultural fields showed the greatest growth, followed closely by STEM and service fields. Business fields displayed a surprising U-shaped growth, suggesting a complex interplay between self-selection and discipline-specific socialization. Persistent gender gaps across disciplines further indicated that higher education alone did not overcome structural disadvantages. Overall, our findings challenge simplified assumptions about the politicizing role of higher education and highlight the importance of pre-college characteristics and context-specific pathways in individual political development.
ABSTRACT This introduction frames child disability as a relational and socially embedded phenomenon whose consequences extend beyond children to parents, siblings, kin networks and household trajectories. Bringing together evidence from several European societies, the special issue moves beyond child-centred approaches to examine how disability reshapes family life through caregiving demands, time use, paid work, economic security, fertility and well-being. A central theme is that disability-related disadvantage is produced not only by impairment or diagnosis, but by social, economic and policy contexts that can either amplify or mitigate family spillovers. The contributions in this issue also highlight how families adapt by reorganising care, employment, leisure and family practices, while often confronting unequal access to services, income support and inclusive environments. Overall, the special issue contributes to a relational and comparative sociology of disability by showing how child disability intersects with family life, social inequality and European welfare institutions.
Abstract This study investigates how class origin shapes the post-political career trajectories of Norwegian political elites. Building on theories of horizontal elite circulation and the notion of political capital, I ask whether politicians from privileged backgrounds are better able to convert the social and symbolic resources accumulated in office into top-level positions in other sectors. Using anonymous register data that cover the entire Norwegian population, I identify former ministers, state secretaries, and members of parliament who left top-level politics between 2003 and 2017. Sequence analysis and hierarchical clustering reveals six prototypical career pathways. Regression models show that upper-class origins significantly increase the probability of entering the private sector or organized-interest elite, while working-class politicians are overrepresented among those who exit political elite positions for a few years, only to return again. Educational attainment and occupational experience does not account for this pattern, suggesting that class-based habitus and credibility as holders of political capital operate independently of formal qualifications. Moreover, the results are interpreted as differences in the sectoral demand for political capital: it is highly valued in the private and organized-interest sectors but less so in the public bureaucracy. The findings demonstrate that elite circulation is stratified by class: upper-class origins facilitate the conversion of political capital into stable, high-status careers, whereas political elites with working-class social origins tend to remain within the precarious realm of elected office. This underscores the enduring role of class origin in reproducing power hierarchies even within a comparatively egalitarian context such as Norway.
ABSTRACT In this paper, we examine how parental employment arrangements and household income shape leisure time and well-being in families raising children with disabilities, compared with families with typically developing children. Using newly collected data from Italy in the spring of 2023, we find that parents of children with disabilities are more likely to engage in remote work and reduce their working hours. Despite sharing similar socio-economic characteristics with families of typically developing children, they report less leisure time during work and school weeks, yet exhibit a strong tendency to take summer holidays. The well-being of parents of children with disabilities appears to be tied to opportunities for shared leisure time and the possibility to work.
