The life cycle concept has come to have considerable prominence in Irish social policy debate. However, this has occurred without any systematic effort to link its usage to the broader literature relating to a concept. Nor has there been any detailed consideration of how we should set about operationalising the concept. In this paper we make use of Irish EU-SILC 2005 data in developing a life cycle schema and considering its relationship to a range of indicators of social exclusion. At the European level renewed interest in the life cycle concept is associated with the increasing emphasis on the distinction between 'new' and 'old' social risks and the notion that the former are more 'individualised'. An important variant of the individualisation argument considers globalisation to be associated with increased but much more widely diffused levels of risk. Inequality and poverty rather than being differentially distributed between social classes are thought to vary between phases in the average work life. This position contrasts sharply with the emphasis on cumulative disadvantage over the life course. Our findings suggest that both the “death of social class” and cumulative disadvantage over the life cycle theses are greatly over blown. A more accurate appreciation of the importance of new and old social risks and the manner in which they are both shaped by and influenced by welfare state strategies requires that we systematically investigate the manner in which factors such as the social class and the life cycle interact. Our evidence suggests that such an approach rather than leading us to jettison our concern with social class is likely, as Atkinson (2007) argues, to leave us more impressed by the degree to which the 'slayers' of class are themselves 'riddled with class processes'.

This book explores the access and participation issues present within Higher Education in Ireland. It examines policy, pedagogy and practices in relation to widening participation and documents the progress and challenges encountered in furthering the ‘access agenda’ over the past two decades. Access has become an integral part of how Higher Education understands itself and how it explains the value of what it does for society as a whole. Improving access to education strengthens social cohesion, lessens inequality, guarantees the future vitality of tertiary institutions and ensures economic competitiveness and flexibility in the era of the “Knowledge Based Economy”. Offering a coherent, critical account of recent developments in Irish Higher Education and the implications for Irish society as a whole, this book is essential for those involved both in researching the field and in Higher Education itself.

This book explores the dimensions and characteristics of social vulnerability in Western Europe. It provides a broad empirical foundation for recent theories on the emergence of new social risks in post-industrial societies, revealing to what extent social risks are compromising the 'normal' functioning of the European population.

The Nordic welfare states have found themselves in the firing line of post-industrial developments, resulting in fundamental changes and new social needs to attend to. This book explores responses to changing social risks across areas such as structural unemployment, entrepreneurship, immigration, single parenthood, education and health.