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Purpose – In this chapter, we examine individual- and country-level differences in 4 work attitudes (work centrality, work commitment, job satisfaction, and autonomy) among 31 European countries in 1999 using a multilevel framework.

Design/methodology/approach – We utilize the 1999/2000 European Values Study to investigate individual- and country-level determinants of work values and job rewards. Our analysis contains 17 traditionally capitalist and 14 post-socialist countries. At the country level, we consider 11 institutional processes as possible explanations for variations in work values and job rewards: post-socialist status, continuous democracy, contentious politics, state capacity, socialist ideology, union density, economic integration, service employment, income inequality, linguistic heterogeneity, and population density.

Findings – We find that traditionally capitalist countries tend to score lower on work values and higher on job rewards than post-socialist countries. Our analyses show that each of the 11 institutional processes, especially continuous democracy and economic integration, has statistically significant effects on the four dependent variables.

Research limitations/implications – Of the 44 hypotheses we made, 23 were supported by statistically significant effects in the predicted direction, 16 were not significant, and 5 were statistically significant in a direction unanticipated by our theory. We discuss possible reasons for the results that did not conform to our expectations.

Originality/value – The study is one of the most comprehensive multination studies of work values and job rewards in that it examines the impact of 11 institutional processes on four different work attitudes among 31 European countries. It is the only study of this scope to rigorously examine the differences between traditionally capitalist and post-socialist countries.

The study of (post)socialism has always had a complicated relationship with comparative education. Tracing the changing emphases of research on (post)socialism during and after the Cold War, this chapter highlights how (post)socialist studies moved from being highly politicized during the Cold War, to becoming subsumed by convergence and modernization theories after the collapse of the socialist bloc, to reemerging as a part of broader “post” philosophies reflecting the uncertainties and contradictions of social life. This chapter proposes to treat post-socialism not only as a geographic area, but also as a conceptual category that allows us to engage in theorizing divergence, difference, and uncertainty in the context of globalization. It is a space from which we can further complicate (not clarify) our understanding of ongoing reconfigurations of educational spaces in a global context, and ultimately challenge the evolutionary scheme of thought and established concepts of Western modernity. For comparative education and social theory more broadly, post-socialism can thus become a challenge (or an agenda) for future debates – whether theoretical or methodological – about global processes and their multiple effects on education and societies today, in the past, and in the future.

Purpose – In this chapter, we examine individual- and country-level differences in perceived job insecurity in the 27 European Union countries (EU27) within a multilevel framework.

Design/methodology/approach – We primarily focus on cross-national differences in perceived job insecurity in the EU27 and consider several possible explanations of it, including flexible employment practices, economic conditions, labor market structure, and political institutions. We examine both individual- and country-level determinants using multilevel partial proportional odds models based on individual-level data from the 2006 Eurobarometer 65.3 and country-level data from a variety of sources.

Findings – We find that European workers feel most insecure in countries with high unemployment, low union density, low levels of part-time and temporary employment, relatively little social spending on unemployment benefits, and in post-socialist countries.

Research limitations/implications – The findings from this study suggest that flexible employment practices do not necessarily cause workers to feel insecure in their jobs. This is likely due to the different nature of part-time and temporary employment in different institutional contexts.

Originality/value – This study is one of the most comprehensive accounts of perceived job insecurity in Europe given the focus on a larger number of countries and macro-level explanations for perceived job insecurity.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to work-family literature by examining antecedents and outcomes of work-family and family-work conflict (FWC) in an under-researched post-socialist country. Building on the conservation of resources theory and identity theory, the conceptual model tests relationships among occupational and marital commitment, two types of work-family conflict (WFC) and FWC, and domain satisfaction.

Data were collected using a self-report survey filled out by married top and middle managers from Slovenia, a Central and Eastern European country. Hypotheses were tested with structural equation modelling.

While occupational commitment was positively related to perceived time- and strain-based WFC, no support was found for the path between marital commitment and the two types of FWC. The results further reveal that although time- and strain-based FWC were related to career satisfaction, only time-based WFC was associated with marital satisfaction.

A cross-sectional research design and the validation of the model using a managerial sample limit generalizability. The study points to the relevance of the institutional and cultural context regarding interpretation of links between established concepts.

The study advances knowledge concerning WFC and FWC in a country that has undergone a process of transition from a socialist regime to a free-market economy. It adopts an integrative perspective and encompasses managers’ professional, as well as personal domains. The study tests how theories developed with samples from traditional capitalist countries apply to post-socialist countries, characterized by disparate values, norms, and societal expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how individual and macro-level factors shape the work–life balance of young men and women across European countries.

The paper combines macro-level data from the official statistics with individual-level data from the Work, Family and Wellbeing (2010/2011) module of the European Social Survey. The study uses multilevel modelling to explore the factors which shape the work–life balance of men and women aged 15–34 across 24 European countries.

The findings show both differences and similarities between young men and women in how education shapes work–life balance. Higher education increases the likelihood of considering work–life balance as important in work selection for men, while lower education decreases the odds of considering this balance for women. More education is associated with lower acceptance of the traditional norm, for both men and women, and less time spent on housework. Higher share of family benefits decreases the importance of work–life balance, more so for men than for women. Work–life balance is more important for men living in conservative, Mediterranean and post-socialist welfare regimes compared to those from social-democratic regimes.

The policy implications are to more closely consider education in the transformation of gender-sensitive norms during earlier stages of child socialization and to design more holistic policy measures which address the multitude of barriers individuals from poor families and ethnic/migrant background face.

The study contributes to existing literature by applying the capability approach to the empirical investigation of work–life balance. The analytical model contains three dimensions – norms about paid/unpaid work, considering work–life balance in the choice of employment and time spent on unpaid work. Through this approach, we are able to uncover the agency inequality of young people taking into account individual level characteristics, including gender, education, ethnicity and macro-level factors.

The chapter identifies and analyzes scholarly discourses that framed understanding of change and directed further reforms in post-socialist education over the past two decades. It discusses the origins of these discourses, their theoretical underpinnings, evolution, and cultural biases. The analysis of scholarly texts published on post-socialist education draws on methods of discourse analysis and utilizes the concept of sensemaking and the lens of translation to deconstruct how educational change is framed. Most of the identified discourses – restoration, importation, revolution and evolution, transformation and innovation, crisis and survival, glocalization, educational borrowing, system convergence, education for social transformation – originated outside either education or the post-socialist region itself in transitology studies, dependency theory, world system theory, and social reproduction theory. The resultant discourses carried over or challenged the underlying theoretical assumptions, exposed cultural sensitivity, or otherized the post-socialist region. The chapter identifies emerging scholarship that deconstructs framing of the same post-socialist educational phenomena. These emerging approaches reflect local and national searches for identity rather than global agendas. Contrary to the earlier prediction that with the end of the cold war, economic, political, and social institutions would converge into one monolithic world order, the chapter argues that the contemporary world today has come to display diversity, particularism, multiple voices, and the beginning of new histories. This study identifies emerging lines of research that look into the construction of meanings and expose cultural biases, while offering original conceptualization of two decades of scholarship on post-socialist educational change.

Attempts to “Westernize” post‐socialist economies of Eastern Europe resulted in little or no progress. This paper aims to incorporate the resource‐based view (RBV) paradigm to shed light on the present difficulties and challenges. A shortage of resources, many of which are taken for granted in the West, is identified as a reason why some “Western‐style” approaches did not work.

Reviews of literature in entrepreneurial orientation and RBV serve as a foundation of the development of conceptual arguments. The paper presents a framework elaborating on entrepreneurial development by focusing on the national resource base called enabling resources.

Richardian, functional‐regulatory, and tacit culturally based resources are credited with building national entrepreneurial activity and developing a unique national competency.

The paper does not include empirical validation of its argument. Further empirical research should be done in different cultural contexts.

The paper informs policymakers and entrepreneurs alike towards a monumental task of rebuilding these new democracies. Developed framework provides a way of building resources necessary for sustained entrepreneurial growth unique to each post‐socialist economy.

By focusing on the unique national resource base, the economic development of post‐socialist economies of Eastern Europe may be improved and accelerated. This paper emphasizes the need to consider and examine available resources in the transformation and development of enterprising communities.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that informal practices and institutions of post-Soviet countries differ from informality in other post-socialist regions and, therefore, proposes categorizing it as “post-Soviet informality” – a composite definition that extends beyond the concept of “informal economy” and encompasses, along with economic activities, social and political spheres.

The arguments of the paper are based on a comprehensive analysis of secondary sources.

This paper shows that, owing to the effects of antecedent regime’s legacies and the problems of post-communist transition, for the proper analysis of informality in post-Soviet countries it needs to be based on an own concept.

This study, in contrast to the existing literature on informality in post-communist spaces, specifically focuses on the informal sphere of post-Soviet countries, suggesting that the informal institutions and practices thriving across the vast post-Soviet space not only differ from the informal spheres elsewhere in the world, but also from informality in other post-communist regions.

In their income inequality theory (IIT), Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett posit that income inequality is at the heart of social “ills”. However, their critics argue that the hypothesis is biased and that “cherry picking” is used and support for the IIT is obtained by selecting a suitable sample of countries. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

With a sample of 127 countries, the authors study to what extent the correlation between income inequality and social “ills” varies among countries sampled by geography, religion and income level.

The results of the analysis show that the strength and sometimes the direction of connections between inequality and social “ills” vary according to countries’ cultural background and historical legacies. The IIT is not a universal law. However, it is on a firmer footing than competing explanations.

The results contribute both to material and methodological debate on consequences of income inequality.

Looks at problems and experiences of the so‐called “bottom‐up” transformation of the post‐socialist countries of Eastern Europe. Bottom‐ up transformation stands for the change of economic structures by means of new enterprises and already existing private firms. Discusses the experiences with the performance of small and new firms in the countries of the West, the potential role of small firms in post‐socialist countries as well as the prerequisites and impediments to the establishment of an economically strong small‐firm sector. Based on information on the development of the small‐firm sector in post‐socialist countries during the past years, analyses the relationship between private‐sector share and economic performance. Draws conclusions concerning implications for the future economic policy, the main conclusion being that bottom‐up transformation may be the only viable way for post‐socialist countries of Eastern Europe to transform but this way requires thorough support by government policy.