Recent decades have seen a growing sophistication in the study of welfare states and social policy in general. This greater depth has come about as a result of more complex theorization; richer case study analysis; and the inclusion of additional sources of provision such as not-for-profit, market-based, informal and family welfare. The fields of study open to social scientists in this arena have also expanded to include issues such as globalization, gender, immigration and children, while benchmarking and performance monitoring within countries have afforded huge quantities of new data that allow for much more detailed cross-national comparative analysis.

Key Concepts.- Investing in Children? Changes in Policies Concerning Children and Families in European Countries.- Understanding Gender Economic Inequality Across Welfare Regimes.- Neighborhoods and Families.- Setting the Scene.- Exploring the Extended Family of Mediterranean Welfare States, or: Did Beveridge and Bismarck Take a Mediterranean Cruise Together?.- Country Studies.- Children, Gender and Families in the Italian Welfare State.- The Erosion of "Familism" in the Spanish Welfare State: Childcare Policy Since 1975.- Children, Families and Women in the Israeli State: 1880s-2008.- Gender, Family and Children at the Crossroads of Social Policy Reform in Turkey: Alternating Between Familialism and Individualism.- Gender, Children and Families in the Greek Welfare State.- A Cross-National Comparison.- Is There a "Mediterranean Welfare State"? A Country-Level Analysis.