The multidimensionality of childcare policy change
Novel Policy Approaches, Competing Policies and Feedback Tensions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2116567 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Gurín (0000-0003-1911-9362, TU Dortmund University, corresponding author), Ji Hyun Kim (0000-0001-9061-3350, Suwon Women’s University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Social Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0047279425100895 |
| OpenAlex | W4411828807 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 34 |
The development of childcare policy can be understood as a process shaped by conflicts across multiple, interconnected dimensions of policymaking. Whilst existing literature often emphasises tensions between established policy legacies and emerging paradigms such as work-family reconciliation and social investment, this study introduces a multi-dimensional framework that includes conflict and negotiation processes between competing policies co-existing within the policy domain but also within policies themselves, emphasising the dynamics of self-reinforcing and self-undermining feedbacks. Our analysis reveals how efforts to resolve tensions in one policy dimension can inadvertently trigger new conflicts in other dimensions. By examining the South Korean case over three decades, we demonstrate how such interwoven tensions drive long-term policy change, offering scholars a more nuanced understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying policy evolution
Economics · Public economics · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Politics in Time
Democratization, post-industrialization, and East Asian welfare capitalism
Policy Makes Mass Politics
The evolution of family policy in South Korea
Why the initiative of free childcare failed to be an effective policy implementation of universal childcare in South Korea
The current coordinates of the Korean care regime
Speeding Up or Holding Back
Cash for childcare schemes in the Nordic welfare states
Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method
Forgotten Concepts of Korea’s Welfare State
Patterns of Development in Work/Family Reconciliation Policies for Parents in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK in the 2000s
The Socialization of Childcare and a Missed Opportunity Through Path Dependence
What Adult Worker Model? A Critical Look at Recent Social Policy Reform in Europe from a Gender and Family Perspective
Freedom of choice, gender equality, or employment promotion? Finnish party positions on childcare in the light of election manifestos 2015
Shifts in family policy in the UK under New Labour
Convergent care regimes? Childcare arrangements in Australia, Canada, Finland and Sweden
From Subsidiarity to ‘Free Choice’
Diverging Paths? A Comparative Look at Childcare Policies in J apan, S outh K orea and T aiwan
Exploring resistance in family policy transfer
Modernising the European Social Paradigm
Understanding Path‐Departing Changes in Childcare Policy
The Policyscape and the Challenges of Contemporary Politics to Policy Maintenance
Paths and Forks or Chutes and Ladders
The multidimensional politics of social investment in conservative welfare regimes
Policy feedback and self-reinforcing and self-undermining processes in EU biofuels policy
When Policies Undo Themselves
The Politics of Postindustrial Social Policy
Conducting and Coding Elite Interviews
Social Investment Policies in Chile and Latin America
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |