ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses contemporary changes in social citizenship in Europe by focusing on how citizens are able to reconcile work and family life around the turn of the millennium. The changes in lifestyles attributed to modernisation apply only to the younger generations who entered the age of family formation during the 1980s. The Inter-ministerial Delegation on family issues has suggested that the independence of young people should rather he supported through university scholarships, education assistance, and housing assistance. In the Scandinavian countries, the public sector has remained the main provider of social welfare with respect to general family support as well as childcare. Most families would accept that economic support from the state should depend on the economic situation of the individual family. The economic cost of day care for the children means that a public care system, or at least a publicly supported day care system, is especially important for lowincome families.
