Contextualisation of cross-national comparisons
Most social scientists agree that it is necessary to analyse social phenomenon in context. However, the notion of context is most often used loosely and arbitrary. Therefore, this article invites to reconsider the notion of contextualisation, and it is argued that a contextual approach entails that social relations must be given primacy in the analysis of social phenomenon.
A contextual model is developed in order to understand the marked differences in female labour force participation in Denmark and Italy. It is argued that we find low female participation rates in Italy due to a familial social system (traditional family, residuel welfare state, closed labour markets) which corresponds to a centripetal female orientation, while we find high female labour force partici-pation in Denmark due to a contractual social system (dual family, institutional welfare state, open labour markets) which corresponds to a centrifugal female orientation.
