The research on quality of work experienced remarkable resurgence during the noughties, partially as a result of the inclusion of the topic in European and international policy-making agendas. In the second half of the decade, the global economic crisis largely redirected the attention to the quantitative dimensions of labour market policy. Nonetheless, academic production on job quality has maintained its vitality over the years. As in many other relevant research topics, consensus over the conceptualization and measurement of quality of work has been difficult to achieve among academics and policy-makers. Apart from the lack of a commonly agreed definition, measurement also tends to be varied and supported by different methods. In fact, both academics and policy-makers claim the need for a more consensual definition as a way of improving the comparability between countries, sectors of activity or occupations. In this article, we compare the methodological designs of a selected group of quality of work studies to identify the degree to which there are significant discrepancies within the academic community and to assess progress regarding the challenge of conceptualizing and measuring quality of work. The article offers a review of the most-cited articles indexed at the Scopus database between 2000 and 2015, and a comprehensive analysis over the question of conceptualization and measurement.

This paper explores sibling relationships among Portuguese youth, focusing on the importance of gender and sibling sexual composition in three specific analytical domains: (a) the social meanings and perceptions of sibling relationships and their impact on daily life practices; (b) parents’ differential treatment of sons and daughters and its implication for the well-being of brothers and sisters within the sibling group, and; (c) the gender determinants of care-giving for elderly parents. The study is based on focus groups and semi-structured interviews involving 47 Portuguese men and women, with an average age of 24 years. The results show that gender relations and the sexual composition of siblings have a significant impact on sibling relationships. Same-sex siblings are perceived as having more harmonious and cooperative relationships than mixed-sex siblings, regardless of age and birth order. Parents’ differential treatment of sons and daughters, whether it reproduces or deconstructs traditional gender roles, influences the well-being of youths and affects the way brothers and sisters envisage how care-giving tasks for elderly parents will be shared. Most youths envisage an egalitarian distribution of care-giving, although sisters are still regarded as the main care providers.

Objective: The article reviews literature on the implications and effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on transnational families (TNFs), gathering up‐to‐date evidence of how the pandemic changed the dynamics of TNFs in different life dimensions, how these families have coped with adversity, and how the academic debate is recognizing the complexity of transnationality in situations of crisis. Background: Transnational families consist of members who live in multiple countries while maintaining a sense of familyhood (Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002). The COVID‐19 pandemic presents significant challenges for TNFs as crisis responses prioritize national borders and institutions. Method: A scoping review was conducted using Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) framework, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) extension for Scoping Reviews (Tricco et al., 2018), and Peters et al.'s (2015) guidance for systematic reviews. Of the 113 references identified, 29 met the scoping review's inclusion criteria. Results: The effects of the pandemic on TNFs were particularly noticeable in terms of uncertainty, psychological health, communication, social networks, care, and time use. Conclusion: Mobility restrictions and concerns about disease spread were significantly challenging. Although TNFs were able to adapt rapidly by using technology and innovative solutions to maintain their relationships, social inequalities were also exposed by the pandemic. Implications: Robust support systems are needed for TNFs, both at their point of origin and destination, to assist them in managing challenging circumstances that disrupt their daily routines and interactions. Future research could further explore and develop these support systems to better address these challenges.

En este artículo se comparan las principales reformas introducidas enlos mercados laborales portugués, español y griego desde el inicio de lacrisis. Recurriendo a un análisis documental y estadístico, seconsideran las semejantes características institucionales, históricas ygeográficas de estos países, así como sus particularidades. Losresultados indican que las políticas de emergencia tienden a parecersey a incidir sobre los despidos, los contratos de trabajo, la jornadalaboral, los salarios, la negociación colectiva y las condiciones detrabajo en el sector público. Sin embargo, las diferencias estructuralesentre estos países en el periodo pre-crisis y los diferentes efectos que lacrisis tuvo en cada uno de ellos, ayudan a comprender eventualesdiferencias de resultados, contribuyendo al cuestionamiento de lahomogeneidad interna del modelo mediterráneo.

Purpose: This article analyses the extent to which two objective attributes of work – employment status, and occupation – influence workplace relationships in Europe. Employing a quantitative and transnational approach, we explore how far the segmentation of the labour market is reflected in the non-material dimensions of working life, seeing the nature of work and the stabilisation of employment as resources that help explain broader dynamics of job quality.Design/methodology/approach: Based on three indicators from the European Working Conditions Survey (support from colleagues; support from managers; and the quality of relationships), we performed a two-way ANOVA to test both the primary effects of the variables ‘employment status’ and ‘occupation’ on support and quality of workplace relationships, and their interaction effect. Additionally, we carried out a descriptive analysis of the mean scores of each of the dependent variables in the various groups of the independent variables.Findings: The results show that workers with more stable jobs, and those who occupy positions at the top of the occupational hierarchy, enjoy more support and better interpersonal relationships, thus suggesting the need to extend labour market segmentation discussions to the relational spheres of work.Research limitations/implications: The statistical indicators used need a more robust operationalisation, able to provide greater empirical validity. Other independent variables, such as the perceptions of job security or the country of work should be considered in future analysis to control for institutional and policy specificities.Originality/value: Research on workplace relationships tends to emphasise the effects that such relationships have on both organisations and individuals, usually based on case studies and individual narratives of relationships formed in stable work contexts. In this article, we shift the focus from the effects of workplace relationships, to the ways in which they vary in accordance with the nature of work and the objective employment conditions.

Becoming an Entrepreneur: a Diversity of Factors, Types and Pathways