Austerity as Public Mood explores how politicians and the media mobilise nostalgic and socially conservative ideas of work and community in order to justify cuts to public services and create divisions between the deserving and undeserving. It examines the powerful appeal of these concepts as part of a wider public mood marked by guilt, nostalgia and resentment - particularly around the inequalities produced by global capitalism and changes to the nature of work. In doing so, the book engages with urgent questions about the contemporary political climate. Focusing on the UK, it challenges accounts of neoliberalism which frame it as primarily an individualising force and localist definitions of community as mitigating its damaging effects. Finally, it explores how resistance to austerity can challenge these tendencies by offering a politics of solidarity and hope, and a forum for experimentation with alternative forms of collectivity.

The United States is not a police state, but Congress is subject to special interests lobbying in pursuit of abusive commercial practices that leave a lot to be desired for transparency and accountability. It is illegal to data-mine personal files held by government agencies, schools and universities, or medical facilities. It is illegal to collect and publish defamatory gossip and hearsay about private citizens. But it is legal to oblige Americans to "waive" their rights to privacy and their right to sue for invasion of privacy for defamation by anonymous third-parties in order to receive essential services or apply for employment. Americans are obliged to "waive" their rights in essentially all applications for employment, credit, housing, public utilities, telephone or mobile phone service, internet access, and even cable TV connection. The law requires "notice and consent" whenever such waivers are included in employment applications, but consumer reporting agencies have learned to use deceptive methods to avoid drawing the attention of applicants to the meaning and consequence of such language. Recent law dispenses with "notice and consent" for private-eye quasi-criminal investigations of "suspected misconduct" by an employee altogether. In effect, this bypasses "probable cause," "innocent until proven guilty," the "right to know the nature of an accusation," the "right to confront witnesses," the "rule against double jeopardy," and the "right to sue for defamation, and/or interference with employment." Orlan Lee questions the validity of any such "waivers," and seeks to alert Americans to the need to protect their fundamental rights.

The Social Security Handbook: Overview of Social Security Programs, 2022 provides information about Social Security programs and services, and identifies rights and obligations under the Social Security laws.The completely updated Handbook, organized by section number, is a readable, easy-to-understand reference for comprehending complex Social Security programs and services and contains information on several topics relevant to Social Security policies: How Social Security programs are administered Who is and isn't covered under retirement, survivors, disability, and hospital insurance programs Who is responsible for submitting the necessary evidence to support a claim How claims are processed by the Social Security office What Social Security benefits are owed to you How to obtain information about your rights under Social Security policy The Handbook is designed to help users understand the gray areas of the Social Security Act, and to provide critical information about rights and obligations under Social Security laws. The Handbook outlines how to: Protect your benefits and avoid benefit loss; Monitor government agencies and get information about policy changes that will affect your benefits; Make the most of hospital and Medicare coverage; Determine the amount of benefits that are subject to federal income taxes; Check Social Security earnings and benefits; and Get up-to-date news about future Social Security programs and services.

This book examines language education policy in European migrant-hosting countries. By applying the Multiple Streams Framework to detailed case studies on Austria and Italy, it sheds light on the factors and processes that innovate education policy. The book illustrates an education policy design that values language diversity and inclusion, and compares underlying policymaking processes with less innovative experiences. Combining empirical analysis and qualitative research methods, it assesses the ways in which language is intrinsically linked to identity and political power within societies, and how language policy and migration might become a firmer part of European policy agendas. Sitting at the intersection between policy studies, language education studies and integration studies, the book offers recommendations for how education policy can promote a more inclusive society. It will appeal to scholars, practitioners and students who have an interest in policymaking, education policy and migrant integration.

This revised edition features updated research, new developments in technology, and recent policy on juvenile delinquency and youth violence. The authors underscore the enormous payoff in targeting potential serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders at the earliest opportunity and provide a framework for evidence-informed state juvenile justice systems: the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. This strategy recognizes, first, that a relatively small proportion of those who enter the juvenile justice system will prove to be serious, violent, or chronic offenders, but that group accounts for a large proportion of overall delinquency. Second, this strategy builds on the fact that serious, violent, or chronic delinquency emerges along developmental pathways, allowing earlier identification of juveniles most at risk for later serious offending. A third component of this approach is effective intervention capable of reducing the recidivism of those juveniles most at risk for further delinquency. This framework emphasizes an evidence-based approach to reducing the recidivism of those juveniles most likely to reoffend from intake onward to probation, community programs, confinement, and reentry.

With the leverage of digital reproducibility, historical messages of hate are finding new recipients with breathtaking speed and scope. The rapid growth in popularity of right-wing extremist groups in response to transnational economic crises underscores the importance of examining in detail the language and political mobilization strategies of the New Right. In Europe, for example, populist right-wing activists organized around an anti-immigration agenda are becoming more vocal, providing pushback against the increase in migration flows from North Africa and Eastern Europe and countering support for integration with a categorical rejection of multiculturalism. In the United States, anti-immigration sentiment provides a rallying point for political and personal agendas that connect the rhetoric of borders with national, racial, and security issues. Digital Media Strategies of the Far Right in Europe and the United States is an effort to examine and understand these issues, informed by the conviction that an interdisciplinary and transnational approach can allow productive comparison of far-right propaganda strategies in Europe and the United States. With a special emphasis on performing ideology in the far-right music scene, on violent anti-immigrant stances, and on the far right's skillful creation and manipulation of virtual communities, the contributions foreground the cultural shibboleths that are exchanged among far-right supporters on the Internet, which serve to generate a sense of group belonging and the illusion of power far greater that the known numbers of neo-Nazis in any one country might suggest. Moreover, with attention to transatlantic right-wing movements and their use of particularly digital media, the essays in this volume put pressure on the similarities among the various national agents, while accommodating differences in the virtual and sometimes violent identities created and nurtured online.

Migration management in Russia is a window into how public policy, the federal system, and patronage are used to manage conflicting demands. This multi-level balancing act demonstrates the importance of high-level politics, institutional interests and constraints, and the conditions under which government actors at all levels can pursue their own interests as the state seeks political equilibrium. Why Control Immigration? argues that a scarcity of legal labour and the ensuing growth of illegal immigration can act as a patronage resource for bureaucratic and regional elites. Assessing the legal and political context of migration, Caress Schenk blends a political science approach with insights from the comparative immigration literature. Using this framework, she also engages with attitudes on populism and anti-immigration, particularly in terms of how political leaders utilize and employ public opinion in Russia.

The Social Security Handbook: Overview of Social Security Programs, 2022 provides information about Social Security programs and services, and identifies rights and obligations under the Social Security laws. The completely updated Handbook, organized by section number, is a readable, easy-to-understand reference for comprehending complex Social Security programs and services and contains information on several topics relevant to Social Security policies: *How Social Security programs are administered *Who is and isn't covered under retirement, survivors, disability, and hospital insurance programs *Who is responsible for submitting the necessary evidence to support a claim *How claims are processed by the Social Security office *What Social Security benefits are owed to you *How to obtain information about your rights under Social Security policy The Handbook is designed to help users understand the gray areas of the Social Security Act, and to provide critical information about rights and obligations under Social Security laws. The Handbook outlines how to: *Protect your benefits and avoid benefit loss; *Monitor government agencies and get information about policy changes that will affect your benefits; *Make the most of hospital and Medicare coverage; *Determine the amount of benefits that are subject to federal income taxes; *Check Social Security earnings and benefits; and *Get up-to-date news about future Social Security programs and services.

This book examines an interdependent approach to happiness and well-being, one that contrasts starkly with dominant approaches that have originated from Western culture(s). It highlights the diversity of potential pathways towards happiness and well-being globally, and answers calls - voiced in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals - for more socially and environmentally sustainable models. Leading global organizations including the OECD, UNICEF, and UNESCO are now proposing human happiness and well-being as a more sustainable alternative to a myopic focus on GDP growth. Yet, the definition of well-being offered by these organizations derives largely from the philosophies, social sciences, and institutional patterns of Europe and the United States. Across seven chapters this book carefully probes the inadequacy of these approaches to well-being globally and reveals the distorting effect this has on how we imagine our world, organize institutions, and plan our collective future(s). It shares a wealth of evidence and examples from across East Asia - a region where interdependence remains foregrounded - and concludes by provocatively arguing that interdependence may provide a more sustainable approach to happiness and well-being in the 21st century. A timely and accessible book, it offers fresh insights for scholars and policymakers working in the areas of psychology, health, sociology, education, international development, public policy, and philosophy. This is an open access book.

Hydraulic Fracturing in the Karoo: Critical Legal and Environmental Perspectives explores a broad-ranging set of questions related to proposed hydraulic fracturing or `fracking' in the Karoo. The book is multidisciplinary, with contributors including natural scientists, social scientists, and academics from the humanities, all concerned with the ways in which scientific facts and debates about fracking have been framed and given meaning. The work comprises four parts: Part 1 provides an international, legal, energy, economic, and revenue overview of the topic. Part 2 has a physio-geographic theme, with chapters on the inter-related aspects of water, geology, geo-hydrology, seismicity and biodiversity, as well as archaeological and palaeontological considerations. Part 3 focuses on public health, and sociological and humanities-related aspects, and Part 4 addresses the relevant laws, emphasising their implementation and the role of governance. The underlying theme of Hydraulic Fracturing in the Karoo: Critical Legal and Environmental Perspectives is one of caution. The book emphasises the need for collaboration between the natural and social sciences and the responsibilities of those charged with the implementation and governance of the fracking enterprise if South Africa hopes to effectively manage fracking at all.