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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social welfare & social services > Welfare & benefit systems
This book is the first comprehensive volume exploring an issue of growing importance to policy makers, academics, housing practitioners and students. It brings together contributions from the most prominent scholars in the field to provide a range of theoretical perspectives, critical analysis and empirical research findings about the role of housing and urban governance in addressing anti-social behaviour. Contributors assess constructions of anti-social behaviour in policy discourse, identify how housing is increasingly central to the governance of anti-social behaviour and critically evaluate a wide range of measures used by housing and other agencies to tackle what is perceived to be a growing social problem. Although the book focuses on the UK, comparative international perspectives are provided from France, Australia and the United States. The book covers definitions of anti-social behaviour and policy responses including key new legislation and the legal role of social landlords in governing anti-social behaviour. There is comprehensive coverage of key measures including eviction, probationary tenancies, Anti-social Behaviour Orders, mediation and Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, and of innovative developments such as gated communities, intensive support services and the use of private security. "Housing, urban governance and anti-social behaviour" will be of interest to academics, policy-makers, practitioners and students in the fields of housing, urban studies, social policy, legal studies and criminology.
More than a decade on from their conception, this book reflects on the consequences of income management policies in Australia and New Zealand. Drawing on a three-year study, it explores the lived experience of those for whom core welfare benefits and services are dependent on government conceptions of 'responsible' behaviour. It analyses whether officially claimed positive intentions and benefits of the schemes are outweighed by negative impacts that deepen the poverty and stigma of marginalised and disadvantaged groups. This novel study considers the future of this form of welfare conditionality and addresses wider questions of fairness and social justice.
With about one half of all marriages ending in divorce today, it is safe to say that nearly everyone will be or has been affected by divorce in some way. For many, it does not mean the end to a family. Focusing on the consequences of divorce for children, The Postdivorce Family examines the stressors that divorce can create; adjustment problems among children of divorce; the issue of resilience for children; and individual differences in the psychological adjustment to divorce. The authors also examine the parents? responsibilities after divorce, including custody issues, child support orders, and nonresidential parenting. This book concludes with a section that explores the effects of a high divorce rate in society, including how the prevalence of divorce has changed the family form and structural factors that have contributed to various social problems. With this volume, the authors hope to incite analysis and reflection of the issues surrounding divorce and their implications for public policy. This book integrates the empirical research and policy perspectives of several scholars in various disciplines including psychology, sociology, human development, law, and social work.
Changing Welfare States is a major new examination of the wave of social reform that has swept across Europe over the past two decades. In a comparative fashion, it analyses reform trajectories and political destinations in an era of rapid socioeconomic restructuring, including the critical impact of the global financial crisis on welfare state futures. The book argues that the overall scope of social reform across the member states of the European Union varies widely. In some cases welfare state change has been accompanied by deep social conflicts, while in other instances unpopular social reforms received broad consent from opposition parties, trade unions and employer organizations. The analysis reveals trajectories of welfare reform in many countries that are more proactive and reconstructive than is often argued in academic research and the media. Alongside retrenchments, there have been deliberate attempts - often given impetus by intensified European (economic) integration - to rebuild social programs and institutions and thereby accommodate welfare policy repertoires to the new economic and social realities of the 21st century. Welfare state change is work in progress, leading to patchwork mixes of old and new policies and institutions, on the lookout, perhaps, for greater coherence. Unsurprisingly, that search process remains incomplete, resulting from the institutionally bounded and contingent adaptation to the challenges of economic globalization, fiscal austerity, family and gender change, adverse demography, and changing political cleavages.
Government investments in social sector has always played an important role in tackling social issues and facilitated in the alleviation of poverty. Hence, budgetary expenditure to be mobilized for such investments needs to be efficiently allocated and utilized to maximize the greatest good. This book focuses on the social sector in India and provides an overview of the sector. The book looks at 15 major Indian states between the year 2000-2011 to see how these states had invested in social sector and whether they had met the criteria of efficient social sector investment. Using stochastic frontier models, the book provides an efficiency norm and making use of this normative estimate, it compares performance across 15 Indian states and suggests important policy implications to improve the future performance of the social sector. The book adopts various quantitative techniques in the analysis and establishes that inefficient and inappropriate allocation of inputs was made in both health and education sectors. The book suggests that such problems and future challenges could be overcome by an appropriate mix of emphasis in different activities. This book will provide insight for those who want to learn more about how to build the capacity of the social sector in more efficient manner by exploring the social sector of India.
On the Margins of Inclusion starts from the premise that understanding the nature of contemporary work and exclusion from employment is central to understanding the experience of social exclusion in our society today. Through close ethnographic study of people living on a South London housing estate, the book highlights collective strategies and responses to labor market and welfare changes, and considers how these responses can, in themselves, contribute to patterns of community-based exclusion. The book provides a compelling and vivid portrait of lives at the insecure, low-paid end of the labor market, and offers a fascinating account of how different groups of economically marginal people have adapted to, and negotiate, the offerings of a post-industrial labor market and a welfare system geared towards reintegrating them into formal employment.
What factors lay behind the rehabilitation of central city districts across the world? Set against the contexts of international transformations in a post-industrial postmodern society, this book examines the creation and self-creation of a new middle class of professional and managerial workers associated with the process of gentrification. These are amongst the privileged members in the growing polarisation of urban society. The book examines their impact on central housing markets, retailing and leisure spaces in the inner city. Taking as its focus six large canadian cities, the author identifies a distinctive cultural new class of urbane social and cultural professionals inspired in part by the critical youth movements of the 1960s for whom old inner city neighbourhoods served as oppositional sites to assail the boureois suburbs. The study looks at their close links with reform movements, neighbourhood activism and a welfare state that often provided their employment, in a progressive aesthetisation of central city spaces since the 1980s. The New Middle Class and the Remaking of the Central City offers the first detailed and comparitive study of gentrification which locates the phenomenon in broader historical and theoretical contexts.
This book, first published in 1988, provides an overview of the diverse work that was being done in applied and theoretical environmental and resource economics. Some essays reflect upon the background of the work of John Krutilla, one of the founders of Resources for the Future and a leading scholar of environmental economics, and the development of the field to date. Other essays examine and convey findings on particular resource problems and theoretical issues and resource policies and the practice of applied welfare economics. This title will be of interest to students of economics and environmental studies.
In the 1960s, America set out to end poverty. Policy-makers put forth an unprecedented package of legislation, funding poverty programs and empowering the poor through ineffectual employment-related education and training. However, these handouts produced little change, and efforts to provide education and job-training proved inconsequential, boasting only a 2.8 percent decrease in the poverty rate since 1965. Decades after the War on Poverty began, many of its programs failed. Only one thing really worked to help end poverty-and that was work itself, the centerpiece of welfare reform in 1996. Poor No More is a plan to restructure poverty programs, prioritizing jobs above all else. Traditionally, job placement programs stemmed from non-profit organizations or government agencies. However, America Works, the first for-profit job placement venture founded by Peter Cove, has the highest employee retention rate in the greater New York City area, even above these traditional agencies. When the federal government embraced the work-first ideal, inspired by the success of America Works, welfare rolls plummeted from 12.6 million to 4.7 million nationally within one decade. Poor No More is a paradigm-shifting work that guides the reader through the evolution of America's War on Poverty and urges policy-makers to eliminate training and education programs that waste time and money and to adopt a work-first model, while providing job-seekers with the tools and life lessons essential to finding and maintaining employment.
The New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) was implemented in 2003 in response to the poor state of health care in rural China. It holds the primary objective of insuring rural residents against catastrophic health expenses, protecting them from impoverishment caused by medical expenses. The objective of this study, therefore, is to explore variation in the determinants of household enrolment in this scheme and the impact of enrolment on health care utilization and medical expenditures in three large geographic regions in China and further to simulate the reimbursement package design in order to achieve better financing protection and policy effectiveness.
In the 1960s, America set out to end poverty. Policy-makers put forth an unprecedented package of legislation, funding poverty programs and empowering the poor through ineffectual employment-related education and training. However, these handouts produced little change, and efforts to provide education and job-training proved inconsequential, boasting only a 2.8 percent decrease in the poverty rate since 1965. Decades after the War on Poverty began, many of its programs failed. Only one thing really worked to help end poverty-and that was work itself, the centerpiece of welfare reform in 1996. Poor No More is a plan to restructure poverty programs, prioritizing jobs above all else. Traditionally, job placement programs stemmed from non-profit organizations or government agencies. However, America Works, the first for-profit job placement venture founded by Peter Cove, has the highest employee retention rate in the greater New York City area, even above these traditional agencies. When the federal government embraced the work-first ideal, inspired by the success of America Works, welfare rolls plummeted from 12.6 million to 4.7 million nationally within one decade. Poor No More is a paradigm-shifting work that guides the reader through the evolution of America's War on Poverty and urges policy-makers to eliminate training and education programs that waste time and money and to adopt a work-first model, while providing job-seekers with the tools and life lessons essential to finding and maintaining employment.
This text is aimed at fathers who want to do a better job raising children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, mothers of ADHD children who want to understand the special needs that fathers have in parenting these children, and professionals who have the challenging task of involving the fathers of ADHD children in their treatment, as well as facilitating cooperation between fathers and mothers. This book should help fathers deal with the assessment process; understand their child's emotional, learning and behavioural needs; work more effectively with their spouses; and cope with their own struggles and uncertainties in dealing with this confusing diagnosis.
This book reports on the first substantial UK study of parenting, disability and mental health. It examines the views of parents and children in 75 families. Covering a broad spectrum of issues facing disabled parents and their families, Parenting and disability: provides a comprehensive review of relevant policy issues; explores the barriers to full participation in parenting that disabled parents face; examines the complex ways in which broader social divisions, including gender and socioeconomic status, interact with disability; advocates measures to support disabled parents and their families by promoting and supporting relationships within the family. The book is aimed at a wide audience, including students and academics in social policy, social work, disability studies, sociology, education, and nursing, people working in the voluntary sector, disabled activists and their supporters, as well as policy makers and practitioners in a range of statutory agencies.
Scholarly yet readable, this second volume examines the major content areas where family life education is practiced: marriage enrichment, parent education, sex education, and aging, among others. In each section, the authors offer a critical and succinct introduction to the subject area, provide literature sources, and discuss current educational practices. They also address issues of age, gender, and ethnicity. In addition, the authors identify areas where further work needs to be done and offer suggestions for new directions, thus assisting program developers and leaders in the improvement of their practice.
One would expect a welfare state such as Sweden to compare favorably with the United States regarding implementation of public policies and programs. Surprisingly, the author comes to quite different conclusions: in studying the treatment of battered, raped and sexually-harassed women in the two countries, she has found that, contrary to conventional expectation, the ability of the decentralized American state to innovate effectively has been consistently underestimated, whereas Sweden's ability to do the same has often been exaggerated.
This timely book assesses how Europe's welfare states have dealt with the challenges of globalization and the financial crisis. It asks whether the European Union has adopted a general strategy for dealing with four major threats to the sustainable development of European societies: the employability of a growing number of redundant workers, an ageing population, low birth rates and the persistent problem of gender inequality. The book will be an important read for social policy scholars, particularly those focusing on European welfare states, how they differ and lessons to be learnt from them. It also highlights key lessons from a broad range of case studies to help policymakers in understanding how and where improvements may be made in the future.
Across Europe and beyond, changing family living arrangements have stimulated popular and academic debate about the impact of socio-demographic trends on family well-being and the challenges they present for governments. This path-breaking book explores the complex relationship between family change and public policy responses in the enlarged European Union. After comparing the major socio-economic changes of the late 20th century in Europe and their impact on family and working life, the book analyses both the reactions of policy makers and users as they respond to change and the perceptions families have of public policy and its relative importance in their lives. The book combines broad-brush scrutiny of demographic trends, policy contexts and debates in contemporary European societies with a fine-grain analysis of the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of families. Five key questions are addressed: How are families changing in European societies? What are the challenges raised for society by changing family structures? How are policy makers and users responding to family change? Does family policy matter? What can policy actors learn from experience in other countries? Fami
In the UK, both Conservative and New Labour welfare strategies have been influenced by American policies. British welfare reform has continued in recent years, while American policies appear to have stagnated. What now are the lessons of British reform for America? This book presents a detailed and unique comparison of welfare policies in the two countries. A team of international experts analyzes reform strategies and summarizes results to date. The book argues that the 2002 "reauthorization" of American reforms has failed to address key problems. Britain, it claims, offers ideas for refreshing American reform. The Welfare We Want? is an important addition to comparative literature in the field. It addresses a wide audience of policymakers, political analysts, social welfare experts, and concerned citizens on both sides of the Atlantic. Accessibility is enhanced by use of common categories for explaining how various programs work, and for whom. Discussion of policy is at once historic
What have been the roles of charities and the state in supporting medical provision? These are issues of major relevance, as the assumptions and practices of the welfare state are increasingly thrown into doubt. This title offers a broad perspective on the relationship between charity and medicine in Western Europe, up to the advent of welfare states in the 20th century. Through detailed case studies, the authors highlight significant differences between Britain, France, Italy and Germany, and offer a critical vocabulary for grasping the issues raised. This volume reflects recent developments relating to the role of charity in medicine, particularly the revival of interest in the place of voluntary provision in contemporary social policy. It emphasizes the changing balance of "care" and "cure" as the aim of medical charity, and shows how economic and political factors influenced the various forms of charity.
First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Malcolm Torry explores Citizen's Basic Income - an unconditional income for every individual - moving the reader from a basic understanding of the concept to an in-depth recognition of its wide-ranging implications. Torry examines debates around the desirability, feasibility and implementation of a Citizen's Basic Income, and how this idea is becoming increasingly widespread. This Modern Guide presents a comprehensive treatment of Citizen's Basic Income, first offering insight into the language surrounding it, and moving through a number of key disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, politics, economics and law. Each chapter discusses an academic discipline, looking at relevant aspects of the debate to understand how the discipline enhances knowledge of Citizen's Basic Income, and how discussion around the topic can contribute to the academic discipline. Containing detailed case studies in each chapter, this book will be helpful to a wide variety of scholars and students wanting a broader knowledge of Citizen's Basic Income. It will also be useful to policymakers who wish to engage in the debate on the potential benefits and drawbacks of a Citizen's Basic Income.
It is widely assumed today that the 'welfare state' is contracting or retrenching as an effect of the close scrutiny to which entitlement to social security benefits is being subject in most developed countries. In this book, fifteen authorities from nine different countries - the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Norway and the US - investigate to what extent this assumption is warranted. Taking into account developments and initiatives at every administrative level from sub-national employment agencies to the OECD and the World Bank, they draw on both data and theories in a broad spectrum of related disciplines, including political science, economics, sociology, and law. Detailed materials allow the reader to formulate well-defined responses to such crucial questions as: is there indeed waning public support for social security?; is the 'demographic time bomb' of an ageing population as serious as we are often led to believe?; how seriously do supranational reform proposals tend to underestimate cross-national differences?; to what degree is 'activation policy' merely rhetorical?; to what extent do employment office staff reformulate and redefine policies 'on the ground' to accommodate specific case-by-case realities? Specific criteria for entitlement (eg disability) and such central issues as 'gendered' assumptions, access to benefit programmes, and the involvement of trade unions are examined in a variety of contexts. As an authoritative assessment of the current state of social security reform - its critical issues, its direction, and its potential impacts - What future for social security? is an incomparable work and is sure to be of great value to academics as well as professionals and officials concerned with social programmes at any government level.
Much work has been done on cognitive processes and creativity, but there is another half to the picture of creativity -- the affect half. This book addresses that other half by synthesizing the information that exists about affect and creativity and presenting a new model of the role of affect in the creative process. Current information comes from disparate literatures, research traditions, and theoretical approaches. There is a need in the field for a comprehensive framework for understanding and investigating the role of affect in creativity. The model presented here spells out connections between specific affective and cognitive processes important in creativity, and personality traits associated with creativity. Identifying common findings and themes in a variety of research studies and descriptions of the creative process, this book integrates child and adult research and the classic psychoanalytic approach to creativity with contemporary social and cognitive psychology. In so doing, it addresses two major questions: * Is affect an important part of the creative process? * If it is, then how is affect involved in creative thinking? In addition, Russ presents her own research program in the area of affect and creativity, and introduces The Affect in Play Scale -- a method of measuring affective expression in children's play -- which can be useful in child psychotherapy and creativity research. Current issues in the creativity area are also discussed, such as artistic versus scientific creativity, adjustment and the creative process, the role of computers in learning about creativity, gender differences in the creative process, and enhancing creativity in home, school, and work settings. Finally, Russ points to future research issues and directions, and discusses alternative research paradigms such as mood-induction methods versus children's play procedures.
The success of the Nordic welfare state is well known, but the key drivers of its remarkable expansion are not. This book explores the relationships between citizens that constitute the normative groundwork of Nordic societies, arguing that the quality of relations steers welfare development. Chapters explore relations of reciprocity, trust and equality that characterize the relational Nordic welfare state. Through an interdisciplinary approach, expert contributors consider the establishment and growth of welfare institutions in Nordic countries and evaluate the neoliberal challenge that these institutions have faced since the 1980s. This book reveals how and why Nordic societies may find a path of balanced and sustainable development. Timely and insightful, this book will be indispensable for scholars and students of social and political sciences, as well as jurisprudence, especially those interested in welfare states. Contributors include: M. Berg, S. Blomgren, P. Borioni, S. Hanninen, M. Jokela, P. Kettunen, M. Kivipelto, T. Kotkas, P.H. Kristensen, K.-M. Lehtela, K. Lilja, E. Moen, M. Perlinski, P. Saikkonen, S.F. Schram, K. Tuori, N. Witoszek |
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