'Achieving the goals set by world leaders in the United Nations Millennium Declaration will be difficult without a significant improvement in the lives of slum dwellers, and the lives of slum dwellers cannot be improved without the sound and sustainable economic development that is conducive to the establishment of a strong shelter sector. As Financing Urban Shelter: Global Report on Human Settlements 2005 emphasizes, one of the key challenges in meeting the Millennium Declaration Goal on slums is mobilization of the financial resources necessary for both slum upgrading and slum prevention by supplying new housing affordable to lower income groups on a large scale. . . . It is my hope that, by highlighting the impacts of current shelter financing systems on low-income households and by identifying the types of financing mechanisms that appear to have worked for them, this report will contribute to the efforts of the wide range of actors involved in improving the lives of slum dwellers, including governments at the central and local levels, as well as non-governmental and international organizations.' From the Foreword by KOFI ANNAN, Secretary-General, United Nations Financing Urban Shelter presents the first global assessment of housing finance systems, placing shelter and urban development challenges within the overall context of macroeconomic policies. The report describes and analyses housing finance conditions and trends in all regions of the world, including formal housing finance mechanisms, microfinance and community funding, highlighting their relevance to the upgrading of slums. Recent shelter finance policy development is discussed at the international and national levels, and the directions that could be taken to strengthen shelter finance systems are examined. The Global Report on Human Settlements is the most authoritative and up-to-date assessment of conditions and trends in the world's cities. It is an essential tool and reference for researchers, academics, public authorities and civil society organizations around the world. The preceding issues of the Global Report on Human Settlements have addressed such topics as An Urbanizing World, Cities in a Globalizing World and The Challenge of Slums. Published with UN-HABITAT

America's elderly population is soaring, presenting numerous challenges for policymakers in the United States. Other developed nations with aging populations face similar problems. There will be fewer workers relative to retirees in coming decades and the elderly are also expected to live longer. The impact of these demographic changes in the United States is likely to be challenging, especially for America's system of social security. Solomon offers new perspectives on how to meet the future costs of social security without bankrupting the next generation or gravely damaging the U.S. economy. He also shows, more broadly, how to provide for the financial security of America's senior populations.

Over the past two decades, primary responsibility for providing a financially adequate retirement has shifted from the federal government and employers to individuals. For most Americans, social security alone will not provide enough income. Most companies have shed their pension plans for 401(k) plans, to which companies and employees contribute, and in which participants must make their own investment decisions. Consequently, achieving financial security in retirement has increasingly become one's personal responsibility.

Solomon deals extensively with the politics of social security, past and present. He examines the presidential leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, both of whom revived the nation's spirit in times of crisis, both of whom introduced economic policies that remain controversial to the present day. He also considers in detail contemporary efforts to rethink social security, focusing on fundamental reform of the social security system and the expansion and simplification of employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual retirement arrangements.

Richly textured, informed, and informative, Financial Security and Personal Wealth encompasses history, demography, political economy, public finance, social policy. It will be of interest to policymakers, economists, and political scientists in the United States and elsewhere.

Second homes are once again a source of political and social contention in rural areas. The British government's decision to reduce Council Tax discounts on second homes in England in April 2004 has caused wide debate in local communities, local authorities, and the media. The debate has not only focused on the vexed Council Tax issue, but on wider rural housing concerns. Questions have been raised as to whether second homes are a major cause of housing affordability problems in rural areas, and whether they lead to the displacement of local people in rural communities. In the face of anecdotal evidence being presented to answer these questions, Second Homes: European Perspectives and UK Policies, offers a more comprehensive analysis of the second homes question as it now exists. This up-to-date and authoritative analysis of second homes draws on the latest research and offers a critical insight into current housing problems in rural communities. Those interested in rural and housing studies will find the book valuable.

The first fully comparative study of fuel poverty across the EU, this work analyses the relationship between domestic energy efficiency, fuel poverty and health. The book adopts a holistic approach, incorporating a large number of social and economic risk factors to present a large-scale, cross-country, longitudinal analysis. The book is unique in: * Developing a new (consensual) methodology for calculating cross-country fuel poverty levels; * Presenting a detailed econometric/statistical analysis of EU fuel poverty; * Detailing the results of an empirical investigation of EU housing conditions, affordability and housing satisfaction; * Identifying risk factors related to seasonal variations in mortality across the EU; * Offering an empirical examination of health outcomes associated with fuel poverty; * Providing startling new evidence on fuel poverty in Southern Europe. Housing, Fuel Poverty and Health provides a powerful reference source for researchers and practitioners in the areas of energy economics, public health and epidemiology, housing and social policy.

Since their historic high in 1994, welfare caseloads in the United States have dropped an astounding 59 percent--more than 5 million fewer families receive welfare. Family and Child Well-Being after Welfare Reform, now in paperback, explores how low-income children and their families are faring in the wake of welfare reform. Contributors to the volume include leading social researchers. Can existing surveys and other data be used to measure trends in the area? What key indicators should be tracked? What are the initial trends after welfare reform? What other information or approaches would be helpful? The book covers a broad range of topics: an update on welfare reform (Douglas J. Besharov and Peter Germanis); ongoing major research (Peter H. Rossi); material well-being, such as earnings, benefits, and consumption (Richard Bavier); family versus household (Wendy D. Manning); fatherhood, cohabitation, and marriage (Wade F. Horn); teenage sex, pregnancy, and nonmarital births (Isabel V. Sawhill); child maltreatment and foster care (Richard J. Gelles); homelessness and housing (John C. Weicher); child health and well-being (Lorraine V. Klerman); nutrition, food security, and obesity (Harold S. Beebout); crime, juvenile delinquency, and dysfunctional behavior (Lawrence W. Sherman); drug use (Peter Reuter); mothers' work and child care (Julia B. Isaacs); and the activities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Don Winstead and Ann McCormick). When welfare reform was first debated, many people feared that it would hurt the poor, especially children. The contributors find little evidence to suggest this has occurred. As time limits and other programmatic requirements take hold, more information will be needed to assess the condition of low-income families after welfare reform. This informative volume establishes a baseline for that assessment. Douglas J. Besharov is the Joseph J. and Violet Jacobs Scholar in Social Welfare Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and a professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs, where he directs its Welfare Reform Academy. Among his recent publications are Rethinking WIC: An Evaluation of the Women, Infants, and Children Program (with Peter Germanis) and America's Disconnected Youth.

After the Transition is an all-encompassing examination of the origins, increase, and persistence of inequality in new democracies. It challenges the conventional thinking found in much of the democratization-inequality literature, and offers a new theory. It speaks simultaneously to literature of democratization, party systems, social policy, and inequality to explain why democracies are not able to fulfill their promise to the disadvantaged and why they cannot achieve income equality. It investigates social policy programs such as pensions, unemployment benefits, and other social transfers in Poland and the Czech Republic in Post-Communist Europe, and Turkey and Spain in Southern Europe. The volume traces the origins and development of social policy, from the formation of nation-states to the present, and considers how different political regimes, whether totalitarian; post-totalitarian; or authoritarian, designed welfare policies to prioritize civil servants and the working classes in formal sectors at the expense of the majority poor. It then demonstrates how these legacies perpetuate and widen disparities in access to welfare policies, and thus income inequality in countries where low mobilization by the poor and unstable party systems prevail. This study employs interviews with Polish, Czech, Turkish, and Spanish union leaders; bureaucrats; and business people while also conducting an original survey in Turkey to dissect the linkage between organized groups and parties. Employing a multi-method approach, two paired case studies on these countries also demystify why and how new populist parties have successfully appealed to voters and affected the trajectory of social policy, party systems and inequality. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The series is edited by Emilie van Haute, Professor of Political Science, Universite libre de Bruxelles; Ferdinand Muller-Rommel, Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Leuphana University; and Susan Scarrow, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Political Science, University of Houston.

Red tape is a significant stumbling block to the provision of affordable shelter to the urban poor and, indeed, slums are largely the result of inappropriate regulatory frameworks. This handbook tackles the issue of regulatory frameworks for urban upgrading and new housing development, and how they impact on access to adequate, affordable shelter and other key livelihood assets, in particular for the urban poor. The book illustrates two methods for reviewing regulatory frameworks and expounds guiding principles for effecting change, informed by action research. This practice-oriented manual, which includes a free CD-ROM of case studies, research methods and other reference material, is essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goal 7, Target 11 of significantly improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.

Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, patterns of change to the former communist nations of Europe are now discernible in a way that was impossible to see in the initial years. This insightful book focuses on the case of changes in housing based on evidence collected from across the Central and Eastern European region. The volume adopts a conceptual framework and provides cross-regional analysis, amongst which is situated a series of more focused case studies. Issues examined include the consequences of the rapid privatization of state rental housing including the emergence of 'super-owner-occupied' countries, dramatic changes in urban structure and evidence that housing, having been the shock absorber against which wider economic restructuring has occurred, now faces a whole series of deferred problems. The enthusiasm with which the market economy was initially embraced must now be tempered by a more sober assessment of what in reality has happened.

This book examines the processes and relationships that underpin the delivery of new homes across the United Kingdom. Its focus, however, is primarily on the land use planning system in England, the way that housing providers engage with that system, and how the processes of engagement are changing or might change in the future.

This book is about tax and social policy and how they interact with each other. The impact of taxation as an instrument of social policy is central in influencing redistribution and behaviour. This broad-based edited collection fills a significant gap in both literatures, bringing together disparate debates in this emerging area of analysis. It guides readers through the key interactions of tax and social policies and the central debates and challenges posed by their effect on each other. It examines how analyses might be combined and policy options developed for more effective delivery and impact in both areas.

Betrayed takes a new approach to the subject of global poverty, one that doesn't blame the West but also doesn't rely on the West for solutions. Betrayed puts the poor themselves at center stage, and shows how their entrepreneurial energies are shackled by political and social discrimination. When these shackles are removed, as is happening in places such as China and Vietnam, the poor are able to seize opportunities and drive wealth creation. Combining the latest research into poverty and state building with the author's personal observations drawn from years running businesses in the developing world, Betrayed explains how leaders in the developing world can build more inclusive societies and more equitable governments, thereby creating dynamic national economies and giving the poor the opportunity to accumulate the means and skills to control their own destinies. This refreshing new approach will appeal to business people who are fed up with reading critiques of global poverty that see capitalism as the problem, not the solution; people in both the global North and South who want to see attention focused not on Western aid but on what developing countries and their citizens can do to help themselves; scholars and practitioners in the development field who are looking for new, practicable ideas; and general readers who want accessible and engaging accounts of ordinary people struggling to overcome poverty.

A fundamental handbook to the family health model!Family Health Social Work Practice: A Knowledge and Skills Casebook is a comprehensive guide to an emerging practice paradigm in the social work field. Edited by pioneers of the family health approach (who also contribute several chapters each), this book introduces the theoretical model and skills of the practice, including a framework for developing a family health intervention plan, illustrated by case scenarios. Issues vital to any family health intervention are addressed in 10 case studies that further explain the application of the practice model.Family Health Social Work Practice stresses a holistic orientation to assessment and intervention from a health perspective that includes the physical, mental, emotional, social, economic, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of family life. With its focus on practice theories, practical information, and evaluation strategies, the book provides a strong foundation for skills development in the family health model. A collection of articles from the leading practitioners and academics in the field gives a thorough and thoughtful examination to issues ranging from domestic violence to substance abuse to the Americans with Disabilities Act.Family Health Social Work Practice also reviews the philosophy behind the family health approach, summarizes its effectiveness, and examines other critical concerns, such as: child maltreatment mental health spiritual diversity aging agency managementOne of the few casebooks to present practical intervention plans with accompanying case scenarios, Family Health Social Work Practice is an essential resource for students and professionals in the social work andhuman services disciplines, and an unrivaled reference for libraries. Helpful tables and figures make the information easy to access and understand.

Fundamental questions about the morality of pediatric medical research persist despite years of debate and the establishment of strict codes of ethics. Is it ever permissible to use a child as a means to an end? How much authority should parents have over decisions about research involving their children? Should children or their parents be paid for participation in research? Most importantly, how can the twin goals of access to the benefits of clinical research and protection from research risk be reconciled? Promoting more thoughtful attention to the complex ethical problems that arise when research involves children, this fully updated new edition of Ethics and Research with Children presents 14 case studies featuring some of the most challenging and fascinating ethical dilemmas in pediatric research. Each chapter begins with a unique case vignette, followed by rich discussion and incisive ethical analysis. Chapters represent a host of current controversies and are contributed by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines that must grapple with how to best protect children from research risk while driving innovation in the fight against childhood diseases. Chapters end with questions for discussion, providing faculty and students with accessible starting points from which to explore more in depth the thorny issues that are raised. In the final chapter, the editors provide a synthesis and summary that serve as a capstone and companion to the case-based chapters. Unique in its specific focus on research, Ethics and Research with Children provides a balanced and thorough account of the enduring dilemmas that arise when children become research subjects, and will be essential reading for those involved with pediatric research in any context.

Use this important intervention to improve your practice with substance-using youths and their families!This vital book gives you a detailed review of a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded, long-term clinical trial of the Family Empowerment Intervention (FEI). The subjects are youths who have been arrested and processed at the Hillsborough County Juvenile Assessment Center and their families. With information on the conceptual foundations and clinical practices of the intervention and an examination of its one-year and longer-term impact on these youths' recidivism and psychosocial functioning, Family Empowerment Intervention: An Innovative Service for High-Risk Youth and Their Families will help you provide better services to these difficult-to-serve clients.Bringing you up-to-date on all aspects of this unique intervention, this book: examines the pressing need for this kind of intervention gives you an essential overview of the FEI describes the selection process for subject involvement in the project and the methods of data collection used examines the FEI's impact on crime as well as its short- and long-term impact on and drug and alcohol use suggests ways to improve the FEIComplete with dozens of easy-to-understand tables and figures as well as five helpful appendixes, this well-referenced volume is essential reading for anyone working with this highly volatile population. Make it a part of your collection today!

A uniquely hybrid approach to welfare state policy, ecological sustainability and social transformation, this book explores transformative models of welfare change. Using Ireland as a case study, it addresses the institutional adaptations needed to move towards a sustainable welfare state, and the policy of making such transformation happen. It takes a theoretical and practical approach to implementing an alternative paradigm for welfare in the context of globalisation, climate change, social cohesion, automation, economic and power inequalities, intersectionality, and environmental sustainability, as well as perpetual crisis, including the pandemic.

There is growing recognition that globalization places major pressures on the development of social security schemes. Internationalization of the economy has important consequences for labor markets: employment is becoming less secure and inequality and social exclusion more pronounced in many countries. At the same time, there are some fundamental socio-demographic changes: new family structures, an aging population, and migration. Increased uncertainty and exclusion intensify the need for social security. Both the public and private sectors are redefining their roles, reshuffling responsibilities between states, markets, families, and individuals. "Social Security in the Global Village" investigates the new challenges for social security in an increasingly globalized world and analyzes strategies of adjustment. A group of internationally renowned experts in this field assess the variety of effects that globalization has had on national social security schemes. A common theme of a first set of chapters is the relationship between common pressures of globalization and the role of national institutional frameworks in shaping the impact of these pressures on social security. Countries are dealing in different ways with these challenges and follow diverse pathways of adjustment that quite often contradict widespread assumptions about the effects of globalization. A second set of chapters is devoted to challenges in selected policy areas: migration, labor markets, and social cohesion issues. Among the topical issues discussed are the social rights of migrants, the changing rights and obligations in unemployment insurance, lessons to be drawn for the promotion of employment, the relationship between family policy and employment policy for mothers, the management of social risks, and the protection of an adequate income in an active welfare state. Research can help to enlighten and inform the policy debate about the legitimacy of social security in the new, globalized world. This book aims to help those involved-researchers and policy makers alike-advance toward that goal. Roland Sigg is head of research at the International Social Security Association in Geneva, Switzerland, and lecturer at the University of Geneva. He currently coordinates comparative research projects in the field of the development of the Welfare State, pension, work incapacity and reintegration, and the administration of social security. Christina Behrendt is a freelance researcher and consultant for the International Social Security Association in Geneva. She has authored several articles in the "Journal of European Social Policy" and the "International Social Security Review."

Housing provision is a major dilemma for local authorities. There is currently a huge demand for more housing, while increasing environmental, economic and political pressures must be considered when local authorities develop their policies. This remarkable volume investigates how local authorities formulate their housing strategies. It questions whether the local authority can be seen as a single entity in terms of housing or whether it is fragmented into separate departments. Incorporating in-depth empirical research from England and Wales, the book discusses whether the process of developing housing policy and allocating land needs to be more integrated, and whether key players such as speculative house-builders should be involved in the development of policy. Analyzing which information sources influence the local authority's land allocations and housing strategies, the volume debates whether they provide the most useful data and suggests alternative information sources that may assist in better land allocation policies.

Reform of the welfare sector is an important yet difficult challenge for all countries in transition from socialist central planning to market-oriented democracies. Here a scholar of the economics of socialism and post-socialist transition and a health economist take on this challenge. This 2001 book offers health sector reform recommendations for ten countries of Eastern Europe, drawn consistently from a set of explicit guiding principles. After discussing sector-specific characteristics, lessons of international experience, and the main set of initial conditions, the authors advocate reforms based on organized public financing for basic care, private financing for supplementary care, pluralistic delivery of services, and managed competition. Policymakers need to achieve a balance, both assuring social solidarity through universal access to basic health services and expanding individual choice and responsibility through voluntary supplemental insurance. The authors also consider the problems that undermine effectiveness of market-based competition in the health sector.

Residential Property Appraisal is a classic practitioner's handbook for surveyors and others involved in the appraisal of residential property for lending purposes. It focuses on the distinct professional competencies required by Mortgage Valuations and Home Buyers Surveys and Valuations, identifying and advising the reader on the extent and limitations of their activities. This is a well-illustrated book, supported by real-life case studies. It draws on the latest research developments.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203186222

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The COVID-19 pandemic has made unpaid care more visible through its absence, while also increasing the need for it. Drawing on a range of research projects covering Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, this book documents a broad spectrum of unpaid work performed by residents, relatives, volunteers and staff in nursing homes. It demonstrates how boundaries between paid and unpaid work are flexible, varying considerably with conditions, time, place and intersectional populations. By examining the complex labour process within nursing homes, this book provides insight and understanding which will be critical in planning for nursing home care post-pandemic.

'The book should serve as a useful primer for housing development in the era after the eagerly awaited urban white paper.' Building

'A very good resume for students.' Architectural Review

This volume explores the experiences of older women in post-war Japanese society through analysis of their family and housing histories. Three broad themes - family relations, welfare systems and housing - were chosen to highlight issues surrounding the changing role and position of women in the family and society. A qualitative approach is used to address a gap in the literature and to illustrate the real-life experiences of women in Japan. Many aspects of the book are comparable, or related, to studies exploring other industrial and East Asian societies, and the book thus contributes to international debates surrounding housing policy, the ageing society and the changing nature of the family. It also provides useful insight into, and analysis of, Japan's society and socio-economic system.

Educating Students to Make-a-Difference covers a range of issues related to service learning, addressing the "who," "why," and "so what" of service-learning experiences. It provides information that will aid in the development of service-learning programs and courses.The in-depth studies on student volunteerism found in this book will show you how incorporating student service objectives into your curriculum can improve your students'self-esteem and school involvement, as well as alleviate depression and problem behavior. Educating Students to Make-a- Difference will enhance your knowledge and understanding of volunteerism and its many benefits, showing you how to ignite the volunteer in each of your students. By encouraging volunteerism, you?ll increase your students'problem-solving and leadership skills, as well as their awareness of social issues, and see the positive impact service learning has on students, faculty and the community. Educating Students to Make-a-Difference gives qualitative and quantitative assessments of attributes that predict volunteerism in student populations and the social values that are developed or enhanced as a consequence of service-learning experiences. You?ll learn about student predispositions and motivations for community service across a variety of student populations. In addition to promoting moral and social values, service-learning opportunities present educational benefits as well as benefits to personal and professional growth. You will see this as the book explores: the "who," "why," and "so what" of service learning educational benefits of service-learning opportunities self-esteem and self-efficacy faculty benefits comparisons between volunteers and nonvolunteers motivations and predispositions for student volunteerism selection and retention of student volunteersYour colleagues will want to borrow your syllabus after seeing the results of your new community service incorporated class material. Educating Students to Make-a-Difference gives you the insight on student patterns and volunteerism and data to service learning activities that enhance your students'educational experiences.

Are you a professional who encounters children with a wide range of difficulties? Do you also work with their parents? Would you like a flexible source of information to support you in your work? This downloadable resources pack has been designed for you, and will be an invaluable asset to your health centre, children's centre, playgroup, nursery or school. Each of the handouts deals with one issue in detail. Topics include sleep, eating, behaviour, language and communication delays, attention deficits, sibling relationships, anxiety, jealousy, depression, bullying, death, divorce and trauma. Designed as a high-quality leaflet, the handouts can be printed from the downloadable resources or photocopied from the book and either made available to individuals, or used to develop an accessible information rack for parents. Covering the full range of issues encountered by parents of children up to the age of sixteen, the leaflets provide clearly written guidance on how to help children with some of the common problems encountered in family life. Suitable for families attending your surgery, family centre, community mental health team, school, nursery, social work, psychology or psychiatry department.