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​This book analyzes the importance of informal social protection provided by religious institutions such as madrassas in a low-income country such as Pakistan. This book explains that Madrassas are religious schools that have existed in many Muslim countries for centuries and contributed significantly to preserving, forming, and extending human knowledge in medieval times. Further, madrassas are now more commonly viewed as the providers of a narrow education, supporting religious fundamentalism, that may lead to terrorism. However, this book asserts that education is not the only function performed by madrassas. They are a significant source of welfare support for the vulnerable and marginalized households in many low-income countries. This book helps the readers to understand the concept of informal social protection not conceptualized previously. In addition, its various attributes and institutions providing such a form of welfare worldwide are explained indetail; analyzing the usefulness of such a form of social protection would benefit readers of social policy, national governments, and international donor/aid agencies. This book also provides a prescriptive framework for integrating formal and informal social protection. This book provides a new'Multiple Regime Framework', for identifying various regimes in one country at one point in time by applying a novel data collection and analysis methodology. The application of this framework would be of particular interest to social policy scholars, national governments, and donor/aid agencies because it will result in better targeting of social protection policies in the wake of fiscal constraints. Lastly, this book provides a novel data collection and analysis strategy that will benefit the reader of research methodology, development consultants, donor agencies, and policy practitioners interested in using artificial intelligence to make informed and targetedpolicy decisions.

Offering an introduction to modern philanthropy with regard to the commitment and willingness of citizens, funds, churches and businesses to contribute voluntarily to society Philanthropy and the Philanthropy Sector: An Introduction attempts to map philanthropy and promote a better understanding of its characteristics and features. After years of division in welfare state debates between the role and responsibilities of government and the market a renewed focus on philanthropy has shown that many societies also harbour an important and growing voluntary sector. Something special is happening at the macro-societal level as the traditional government-market dyad is being broken by a renewed interest in this'third way'. Intended for students, scientists, administrators, policymakers, politicians, fundraisers, philanthropists and philanthropic organizations this book adopts a social policy approach to look at philanthropy alongside other social arrangements and provide an invaluable introduction for all those interested in this fascinating social mechanism.

In the last two decades especially, we have witnessed the rise of ‘celebrity'forms of global humanitarianism and charity work, spearheaded by entertainment stars, billionaires, and activist NGOs (e.g. Bob Geldof, Bono, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Bill Gates, George Soros, Save Darfur, Medeçins Sans Frontières). This book examines this new phenomenon, arguing that celebrity humanitarianism legitimates, and indeed promotes, neoliberal capitalism and global inequality.Drawing on Slavoj Žižek's work, the book argues how celebrity humanitarianism, far from being altruistic, is significantly contaminated and ideological: it is most often self-serving, helping to promote institutional aggrandizement and the celebrity ‘brand'; it advances consumerism and corporate capitalism, and rationalizes the very global inequality it seeks to redress; it is fundamentally depoliticizing, despite its pretensions to ‘activism'; and it contributes to a ‘postdemocratic'political landscape, which appears outwardly open and consensual, but is in fact managed by unaccountable elites.

From Braille Without Borders and Unite for Sight, to Geekcorps and PeaceWorks, humanitarian groups are working worldwide largely in undeveloped countries to better the lives of the residents. Whether they are empowering people with schools for the blind, prosthetic limbs, the devices to understand and use technology, or the information to work for civil peace, the men and women of these agencies offer tremendous talent to their causes, great dedication and, sometimes, even risk their lives to complete their missions. Working in war or civil war zones, humanitarians with nonprofits, non-governmental agencies, and university-connected centers and foundations have been injured, kidnapped, or killed. Now terrorist events and war crimes are more and more often bringing these self-sacrificing workers into the national spotlight by media headlines. Their work is, doubtless, remarkable. And so too are the stories of how they developed - including the defining moments when their founders felt they could no longer stand by and do nothing. In this set of books, founders and top officials from humanitarian organizations established in the last 50 years spotlight how and why they began their organizations, what their greatest victories and challenges have been, and how they run the organizations, down to where they get their funding and how they spend it to grow the group and its efforts. Led by Chris E. Stout, named Humanitarian of the Year by the American Psychological Association, the contributors here come from across training disciplines including psychology, medicine, technology, science, politics, social work, and business.Stout, who has worked in Latin American terrorist zones, in Vietnam, and along the Amazon in Ecuador with Flying Doctors of America, has chosen to feature a sample of humanitarian groups across four primary areas - medicine, environment, education, and social justice. He also concentrates on what he calls guerilla humanitarians - those who step into unsafe or unhealthy conditions despite the dangers. There is also a concentration on those that have been very successful with on-the-ground-guerilla-innovations without a lot of bureaucracy or baloney. Above all, They are rebels with a cause whose actions speak louder than mere words, Stout explains. They have all felt a moral duty to serve as vectors of change. In addition to being psychologically insightful, these volumes hold invaluable practical information.

Political, intellectual, and academic discourse in the United States has been awash in political correctness, which has itself been berated and defended -- yet little understood. As a corrective, Nelson and Greene look at a more general process: adopting political positions to enhance one's reputation for trustworthiness both to others and to oneself. Phillip Nelson and Kenneth Greene are Professors of Economics in the Department of Economics at the State University of New York, Binghamton.