Search

This Open Access book explores sustainability transitions with a focus on their influence on the relationships between cores and peripheries, the rural and the urban, and the large and the small-scale. The societal changes induced by sustainability transitions are expected to assemble as a variegated and heterogeneous process reproduced by different spatial contexts and scales. Hence, the practical solutions and impacts of processes framed as sustainability transitions are expected to vary between different localities in terms of their natural, material, or human resources, the heritage of the development, their power and market relations, virtual and physical connections as well as shifting individual rationalities – within and across certain socio-economic spaces. To highlight these socio-spatial processes, their alignments, frictions and contradictions for sustainability transitions, this book and its contributions call for an increased engagement in the scalar aspects of sustainability transitions and their governance. The authors argue that rescaling follows from two observations on the extant literature concerning sustainability transitions. Firstly there is a call for a stronger engagement of sustainability transitions research with questions of place and relocalization practices, their embedded power relations, but also questions on small-scale trajectories for the territorial and economic materializations in terms of production and market reach as an alternative to the large-scale dominance of resource exploitation and use. Secondly there is a call for increased attention to the relational processes and ontological framing that reproduce mobilities and scalar shifts in governance arrangements.

Containing a novel compilation of theoretical and methodological approaches, this textbook lays out the most relevant foundations of clinical sociology. Relying heavily on well-recognized medical models and concepts to help communicate ideas (e.g. treatment, diagnosis, clinical, cure), the methods of social diagnosis and social therapy presented in this book will help in better and socially informed protection of vulnerable individuals and citizens as well as an informed design of protection policies for macro, meso and micro levels of society. The book explains that many problems, perceived as economic, psychological-individual, and political, are rooted in social functions and structures of the wider society, and how these social structures and functions interact in everyday life. Through the application of the theoretical and methodological approaches in case studies on recent issues, such as the Covid pandemic, or the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the book will allow readers to easily cope with the complexity of clinical sociology and to develop clinical competencies and pertinent training. This renders the book not only highly useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of clinical and applied sociology but also for the preparation of courses for theoretically informed practitioners who are keen to work by defining learning objectives and learning paths.

Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions, and one where the implementation of the SDGs is particularly urgent. Underinvestments in natural conservation are increasing the vulnerability of people across many African countries, whose well-being is endangered by deteriorating socio-economic and environmental conditions. This volume provides a contribution towards showcasing how natural resources may be more efficiently used and investments may be mobilised to augment the limited public sector funds available to achieve the SDGs.This book is part of the'100 papers to accelerate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals initiative'.

This volume explores several aspects of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum's framework for thinking about individual well-being. Called the functioning and capability approach (FCA), this framework radically departs from the conventional approach to the concept of individual well-being in welfare economics insofar as it identifies an individual's well-being as the value attached to the individual's achievements along certain dimensions of life and her freedom to choose a vector of such achievements rather than as the individual's happiness or desire fulfillment. The volume consists of two main parts. Part I outlines and studies the basic conceptual and analytical framework and its major features in detail. Part II of the book is devoted to application of the analytical structure of the FCA to practical problems of measuring well-being, deprivation, and inequality in a society. The book concludes with a discussion of the main conclusions of earlier chapters and the role of social scientists and philosophers in the FCA. This volume will be of interest to students, researchers, and practitioners studying multidimensional well-being, deprivation and inequality.

This book is a comprehensive exploration of endogenous community building, aiming to investigate how to create a vibrant, service-integrated, and sustainable community through collective impact approaches. It's a guide to social innovation that combines theory and practical application. In terms of theory, it constructs concepts such as endogenous community, endogenous design system, life project platform and enabling ecosystem. In practice, it offers design methods and a toolkit for collective impact to enhance community resilience and capacity through service co-creation. This book provides readers with a systematic guide to endogenous community design, ranging from conceptual understanding and theoretical models to practical methodologies. Its aim is to build a sociotechnical system from the bottom-up to address complex issues.This book is ideal for community leaders, government officials, NGOs, urban planners, social innovators, and anyone passionate about sustainable community development.

With the rise of poverty, welfare state crises, health crises, and populist governments, state intervention and social policies are greatly affected by emotions. Based on sociological research carried out in Argentina, this book aims to examine state interventions at a global level and identify the emotions that shape social policies addressing nationwide poverty. In understanding the social structures of the 21st century, it is crucial to analyze social policies from psychological and physiological perspectives. Thus, this book explores the connection between emotions, well-being, and feelings to women's participation in social policies and the dimension of uncertainty, trust, and fear from these interventions. Further, this book examines cash transfers and energy insufficiency in social policies that address poverty. Moreover, it seeks to understand new social architectures by discovering the sensibilities configured over the years in impoverished populations and recipients of state policies.

This book investigates the integration of Syrian refugees in the United States, and it identifies the challenges that hinder their successful integration. After providing a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. legal instruments in national and international laws and obligations to receive forced migrants, the book then highlights the resettlement process and programs as a coordinated interagency process that entails a collaboration between the UN Refugee Agency and the related U.S. departments and agencies and the nongovernmental partners and refugee advocacy organizations. Moreover, it delves into integration as a proxy theory and governance that entails an analytical component from a theoretical lens to understand some aspects of realities that revolve around the resettlement of forced migrants'concepts, principles, and policies. Built on rich qualitative data from Syrian refugees in the U.S. to understand their resettlement experiences and their integration in multidimensional analysis, the book shows how the lack of federally driven integration policies and institutions in the U.S. negatively affects just integration. Relying on voluntary organizations leads to uneven outcomes among forced migrants, affecting social equity. Alongside this book's theoretical and practical implications, it highlights the ethical consideration of studying forced migrants and the synergy between forced migrants'vulnerability and cultural sensitivity. Ultimately, the book discusses the roadmap for implementing integration policies in the U.S. Among the topics covered: Introduction: The History of Managing Forced Migration in the U.S.: Political Climate and Global Events The U.S. Legal and Institutional Frameworks of the Resettlement of Syrian Refugees The Syrian Refugees'Integration Challenges in the U.S. and the Roadmap for Integration Policies Navigating Integration Policies of Forced Migration in the United States: The Case of Syrian Refugees is relevant reading for researchers who are interested in integration and refugee-related topics; academics who conduct research in social policies, refugee integration, and resettlement; public policymakers who are involved in formulating refugee integration policies; practitioners at various levels who assist resettled forced migrants; and graduate students studying political science, public administration, social work, and sociology. Politicians with left-wing views who are advocating for improved human security for everyone also would find the book a useful resource.

Acknowledging efforts to dismantle racism at multiple levels, Racism and Anti-Racism Today examines racism and anti-racism as interconnected rather than isolated issues and proposes a framework for effective anti-racist policy and practice. Providing a unique side-by-side view on current conceptualizations, debates, and policy-praxis, the ten thematic chapters examine the impact of race, racism, and intersecting inequities on contemporary society. They highlight the enduring significance of racial identity politics in shaping social divisions. Engaging in interdisciplinary theoretical debates, Amanuel Elias's scholarship adopts a comparative perspective, incorporating research findings and examples from different geographic contexts. Offering policy recommendations and directions for further research, he contends with fundamental questions that continue to plague the study of racism and its social and economic impact. Why does racism continue to exist and affect societies today despite apparent progress in the acquisition of knowledge, digital connectedness, and human rights discourse? What challenges across societies are blocking efforts to racial equity? What promising anti-racism policy-praxis can we envisage for tackling the impact of racial inequity? Drawing on over a decade of interdisciplinary research, Racism and Anti-Racism Today provides cutting-edge discussion about the present relevance of prejudice to envision an anti-racist future.

As the world experiences a rapid increase in the aging population, it is essential to address the challenges and opportunities that arise as a result. This book explores the significant impact of aging on individual well-being, societal welfare systems, and the global economy. By examining the multifaceted aspects of aging, demography and welfare, the book aims to provide a comprehensive and critical narrative to navigating these challenges and achieving better outcomes for both older individuals and society as a whole. The book has a critical approach running through it; despite this, there is a need to do something with the critical questions and focus on sustainable solutions to problems and issues an aging population poses to researchers, policy makers and older people themselves. In essence, the primary purpose of this book is to shed light on the complexities surrounding aging, demography and its intersection with welfare systems. By delving into various perspectives, such as social, economic, and healthcare considerations, this book highlights the holistic understanding needed to address the challenges associated with an aging population effectively.

The interconnections of economy, society and politics so obviously determine socio-economic and political structures and problem situations, current ways of thinking and acting as well as the collective perception of solution options that their still low attention in university teaching and school education is surprising. Phenomena such as pandemics, climate change, migration or authoritarianism make the close, complex and contradictory connections between economy, society and politics tangible. Against this background, socioeconomic research, teaching and education are urgently needed. The theme volume aims to contribute to this by presenting research contributions on problem complexes such as economy and democracy, perspectivity and multiperspectivity, situation, interest and politics, subject and subjectification, and discipline and curriculum.

This book presents advanced methodologies for analyzing attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine across 10 countries spanning both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, employing cutting-edge Big Data and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) techniques. Serving as an important resource for policymakers, it addresses attitudes towards and causes of growing vaccine hesitancy —a pressing concern identified by the World Health Organization as a top 10 global health threat. Moreover, the book sheds light on key factors associated with positive vaccine attitudes, aiming to bolster vaccine uptake rates. The authors explore the role of happiness in shaping health-related decision-making, offering actionable policy recommendations for governments. By sharing best-case practices, they equip policymakers and health officials worldwide with the necessary strategies to address future pandemics effectively.

​This book offers a comprehensive analysis of social protection in Latin America, its origins, institutions, and outcomes. The chapters are organised in three groups. The earlier chapters discuss in turn appropriate methods, an analytical framework, and core institutions. The book advocates a causal inference approach to the study of the institutions that have dominated social protection in the region: occupational insurance, individual retirement savings, and social assistance. The middle chapters study social protection's main stratification effects, focussing on stratification effects on employment, protection, and worker incorporation. The later chapters then assess social protection outcomes and identify country groupings including their evolution over time. The book, and its approach and findings, contributes to the advancement of a theory of social protection amongst late industrialisers.This is an open access book.

This open access book presents detailed findings about the ethical, legal, and social acceptance of robots in the German and European context. The key resource is the Bremen AI Delphi survey of scientists and politicians and a related population survey. The focus is on trust in robotic assistance, human willingness to use this assistance, and the expected personal well-being in human-robot interaction. Using recent data from Eurostat, the European Social Survey, and the Eurobarometer survey, the analysis is extended to Germany and the EU. The acceptance of robots in care and everyday life is viewed against their acceptance in other contexts of life and the scientific research. The book reports on how the probability of five complex future scenarios is evaluated by experts and politicians. These scenarios cover a broad range of topics, including the worst-case scenario of cutthroat competition for jobs, the wealth promise of AI, communication in human-robot interaction, robotic assistance, and ethical and legal conflicts. International economic competition alone will ensure that countries invest sustainably in the future technologies of AI and robots. But will these technologies also be accepted by the population? The book raises the core issue of how governments can gain the needed social, ethical, and user acceptance of AI and robots in everyday life. This highly topical book is of interest to researchers, professionals and policy makers working on various aspects of human-robot interaction. This is an open access book.

This volume examines the transformation of subjectivities following contemporary societal trends with regulatory and administrative authorities targeting human subjectivity with the aim to transform it. It addresses the malleability of human subjectivity through rich qualitative analyses of how different governing attempts are received by the subjects themselves. While the scholarship on governmentality has so far produced an enormously useful body of literature on the ‘how'aspect of governing, this book suggests that it has been prone to overestimate the degree to which our subjectivities are open to change. Combining ethnographic sensitivity with more traditional governmentality perspectives allows us to explore how governing attempts ‘land'in the terrain targeted—human subjectivity—in actual social contexts, under specific forms of governing and rationality. In doing so, the book makes a distinctive contribution to a second generation of governmentality studies. It will appeal to social scientists with interests in governance, governmentality, social policy and the sociology of work.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

In The Human Paradox: Worlds Apart in a Connected World, author Frank Gaffikin probes widely and meticulously into our past and present to analyse the connections between the many acute polarisations that mark contemporary times. Addressing profound issues related to Trumpism, Brexit, the outbreak of Covid-19 and ensuing pandemic, and environmental change, the book argues that beneath all the present social tumult lies a fundamental dilemma for human stability and progress, namely how we can be estranged from what we refer to as humanity.The book begins with an appraisal of populism and authoritarian nationalism, and later explores whether, in our human development, we are bound for enhancement or extinction. Interrogating these big ideas further, the book identifies three central challenges that confront us as a society: living on the planet, living with the planet, and living with one another on the planet. These challenges prompt a re-think of what it is to be human and social, and hinging on these key themes, the book thus concludes with consideration of a radical agenda for future social improvement.Rather than peering through the conventional lenses offered by separate disciplines, this book argues for interdisciplinary appreciation and recognition, especially so if we are to address the dilemma at the center of its concern. The Human Paradox will appeal to readers interested in the major conflicts of our times, as well as students of subjects including sociology, politics, history, and economics.

This book provides a focused discussion of how families are governed through technologies. It shows how states attempt to influence, shape and govern families as both the source of and solution to a range of social problems including crime.The book critically reviews family governance in contemporary neo-liberal society, notably through technologies of self-responsibilisation, biologisation, and artificial intelligence. The book draws attention to the poor working class and racialised families that often are marked out and evaluated as culpable, dysfunctional, and a threat to economic and social order, obscuring the structural inequalities that underpin family lives and discriminations that are built into the tools that identify and govern families.Filling a gap where disciplinary perspectives cross-cut, this book brings together sociological and criminological perspectives to provide a unique cross-disciplinary approach to the topic. It will be of interest to researchers, scholars and lecturers studying sociology and criminology, as well as policy-makers and professionals working in the fields of early years and family intervention programmes, including in social work, health, education, and the criminologically-relevant professions such as police and probation.

This book presents an overview of social problems and health problems that arose out of, or were flared up by, the global COVID-19 pandemic. It addresses most vital problems in developed and developing countries from literally around the world, by top country experts in their respective fields of study. The book debates first certain overall thematic topics and then analyzes a number of key country case studies. Apart from a set of key theme/problem-based chapters, the country case studies from major-hit countries in the world are yet another highlight of the book. They also feature, in addition to analyzing the pandemic and policy responses per se, one extra special focal point each. The book hence covers the core of most severe social problems, including health problems, that have been spurred or set off by the COVID-19 pandemic. An overall theory chapter that uses a global data analysis and a short theoretical appraisal on the'human face'of the Pandemic is also offered at the beginning of book, to bring back humanity and human decency (i.e. decency of the human condition) into the scientific debate as well as policy making arena, which is utterly needed at this point of human development.

This fully revised and updated edition of Happiness provides an accessible introduction to the concept of happiness and how it can be applied to public policy in order to help citizens achieve the good life.Countries around the globe want to ensure the best for their citizens. They want them to be happy, have a good life and improve their well-being. It follows that, whilst happiness is based upon individuals'subjective perception of their own situation, it is important to understand the concept of happiness in order to form policies that might help individuals to achieve what they believe will make them happier. Applying approaches from disciplines across the social sciences, this book explores varying notions of happiness and how these can be applied to create a theoretical understanding of happiness as a concept. The book then demonstrates how the concept of happiness can be used to analyse social policy in welfare states in areas including work, health and migration, as well as to evaluate everyday life and social relationships.This book will be essential reading for students and instructors in a range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the concept of happiness and/or welfare states.

Das Handbuch spiegelt eine moderne Fassung transdisziplinärer Wissenschaft und heterogener Praxis. Aktuelle Grundlagen und Entwicklungen der Genossenschaftswissenschaft wie auch des Genossenschaftswesens werden zeitgemäß aufbereitet. Bis auf wenige Ausnahmen beziehen sich die Beiträge auf Genossenschaften in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Im Vordergrund steht die Vermittlung wissenschaftlicher Methoden und Konzeptionen. Einen breiten Raum nimmt die anwendungsorientierte Analyse spezifischer betriebswirtschaftlicher Probleme der Genossenschaften ein. Anders als in einem Lexikon oder Wörterbuch sind die gesammelten Beiträge nach verschiedenen Themenbereichen geordnet. Dies ermöglicht den Leserinnen und Lesern einen schnellen Zugriff auf die jeweils interessierenden Fragestellungen.

This book is about the social protection of lower-skilled migrants from Sri Lanka. It reasons out the importance of protecting Sri Lankan migrant workers considering the significant economic contribution of lower-skilled migrant workers and their higher level of exposure to risks at all stages of international migration: pre-departure, on the job, and after returnee reintegration. The book explores social protection programmes for low-skilled immigrants from three perspectives: legal aspects, national policies, and programmes. The chapter on legal background for protecting migrant workers focuses on declarations and on labour laws on the national and international level. Policies and programmes identify national level labour policies and other related policies that apply to migrant workers, as well as available social protection programmes for Sri Lankan migrant workers. In turn, the solutions for minimizing the related risks faced by Sri Lankan migrant workers. Highlighting the economic contribution of migrant workers and their vulnerability at all stages of migration, this book offers a timely and important contribution for policy makers and practitioners as well as scholars of migration studies, public policy and related fields.

This book provides important philosophical insights concerning the kind of creatures we are such that we can experience something we understand as well-being, with these insights then being applied to various areas of social policy and welfare practice. The author defends what he calls The Ontology of Well-Being Thesis (TOWT), addressing ontological questions about the human condition, and how these questions are fundamental to issues concerning what we might know about human well-being and how we should promote it. Yet, surprisingly, these ontological questions are often side-lined in academic, political, and policy and practice based debates about well-being. Addressing these questions, head-on, six features of the human condition are identified via TOWT: human embodiment, finiteness, sociability, cognition, evaluation, and agency. The main argument of the thesis is that these features reveal the conflicting character of human experiences, which can, in turn, have a profound bearing on our experience of well-being. Notably, it is our conflicting experiences of time, emotion, and self-consciousness, which can potentially help us experience well-being in complex and multi-dimensional ways. The author then applies these insights to various social policies and welfare practices, concerning, for example, pensions, disability, bereavement counselling, social prescribing within health settings, the promotion of mental health, and co-production practices. This book is of importance to philosophers, social policy analysts, and welfare practitioners and is also relevant to the fields of psychology, sociology, politics, and the health sciences.

An der Schnittstelle von Arbeitsmigration und Gesundheitsarbeit untersucht dieses Buch die dynamische Beziehung zwischen der grenzüberschreitenden Bewegung von Krankenschwestern und den Bemühungen, ihre Migration zu regulieren. Auf der Grundlage qualitativer Forschung an mehreren Standorten analysiert dieser Band die sich verändernden sozialen Dimensionen und das transnationale Ausmaß der globalen Krankenpflege und konzentriert sich dabei insbesondere auf die Anwerbung von Pflegekräften von den Philippinen nach Deutschland. Die Abwanderung von Pflegefachkräften aus ressourcenarmen Ländern in wohlhabende Länder führt nicht nur zu einem globalen Pflegenotstand, sondern ist auch ein Paradebeispiel für den internationalen Wettlauf um Talente und Fähigkeiten. Dieses Buch wirft einen kritischen Blick auf das entstehende Feld der Migrationssteuerung oder des Migrationsmanagements als bevorzugte politische Antwort auf die konkurrierenden Diskurse über den globalen Pflegenotstand und den globalen Wettbewerb um qualifizierte Pflegekräfte. Es beleuchtet nicht nur das sich verändernde Geflecht von Akteuren, Diskursen und Praktiken im Migrationsmanagement der Pflegearbeit, sondern auch und vor allem, wie verschiedene Formen der Pflege in der globalen Migration von Pflegekräften zum Tragen kommen.

This book presents a new step farther into the twenty-first century, for the first time truly combining a comprehensive global data analysis with social policy theory development. The theory of global ideal-typical welfare regimes, also known as the “Ten Worlds of Welfare Regime Theory”, as set forth earlier by Christian Aspalter, is now in this book tested empirically using a quantitative global data analysis for the first time. The strong and rich results fully vindicated the Ten Worlds Theory. All in all, about 150 countries are included in this test, measuring numerous variables on two main dimensions, i.e., povertization and inequality. The innovative approach of using a new indicator, Aspalter's Standardized Relative Performance Index, is applied, which facilitated the exact measurements of distances between relative performances of each variable, each dimension, each country, and each ideal-typical welfare regime (in relation to one another, respectively). In addition, oneexplanative and one normative meta-study is added to the book, to point to ways to understand and deal with the global culprit of inequality and, hence, poverty.“On the backdrop of decades of comparative theoretical and empirical research we now, for the first time, have a truly global analysis of welfare regimes.” ---- Peter Abrahamson, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen

In diesem Buch wird der aktuelle Zustand der österreichischen Sozialpartnerschaft und ihrer Kontextbedingungen aus verschiedenen disziplinären Perspektiven (Soziologie, Politikwissenschaft,Rechtswissenschaft und Wirtschaftswissenschaft) in ausgewählten Bereichen beschrieben und diskutiert. Im Fokus stehen die Antworten sozialpartnerschaftlicher Akteure auf aktuelle gesellschaftliche, politische, rechtliche und wirtschaftliche Herausforderungen, wie etwa Digitalisierung, Transnationalisierung von Wertschöpfungsketten, ökologische Transformation, neue Formen der Beschäftigung, Arbeitsmigration und die Neuordnung der politischen Kräfteverhältnisse.

Die vorliegende Publikation erweitert konstitutiv das Diskursfeld zum Thema Grundeinkommen, lotet die Möglichkeiten einer Einführung sowie Chancen und Risiken ab. Obwohl alle visionären Vorschläge zum Bedingungslosen Grundeinkommen (BGE) zumindest in demokratisch verfassten Wohlfahrtsstaaten bislang politisch nicht umgesetzt wurden, wurde die Frage nach der Umsetzung bzw. den Gelingensbedingungen und der Identifizierung möglicher Blockaden nur am Rande behandelt. Auch jüngste Veröffentlichungen zu einem BGE weisen diese politisch-institutionelle „Blindheit“ auf und thematisieren zu wenig die Gründe für das bisherige Scheitern. Ohne eine Überführungsstrategie wird die Idee in Deutschland aber aufgrund einer solchen Implementierungsnaivität scheitern. Im Buch wird deshalb der Diskussionsstand zum Grundeinkommen insofern weiterentwickelt, dass eine Einbindung in wohlfahrtsstaatliche Entwicklungsverläufe und aktuelle Herausforderungen für die „Sicherung der sozialen Sicherung“ vorgenommen wird. Zudem wird anknüpfend an den „stillen“ Wandel zum sozialinvestiven Staat eine sozialwissenschaftliche Einordnung bislang visionär erscheinender garantistischer Elemente eines Grundeinkommensmodells vorgenommen.

Dieses Buch setzt sich kritisch mit einer Reihe von provokanten Fragen auseinander: Warum sind die heutigen Gesellschaften so abhängig von den konstruktiven und destruktiven Auswirkungen der Individualisierung? Ist dieses Phänomen nur mit der'zweiten'oder'späten'Moderne verbunden? Kann das Konzept der Individualisierung produktiv für die Entwicklung einer soziologischen Diagnose unserer Zeit genutzt werden? Die innovativen Antworten, die in diesem Buch vorgeschlagen werden, konzentrieren sich auf zwei Arten von Herausforderungen, die den Anstieg der Individualisierung begleiten. Erstens, dass sie durch umstrittene Veränderungen in den sozialen Strukturen und Handlungsmustern verursacht wird. Zweitens, dass die Auswirkungen der Individualisierung Varianten des Gemeinwohls in Frage stellen. Beide Herausforderungen haben eine lange Geschichte, haben aber in den fortgeschrittenen Gesellschaften der Gegenwart im Kontext der aktuellen Globalisierung eine kritische Intensität erreicht.

On the 80th anniversary of Beveridge's report on the ‘Five Giants'confronting societal progress in the 1940s, this innovative book examines the ‘New Giants'confronting us today: inequality, preventable mortality, the crisis of democracy, job quality, and environmental degradation. Ian Greener uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis and cluster analysis across 24 countries to analyse which countries are the highest performing in relation to each of the New Giants, and what they have in common.The book indicates that confronting the New Giants requires more participative modes of governance, as well as a greater commitment to redistributing wealth and achieving higher levels of education. Greener also highlights how higher levels of globalization, so long as they are combined with these factors, can be compatible with confronting the New Giants. The book further considers how these factors combined in countries with lower levels of mortality in the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic.This will be critical reading for social policy and politics scholars and policy makers interested in comparative analysis. The clear explanation of the research methods used in the book will be useful to advanced level students and researchers in the field.

This book interrogates Conservative government penal policy for adult and young adult offenders in England and Wales between 2015 and 2021. Government penal policy is shown to have been often ineffective and costly, and to have revived efforts to push the system towards a disastrous combination of austerity, outsourcing and punishment that has exacerbated the penal crisis.This investigation has meant touching on topical debates dealing with the impact of resource scarcity on offenders'experiences of the penal system, the impact of an increasing emphasis on punishment on offenders'sense of justice and fairness, the balance struck between infection control and offender welfare during the government handling of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and why successive Conservative governments have intransigently pursued a penal policy that has proved crisis-exacerbating.The overall conclusion reached is that penal policy is too important to be left to governments alone and needs to be recalibrated by a one-off inquiry, complemented by an on-going advisory body capable of requiring governments to ‘explain or change'. The book is distinctive in that it provides a critical review of penal policy change, whist combining this with insights derived from the sociological analysis of penal trends.

This book analyses how public toilets were provided by the government and local business in Hong Kong between the 1860s and 1930s through a process that was embedded in class and racial politics. Addressing public toilet provision from a political economy perspective, it focuses on the interplay of the cross-border night soil business between Hong Kong and China's silk producing area; the silk market between China and Colonial powers; the Hong Kong land market between the colonial government and Chinese business; and how these factors jointly produced a network of toilets in the colony. As the book shows, the commercial viability of toilets created multiple logics and a new moral geography; further, exploring the topic can help us gain a better understanding of how urban governance functioned in colonies and how it intertwined with economic contingencies within a global economic system. The intended readership includes academics and members of the general public with an interest in colonialism, public infrastructures, public health, government–business relations, and urban governance.

This book contributes to emerging debates about Levelling Up the UK Economy, considering these alongside the nature of, and trends in, both the political economy and spatial disparities. Drawing on a complex systems framing, the book pulls together a range of evidence to provide insights about the agenda from macro, meso and micro levels of analyses, including utilising qualitative data from a small scoping study with Directors of Regeneration across several ‘left behind'places and 25 residents of ‘left behind'Redcar & Cleveland in Teesside. The book outlines phases in capitalism's development, particularly the shift from post-war capitalism to a post-industrial and neoliberal society and the implications for spatial inequalities. The 2022 Levelling Up White Paper is analysed alongside a focus on the role of local government relative to the agenda. The book offers an empirical case study of ‘left behind'Redcar & Cleveland, exposing deindustrialisation, insecure employment, crime, anti-social behaviour and sentiments on a North South divide and Levelling Up. We suggest that only a transformative change in the political economy, including significant and sustained investment at different spatial levels, is likely to achieve the ambition to Level Up.

This Handbook examines the study of failure in social sciences, its manifestations in the contemporary world, and the modalities of dealing with it – both in theory and in practice. It draws together a comprehensive approach to failing, and invisible forms of cancelling out and denial of future perspectives. Underlining critical mechanisms for challenging and reimagining norms of success in contemporary society, it allows readers to understand how contemporary regimes of failure are being formed and institutionalized in relation to policy and economic models, such as neo-liberalism. While capturing the diversity of approaches in framing failure, it assesses the conflations and shifts which have occurred in the study of failure over time. Intended for scholars who research processes of inequality and invisibility, this Handbook aims to formulate a critical manifesto and activism agenda for contemporary society. Presenting an integrated view about failure, the Handbook will be an essential reading for students in sociology, social theory, anthropology, international relations and development research, organization theory, public policy, management studies, queer theory, disability studies, sports, and performance research.

This book provides a focused and comprehensive overview of the status of children across society, with special reference to emerging features and measures of child safety, welfare, and overall well-being. The book is arranged into four parts covering various dimensions of child welfare and well-being. In this second edition, highly experienced academics, researchers, child rights activities, and policymakers from both developed and developing countries have contributed chapters on topics such as status of children living under institutional care, sexual abuse of male children and tribal girl children, issues and challenges faced by children living in conflict zones, children living on the streets, COVID-19 and its impact on the education of children. The status of marginalized children gets special importance in the second edition. The new chapters include field-based experiences of researchers in protecting child rights and preventing child abuse. It also considers the promising strategies and promising future directions in enhancing effective prevention, intervention and responses to child abuse and neglect. This volume is essential for a wide range of professionals and researchers from the social sciences, law, medicine, and behavioral sciences. It is also beneficial for policymakers and law enforcement agencies working with children.

​This book addresses and compensates for the lack of poverty measurement research in China. With regard to the multi-dimensional measurement of poverty, it is clear that the situation of Chinese farmers is problematic in terms of five major aspects: sanitation facilities, health insurance, durable consumer goods, productive assets and modern fuels. Based on these criteria, the book provides a clear direction for policy intervention to comprehensively improve farmers'standard of living and tackle the key problems of poverty alleviation and development in the region. In addition, its analysis of poverty among ethnic minorities, the elderly and children offers valuable reference material for poverty alleviation and the development of special groups.

Die Verflechtungen von Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Politik bestimmen so offensichtlich die sozioökonomischen und politischen Strukturen und Problemlagen, die gegenwärtigen Denk- und Handlungsweisen sowie die kollektive Wahrnehmung von Lösungsoptionen, dass ihre immer noch geringe Beachtung in Hochschullehre und Schulbildung verwundert. Phänomene wie Pandemien, Klimawandel, Migration oder Autoritarismus machen die engen, komplexen und widersprüchlichen Zusammenhänge von Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Politik aktuell erfahrbar. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist Aufklärung durch sozioökonomische Forschung, Lehre und Bildung dringend geboten. Dazu will der Themenband beitragen, indem er Forschungsbeiträge zu Problemkomplexen wie Wirtschaft und Demokratie, Perspektivität und Multiperspektivität, Situation, Interesse und Politik, Subjekt und Subjektivierung sowie Disziplin und Curriculum präsentiert.

Der Konferenzband diskutiert aus interdisziplinären Perspektiven das Kopftuch im Kontext von Verbotsdebatten im deutschsprachigen Raum und möglichen Konsequenzen für das gesellschaftliche Miteinander. Der Mehrwert dieser Publikation ergibt sich aus der Auseinandersetzung mit dem sonst populistisch und politisch ausgeschlachteten Thema des muslimischen Kopftuches und bietet anstelle dessen eine differenzierte und vor allem differenzierende Elaboration sowohl für die im Feld stehenden Lehrenden als auch für die interessierte Allgemeinheit.

This open access collection is devoted to an in-depth, qualitative analysis of practices of cross-national solidarity in response to the current political and social crises, from citizens'initiatives to networks of cooperation among civil society actors. The book analyses existing informal groups at the grassroots, furthering transnational solidarity in three thematic areas: disability, unemployment and immigration. Contributions assess how civic groups respond to the various crises affecting Europe, especially the economic and refugee crises, presenting new findings from a systematic comparative study conducted in eight European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK). The research will be of interest to scholars, students, journalists, policy-makers and activists interested in civil society, social movements, charitable actions, altruism and solidarity, as well as European studies and the socio-economic challenges of current European crises.

Die anhaltende Transformation des Sozialstaats ist mit einer Bedeutungszunahme tarifvertraglicher Regulierung von sozialer Sicherung verbunden. Der Band bietet erstmals einen umfassenden Überblick über den Stand und die Entwicklung tariflicher Sozialpolitik. Als Bestandsaufnahme enthält er umfangreiche und die zeitliche Entwicklung nachzeichnende Darstellungen für die Alterssicherungs-, Arbeitsmarkt-, Gesundheits- und Familienpolitik in verschiedenen Branchen. Die Untersuchung fragt zudem nach den grundsätzlichen Wahrnehmungen, Einschätzungen und Bewertungen der Tarifvertragsparteien hinsichtlich der Verlagerung sozialpolitischer Verantwortung auf das System der industriellen Beziehungen. Neben Branchen und sozialpolitischen Feldern vergleicht die Studie auch Institutionensysteme. Obwohl mit Deutschland und Österreich zwei institutionell sehr ähnliche Distributionsregimes gegenübergestellt werden, finden sich erhebliche Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Ländern sowohl in Hinblick auf den Vertariflichungsgrad als auch auf die Sichtweisen von Arbeitgeberverbänden und Gewerkschaften. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich: Die Möglichkeiten der Tarifpolitik, eine den Interessen der Beschäftigten angemessene soziale Sicherung zu organisieren, hängen ab von den Rahmungen des Gesetzgebers: Auch bei zunehmend vertariflichter sozialer Sicherheit bleibt der Sozialstaat in sozialpolitischer Verantwortung.

This book presents an original contribution to the study of care and care work by addressing pressing issues in the field from a Latin American and intersectional perspective. The expansion of professional care and its impacts on public policies related to care are global phenomena, but so far the international literature on the subject has focused mainly on the Global North. This volume aims to enrich this literature by presenting results of research projects conducted in five Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay –, and comparing them with researches conducted in other countries, such as France, Japan and the USA.Latin America is a social space where professional care has expanded dramatically over the past twenty years. However, unlike Japan, USA and European countries, such expansion took place in a context of heterogeneous and poorly structured markets, in societies which stand out for its reliance on domestic workers to provide care work in the household as paid workers, in both formal and informal arrangements.CareandCareWorkers: A Latin American Perspective will be a useful tool for sociologists, anthropologists, social workers, gerontologists and other social scientists dedicated to the study of the growing demand for care services worldwide, as well as to decision makers dealing with public policies related to care services. “Society cannot function without the unpaid (and poorly and informally paid) work of caregivers. Having the data – and this book presents this data – allows public policy to be based on the realities rather than on the prejudices, habits, or structural injustices of a previous time about gender roles, class, ethnicity, race, migrant status. (…) This volume not only presents the data, then, but also shows how some countries have begun to innovate to provide solutions to the problem that some people are overburdened by care while others do little of it. (…) Scholars and activists in Latin American countries lead the way in showing both how resistance remains and how to innovate. So the rest of the world has much to learn from this volume.” – Excerpt from the Foreword by Professor Joan C. Tronto

Die vorliegende Studie nimmt mittels einer spezifisch soziologischen Perspektive auf die juridische Konstruktion Europas einen bislang in der Theoriebildung und Analyse vernachlässigten Blickwinkel ein und rückt die Europäerinnen und Europäer selbst ins Zentrum, indem sie fragt, wie dieser neu entstehende europäische Rechtsraum zur Ressource individuellen Handelns wurde und mit welchen Konsequenzen dies für den politischen Integrationsprozess verbunden war. Im Ergebnis schließt das die Frage nach den gesellschaftlichen Folgen der Europäischen Integration mit ein.

The first of the UN Millennium Goals was to reduce extreme poverty and in 2014 it was halved compared to 1990, and now the goal is to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2030. The reduction in poverty is, to a high degree, the consequence of the rapid economic development in a few countries, especially China, but in many countries around the globe poverty is still at a high level and is influencing societies'overall development. It is against this background that this Handbook provides an up-to-date analysis and overview of the topic from a large variety of theoretical and methodological angles.Organised into four parts, the Handbook provides knowledge on what poverty is, how it has developed, and what type of policies might be able to succeed in reducing poverty. Part I investigates conceptual issues and relates concepts to people's relative position in society and the understanding of justice. Part II shows how poverty has developed. It combines existing empirical knowledge with regional/national understandings of the issue of poverty. Part III analyses policies and interventions with the aim of reducing or alleviating poverty within a national as well as global context. It includes a variety of countries and examples. Finally, Part IV tells us what can be done about poverty; what instruments are available to end poverty as we know it today.This volume will be an invaluable reference book for students and scholars throughout the social sciences, particularly in sociology, social policy, public policy, development studies, international relations and politics.

This open access book addresses the current debate on extended working life policy by considering the influence of gender and health on the experiences of older workers. Bringing together an international team of scholars, it tackles issues as gender, health status and job/ occupational characteristics that structure the capacity and outcomes associated with working longer. The volume starts with an overview of the empirical and policy literature; continues with a discussion of the relevant theoretical perspectives; includes a section on available data and indicators; followed by 25 very concise and unique country reports that highlight the main extended working life (EWL) research findings and policy trajectories at the national level. It identifies future directions for research and addresses issues associated with effective policy-making. This volume fills an important gap in the knowledge of the consequences of EWL and it will be an invaluable source for both researchers and policymakers.

This book explores the nature and impact of stalking and criminal justice system responses to this type of abuse based on the experiences and lived realities of victims. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 26 self-defined victims of stalking in England and Wales, it explores the psychological and social effects of this hidden and misunderstood form of interpersonal violence. Korkodeilou's work seeks to improve understanding regarding this type of abuse, contribute to feminist criminology and gender-based violence literature, and expand scholarly knowledge with her research's theoretical, methodological and practical implications. Victims of Stalking will appeal to academics in the fields of victimology, victimisation, gender-based and interpersonal violence, criminal justice system responses to victims and to criminal justice system professionals (e.g. police officers, probation officers, and lawyers).

This book explores tribal land alienation problems in India and tribal agitation against land encroachment and alienation. It discusses India's tribal land problem and explains how despite legislation to protect tribal lands, the problem has not been resolved since neither the letter nor the spirit of the law has been implemented. Due to continuous land encroachment and alienation by outsiders, the negligence of the revenue administration and the apathy of the central and state government, the situation concerning tribal land in the country have became precarious. In this context, the book highlights the process of land estrangement among the tribes and the related movements, focusing on the Narayanpatna land movement in the Koraput district of Odisha. It argues that land remains a central issue that is extremely important for tribes as it directly affects their life, livelihood, freedom and development, and that the cultural attachment of tribes and their views regarding the idea of ‘place'(land) furnishes crucial perspectives in understanding the politics of collective resistance. It also discusses the politicization of group identity and material interest against the outside authority as the basis of the unrest among the tribes, and when the grudges of the people are hardened due to insensitivity and tyranny, the extent of tribal resistance escalates, leading to conflict between the state and its own people. Given its scope, this book is a valuable resource for students and research scholars, as well as for policymakers and anyone interested in Indian democracy and development in general, and tribal problems, issues and politics in particular.

This book focuses on the global issue of ethnic problems and examines the theory and practice of how China addresses its ethnic problems from a macro perspective, following the guidelines formulated by the working conference on ethnic affairs of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party in 2014. Based on comparative and empirical studies, it also analyzes specific solutions to ethnic problems in contemporary China, such as how the country has succeeded in redressing material inequalities among different ethnic groups, allowing these groups to share in the country's development, and gain recognition and acceptance.

This open access book examines the comparative evolution of social protection in Australia and New Zealand from 1890 to the present day, focusing on the relationship between employment relations and social policy. Utilising longstanding and more recent developments in historical institutionalist methodology, Ramia investigates the relationship between these two policy domains in the context of social protection theory. He argues that treating employment relations as dynamic, and as inextricably intertwined with changes in the welfare state over time, allows for more accurate portrayal of similarity and difference in social protection. The book will be of most interest to researchers, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in social policy, employment relations, public policy, social and political history, and comparative politics.

Two eminent Deans Emeritus in two different continents unravel contemporary social and public policy issues that are seldom discussed in traditional textbooks. In a new Dickensian era, uplifting people's lives amidst faltering social institutions and massive cultural meltdowns, policy discourse is a crucial obligation; it's a discipline that entails pragmatic vision and prescient planning. Social Policy on the Cusp is a modest attempt to unravel the nexus of nihilism that thwarts even civilization-nations'efforts to promote inclusive diversity. Brij Mohan and Guy Backman have analyzed certain aspects and issues in American, European and Asian contexts that unravel intersectionality of problems, people, and policies. Brij Mohan, a policy gadfly, examines the human condition using Nietzschean, Foucautean and Gandhian thoughts that expose the hidden malaise of unhappiness, angst and anger in a globalized world. Social policy as a euphemism, he contends, sustains chaos and resentment without transforming oppressive systems. His five chapters offer penetrating insights into the problems that a therapeutic culture breeds. With an uncanny sagacity, he examines coloniality and post-colonialism as a womb that spells paroxysms of despair. Guy Bäckman has contributed five chapters, which are based on his research and findings on poverty and inequalities that plague the world today. The vision of a better, cohesive world has guided the design of the empirically oriented chapters in Part Two. Social policy, through the use of advanced technology and algorithmic solutions, promotes transformative policy actions based on preferred values and goals rooted in cultural conditions. In a new political economy, it could become the instructions we write to ourselves to navigate a society that is smarter, safer, and more just. Two invited contributions by Stan Weeber, USA and Eleni Makri, Greece, further narrate the tales of “smart city” and “workplace discrimination” in light of the failed public policies in a new brave world.

'This book makes a vital contribution to the current literature on human well-being. Through a condensed but incisive analysis of a wide range of sources, from ancient philosophy to the political constitutions of modern nation states, Annie Austin builds a strong case for a universal core of human well-being. Her identification of the vital importance of an'infrastructure of sociality'should be noted by academicians, politicians and policy-makers who are seeking to use well-being as a means of rethinking how we are to meet the challenges of the 21st century.'—Allister McGregor, University of Sheffield, UKThis book examines the differing policy implications of the different conceptions of wellbeing across the world. There is an ongoing debate, in both philosophical and policy circles, about the legitimacy of universal frameworks of wellbeing. Who should decide what it means to live a good life? Is it possible to arrive at a shared definition, or is there simply too much individual and cultural diversity in conceptions of the good life? By devising an ‘overlapping consensus'on wellbeing, the book represents a starting point for political negotiation and public deliberation about the kinds of societies we (as collectivities) wish to create, and the kinds of lives we (as individuals embedded in those societies) want to live. The book provides philosophically-informed public policy insight, making it a valuable contribution to interdisciplinary wellbeing scholarship.

In 2008, the European Commission relaunched the policy idea of active inclusion, with the aim of facilitating the integration of people into sustainable and quality employment. Over ten years later, and in the aftermath of one of the most trying periods in Europe's recent economic history, this book provides a critical and timely reassessment. The Political Economy of Policy Ideas contributes to the growing scholarly literature on ideational political economy and labour market regulation by providing a systematic analysis of the idea of active inclusion and its three core principles: activation, conditionality and personalization. The research breaks new ground by detailing how divergent interpretations of these principles, by relevant social actors in different contexts, have shaped their implementation. The book is of interest to scholars and students across comparative political economy, economic sociology, welfare and industrial relations studies.

The welfare state is still very much central in people's everyday lives. The welfare state is at the same time contested and debated, and has often been argued to be in a crisis not only in the wake of the financial crisis. Welfare and welfare states used to be a national issue and prerogative. Today welfare and welfare states are influenced by national as well as regional and global decisions. However, nation states play a decisive role influenced by national preferences and ideas, and, in recent years, populism and welfare chauvinism.This book provides an overview of the central concepts through the lenses of the state, market and civil society. It also provides the reader with knowledge on distribution in societies and how this interacts and influences different groups and their position in society. There are also chapters dealing specifically with central sectors in the welfare states such as health, long-term care and education. The book uses a comparative approach as this better enables one to understand one's own country's welfare, as well as helping to underline and see the linkages to the impact of global and regional issues on welfare states and their development. Finally, the book presents challenges and future perspectives for welfare states and their development.The book's focus on core concepts and the variety of international welfare state regimes and mechanisms for delivering social policy provides a much-needed introduction to the rapidly changing concept of welfare for students on social policy, social studies, sociology and politics courses.

This book analyses social conflict among fishers in Indonesia by implementing class theory, thus adopting a new approach to analysing fishers'conflicts in Indonesia. In using this approach, the book enables a comprehensive understanding of the nature of fishers'social conflicts. It demonstrates that the primary cause triggering conflict among fishers in Indonesia is not exploitation, but domination. This domination causes injustice in terms of access among fishers, which in turn threatens their livelihood. The author unpacks the influence of political parties, and how macro-economic conditions and public policy have become contextual variables of these class conflicts in the fisheries community. The book presents the unique characteristics of class conflicts among fishers compared to class conflicts in industrial sectors, underpinned by Marxist theory. This book will be relevant to fisheries policy-makers in Indonesia and abroad, researchers and students in anthropology, sociology, and development economics, as well as community and rural development specialists and conservationists.