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While the poverty risks of non‐standard employment have been explored extensively, this study focuses on the role of activation‐oriented social policy in alleviating material deprivation for persons with non‐standard employment histories. Using EU‐SILC data, individuals over a four‐year period were analysed. I focused on substantial earners and distinguished between six non‐standard employment histories expected to benefit from activation measures. Multi‐level models revealed that compared to standard employment histories, all non‐standard employment histories had higher material deprivation risks but to substantially different extents. At the macro level, participation in activation measures, expenditures in formal childcare and minimum income protection reduced material deprivation. Participation in training can be interpreted as an equaliser, as the deprivation gap between standard and most non‐standard employment history types diminished. As expenditure‐ and participation‐based measures differed significantly, evaluating the success of activation strategies in reducing inequalities and alleviating poverty highly depends on the measurement of activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explored the influence of unemployment perceptions on attitudes towards an EU‐wide social policy that guarantees a minimum standard of living for the poor across 18 European countries. The article relied on a theoretical framework that highlights the interaction among economic self‐interest, ideology, and perceptions. Using data from Eurostat and the European Social Survey, the results show that Europeans with more negative perceptions of national unemployment or the living conditions of the unemployed were more likely to support an EU minimum income scheme. This association was particularly strong among individuals with non‐egalitarian values or right‐leaning ideology and remained relatively consistent across different national contexts. Additionally, support was stronger in countries with poor economic and welfare conditions. Overall, the findings reveal a high perceived legitimacy among Europeans for implementing a policy measure that aims to tackle poverty in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As interest in universal basic income (UBI) policy has peaked in recent years, the study of public support for such a policy is rapidly developing. While recent studies recognise the multidimensionality of the UBI proposal, we still know little about to what extent support for UBI is unambiguously supported or rejected. We show that the public holds distinct but related opinions towards three dimensions of UBI: universalism, redistribution and unconditionality. The higher and lower educated are equally ambivalent towards the policy, suggesting a lack of political entrenchment towards UBI in Dutch society. Post hoc comparisons show that key demographics and constituencies support some dimensions while rejecting others, enabling both compromise and division on the issue. Despite these distinct controversies, however, the strong correlation between attitudinal dimensions suggests that survey experiments tend to overstate the degree of multidimensionality by ignoring the strong commonalities in support for policy aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we make an original, empirical contribution to debates on welfare pluralism, the mixed economies of welfare and territorial rescaling by comparing civil society approaches to tackling youth unemployment in England, Scotland and Wales. Our core finding is that academic and policy literature's frequent characterisation of the UK as a single Liberal welfare regime is based on methodological nationalism privileging state‐wide analyses. In short, a scalar fallacy pervasive in international welfare studies. In the context of the global rise of meso‐government and so‐called 'stateless nations' pressing for greater autonomy, our case‐study challenges the dominant paradigm. Our analysis shows the liberal characteristics of work‐first policy orientation and marketised civil society are concentrated in England then tempered by devolved (social) policy. Based on contrasting, left‐of‐centre and civic nationalist governing traditions, grounded in multi‐level electoral politics, we show the devolved nations taking a different approach to Westminster, partially eschewing the market and incorporating collectivism and co‐production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin American countries saw an important expansion in social policy in the first two decades of the 21st century. Along with this increased inclusion, however, social policy remains segmented. Using recent data from ECLAC, World Bank, and other sources, this paper offers a comprehensive analysis of trends in social policy for the period 2000–2020 for 17 countries in Latin America. Four areas of social policy are assessed in longitudinal and comparative perspectives: transfers, health care, education, and family policies. Conditional cash transfers (CCT) and noncontributory pensions (NCP) are the two main policy innovations that allowed countries in the region to expand social rights to previously excluded populations (outsiders). At the same time, due to their design, these policies have introduced new layers of fragmentation to the welfare mix, without resolving—or even increasing—segmentation in social policy. Segmentation is still the rule for the areas of health care and education, and increasing privatisation went unabated even in the periods of social policy expansion and in the countries governed by left coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article critically reviews concepts and uses of the term altruism in relation to the emergence of the capitalist welfare state. It argues that altruism may be regarded as a fetishized representation of 'sociality' and that notions of altruism tend to obscure or distort understandings of the essential social interdependence that characterises humanity as a species. The article reaches back to anthropological evidence, to religious and philosophical influences, and to insights from scientific inquiry and it makes a case for a humanistic switch in perspective within the study of social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a case study based on participant observation of a policy venue which was established in Poland as part of the implementation of the European Semester (ES) in 2012. The long period (2012–2022) and the rich material collected by the insider in the studied venue (as a representative of over 30 civil society organisations affiliated to EAPN Poland) provide a unique opportunity to gain insight into the participation of social actors in the coordination of economic and social policy in the European Union after 2010. The main research question addressed in the article is: why did social actors gain influence on the agenda of the policy venue, but not on national social policy? Social actors participating in the European Semester in Poland, despite strong and competent representation in the policy venue under consideration, and despite their collaboration with other stakeholders, did not directly influence national poverty reduction policies. However, they strongly influenced the agenda of the policy venue, establishing poverty as a permanent item in the agenda of the subsequent ES cycles 2014–2019. The explanation of this course of action is the institutional framework of the policy venue studied in this article, the policy advocacy strategy adopted by the social actors within it in 2013–2015 and the institutional events triggered by the pandemic in 2020–2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconstructs how, under the umbrella of the Europea Union (EU), discreet opportunities for EU social policy agenda setting opened for academic expertise from the late 1990s to the 2020s. This began with the Dutch presidency of the EU in the first half of 1997, endorsing the notion of 'social policy as a productive factor', followed by the 2000 Lisbon strategy for Growth and Social Cohesion in the open economy. The social investment landmark publication was Why We Need a New Welfare State, written by Gøsta Esping‐Andersen et al., for the Belgian presidency of 2001. Ultimately, cumulative academic insights and feedback from country‐specific reform experiences found their synthesis in the Social Investment Package in 2013. EU political codification of social investment took effect with the adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights in December 2017. The paper concludes on the future for social investment with some personal reflections as an engaged scholar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of social assistance and poverty reduction policies has been informed by social scientific knowledge. Social scientists, however, are not of one mind on such matters. They tend to be divided along disciplinary and ideological lines and may even foster political divisions and conflicts. This article draws on the author's experience as an academic policy adviser to the Quebec government to analyse from up close the institutional context that facilitates knowledge utilisation in the policy process. Two reform processes are considered: the first one, between 1995 and 1998, was less collaborative and led to divisions, and the second, between 1997 and 2009, involved more interactions with the civil service and proved more fruitful. In both cases, experts were divided, as were politicians and civil servants, but their capacity to reach a consensus was fostered, in the second case, by better support and collaboration from the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible to act simultaneously as an expert and co‐policymaker without breaking the rules for knowledge‐based social policies? Trying to answer this question, I recap my experience as Chairman of the Czech Government‐established Expert Committee on Pension Reform in 2013–2017. I reflected on it analysing and advising on the path of the Czech pension reform. Applying theories of actor‐centred and discursive institutionalism, I analysed the rich empirical evidence based on the content of manyfold actors' discourses. My involvement gave me a chance to participatorily observe the behaviour of formal and informal actors and thus learn more about their ideological positions, communication and negotiation strategies, and final embodiments of these disputes in policy proposals and acts. I analysed the roles of experts as moderators of discourse, analysts, and policy actors themselves. Following this experience, I offer some tentative conclusions for further discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 has gone beyond a public health crisis and poses a serious threat to people's livelihoods. In response to the growing employment and income crisis, most OECD countries have introduced various policies and programs to alleviate rapidly rising social risks and stabilise people's livelihoods. However, these measures vary, with some governments spending only 1% of GDP in 2020, while others spent more than 10%. We conducted a multiple regression analysis to examine factors associated with the level of additional social spending in 31 OECD countries. The results indicate that lower generosity of unemployment benefits was associated with additional social policy spending. However, contrary to the hypothesis, higher additional spending was found among countries with higher levels of government debt. We ended with policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social policies are legislated nationally and implemented locally, and despite national attempts at vertical policy coordination, implementation varies. The aim of this article is to better understand variations in local implementation of national policies, emphasising, in particular, structural conditions. Our case is a legislative change in Norway that obliged municipalities to implement compulsory participation and conditionality for young recipients of social assistance. We conducted a comparative case study analysis in which, through 28 qualitative interviews, we compared six municipalities. We found that municipalities that have conceptualised compulsory participation as physical work and long hours in catch‐all programmes are also the municipalities that sanction through benefit cuts. The municipalities that were more reluctant to cut benefits were those with the least straining requirements in terms of content and scope. We discuss local variation in terms of local‐level path dependence, the size of the municipality and state supervision of municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, governments in developing countries have been inclined to introduce greater redistributive policies, placing greater emphasis on universal programs than on targeted ones. This article elaborates on the different theoretical perspectives of social policy development in the Global South to explain the emerging features of contemporary healthcare in Indonesia. It is argued that although certain political and structural factors may have collectively created favorable conditions for policy reforms, these factors do not necessarily cause the country to shift toward a universal welfare state. Possible explanations for this may rest on institutional factors, such as the historical‐colonial legacy, which changed the incentive structures within which both new and old welfare institutions operated. Thus, transformation remains stuck at stratified universalism. Moreover, the expansion has not generated a significant reduction in decommodification, defamilization, and declientelization. The case of Indonesia may illustrate the current welfare expansion challenges faced by many developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However, the case of family policy reform in the Czech Republic (Saxonberg, Formanková & Hasková, 2023) shows the need to modify these claims. As Sedlacko & Staronová (2023) argue, Slovak administrators were not interested in knowing the results of scientific studies and the same was true in the case of the Czech commission on family policy reform. Do governments base their decisions on policies according to expert knowledge and scientific evidence?. [Extracted from the article]

The activation trend in social policy entails that caseworkers on the frontlines of the welfare state are expected to decide 'reasonable' activation requirements for clients and when and how non‐compliance should be sanctioned. This study investigates how caseworkers form judgements about their clients' personal responsibility when activation requirements are violated and how their judgements about responsibility matter for the sanctions they impose. We find that caseworkers are sensitive to personal responsibility, varying the motivation for not fulfilling the activation requirement from a case where the client has less control (circumstances) to one with more control (choice) more than doubles sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thailand is among the few developing countries that provide social pension for a significant majority of its older adults. In 2009, the government amended the Old‐Age Allowance (OAA) scheme from a means‐tested to a near‐universal social pension program. Analyzing nationally representative data from the Surveys of Older Persons in Thailand, we found significant changes over the last decade in the patterns of old‐age income sources and filial economic support for parents aged 60 and above. Results show the declining importance of children and the rising significance of OAA as the primary income source. Yet, reliance on OAA was not necessarily associated with a decline in nonmonetary intergenerational support for the parents. Findings reveal that older persons whose main income source was OAA were less likely than others to report income adequacy and positive psychological well‐being, suggesting that the scheme may have little impact in dampening inequality among older Thais. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past five decades, dramatic demographic and socio‐economic changes have taken place in East and Southeast Asian countries, with important implications for the family and its future. Still, little is known about the typical configurations of state support for families in these countries. We examine governments' strategies for supporting families and reducing the cost of children. Employing hierarchical cluster analysis, we uncover four distinctive family policy profiles—maternity support, poverty‐relief support, employment‐oriented support and encompassing support—and discuss their implication for defamilialisation. What appears less clear are the drivers behind such configurations, but there are indications that fertility concerns, the cultural fabric of a country and the productivist profile of the social policy regime seem to influence the orientation of family policy models. Overall, the development of family policy in East and Southeast Asia seems to be fragmented and characterised by parallel interventions of different types of provenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we estimate the active and passive contributory pension coverage rates in Peru since the structural reform of social security in 1992. Further, we delineate a supply‐and‐demand model for the pension market. Using a diagram based on this model, we analyze the impact of re‐reforms that have increased the competitiveness of the pension system and in an effort to promote worker affiliation. Re‐reform has shifted the supply of pension services, but the demand for such services has remained constant at 28% of the labor force. Thus, coverage has not meaningfully increase. In the conclusion section of the article, we consider various policy interventions intended to increase demand, which might include instituting mandatory contributions for the self‐employed and/or increasing the proportion of registered employees. In addition, to mitigate income insecurity for older people, given the low active and passive coverage rates, we recommend that access to social pensions be increased. Key Practitioner Message: • Estimation of the active and the passive pension coverage trajectories since the social security structural reform. • Delineation of a conceptual framework to describe the pension market using supply and demand functions. • Alternative interventions to increase coverage, that is, strengthening the competitiveness of the pension market, shifting the demand and universal social pensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have suggested that Europeans' support for introducing an EU minimum‐income scheme would be determined by a hope‐or‐fear reasoning. Where Northern/Western Europeans may fear that their generous benefits are levelled out, Southern/Eastern Europeans may be critical of their country's welfare policies and therefore have hopes for a higher level of benefits and services coming from Europe. We tested this expected mediation effect in 18 EU member states. Results show that both performance evaluation of social benefits and expectations about EU interference predict support for an EU minimum‐income scheme, following expected regional dividing lines. However, against theoretical expectations, there has been no substantial mediation effect. Where support for an EU minimum income scheme is based mostly on social dividing lines, expectations of the EU are related more to contextual differences. Citizens from countries that are net‐receivers of the EU have higher hopes that EU interference will lead to higher benefits and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review assesses the state of scholarly literature on financial exclusion in OECD member countries to identify key concepts, gaps in the research, and types and sources of evidence to inform an agenda for advancing research, practice, and policy. The authors searched eight databases using 13 terms. The researchers extracted data for five concepts: financial inclusion conceptualization, financial inclusion measurement, financial inclusion mechanisms, financial exclusion conceptual, descriptive or empirical content, and financial capability conceptualization or measurement. This article reports on data coded only for financial exclusion conceptual, descriptive, or empirical content. The researchers identified N = 148 studies for inclusion. The majority of the studies were conceptual and were focused on either the USA or the UK. Aspects of financial exclusion that were well covered in the literature include the conceptualization, contributors, and impacts of financial exclusion. Less covered were measurement, prevention, and contemporary practice trends in financial exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study drew on recurrent debates related to labour market mobility among the unemployed and those outside the labour force and asked to what extent active labour market policies (ALMP) increase employment in these two groups. By utilising new programme‐level data on ALMP, the study analysed the impact of core programmes directed towards registered unemployed; peripheral programmes that target the inactive part of the working age population; and mixed programmes targeting both groups. The programme data were combined with individual‐level panel data from the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions and analysed using multilevel analysis. The main results show that both resources devoted to programmes and their size were related to employment transitions. Transitions among the unemployed were mainly associated with spending on core programmes, whereas the inactive seemed to benefit from increased spending on all types of programmes, as well as increased scope of mixed programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database provides the foundations for new comparative and longitudinal research on the causes behind, and the consequences of, welfare states and social citizenship rights. The SPIN database is oriented towards analyses of institutions as manifested in social policy legislation. To date, SPIN covers 40 countries, of which several have data on core social policy programmes from 1930. There are currently six data modules in SPIN, covering different social policy areas. The following research note describes the theoretical and conceptual basis of the SPIN project, as well as the data it contains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analysed the causes behind changes in the poverty rate among young South Korean households, using the 1995, 2006 and 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Labour market instability has intensified since the Asian economic crisis of 1997. This has increased the risk of poverty among young people who lack financial assets and must obtain economic security through work. The poverty rates among people aged 18–29 have steadily increased. Using Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, this study evaluated the contribution that characteristics and structure make to poverty rate changes. The study found that the poverty rate was lower in households with a higher level of education and in households with fewer members. The study also found that the poverty rate was higher in female‐headed households and in households where fewer of its members were employed. Furthermore, the poverty rate was found to have increased among the younger population in general. These findings indicate that social policies should take into consideration the changing life circumstances of young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined: (i) Kosovo's social policy's poverty and inequality outcomes in recent history, namely during Yugoslav self‐management socialism (1952–1989), the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (1999–2008) and independence (2008 onwards), and (ii) the impact of local politics in the more recent trajectory of social policy. The study shows that the poverty rate after the war (1999) is significantly lower than it was during socialism, but that there is persistent high and deepening Gini inequality and social exclusion. Transfers and taxes of the residual‐liberal policy have reduced more pretransfer–pretax inequality, and especially poverty, compared with self‐management's insurance‐dominated socialism, but their effectiveness is declining due to the policy's underlying long‐term, pro‐market logic and its increasing particularism with respect to short‐term transfers. The article argues that the main local political cleavages have originated from self‐management socialism's extensive stratification. These cleavages matter in distributive conflicts, and they mattered also during the UNMIK period by easing the pathway for the unprecedented influence international organisations have had on policy formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing wage inequality, strong labour market divides and welfare retrenchment are widely believed to result in more polarised public opinion towards the welfare state. The present study examined if attitudes towards workfare policies have become more polarised in Europe over recent decades. To achieve this aim, the study analysed public opinion data from the European Value Study (EVS) from 23 European countries in the years 1990–2008, using multi‐level regression analysis. It is found that individuals who are most affected by workfare – the unemployed, the poor and the young – most strongly oppose workfare concepts. Against expectations, there was no evidence of an increasing polarisation of attitudes in Europe. Attitudinal cleavages based on employment status, income and education have remained stable. Differences between age groups have even dissolved because younger cohorts increasingly favour strict workfare policies. The results suggest that warnings of increasing social conflicts and an erosion of solidarity in European societies are exaggerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions on the pros and cons of a basic income (BI) have remained mainly at the 'systemic level'. Based on survey and interview data, this study provides a 'bottom‐up' perspective on the legitimacy of the idea of a basic income among people queuing in breadlines in Helsinki in late 2016, who are assumed to be affected positively by this benefit. While general support for the idea is high, not everyone supports an unconditional BI. Despite the likely 'objective interest', a BI does not seem to be supported by food aid recipients any more than by the general population as measured by a previous study. Besides interests, normative beliefs and perceptions of deservingness seem of importance for legitimacy too, especially among those not supporting a BI. Doubts regarding a BI are to some extent connected to wishes to limit the social citizenship of some of the persons in the breadlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does public opinion react to inequality, and if so, how? The social harms caused by increasing inequality should cause public opinion to ramp up demand for social welfare protections. However, the public may react to inequality differently depending on institutional context. Using ISSP and WID data (1980‒2006), we tested these claims. In liberal institutional contexts (mostly English‐speaking), increasing income inequality predicted higher support for state provision of social welfare. In coordinated and universalist contexts (mostly of Europe), increasing inequality predicted less support. Historically higher income concentration predicted less public support, providing an account of the large variation in inequality within the respective liberal and coordinated contexts. The results suggest opinions in liberal societies – especially with higher historical inequality – reached the limits of inequality, reacting negatively; whereas in coordinated/universalist societies – especially with lower historical inequality – opinions moved positively, as if desiring more inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the global financial crisis, social policies in Europe and elsewhere incorporated a logic of social investment to reduce (child) poverty and social inequality. Several critiques, however, have been raised against the narrowness of this discourse. In order to introduce another way of seeing, an interview study was conducted inspired by the interpretative paradigm of lifeworld orientation. This has allowed us to acquire a critical, in‐depth understanding of the consequences of economic downturn and unemployment for families with young children (0–3 years old), from their point of view. Findings highlight the importance of listening to parents here and now, in order to be able to take account of their concrete, lived realities within the context of the broader society and critically assess these realities according to principles of human dignity and social justice. Implications for social work practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market‐oriented restructurings of long‐term care policies contribute significantly to the aggravation of care workers’ situations. This article focuses on the effects of broader long‐term care policy developments on market‐oriented reforms. Germany, Japan and Sweden are three countries that have introduced market‐oriented reforms into home‐based care provision embedded in distinct long‐term care policy developments. Conceptually, this article draws on comparative research on care to define the institutional dimensions of long‐term care policies. Empirically, the research is based on policy analyses, as well as on national statistics and a comparative research project on home‐care workers in the aforementioned countries. The findings reveal the mediating impact of the extension and decline of long‐term public care support and the corresponding development of the care infrastructure on both the restructuring of care work and the assessments of the care workers themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated how social policies moderate the association between gender and health among older people across European countries. The study is the first to take a comprehensive view on the role of social policies in connection with gender inequality in health among older Europeans. The association between gender and poor self‐rated health and limiting long‐standing illness was investigated in a multilevel framework. Cross‐level interaction effects showed that more generous minimum pensions, higher spending on eldercare and a higher degree of eldercare formalisation are associated with relatively better health among women, while more generous standard pensions are associated with relatively better health among men. The conclusion is that policies directed towards older people are not gender neutral; rather they are likely to affect men and women differently. By shaping the distribution of resources as well as of unpaid work, social policies can contribute to either strengthening or weakening the link between gender and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review analyses the adoption and development of a street‐level perspective in public management, social policy and social work. The last years have seen a prominent revival of a perspective based on Michael Lipsky's street‐level bureaucracy approach in the debates conducted within all three disciplinary fields. Based on 71 key publications in public management, social policy and social work, the review analyses the adoption of the street‐level bureaucracy approach during the period 2005–2015, pointing out the main themes of the debate within, as well as overlaps and differences between, the three disciplines. The findings show the potential of better integrating the different perspectives and taking stock of the articulated debate. Lastly, the review discerns a common viewpoint for further street‐level research, emphasising its importance for the critical analysis and understanding of street‐level work as a vital dimension of responsive and accountable institutions and as a decisive moment to shape positive policy outcomes on the ground. Key Practitioner Message: • The use of discretion by frontline practitioners and their role as policy actors on the ground has become an important focus of research; • This literature review shows that the debate has gone far beyond discussing discretion as an all‐or‐nothing issue, pointing out both positive and negative aspects of discretion and developing comprehensive frameworks to explain the use of discretion at the street‐level; • However, street‐level research has traditionally rather neglected the notion of professionalism. The social work literature brings in the perspective of professionalism; more research efforts are needed to better explore and explain how professionalism matters in relation to challenges and dilemmas of different policy and practice fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of perceived economic inequality and inequality of opportunity on individual preferences for redistributive policies among people in mainland China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Using data from the 2009 International Social Survey Program, a series of regression analyses were performed. Results of the analyses indicate that perceived economic inequality is the most significant predictive factor of attitudes towards redistribution in all four states. Perceived inequality of opportunity was positively associated with favourable attitudes towards redistribution in mainland China and South Korea. Perceived socioeconomic status was not found to have a significant effect on attitudes towards redistribution in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written about the impact of transnational actors on health and social policy. In this article, we show how some international organizations' efforts to prevent Ghana from enacting a social health insurance program in 2003 failed. We then explain why the Ghanaian government ignored these organizations' advice and even excluded them from the policy formulation process altogether. Finally, we explore these organizations' logic as they came to accept and even promote the new Ghanaian policy internationally. As argued, a temporal perspective on the impact of transnational actors and the way their prescriptions change over time is necessary if one is to capture transnational policy influence and its limitations. A temporal perspective is also important in explaining the logic of accommodation on the part of these actors, since this only becomes apparent over time. This is precisely why our qualitative analysis traces both domestic policy development and the changing nature of transnational ideas and prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that social workers should engage in the policy process to further social justice is embedded in the professional discourse. However, little is known about social workers' actual engagement in policy processes. This article presents a scoping review of the research literature published in English in order to understand the nature of current research and ascertain what is known about three modes of social workers' policy involvement: voluntary political participation, holding elected office, policy practice. The review identified 51 studies published between 1964 and 2015. The studies focus mainly on social workers' levels of involvement, their activities and the factors associated with the level of engagement. The review describes the main findings emerging from the research and underscores some methodological limitations in the existing studies and the continuing gaps in our knowledge on the policy engagement of social workers. Implications for future research, practice and education are presented. Key Practitioner Message: • Social workers' engagement in policy processes in order to further social justice and the well-being of service users is a core mission in the social work profession. However, it is much less clear whether and how social workers, both as citizens and professionals, have heeded this call; • The article offers a scoping review of the research on three modes of social workers' policy involvement: voluntary political participation, holding elected office, policy practice; • The review identifies 51 studies that shed light on the levels of engagement, the wide range of policy activities undertaken by social workers and the individual, organisational and macro factors associated with the level of engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active labour market programmes (ALMPs) are at the core of welfare regimes in many countries across the world. This study addressed youth-focused ALMPs in Egypt, a country with high youth unemployment and a plethora of programmes ostensibly addressing this issue. Building on interviews with implementers, programme documentation and a publically accessible inventory of programmes in Egypt, the analysis locates ALMPs within the country's overall welfare system and the politics of programme targeting, design, governance and implementation modalities. The legacy of state 'protective' policies and the fragmented multiplicity of players within the field constrain the effectiveness and outreach of these programmes. Analysis of implementation modalities also shows that there is a pervasive lack of programme coordination, activity documentation, management for results, and pathways to achieving sustainability and programme institutionalisation. Key Practitioner Message: • Egypt's fragmented ALMPs field must be integrated and coordinated within the country's broader welfare system • Programme documentation, management of results, rigorous evaluation and sustainability plans must be seriously addressed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the socio-economic and cultural diversity of the world, it is a bold undertaking by international organisations to propose welfare policies designed to apply to all or many countries. We argue that since the 1990s, new instruments of quantification have extended the knowledge base of international organisations, helping them to design and communicate policy proposals with a global scope. We map these numerical instruments in the field of basic income protection, showing that they serve to identify global social problems and to design global models of welfare. Three case studies illustrate the findings. To make sense of the spread of quantification, we draw on world society theory, arguing that the numerical instruments create a global space of observation, comparison and deliberation regarding social reform. We conclude that numerical instruments have facilitated the expansion of global social protection since the 1990s, but have also narrowed social concerns in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing literature on social protection in low income developing countries has tended to focus on definitional debates, policy design and impact evaluations, with relatively little consideration of the ways in which politics shape policy. This article argues that politics needs to be at the centre of efforts to understand social protection and outlines a new conceptual framework for investigating this, with a particular focus on explaining the variation in progress made by low income countries in adopting and implementing social protection. We propose that an adapted 'political settlements' framework that incorporates insights from the literatures on welfare state development - notably 'power constellations' theory, discursive institutionalism and global policy networks - can help frame political commitment to social protection as flowing from the interaction of domestic political economy and transnational ideas. Importantly, this approach situates social protection within a broader political and policy context, and highlights the influence of underlying power relations at multiple levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined in this study the implications of divorce for mothers' earnings, comparing the 1990s and the 2000s, and illuminating developments in welfare policy for single-parent families over those two decades. After the welfare reform of 2003, the economic autonomy of single mothers, established through a combination of welfare state-based benefits and paid labour, was delegitimised, with a turn toward the marketplace. Using a unique data set created for this research by merging Israeli census files for 1995-2008, annual administrative employment records from the National Insurance Institute and the Tax Authority, and data from the Civil Registry of Divorce, we found that most mothers tended to increase their income from paid labor following divorce. However, they did so significantly more prior to the welfare cuts than after the cuts. The results can inform policy discussions about how mothers' postdivorce earnings might be affected by welfare policy shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a definition and characterisation of the ' European social model' ( ESM), admitting the existence of variants and increasing heterogeneity in institutional and social contexts within the EU in the wake of successive enlargements. The constituent parts of the ESM are compared with data observed in the different countries, in search of empirical evidence of the ESM's position as a distinctive model of development, characteristic of Western Europe as opposed to the paths taken by other non- European developed OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different welfare system classifications mainly address systems on the national level, while the local levels have not been considered in any great detail. The welfare reform measures adopted in some countries have led to more autonomy on the local level. Consequently, local authorities have adopted different social policies and developed diverse welfare services. This article addresses the case of Italy and shows that classifying a welfare regime by considering only the national level can lead to important local features being missed that are indeed relevant for its classification. The units of analysis are the 20 administrative regions of Italy. The results demonstrate that the Italian welfare system is far from being a homogeneous system and that the resources available on the local level have a considerable effect on the level of the welfare services provided. These results show that more attention needs to be directed at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a study of the welfare reform trajectories of two countries that are often identified in the literature as having institutional patterns of the 'social protection by the other means' approach. It is questioned in the article whether these two countries have undergone a converging reform trajectory against the increasing forces of economic liberalisation and whether their distinct ways of doing social policy have now come to an end. It argues that while both Australia and Japan have followed a similar neoliberal path in their social policy reform direction, the forms and patterns they have taken to follow have been distinct, largely aligned with the existing structure of social protection in each. Distinctive strategies of welfare adopted by each country have led to a divergent pattern in their way of doing social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little attention has been paid to why trends and levels of mortality and morbidity differ in Eastern Europe and few studies have addressed people's own perceptions of their new political system - perceptions which per se may be important for social development. The aim of the present study was to analyse the extent to which trust and economic circumstances affect self-rated health in Poland, Estonia and Russia and how much health differences between the countries can be explained by these factors. A better economy and higher trust were related to better individual health, while economic factors seemed most important for inter-country differences. It is probable that both institutional factors and individual perceptions contribute to people's well-being, but in terms of social policy, an improved welfare system may be the most effective way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While recent literature on social welfare has included Asian countries, less is known about low-income and former socialist countries in Central Asia. This article combines a documentary-historical method with a value-critical approach to analyze Mongolia's social policy response to poverty. Mongolia is unique in Asia because it transformed from nomadic pastoralism to socialism without a phase of capitalist industrial development. The case study found that Mongolia lost social welfare when it transitioned from socialism, a statist model, to market liberalism and multiparty democracy. In the 21st century, Mongolia has been aspiring to promote social development by redirecting mining revenues to a human development fund. Mongolia is potentially an exemplar of social development strategies affirmed at the United Nations Conference for Social Development ( Rio+20) regarding a green economy for inclusive growth and poverty elimination. Future social welfare research should consider the importance of sustainability. Key Practitioner Message: ● Global standards for tracking poverty alleviation will be integrated with sustainability measures beginning in 2015; ● Mongolia hopes to foster social development and sustainable livelihoods by reinvesting revenues from mining into human capital and health care; ● To sustain future generations, social policy needs to consider the relationship between natural capital, social capital, and financial capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, we have seen the development of a range of active labour market and social policies. In this article, we present an analytical framework ( Activation- Friendly Integration, AFI) in order to analyse these policies through the lens of their integration. AFI provides a synthetic analysis of the nature and intensity of the changes brought about by developments in the fields of employment and social cohesion policies. The core components of AFI are territorialisation, cross-sectoriality, conditionality/individualisation and contractualisation/marketisation. These key concepts are discussed on the basis of six national governance schemes implemented over the last decade, with regard to the levels, dimensions and actors involved. This comparison of French, British, Swedish, German, Italian and Polish activation policies points at a problematic misfit when the public is targeted for activation policies and there is a stronger use of tools for profiling and filtering beneficiaries, a greater reliance on contracting processes and a paradigmatic shift in the conception of welfare states' aims, tools and organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generalized social trust is correlated with increased levels of civic engagement, lower crime rates, and greater economic growth. Many scholars believe that equality provides the conditions in which social trust can flourish. Thus, welfare programs might be one way to generate social trust. However, the relationship between social spending and trust is contested: Some argue it is negative, while others argue it is positive. This study examined the effects of total social welfare expenditures on social trust in 18 OECD countries, holding constant individual characteristics, country characteristics, and country and year effects. Fixed effects analyses indicate that every additional percent of gross domestic product spent on social expenditures 5 years prior is associated with a 4.7 percent increased likelihood that respondents of that country will endorse trusting other people. Further testing for reverse causality found no significant association between trust and later social expenditures, supporting the claim that expenditures drive trust instead of the reverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Guest Editorial explores whether the concept of citizenship, which originated in the city and the nation-state, travels to the globe and what global citizenship could mean. Introducing a collection of related articles, we focus on social citizenship. We discuss conceptual issues, including modifications of T. H. Marshall's concept of social citizenship, and point at empirical evidence that global social citizenship is taking shape: International human rights have come to be interpreted as encapsulating social citizenship, and are part of multi-tiered social citizenship; 'having rights' is a meaningful expression in the global realm, including binding obligations of states under international human rights, negotiations in multiple sites or even 'insurgent citizenship' from below; institution building in the global South - social cash transfers for the poor, land rights or non-state welfare production in informal settings - is transforming European conceptions of 'the social'. Global social citizenship materially underpins notions of cosmopolitan belonging and activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kim JW, Choi YJ. Feminisation of poverty in 12 welfare states: consolidating cross-regime variations? According to some theorists, the feminisation of poverty has become a common feature in the majority of advanced welfare states, but there have been very few attempts to provide a detailed picture from a comparative perspective. Considering this background, the aim of present study was to illuminate the feminisation of poverty in 12 welfare states between the 1980s and the 2000s and to analyse whether there has been any convergence or divergence between these welfare states. The scope and depth of the feminisation of poverty and the changing role of welfare states were assessed via an analysis of the antipoverty role of public transfers in each country. Using the Luxembourg Income Study dataset, this article argues that while the feminisation of poverty has been slowed down and even reversed in certain cases, cross-regime differences have become increasingly visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work's role in creating social solidarity requires an engagement with identity politics through careful negotiation of the boundary between the private and the public spheres and hence ensuring a balance between personal freedom to define one's specific identity and the public entitlement to belong to a political community as citizens. Current political and cultural trends, reflected also in social policies, impact severely on that boundary maintenance task inasmuch as privatisation encroaches on formerly public domains while simultaneously details of private concerns receive public attention through their commercialisation by the new media. It is suggested that social work's political role be asserted more explicitly in terms of the application of the Global Agenda which needs to penetrate to the level of person-to-person interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kallio J, Blomberg H, Kroll C. Social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed in the Nordic countries In recent decades, municipal social workers have become the implementers of new types of social policy measures aimed at activating the unemployed. These policies put a greater emphasis on the individual's own responsibility for being unemployed. Little is known, however, about how social workers view the unemployed - one factor that might influence how policies are in fact implemented. Therefore, our purpose was to analyse Nordic social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed and their determinants: Do social workers' attitudes correspond with a more individualistic view on unemployment? We utilised the data from surveys of professional social workers in four Nordic countries. Our analyses showed that individualistic attitudes towards the unemployed appeared to be rather rare among Nordic social workers. However, attitudinal differences were found between and within countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]