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The online channel has affected many facets of an individual's identity, commercial, social policy, and culture, among others. It implies that discovering the topics on which these brief writings are focused, as well as examining the qualities of these short texts is critical. Another key issue that has been identified is the evaluation of newly discovered topics in terms of topic quality, which includes topic separation and coherence. A topic modeling method has been shown to be an outstanding aid in the linguistic interpretation of quite tiny texts. Based on the underlying strategy, topic models are divided into two categories: probabilistic methods and non-probabilistic methods. In this research, short texts are analyzed using topic models, including latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) for probabilistic topic modeling and non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) for non-probabilistic topic modeling. A novel approach for topic evaluation is used, such as clustering methods and silhouette analysis on both models, to investigate performance in terms of quality. The experiment results indicate that the proposed evaluation method outperforms on both LDA and NMF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constitutional scholars have long construed the Equal Protection Clause as containing two dueling visions: anticlassification and antisubordination. Scholars advancing the first view contend that the Clause prohibits the government from racially classifying people. But scholars promoting the second view argue that racial classifications are permissible--provided that the government does not engage in racial subjugation. On no issue have these competing perspectives clashed more intensely than affirmative action. Where the anticlassification view deems those policies unconstitutional for exhibiting race consciousness, the antisubordination view finds them permissible because they do not racially subjugate anyone. Conventional antisubordination scholars portray the concept's support for affirmative action as one part of its larger intellectual program that inexorably champions racial egalitarianism. This Article challenges that conventional account by demonstrating that antisubordination's career has been far more protean, complex, and--above all--strange than scholars typically allow. Some of the most reviled opinions in Supreme Court history were predicated upon antisubordination rhetoric, as that concept has been used both to challenge and to maintain racist regimes. Legal luminaries from across the ideological spectrum, moreover, have often contended that affirmative action marks Black and brown people as substandard. Indeed, it is impossible to understand last Term's decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College without foregrounding antisubordination's multiplicity. That decision introduced "antisubordination" into the U.S. Reports, reframed how affirmative action subjugates racial minorities, and witnessed the Justices talking past each other by wielding the concept in divergent fashions. Grappling with antisubordination's complexity remains urgent today because the theory has been exported to an ever-growing, astonishingly diverse array of legal domains. This Article contends neither that antisubordination must be abandoned nor that affirmative action should have been invalidated. To the contrary, it explores arguments designed to shore up antisubordination and to provide alternate grounds for affirmative action's constitutionality. It will no longer do, however, simply to ignore antisubordination's considerable complexity. By tracing the winding, peculiar path of antisubordination, this Article not only recasts Justice Clarence Thomas's much-debated jurisprudence but also clarifies our nation's garbled constitutional discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to address how household debt and contemporary credit markets seem to be the defining elements in the reshaping of social policy both in develop-ing and developed countries. We start off by recalling how the implementation of income policies as the core of a new social protection paradigm has contributed to promote marketbased finance. We take Brazil as a case study to illustrate how this new connection between state guaranteed income policies and credit markets has unfolded resulting in increasing household debt. We show evidence that the connection between household debt and stateprovided monetary benefits is effective and significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") philosophy is the zeitgeist of our time. The rise of ESG investments came against the perceived failure of the government to adequately promote socially important goals. And so, corporations are now being praised and credited for stepping up where the government has fallen short. In this Essay, we contend that the standard narrative of ESG suffers from a major flaw. The reason for this discrepancy is taxes. The companies that are widely perceived as saviors of the ESG era are in fact the cause of some of the main deficiencies ESG seeks to redress. Astoundingly, public corporations--many of which have the highest ESG scores and are the largest recipients of ESG fund investments--are also the biggest tax avoiders. As this Essay shows, through the exploitation of legal loopholes and other grey areas, these companies increasingly deprive governments of the funding needed for the provision of public goods and the promotion of important societal policies, exacerbating administrative inefficiencies and deepening societal inequality--outcomes that are starkly at odds with ESG principles. To address this paradox, this Essay advocates incorporating tax-avoidance behavior into ESG ratings. It also argues that tax considerations should be accorded considerable weight not only by ESG rating agencies but also by institutional investors who shoulder part of the fault for the existing state of affairs. Implementation of this proposal would not only rectify incongruities within ESG investment but also provide the public with a more robust and accurate representation of a company's genuine ESG standing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with innate variations of sex characteristics (also known as intersex traits or disorders or differences of sex development) have any of a wide range of innate physical traits that differ from medical and social norms for female and male bodies. Responses to these physical differences create experiences and risks of stigmatisation, discrimination, violence, and harmful medical practices intended to promote social and familial integration and conformity with gender stereotypes. As is evident globally, the Australian policy response to the existence and needs of people with innate variations of sex characteristics has been largely incoherent, variously framing the population as having disordered sex development in need of "fixing", and a third sex/gender identity group in need of recognition, with only recent engagement by intersex community-controlled civil society organisations. This paper presents an overview of the context and goals of the intersex human rights movement in Australia. Australian intersex community organisations have sought to apply human rights norms and develop new infrastructure to address key health and human rights issues, and necessitating new ways of resolving policy incoherence. Together with human rights, mental health, and public health institutions, they have called for significant changes to medical models of care and reform to research and classification systems. Intersex community organising and resourcing have made a tangible difference. The Australian Capital Territory is the first jurisdiction in the country to move ahead with reforms to clinical practice, including a legislative prohibition of certain practices without personal informed consent, oversight of clinical decision-making, and investment in psychosocial support. A national community-controlled psychosocial support service has also commenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores officials' perspectives on Swedish policies for rural digital transformation (RDT). Through the lens of Social Acceleration and systems thinking, employing Critical Systems Heuristics collecting empirical data, we explore how officials perceive that Swedish digitalisation policies impacts inclusive RDT. We investigate whether the possibility to implement Swedish digitalisation policies support or hinder inclusive RDT. Our results emphasize the importance of Social Acceleration based on the aspirations of rural residents, encompassing technical acceleration, social change, and the pace of life. The rapid societal acceleration driven by digitalisation impacts the implementation of digital services in rural areas. Policies do not address the needs of tailored digital services; officials strive to manage this through creative methods despite inherent challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Croatia celebrated a decade of membership in the European Union by joining the euro currency and the Schengen Area of free movement on January 1, 2023. At the same time, however, the country is struggling with the economic, social, and political consequences of its semi-peripheral status. A series of reform challenges remain unsolved, including the continued dominance of clientelistic networks. Amid a set of overlapping crises, from the global financial meltdown to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has seen a revival of conservative and patriarchal ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence maximization problem that has caused great attention in social network analysis aims at selecting a small set of influential spreaders so that the information cascade triggered by the seed set is maximized. The majority of the existing works mainly focus on developing single-stage seeding strategies that would ignite all the seeds before the influence spread. However, it cannot depict the scenarios of the practical, where ones would like to make further decisions based on observed activation. In this paper, we investigate the policies for the intractable sequential influence maximization problem. A Q-learning-driven discrete differential evolution algorithm based on the reinforcement Q-learning model, which is treated as a parameter controller to adaptively adjust the parameters during the evolution of the algorithm, is proposed. The policy distributes the seeding actions over the spreading process by estimating the latest node status of the network dynamically. Extensive simulations are conducted on six social networks of the practical, and the findings demonstrate the superiority and effectiveness of the hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm compared with the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to outline a panorama in the construction of reformist discourses in the Brazilian social security field after the 1988 Federal Constitution, unveiling the ideologies present in such discourses. The study conducted an analysis of the explanatory statements that justify constitutional amendment proposals submitted to the Brazilian parliament. The theoretical and methodological method was critical discourse analysis (CDA), seeking to answer to what extent the conceptions of austerity and financialization permeate the process of construction of the discourses that justify the proposition of the Brazilian social security reforms. The results indicate that capitalist ideologies guided by the logic of financialization and austerity appear in the construction of the reformist discourses, which demonstrates their influence on the authors and suggests the affiliation of the reforms to these hegemonic conceptions. It is concluded that CDA is an important tool to understand the processes that involve public policies, from its formulation to its evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the expansion of social policies in South Korea during the context of globalization, by linking two theoretical approaches: social investment and the New Developmental State. Applying the case study method, I endorse the hypothesis of complementarily between the welfare state and the developmental state. The article shows that between the 1990s and the 2010s, South Korea expanded all sectors of social policies analyzed. Beyond the expansion of passive policies, active policies (including education) were reshaped in an integrated manner with the industrial policy to promote innovation, pursuing the transition to the knowledge-based society; also the family policy became one of the most generous among OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of an action research project conducted in one of the biggest university departments for sociology in a Central Eastern European capital during the first half of the 2000s. The paper shows that researchers' images of society have a strong impact on social scientific methodology, scientific explanations and narratives. I offer an example of how realist approaches to science and technology studies can be used in a field study and discuss the benefits and limitations of such an endeavor, which I define as an interpretive and explanatory social scientific work. The analysis shows ways in which latent knowledge structures influenced the wording of a questionnaire used in the research, the types of data that were gathered, and how the data were interpreted. These knowledge structures include notions concerning local policy discussions, different social policy traditions, and images of a Roma minority struggling with the effects of structural poverty and prejudices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern Chinese traditional instruments have also embarked on a path of learning from Western musicology. Most research on instrument improvement has focused solely on Western instruments and issues inherent to the instruments themselves. However, to explore further directions for the improvement of Chinese instruments and enhance the quality of instrument creation and performance, this paper employs grounded theory to construct a "Sound Performance--Subject Driving-- Environmental Inducing" dynamic model (SSE) for the improvement of Chinese traditional instruments. This model analyzes the various factors and driving mechanisms influencing improvement. We found that sound optimization is the main force driving instrument improvement, exerting the greatest influence on the improvement process. In terms of external driving forces, professional knowledge and esthetic pursuit play a crucial role, forming a dynamic triangular relationship among instrument manufacturers, performers, and Chinese traditional music groups. The dynamic changes in instrument improvement, through this triangular interaction, are ultimately influenced by cultural recognition, social policy, and technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is a crucial component of industrial development and the provision of essential services, as well as an essential element of economic development. Therefore, improving the integration of environmental and energy-efficiency concerns into environmental, economic, and social policies is an essential task for all nations. During the last decades, the trends in energy consumption are determined by economic activities, demographics, lifestyle changes, and weather. In these contexts, the objective of the current research will be to analyse and evaluate the correlations between energy efficiency, energy productivity, energy use and economic development using the linear regression method. Based on the results and the validated/invalidated hypothesis, the paper will propose, also, ways and means for a positive correlation and influence among the studies variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced in March 2021 that it would no longer license or publish six of its children's books because those books portrayed people in racist or culturally stereotypical ways. Since then, the public has learned through news reports and social media that other publishers have similarly reviewed and altered their catalogues of classic children's works, including withdrawing them from the public, editing them to remove problematic content, or adding disclaimers to warn the public about racially insensitive or outdated content. The public reaction to Dr. Seuss's decision and these other actions has been largely divided. Some criticized these decisions as censorship or a product of "cancel culture." Others applauded the decisions as a longoverdue reckoning with problematic portrayals in children's works. While recent decisions to alter or withdraw classic works have generated significant attention and controversy, it is in fact not uncommon for authors, copyright owners, and publishers to remedy racist or sexist content in their expressive works, especially in works intended for children. This Article examines one approach that copyright owners have taken to deal with racist, sexist, or otherwise problematic classic children's works--ceasing to make those works available to the public. Specifically, copyright owners have attempted to withdraw certain problematic children's works by ceasing to publish, license, perform, or broadcast those works, and otherwise making those works unavailable to the public. This Article reviews well-known examples of copyright owners ceasing to make their popular children's works available to the public, including Dr. Seuss's refusal to publish or license six of its books, United Artists' failure to broadcast cartoons known as the "Censored Eleven," and Disney's rejection of its controversial film Song of the South. It examines the copyright law and policy implications of those actions, and explores the balance and conflicts between copyright policy, free speech, and social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies point to a progressive politicization of the European Union, after years of being considered a project of the political elites that received little attention from European citizens. The aim of this article is to find evidence of the progress in the process of politicization of the European project. For this purpose, an analysis of all the tweets published during the 2019 election campaign by all political parties in Germany, France, Italy and Spain has been carried out. The topics addressed and the number of parties speaking on those topics are studied, in order to trace two of the elements necessary to consider an issue politicized: its visibility and the diversity of voices. The article addresses an issue that has been the subject of previous research using a new methodology and at a particularly relevant moment in history; the first elections held after Brexit. The research provides results that can be interpreted as evidence of a growing politicization of EU policy on issues such as climate or social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article centers on the nonprofit landscape in Vancouver, Canada, a city that occupies the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, which have never been ceded to the colonial occupation of Canada. Vancouver has a competitive nonprofit field, with an estimated 1600+ nonprofits operating within city limits. This descriptive review starts by defining what a nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC) is, then outlines an abbreviated history of the nonprofit sector on the aforementioned lands. The article then explores issues related to colonialism, anti-poor legislation, neoliberal governance, the fusing of the public and private sectors, and the bureaucratization of social movements and care work as mechanisms to uphold the status quo social order and organization of power. Focusing on under-examined issues related to the business imperatives of nonprofit organizations in the sectors of housing, health and social services, community policing, and research, this work challenges the positive default framing of nonprofits and charities. Instead, we contend that Vancouver's NPIC allows the government and the wealthy to shirk responsibility for deepening health and social inequities, while shaping nonprofits' revenue-generating objectives and weakening their accountability to the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Swedish National Registry Data, this paper investigates the social structure of exclusion risks in late working life in Sweden by analyzing exit from working life, employment breaks, and late employment trajectories according to gender and education. Individuals born in 1950 (n = 107,830) are followed between the years 2010 and 2018. Results show that women with low education exit working life earlier and have a higher risk of employment breaks due to reduced working ability, while men with low education have a higher risk of employment breaks due to unemployment. Men in general and people with high education have a higher probability of moving to self-employment in late working life. We conclude that research and social policies require an understanding of multifarious late work trajectories to unearth the inequality of exclusion risks in the late phases of working life and the potential for interventions towards equal and inclusive prolongation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In this study we investigated the health-related rehabilitation trajectories of young Norwegian adults between 2004–2019. The study period is interesting because it overlaps with an extensive welfare system reform that occurred in Norway between 2006–2011. In parallel with the reform there was a substantial increase in health-related welfare dependency among young people due to mental health conditions. To better understand this group, we addressed three questions: 1) what were the most typical health-related rehabilitation trajectories for young Norwegians aged 23–27 between 2004–2019, 2) did the trajectories and composition of health-related benefit recipients change overtime and 3) in parallel with the welfare reform, do we see improved labour market outcomes in our study population? Methods: Using high-quality Norwegian registry data, we established four cohorts of Norwegian health-related rehabilitation benefit recipients aged 23–27 in either 2004 (cohort 1), 2008 (cohort 2), 2011 (cohort 3) or 2014 (cohort 4). The follow-up period for each cohort was six years. We used sequence and cluster analyses to identify typical health-related rehabilitation trajectories. In addition, descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression were used to scrutinise the relationship between trajectory types, sociodemographic characteristics and cohort membership. Results: The majority follow trajectories consisting of welfare dependency, unemployment and unstable, low-income work. Both the trajectories and composition of the study population changed across cohorts. Over the observation period there was a 1) three-fold increase in the proportion following a trajectory ending in permanent disability benefits, 2) nine-fold increase in the proportion following trajectories characterised by long periods of health-related rehabilitation, 3) five-fold decrease in the share following unemployment occupational handicap trajectories 4) 6.9% increase in the proportion of early school leavers and 5) 8.9% decrease in the share with disabled parents. Conclusion: Our study population is a vulnerable group with suboptimal mental health, functioning and employment outcomes. In conjunction with the welfare reform, we witnessed a significant drop in use of work-related benefits, accompanied by a substantial increase in uptake of health-related rehabilitation- and disability benefits. Thus, it appears that rather than improving employment outcomes, welfare policy changes have created a new problem by steering a greater proportion into disability benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While transgender people worldwide face high rates of stigma and discrimination, there are few studies of transgender men (also "trans men") in Asia. We measured the prevalence of, and factors associated with, stigma and discrimination faced by trans men in Bhutan to bring visibility to their experiences and inform health and social policy changes. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in nine regions in Bhutan from November 2019 to January 2020. A total of 124 trans men were recruited using a hybrid venue-based and peer-referral approach. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression characterized associations with experiencing stigma and discrimination when accessing health services. Findings: Participants were young (48.0% 18–24 years) and 48.4% had migrated from a rural to an urban area. The majority (95.2%) experienced stigma because people knew or thought they were trans men. Associations with frequent experiences of stigma were living with their partner as a couple (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.07, 95% CI 1.27–7.44) and being unemployed or a student (3.22, 1.44–7.19). Nearly half (47.6%) said they experienced discrimination when accessing health care because people knew or thought they were a trans man; this experience was associated with migration (2.42, 1.08–5.39) and having >15 trans men in their social network (3.73, 1.69–8.26). Most (94.4%) experienced verbal violence, 10.5% experienced physical violence, and 4.8% experienced sexual violence. Interpretation: Our study found high rates of stigma, discrimination, and interpersonal violence due to being a trans man in Bhutan. Findings highlight the urgent need for strengthening laws and regulations to protect the rights of transgender persons, particularly when accessing health services, recognizing partnerships, and preventing violence in public spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly educated immigrants are part of the growing population of immigrants who are impacted by the increasingly hostile migration policies in the U.S. This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach and inductive reasoning to explore the possible impacts of migration integration policies as social determinants of health among this group. Data was collected through 31 semi-structured interviewees with highly educated immigrants who had an intention and interest to stay in the U.S. at the time of the interview. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis and four main themes emerged: (1) a life overshadowed by silent worries, (2) living through uncertainties and forced decisions as the result of migration integration policies, (3) complexities and challenges of living on a work visa, and (4) shared recommendations by interviewees. Documented narratives as part of this study suggest high rates of stress and anxiety as well as negative mental and physical health outcomes among the participants. Results also suggest high levels of internalized vulnerabilities. Participants shared that migration policies can be enhanced in the U.S. to support highly educated immigrants' growth by creating a better and more transparent communication system, replacing random review processes for applications with systematic procedures, creating expedited pathways to citizenship based on merit, and granting access to work as a basic human right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: From 2020 to 2050, China's population aged ≥65 years old is estimated to more than double from 172 million (12·0%) to 366 million (26·0%). Some 10 million have Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, to approach 40 million by 2050. Critically, the population is ageing fast while China is still a middle-income country. Methods: Using official and population-level statistics, we summarise China's demographic and epidemiological trends relevant to ageing and health from 1970 to present, before examining key determinants of China's improving population health in a socioecological framework. We then explore how China is responding to the care needs of its older population by carrying out a systematic review to answer the question: 'what are the key policy challenges to China achieving an equitable nationwide long-term care system for older people?'. Databases were screened for records published between 1st June 2020 and 1st June 2022 in Mandarin Chinese or English, reflecting our focus on evidence published since introduction of China's second long-term care insurance pilot phase in 2020. Results: Rapid economic development and improved access to education has led to widescale internal migration. Changing fertility policies and household structures also pose considerable challenges to the traditional family care model. To deal with increasing need, China has piloted 49 alternative long-term care insurance systems. Our findings from 42 studies (n = 16 in Mandarin) highlight significant challenges in the provision of quality and quantity of care which suits the preference of users, varying eligibility for long-term care insurance and an inequitable distribution of cost burden. Key recommendations include increasing salaries to attract and retain staff, introduction of mandatory financial contributions from employees and a unified standard of disability with regular assessment. Strengthening support for family caregivers and improving smart old age care capacity can also support preferences to age at home. Conclusions: China has yet to establish a sustainable funding mechanism, standardised eligibility criteria and a high-quality service delivery system. Its long-term care insurance pilot studies provide useful lessons for other middle-income countries facing similar challenges in terms of meeting the long-term care needs of their rapidly growing older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is an exploratory attempt to assess the relationship between individuals' objective class position and subjective social positions in the South African hierarchy. While objective class dynamics have received much attention in South Africa, less is known about the subjective social position individuals place themselves. The study aims to make use of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) dataset and assess the relationship between objective and subjective class positions in South Africa. The results show considerable variation between objective and subjective class positions, with a strong middling tendency among all objective class groups in South Africa. The study also shows that this middling tendency has increased in the last decade in South Africa, predominantly due to individuals overestimating their social positions. With a large share of South Africans living close or below the poverty line, there is a clear biasedness of South Africans placing themselves in the middle of society, deviating from their lower objective position. The study further measures the variation between objective and subjective social positions to create a novel class scheme of inflated, deflated, and concordant class perceptions. These biased perceptions are then compared to socio-economic characteristics, showing that gender, race, and education are closely related to bias perceptions in South Africa. Furthermore, the increasing nature of high inequality and social unrest events in South Africa prompts the study also to assess the different social and political attitudes by varying objective and subjective class schemes. The results show that among the subjective class identification, individuals in higher perceived class positions tend to be less angered towards inequality, have lower redistribution preferences, and perceive a weaker conflict between the rich and the poor. These results confirm the impact perceived social positions and biased perceptions could have on social and political attitudes in South Africa. Attitudes that have been considered relevant in voting behavior and social policy formulation models. The results of the paper provides some vital information for policy makers on the dynamics behind subjective class and bias perceptions in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we focused on blended families, which are a family type that is becoming increasingly widespread. The scarcity of current information on this type of family justifies scientific interest, but also means that there is a lack of appropriate social policies that address this phenomenon. Thematic analysis was used as the research tool. A total of 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of blended families. Based on these interviews, three themes were developed: “What influences the decision to start a new family?”, “Challenges to the family configuration: normalisation strategies” and “New ways of understanding family ties”. The results suggest that these families are still built around the basic pillar of heteronormativity. Thus, further research is needed on this new family model, while pressing for more legal norms that are aligned with the new family realities. Social workers should promote the acceptance of blended families through community education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A functioning democratic regime that can meet the basic needs of citizens and guarantee material security for the vulnerable and most vulnerable segments of the population is the primary foundation of the European path of development of Ukraine. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the key goals of the state social policy of Ukraine in the context of the implementation of European Union standards and examine the current state of implementation of declared social and legal principles on the territory of the Ukrainian state. The leading methods of the study were methods of analysis and generalisation, through which the existing conflicts of the normative foundation in the field of social protection were identified, and a comparison method, the use of which demonstrated the existing shortcomings of the development strategy. investigating social priorities, the authors identify the main strategic goals of state social regulation, the main omissions of modern social policy, and the primary causes of the current social crisis. Therewith, the current state of the legislative social framework is investigated and an objective assessment of the implementation of European legislation in the national regulatory field of Ukraine is provided. Therewith, positive trends in establishing social justice by declaring gender equality and overcoming discrimination and integrating information systems into the provision of social services were analysed, and practical recommendations for successful euro adaptation, the decisive task of which is to improve the quality of life of Ukrainian citizens, were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are expanding access to high school education, which is a perpetuation of the previous focus on basic education. This study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using data from seven countries from 2010 to 2020 to examine the potential conditions of fee-free policies at the high school level. Five potential conditions are analyzed. They include the regime type, electoral competition, ideological lineage, economic conditions, and social context. The findings indicate the significant influence of electoral competition and a high level of lower secondary school enrolment for the adoption of fee-free policies. The absence of electoral competition leads to a lack of fee-free policy. The paper explains how elections, one indicator of representative democracy, motivate political leaders to initiate social policies. Additionally, the study challenges the relevance of two important explanations for expansionary social policy in the literature--the partisan theory of policy outcomes, and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of state administration and its public institutions in certain circumstances represents one of the most significant issues in the last twenty years following the serious security crisis caused by terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September 2001. The accent of public administration reforms was on efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions. Reforms were divided into deregulation and liberalization of public services, territorial decentralization, and regionalization with the strengthening of local government institutions and reform of central government administration. After the security crisis in 2001, financial crisis in 2008 and health crisis in 2020, the role of state institutions and public authorities in governing the state was redefined. The leading motives of general liberalization of public services, deregulation, and various forms of decentralization of public institutions abounded due to the new doctrinal approach of governmental organization. New strengthening of public authorities and public institutions became the new mainstream in the organization and functioning of the state. This paper analyzes how the role of the state can be modified due to the dynamics of social, political, and economic changes in society. New governmental reforms are contrary to earlier political and administrative measures, which include the strengthening of public institutions and concentration of public authorities. The government takes on a regulatory function in many aspects of social, political, and economic life. This situation leads to a new organization of the state, where public authorities take on a significant part of the responsibility to regulate various aspects of economic and social activities. At the focus of this paper will be how the dynamics of specific circumstances in society can affect the developing processes of the state and their public institutions. Those processes have economic, social, and political dimensions. The economic dimension includes regulatory measures on the market which contributes to development of the framework for economic development. The social dimension includes measures of social policy focused on improving the social position of citizens according to the economic development of society. The political dimension includes various aspects of security policy, with various protective measures in the community, which depends on the type of treatment for security of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do large-scale and unexpected events, such as natural disasters, affect elections? This article studies the political dimension of the 19-S earthquake that hit Mexico City in 2017, a few months before the 2018 elections. Using fine-grained geospatial data, the results show that candidates from the city-level incumbent Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) had a small increase in vote share in 2018 compared to the previous election in precincts more exposed to damaged caused by the earthquake (in terms of both distance-based and per capita measures), accounting for the seismic profile and socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhood. The article shows that the implementation of disaster-recovery policy explains part of this relationship. Moreover, voters were as electorally responsive to a future risk reduction strategy as to a reconstruction credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to discuss recent immigration trends, and the policies that have been adopted by the state to facilitate the process of the integration of immigrants and their access to the labour market. The first part of the paper discusses theoretical aspects of migration, and labour migration in particular. The second part of the paper is aimed at disclosing current immigration trends among third-country nationals in Lithuania. Labour migration and the migration policy framework in Lithuania are analysed, as are integration policies. The research results reveal that Lithuania lacks an effective migrant integration policy. The evaluation of the migration policy index allows us to conclude that the policy of the integration of immigrants is the area of migration policy that needs to be improved the most in Lithuania. Lithuania’s score is lower than the average MIPEX country score, and together with Latvia it is one of the lowest in Central and East European countries. Lithuania’s approach to integration is classified by MIPEX as equality on paper. While immigrants enjoy basic rights and protection in Lithuania, they do not enjoy equal opportunities to participate in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definition: Defining global themes such as Urban Policy, Urban Sustainability, and even the Right to the City (RTTC) is fundamental to stimulating and establishing a continuous dialogue with the scientific community, mainly in the social sciences. Thus, understanding the dynamics around the scope of urban sustainability requires an analysis that is focused on multiple global realities. Taking a holistic view of Brazilian Urban Policy, this entry looks at the historical contexts that make urban sustainability the driving force behind this policy. In addition, an interdisciplinary consideration of urban sustainability is proposed using an analysis that is based on the connection between urban policies and social functions that reflect the idea of a sustainable city. The results of this analysis also point to the need for a continuous debate on the subject that primarily promotes new discoveries; this is so that the driving force of urban policy can gain new meanings and new guidelines can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: In Canadian society, public policies guide the development and administration of social services and systems, including the public education system, the justice system, family services, social housing and income support. However, because social services are often planned and implemented in a 'siloed' manner, coordination and collaboration across departments, sectors and organisations is sorely lacking. Data and resource constraints may prevent services being evaluated to ensure they meet the needs of the people for whom they are intended. When the needs of individuals are not addressed, the result is poor outcomes and wasted resources across multiple areas. Our Response: In 2018, we formed the SPECTRUM Partnership in response to a recognised need for collaborative cross-sector approaches to strengthening the policies that shape social services and systems in our country. The tripartite SPECTRUM partnership comprises representatives from community organisations, government and academia, and is an entity designed to conduct social policy research and evaluation, incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives and expertise from its members. Guided by community-driven research questions and building on existing data resources, SPECTRUM seeks to address specific knowledge gaps in social programs, services and systems. New research findings are then translated into viable public policy options, in alignment with government priorities, and presented to policy-makers for consideration. Implications: In this practice-based article, we describe the key steps we took to create the SPECTRUM partnership, build our collective capacity for research and evaluation, and transform our research findings into actionable evidence to support sound public policy. We outline four of SPECTRUM's achievements to date in the hope that the lessons we learned during the development of the partnership may serve as a guide for others aiming to optimise public policy development in a collaborative evidence-based way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsMany studies have explored the impact of message strategies to build support for policies that advance racial equity, but few studies examine the effects of richer stories of lived experience and detailed accounts of the ways racism is embedded in policy design and implementation.Longer messages framed to emphasize social and structural causes of racial inequity hold significant potential to enhance support for policies to advance racial equity.There is an urgent need to develop, test, and disseminate communication interventions that center perspectives from historically marginalized people and promote policy advocacy, community mobilization, and collective action to advance racial equity. Context: Long‐standing racial inequities in health and well‐being are shaped by racialized public policies that perpetuate disadvantage among Black, Brown, Indigenous, and people of color. Strategic messaging can accelerate public and policymaker support for public policies that advance population health. We lack a comprehensive understanding of lessons learned from work on policy messaging to advance racial equity and the gaps in knowledge it reveals. Methods: A scoping review of peer‐reviewed studies from communication, psychology, political science, sociology, public health, and health policy that have tested how various message strategies influence support and mobilization for racial equity policy domains across a wide variety of social systems. We used keyword database searches, author bibliographic searches, and reviews of reference lists from relevant sources to compile 55 peer‐reviewed papers with 80 studies that used experiments to test the effects of one or more message strategies in shaping support for racial equity–related policies, as well as the cognitive/emotional factors that predict their support. Findings: Most studies report on the short‐term effects of very short message manipulations. Although many of these studies find evidence that reference to race or use of racial cues tend to undermine support for racial equity–related policies, the accumulated body of evidence has generally not explored the effects of richer, more nuanced stories of lived experience and/or detailed historical and contemporary accounts of the ways racism is embedded in public policy design and implementation. A few well‐designed studies offer evidence that longer‐form messages framed to emphasize social and structural causes of racial inequity can enhance support for policies to advance racial equity, though many questions require further research. Conclusions: We conclude by laying out a research agenda to fill numerous wide gaps in the evidentiary base related to building support for racial equity policy across sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019, this paper uses a two-stage DEA model to measure regional innovation efficiency, then non-parametric test is used to examine the impact of innovation network structure and government R&D investment on regional innovation efficiency. The results show that, at the provincial level, innovation efficiency of regional R&D is not necessarily in direct proportion to the innovation efficiency in the commercialization stage. Commercialization efficiency is not necessarily high in provinces with high technical R&D efficiency. At the national level, the innovation efficiency gap between our country's R&D and commercialization stage is small, indicating that the development of the national innovation efficiency is more and more balanced. Innovation network structure can promote the R&D efficiency, but has no significant effect on the commercialization efficiency. Government R&D investment helps to improve the R&D efficiency, but it is not conducive to the improvement of commercialization efficiency. The interaction between innovation network structure and government R&D investment will have compound effects on regional innovation efficiency; the region with underdeveloped innovation network structure can increase the government R&D investment to make it have a higher level of R&D. This paper provides insights into how to improve innovation efficiency in different social networks and policy environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, Burkina Faso embarked on a process leading to the development of a national social protection policy (politique nationale de protection sociale–PNPS) in 2012. The objective of this study was to analyze the circumstances under which explicit knowledge was used to inform the process of emergence and formulation PNPS. The term explicit knowledge excludes tacit and experiential knowledge, taking into account research data, grey literature, and monitoring data. Court and Young's conceptual framework was adapted by integrating concepts from political science, such as Kingdon's Multiple Streams framework. Discursive and documentary data were collected from 30 respondents from national and international institutions. Thematic analysis guided the data processing. Results showed that use of peer-reviewed academic research was not explicitly mentioned by respondents, in contrast to other types of knowledge, such as national statistical data, reports on government program evaluations, and reports on studies by international institutions and NGOs, also called technical and financial partners (TFPs). The emergence phase was more informed by grey literature and monitoring data. In this phase, national actors deepened and increased their knowledge (conceptual use) on the importance and challenges of social protection. The role of explicit knowledge in the formulation phase was nuanced. The actors' thinking was little guided by the question of whether the solutions had the capacity to solve the problem in the Burkina Faso context. Choices were based very little on analysis of strategies (effectiveness, equity, unintended effects) and their applicability (cost, acceptability, feasibility). This way of working was due in part to actors' limited knowledge on social protection and the lack of government guidance on strategic choices. Strategic use was clearly identified. It involved citing knowledge (reports on studies conducted by TFPs) to justify the utility and feasibility of a PNPS. Instrumental use consisted of drawing from workshop presentations and study reports when writing sections of the PNPS. The consideration of a recommendation based on explicit knowledge was influenced by perceived political gains, i.e., potential social and political consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Purpose: To analyze how the FEW Nexus Approach can contribute to the promotion of sustainable development, having the UN SDGs as a goal and serve as a new epistemological and ontological approach in solving problems related to a complex reality of the present day, such as the sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach: Literature review on the current state of research involving the use of the FEW Nexus Approach, from a global overview to the research scenario on the subject in Brazil. The characterization of the FEW Nexus approach was also made, and its connection with the concepts of sustainable development. Results: It was demonstrated that the FEW Nexus approach, when related to the concept of sustainable development, can seek in the Sustainable Development Goals the tangible goals that, eventually, this paradigm is criticized for not offering. The analysis helps to understand how, from this perspective, FEW Nexus considers the tradeoffs in the management of natural resources, the possibilities for directing public policies and social and economic programs, using the UN SDGs as targets. Originality/Value: Demonstrate the applicability of the FEW Nexus Approach within Applied Social Sciences, where this approach is used much less frequently compared to the Hard Sciences. Possibility of offering a contribution to the elaboration of public policies that can address a crucial problem for sustainability, which is the attack on poverty in Brazil and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is an exploratory attempt to assess the relationship between individuals' objective class position and subjective social positions in the South African hierarchy. While objective class dynamics have received much attention in South Africa, less is known about the subjective social position individuals place themselves. The study aims to make use of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) dataset and assess the relationship between objective and subjective class positions in South Africa. The results show considerable variation between objective and subjective class positions, with a strong middling tendency among all objective class groups in South Africa. The study also shows that this middling tendency has increased in the last decade in South Africa, predominantly due to individuals overestimating their social positions. With a large share of South Africans living close or below the poverty line, there is a clear biasedness of South Africans placing themselves in the middle of society, deviating from their lower objective position. The study further measures the variation between objective and subjective social positions to create a novel class scheme of inflated, deflated, and concordant class perceptions. These biased perceptions are then compared to socio-economic characteristics, showing that gender, race, and education are closely related to bias perceptions in South Africa. Furthermore, the increasing nature of high inequality and social unrest events in South Africa prompts the study also to assess the different social and political attitudes by varying objective and subjective class schemes. The results show that among the subjective class identification, individuals in higher perceived class positions tend to be less angered towards inequality, have lower redistribution preferences, and perceive a weaker conflict between the rich and the poor. These results confirm the impact perceived social positions and biased perceptions could have on social and political attitudes in South Africa. Attitudes that have been considered relevant in voting behavior and social policy formulation models. The results of the paper provides some vital information for policy makers on the dynamics behind subjective class and bias perceptions in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the evidence on the role of structural racism as an upstream factor impacting diabetes outcomes, identify current gaps, and recommend areas for future work. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A reproducible search of Medline and Ovid was used. Structural factors based on the World Health Organization social determinants of health framework (governance, macroeconomic policy, social policy, public policy, and cultural and societal values) had to be included as measured variables or contextual factors discussed as upstream influences. Outcomes included 1) hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), 2) LDL, 3) BMI, 4) quality of life, 5) self-efficacy, 6) mortality, 7) years of life lost, and 8) self-care behaviors. RESULTS: Thirteen articles were included for final synthesis. Ten studies focused on governance, two on social policies, one on public policies, and one on cultural and societal values. Results highlight significant associations between structural racism and poorer clinical outcomes (HbA1c and blood pressure), worse self-care behaviors (diet and physical activity), lower standards of care, higher mortality, and more years of life lost for adults with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: There is a paucity of work investigating the relationship between structural racism and diabetes outcomes. Five areas for future work include 1) more rigorous research on the relationship between structural racism, downstream social determinants, and health outcomes in diabetes, 2) policy assessments specific to diabetes outcomes, 3) research designed to examine pathways and mechanisms of influence, 4) intervention development to mitigate the impact of structural racism, and 5) tracking and monitoring of change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are expanding access to high school education, which is a perpetuation of the previous focus on basic education. This study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using data from seven countries from 2010 to 2020 to examine the potential conditions of fee-free policies at the high school level. Five potential conditions are analyzed. They include the regime type, electoral competition, ideological lineage, economic conditions, and social context. The findings indicate the significant influence of electoral competition and a high level of lower secondary school enrolment for the adoption of fee-free policies. The absence of electoral competition leads to a lack of fee-free policy. The paper explains how elections, one indicator of representative democracy, motivate political leaders to initiate social policies. Additionally, the study challenges the relevance of two important explanations for expansionary social policy in the literature--the partisan theory of policy outcomes, and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsIn America, wages appear to be growing relative to purchasing power over time. However, while the ability to purchase consumer goods has indeed improved, the cost of basic survival needs such as health care and education has increased faster than wages have grown.America's weakening social policy landscape has led to a massive socioeconomic rupture in which the middle class is disappearing, such that most Americans now cannot afford basic survival needs, such as education and health insurance.Social policies strive to rebalance societal resources from socioeconomically advantaged groups to those in need. Education and health insurance benefits have been experimentally proven to also improve health and longevity. The biological pathways through which they work are also understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsAdministrative burdens, which are the onerous experiences people have when trying to access government benefits and services, reduce older adult's access to health promoting policies.Although considerable attention has been focused on threats to the old‐age welfare state, ranging from long‐term financing problems to attempts to roll back benefits, administrative barriers to these programs already threaten their effectiveness.Reducing administrative burden is a viable way to improve population health among older adults going forward over the next decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsWe reviewed some of the recent advances in education and health, arguing that attention to social contextual factors and the dynamics of social and institutional change provide critical insights into the ways in which the association is embedded in institutional contexts.Based on our findings, we believe incorporating this perspective is fundamentally important to ameliorate current negative trends and inequality in Americans' health and longevity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizing and managing policy documents (PDs) issued to the public in a good way can improve the efficiency of government employees and make it easier for the public to find the needed policy information. However, existing PDs are organized only by dates and manually defined categories; besides, PDs issued by different government branches are isolated from each other. These problems make it challenging and time‐consuming for the public to find the needed policy information. We argue that implicit links should be established between PDs based on their relevance, thus helping the public find the needed policy information efficiently. To this end, we propose an unsupervised relevance scoring method for PDs consist six modules, taking Chinese social security policies as the application case. The method combines the TextRank algorithm, TF‐IDF representation, mutual information and left–right information entropy algorithm, and BERT. The method can decrease the interference of noisy words in PDs to relevance scoring. In addition, the method can consider multiple features of PDs simultaneously so that the measure of relevance can be more comprehensive. The method is not driven by domain‐specific labelled data, hence can be easily generalized to PDs in various domains. We construct a dataset containing 5000 Chinese social security policies and then conduct experiments on it to evaluate our method. Experimental results show that our method is feasible and can bring convenience to government agencies and the public to a certain extent. Furthermore, our method achieves more than a 3% improvement in evaluation results on test tasks than the methods with a similar purpose in the legal AI community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of the first survey-based study in Portugal about the level of involvement of social workers in social policies, aiming to determine if policy practice is embedded in Portuguese social workers' professional practice and which factors may enhance or constraint such practice. Combining the Civic Voluntarism Model by Verba and colleagues and the Policy Practice Engagement Model by Gal and Weiss-Gal, which were considered as the main predictors of social workers' engagement in policy practice, this study followed a quantitative approach, based on 265 valid answers to an online survey obtained through snowball sampling. The findings showed a low level of engagement in policy practice activities among the social workers, especially those requiring a greater public exposure and acting with the media, policymakers, or public officers to share opinions, make a proposition, or report a problem. Considering the main factors of the socio-political context, the professional context, the organisational context, and individual factors, the findings showed that individual factors explained most of the differences in the social workers' involvement in policy practice, especially when considering interest and efficacy. This study pointed out the need for further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of migrant organizations (MOs) in the welfare state and reflects on the transformation and negotiation processes in the organization of social protection in a society that is increasingly characterized by various forms of cross-border mobility. The article first describes various transformation trends in German social policy by highlighting the activation policy and marketization of social services. This transformation concerns not only the formal (material) forms of social protection and the relationship between migration and social policy, but also the organization of social protection within the German welfare state. By analysing qualitative interviews with representatives of migrant organizations and welfare associations, we then show which roles are ascribed to MOs by other welfare actors in the context of social protection and how the MOs position themselves. We argue that these role ascriptions are part of a negotiation process that goes along with the transformation of the German welfare state. MOs are increasingly addressed in the context of integration policy, while at the same time they are becoming more professional and are claiming a stronger role in formal security services. The discussion of the changing role of MOs in the future organization of the welfare state also sheds light on the question of the successful adaptation of social services to the needs of migrants in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the particularities of the elaboration and implementation process of the UERJ School of Social Work's 1993 professional training project, recognizing that the theoretical options for approaching labor, culture, and social policies, associated with training policies, production, and socialization of knowledge, ensured its longevity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ann Oakley, pioneering social researcher for nearly 60 years, is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at IOE (Institute of Education), UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (University College London, UK). This article explores the innovation and influence of her work and the work of her close colleagues at the Social Science Research Unit (SSRU) and its Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre). It describes advances in research and knowledge that have their roots in listening to what women have to say about their lives. The resulting novel research methods have straddled academic boundaries -- between qualitative and quantitative methodologies, between disciplines, and between academia and wider society -- to enhance understanding of complex social issues and approaches to addressing them within the public sector. The impact of this work is seen in terms of influencing science, knowledge management, policy decisions, professional practice and the general public. These achievements come from approaches that are outward looking and straddle academic disciplines to produce evidence that is relevant to policymaking and to practice, with the ultimate aim being to improve day-to-day life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important terrains of the European search for new ways in politics between the two world wars was the debate on the reorganization and tasks of the state and, within it, of the economy and society. This topic dominated academic discourse in the 1920s and 1930s. The thinkers who sought answers--economists, philosophers, historians, sociologists, and ecclesiastics--could build on the work of early predecessors, reaching back as far as Thomas Aquinas's "organic view of society," later embodied in the economic and political theory of Jesuit solidarism. The common feature of the theories that emerged in the interwar period was that they approached the construction of the state not from the point of view of the individual, but from that of social groups. Vid Mihelics, a prominent exponent of these ideas in Hungary, devoted his journalistic, scientific, and political activities to the Hungarian Catholic revival. His interests focused on social issues and related teachings of the Church. His writings sought solutions through the ideas of Christian humanism, which for him was "the inalienable essence of true Europeanism." His writings can help us better understand how interconnected Hungarian intellectual life was with European trends in the interwar period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State, through public policies, must ensure that the fundamental social rights of citizens are met, aiming at social well-being and the reduction of inequalities in all its forms. This investigation seeks to measure and analyze the trajectory of social spending in Ceará, as well as aspects of poverty and inequality, between 2008 and 2021. For this, an exploratorydescriptive methodology was used, using secondary data from the website Compara Brazil, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Institute for Research and Economic Strategy of Ceará (IPECE). In general, even as a result of state development policy, social spending in Ceará has a behavior linked to the national situation, even when looking at spending by function. Regarding inequality, Ceará adheres more to recovery or recession situations, compared to regional and national performance. Poverty reacts better in adverse conjunctures, from 2014 to 2019 and in the pandemic year of 2020. The current fiscal austerity scenario, since 2016, and the trend of lack of responsibility of the State, excluding the pandemic period, represents a limit to the return of downward trend in the poverty and inequality conditions, experienced until 2015, constituting, in addition, an obscure scenario for the exercise of social policy in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social exclusion in later life involves the marginalization of older adults from all aspects of life in today's society and requires a significant change in public and social policy in ageing societies. Particularly excluded from all aspects of life are (older) people suffering from some form of dementia. Public library services are tailored to meet the informational and recreational needs of all population groups and are particularly suited to help overcome problems of exclusion. However, the research indicates that dementia library services are still in their very beginnings in most countries, including Croatia. This paper presents the goals and results of two projects carried out by the Department of Information Sciences of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Croatia. Those projects deal with information needs and public library services of people with dementia (in particular, Alzheimer's disease) and their caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploratory, qualitative, documental, and empirical research, with the contribution of hermeneutics-dialectics and interviews. The problem asks: how does the State's unaccountability logic influence the perception of (un)protection in old age in Higher Education professors who have reached the age and time of contribution to retirement, but continue to work? The objective is to characterize the crisis of the capitalist state, its repercussions on the neoliberal reforms that subverted the protective character of the social security policy and the effects on education, through the adhesion of 17 teachers to the Permanence Allowance, in an IFES in the North of Brazil. Results indicate that: the perception of helplessness in old age emerges from losses and eventual misfortunes in retirement; So, the interviewees mitigate such unpleasantness by adopting a modest lifestyle, making financial reserves, or projecting a return to work after retirement. Thus, continuing to work, enjoying a Permanence Allowance, represents the last objective instance of protection by the State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great deal of scholarship focuses on whether we should place social safety net and redistribution programs within the tax sphere and under the responsibility of the IRS. But much of this literature misses a key point. These programs are here, and they are unlikely to leave the tax sphere. But little is said about how to approach administering them. This Article suggests the IRS administer these programs under a new framework called contextualized purpose. The idea is that these tax programs should be organized and managed in a way that comports with the broader context of the social safety net and redistribution in which they exist. In applying this approach, the IRS would discern the various purposes, values, and goals of these programs and note how they interrelate with other purposes, values, and goals within the tax system and the broader social safety net. To that end, contextualized purpose often requires that the IRS coordinate with other agencies to avoid administrative cross-purposes and that the agencies iteratively grow through learning by doing. The Article uses contextualized purpose to examine and suggest administrative changes to key income support programs like the earned income tax credit (EITC), the child tax credit (CTC), and the pandemic economic impact payments (EIP). It then discusses some of the advantages and concerns with this approach and how this approach fills the gap left by traditional discussions of tax programs to effectuate social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]