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Disasters occur in both developed and developing countries, generating large amounts of disaster waste including construction and demolition (C&D) waste that needs to be appropriately managed. While developed countries are capable of implementing adequate disaster waste management (DWM) strategies to facilitate their recovery processes, developing countries generally struggle to find the resources and expertise needed to develop such strategies. Lebanon is a developing country vexed by several systemic challenges that hindered its abilities to manage disaster waste. In this paper, we focus on the Beirut Port explosion (4 August 2020), which generated more than 800,000 tonnes of disaster wastes. This study first assesses the executed strategies and identifies their enabling factors and implementation challenges. It then proposes a framework for the proper management of disaster waste, which was validated through 18 in-depth interviews with experts and stakeholders involved in disaster management. Interview notes and transcripts were analyzed using an inductive-deductive process that allowed to identify themes using the constant comparative method. The data revealed that the main barriers toward implementing a successful DWM strategy were the absence of appropriate technologies, infrastructure, expertise, legislative framework and financial resources. The study concludes by proposing a DWM roadmap that includes contingency, risk reduction and implementation plans (IPs) that can enhance decision-making and ease the recovery process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pundits, development practitioners, and scholars worry that rising populism and international disengagement in developed countries have negative consequences on foreign aid. However, how populism and foreign aid go together is not well understood. This paper provides the first systematic examination of this relationship. We adopt the popular ideational definition of populism, unpack populism into its core "thin" elements, and examine them within a delegation model of aid policy—a prominent framework in the aid literature. In so doing, we identify specific domestic political processes through which the core components of populism may affect aid spending. We argue that increases in one component of populism—anti-elitism—and in nativist sentiments, an associated concept, in a donor country lead to a reduction in aid spending through a public opinion channel. We supply both micro- and macro-evidence for our arguments by fielding surveys in the United States and United Kingdom as well as by analyzing aid spending by a large number of OECD donors. Our findings show that nativism and anti-elitism, rather than populism per se, influence not only individual attitudes toward aid but also actual aid policy and generate important insights into how to address populist challenges to foreign aid. Beyond these, our study contributes to the broader International Relations literature by demonstrating one useful analytical approach to studying populism, nativism, and foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly interest in the study of education from the perspective of political science has increased rapidly in the last few years. However, the literature focuses on comparing education politics at the country level, neglecting the analysis of micro-level foundations of education policies in terms of individual preferences and their interaction with macro contexts. This paper provides a first step in addressing this research gap, engaging in a multilevel analysis of survey data for a large number of OECD countries. The core research question is how institutional contexts – in this case socio-economic and educational inequalities – shape the micro-level association between the individual income position and support for education spending. The core finding is that these different dimensions of inequality have different implications at the micro level. Higher levels of socio-economic inequality enhance the conflict between the rich and the poor over public investments in education. By contrast, when access to higher levels of education is effectively restricted, the rich are more likely to support public education spending. This is because higher levels of educational stratification ensure that further public investments in education benefit the rich relatively more than the poor, who in turn become less willing to support this kind of public spending. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Numbers do matter; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s 2010 data that the waste sector is responsible for just 3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has led to the misperception that solid waste management (SWM) has little to contribute to climate mitigation. Global efforts to control methane emissions and divert organic waste from landfills had already reduced direct emissions. But end-of-pipe SWM has also been evolving into more circular waste and resource management, with indirect GHG savings from the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) which IPCC accounts for elsewhere in the economy. The evidence compiled here on both direct emissions and indirect savings demonstrates with high confidence that better waste and resource management can make a significant contribution to climate mitigation, and must form a core part of every country's nationally determined contribution. Even the most advanced countries can still achieve much from the 3Rs. In the Global South, the challenge of extending waste collection to all and stopping open dumping and burning (sustainable development goal 11.6.1), essential to improve public health, can be turned into a huge opportunity. Moving early to divert waste from landfill by separation at source and collecting clean organic and dry recycling fractions, will mitigate global GHG emissions, slash ocean plastics and create decent livelihoods. But this can only happen with targeted climate, plastics and extended producer responsibility finance; and help to local communities to help themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has joined the league of rich industrial nations which have accorded top priority to the promotion of telecommunications (both basic telephone systems and value-added services) as well as the new information technologies. The economic policy of 'liberalization' has resulted in a scramble among multinationals to invest in the Indian technology market. However, in the effort to promote these information technologies and the infrastructure necessary for their effective functioning, developing countries like India have overlooked the social and cultural consequences, besides the neglect of other priority sectors like education, employment generation, poverty alleviation, health and medical care, etc. The hope is that the new policy will stimulate industrial and economic growth. This paper takes a hard critical look at Indian government policy on telecommunications and the new information technologies, and the implications of such a policy for the social and cultural life of the nation. The critique takes the stance that information technologies are not a-historical or a-cultural and that they imagine on society in ways that aggravate social conflict, and challenge the cultural values of communities. The focus of the paper is on the possible implications of the technologies for employment, privacy, surveillance, human relations, consumerism, and efficiency in administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between education and social protection policies across OECD countries and thereby contribute to the growing political and academic discussion on how social investment and social protection are interrelated. We focus on how government policy in two policy domains (education, social protection) affects social stratification. The paper is based on a principal methodological innovation, which lies in disaggregating the ways in which policy-makers influence stratification into two distinct dimensions: one is concerned with how much the state intervenes in the provision of education/social protection and how much it leaves to individual, family and market, and the second is concerned with the bias towards equality or stratification found in the state system itself. We find that countries can be grouped into a distinct number of education–social protection typologies, which differ from traditional clusterings and could indicate the need for multi-faceted pan-European education policies that take into account the longstanding differences in stratification as opposed to one-size-fits-all policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some developed countries with lower union density, bargaining coverage becomes almost universal through the extension of a collective agreement beyond union members to non-unionised employees. However, such extensions are criticised for creating a negative incentive for union membership, undermining the independence of unions vis-a-vis the state and distorting competition in the market. The current study presents a moderated mediation analysis to examine the relationship between union density and bargaining coverage through the bargaining level, using data from the OECD/AIAS's ICTWSS. Empirical results confirm that the extension has a positive moderated mediation impact on the link between union density and bargaining coverage with an indirect effect of bargaining level. Also, the conditional direct effect of the extension negatively interacts with the association between union density and bargaining coverage, while the conditional indirect effect of the extension positively moderates their relationship through the centralised bargaining level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to find out the similarities and differences of the origin and development of social work in the West and in a South Asian developing country: Bangladesh. In this paper, the author points out four aspects – charity and religion, poor and impoverished, social justice and equality, and concern for women – where the development of social work is almost the same in these two opposite regions of the world. The author also shows that the differences depend on how social work is practiced in different countries as well as on the situation of the country, type of government, social policies and existing laws of the country. The paper also provides a clear picture of how social work, which is not professionalized yet in Bangladesh, assists and provides social services for the well-being of the poor people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how key differences in the very manner in which the environment/welfare nexus is experienced and understood in both the global North and the global South are managed in favour of the former over the latter. We show how in the case of the global North — the more affluent world, such as Britain — environmental issues have been usually construed as post-materialist and/or post-industrialist. We argue that predominantly Northern-based post-materialists see environmental welfare (largely through the rhetoric of sustainable development and ecological modernization) as either something separate from humans (for the welfare of the ‘rest of nature’) or for the welfare of unborn, future generations. We use the concept of the ‘post-political’ to interpret how the global North dominates debates on the environment and how it can be quite dismissive, and even negligent, of welfare issues in the global South. In the case of the majority world, green welfare policy agendas are littered with the consequences of environmental devastation incurred through centuries of Northern oppression and resource exploitation. In the global South green welfare goals concentrate on the alleviation of those more basic needs of survival — provision of shelter, water availability, air quality, food sovereignty, and energy security — for those humans actually living on the planet; rather than those who may at some time in the future. In short, issues of environmental debt are writ large, rather than those of an imagined environmental future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) and the 'alternative' press in Great Britain. It mentions several agencies which were the source of information for audiences in advanced country and the dominant reservoir for information in the Third World including Associated Press (AP) in the U.S., United Press International (UPI), and Reuter in Great Britain. It states that news distributors denied access to other agencies in the advanced countries. Meanwhile, other regional news agencies had their own outlet called as the alternative press, which presents the experience of ethnic minority groups in the country.

The article presents a study which aims to find out the nature of the coverage of foreign news in several newspapers in Nigeria. The study used a cross-tabulation analysis to determine the amount of the Nigerian stories on local events and personalities and foreign items, that are treated favourably. The results indicate an evidence of bias in the press coverage of forein news in Nigeria. It concludes that modern journalism can be biased in favor of its immediate location, in terms of quantity and quality.

Increasing production and wealth in industrialized countries led to an increase in waste production, part of which was clearly harmful to human and non-human health. Out of several intergovernmental organizations that addressed related questions, the NATO Commission on Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS) was the first to organize a specific project dedicated to the topic. Between 1973 and 1981, delegates from nine NATO countries studies aspects ranging from the organization and recommended procedures of waste management to landfills, transportation, various ways of disposal and chromium recycling. Thereby, the CCMS got to set the agenda for problematic wastes, effectively establishing 'hazardous waste' as a recognized category. It also framed the challenge as one of 'disposal,' discouraging systemic socio-economic reviews. Overall, this framing drew attention to the potential dangers of some forms of waste to human health and to the environment and the need for special protective measures, while normalizing and potentially diverting attention away from other forms of waste. At the same time, CCMS activities provided an important push towards international guidelines and regulations of hazardous waste management and trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article historicises and examines the implications of internet-distributed television for televisual culture and viewing in Japan. It challenges the simplistic media discourse of ' terebi banare ' (i.e. the audiences' departure from television), which overlooks the complexities of evolving viewing practices. It explains why, largely due to the dominance of major terrestrial broadcasters in the media ecosystem, online consumption of television was slower to take hold in Japan than in other developed countries. It also demonstrates how, while Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have popularised pay online viewing from the late 2010s, the content Japanese viewers consume online remains inclined towards local outputs from terrestrial broadcasters. By elaborating on how terrestrial broadcasters have continued to play an important role in shaping audience experiences with their evolving content, frames, and services, this article provides a critical account of the meaning of terebi banare in the age of streaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Striking disparities characterise the population growth of cities in industrialised countries. Some cities suffer from ongoing population decline, whereas other cities have experienced increasing numbers of inhabitants in recent years. Whether labour market conditions or amenities via their impact on migration primarily account for differences in cities’ demographic development is an important issue. This paper investigates the determinants of the migration balance of German cities between 2000 and 2007. The focus is on the mobility of workers because labour migration in particular affects the future prospects of cities. The findings suggest that not only labour market conditions but also amenities have an impact on the net migration rate. Moreover, large cities seem to be, ceteris paribus, more attractive than small cities. This finding possibly points to the importance of amenities such as cultural infrastructure and matching externalities in urban (labour) markets that are linked to city size. Urban policy aimed at enhancing the attractiveness of cities should thus consider both boosting the local economy and improving the quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Privatization entails a number of quite different aspects that overlap only to some extent: (1) responsibility in provision; (2) possibilities of exit from statutory plans; (3) the transfer of the administration and management of schemes from public bodies acting in a unitary non-competitive administrative environment to private sector actors acting in a more fragmented competitive market based environment; (4) the transfer of the risks of retirement from the collective to the individual; and (5) the ‘recommodification’ and ‘financialization’ of retirement risks. The paper develops a compound index of private pension provision based on a number of quantifiable variables (theoretical replacement rates of public plans, assets of funded pension schemes, private pension expenditure and coverage by private pension plans) that tries to tap into these different aspects. It can be used to empirically categorize the extent to which Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have privatized their pension provision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous quantitative research regarding the long expansionary era of public pension generosity has relied mainly on aggregate expenditure data, which capture many pension policy dimensions. Yet, the overall level of national pension generosity may differ from the generosity of each important dimension. To improve our understanding of public pension reforms that increase generosity levels, this study examines the introduction of automatic indexation clauses between 1945 and 2000. The paper tests predictions of welfare policy development and policy diffusion theories. Using event history methods, we argue that the inflation rate and the incumbency of Christian democratic parties are the main determinants of these policy reforms. Countries with higher inflation rates and more entrenched Christian democratic parties are more likely to link pensions in payment or past wages considered for initial calculation purposes to an economic index. This suggests that political parties differ in their support for each measure that improves pension generosity depending on its expected redistributive impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software industry development is acknowledged as an important engine of economic growth for many less developed countries. The role of national policy has been identified by various researchers as a catalyst to software industry and software exports development. Software development is a service that is both labour and knowledge-intensive, and thus an important aspect of related policy is concerned with the provision of appropriately educated and trained human resources in sufficient quantity. This paper provides an analysis of the human resources issues facing policy makers in less developed countries engaged in software exports policy formulation. The complexities are highlighted through the case study of Costa Rica, where there is an ongoing national strategic planning effort to increase software exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a contribution to the ongoing development debate. It focuses on some of the general problems underlying the development problematic, and makes use of a broad range of historical experiences. Emphasis is laid upon the development problems emerging from competence differentials in the world economy, particularly on the threat of peripheralization of less developed countries. This threat has been ever present. Whether it can be overcome depends on background conditions like the underlying social structure, in particular the agrarian structure, and the innovation and transformation capacity of individual societies, respectively. Very much depends on the sophistication of concrete development policies, particularly on the skilful opening of individual societies to the world economy and a selective delinking from it at the same time. This development issue, as most, is highly political in character. The paper substantiates this assumption by looking once again at the European development experience. The latter can only be understood by reference to its underlying process of democratization resulting from a multiplicity of political conflicts among a broad range of social forces. This experience was quite different from the history of 'world empires" outside Western Europe. Although present developing societies, whether capitalist or socialist, resemble to some degree the highly bureaucratized and centralized empires of the past, they cannot escape the development and modernization pressure characteristic of the present international system. Their success or failure depends mostly on their own efforts, but also on the circumspection of the presently developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most industrial countries women earn less in employment than men. This paper investigates the reasons for this fact. Specifically it considers in detail the relationship between domestic labour and gender inequalities in income. Using evidence from Australia the paper explores the impact on earnings of both responsibility for domestic labour and time spent on domestic labour. Earlier research suggested that responsibility for domestic labour is a greater constraint on women's position in paid labour than the actual time spent on it. The paper also seeks to discover whether the relationship between the housework and paid labour is qualitatively and quantitatively different for men and women. Using regression analysis the paper provides empirical evidence about these relations and argues that gender inequities in wages are based, at least in part, on the structure of the household system. Policies aimed at reducing the male-female wage gap will need to take account of this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While resistance to human resource management (HRM) practice transfers from multinationals has been widely researched in economically advanced countries, emerging economies are generally assumed to be institutionally more welcoming. This article contributes to debates on international HRM diffusion both by highlighting hitherto neglected arenas of host-country resistance and identifying the multiple levels at which this plays out. Specifically, this article examines the transfer of Japanese multinational corporations' HRM practices into Indonesia. The study reveals that alongside apparently consensual micro-level (organization) relations between home- and host-country management, important political power games are occurring at the meso-level (subnational). These games involve competing notions of 'best practice' with host-country actors more powerful than deterministic models of diffusion would predict. The study shows how local actors seek to defend elements of the established Indonesian business system, while Japanese actors bypass host-country regulations by mobilizing corporate business associations. The findings extend current understanding of cross-border management practice transfer, highlighting contestation and negotiation at the meso-level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in the Latin America (LATAM) region is currently disposed of in landfills and dumpsites, which results in many negative environmental impacts. Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) is a strategy that combines the mechanical separation of recoverable materials with the biological stabilization of organic matter. MBT plants have proven to be a good alternative for the management of MSW and have been successfully implemented in developed countries for more than 30 years. However, the efficient introduction of these facilities in developing countries, such as those in the LATAM region, requires further feasibility studies. Therefore, this mini review seeks to offer significant insights into the main challenges that must be overcome to facilitate the implementation and operation of MBT plants, considering the unique technological, sociocultural, economic and political context of the LATAM region, through a comparison of the reported experiences of MBT plants in more developed countries with those in the LATAM region. The analysis herein indicates that key actions for the successful operation of MBT plants in the LATAM region include both the implementation of source separation as well as selective collection practices. Moreover, this work shows that other factors, like the establishment of valorization markets with safe working conditions for informal collectors, the development of intermunicipal cooperation schemes and the enforcement of strong regulatory frameworks for waste disposal specifications, are important contextual factors that have allowed the efficient operation of MBT plants in developed countries. Although the implementation of many of these practices will be challenging, such measures are necessary to increase the sustainability of MSW treatment practices in the LATAM region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) economies are entrenched in traditional economic and employment structures driven by the informal sector. There is a small and regulated formal sector, built upon public sector employment. Unlike the discussion of gig work in advanced capitalist economies, the development of gig work in SSA is within an environment where employment standards and labour regulations are largely absent. The concern in developed countries is that gig work erodes the norm of regulated employment; in developing economies gig work is part of the norm of informal and unregulated employment. Gig work in SSA offers the potential for formalisation of production and work, new forms of agency, and supporting decent work. However, the challenge is how to realise this potential. The role of platforms in developing and transmitting decent work protocols into gig contracts is discussed as a potential means for supporting decent work in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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What welfare state regimes are observed when the analysis is extended globally, empirically and theoretically? We introduce a novel perspective into the 'welfare state regimes analyses' – a perspective that brings developed and developing countries together and, as such, broadens the geographical, empirical and theoretical scope of the 'welfare modelling business'. The expanding welfare regimes literature has suffered from several drawbacks: (i) it is radically slanted towards organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries, (ii) the literature on non-OECD countries does not use genuine welfare policy variables and (iii) social assistance and healthcare programmes are not utilized as components of welfare state effort and generosity. To overcome these limitations, we employ advanced data reduction methods, exploit an original dataset (https://glow.ku.edu.tr/) that we assembled from several international and domestic sources covering 52 emerging markets and OECD countries and present a welfare state regime structure as of the mid-2010s. Our analysis is based on genuine welfare policy variables that are theorized to capture welfare generosity and welfare efforts across five major policy domains: old-age pensions, sickness cash benefits, unemployment insurance, social assistance and healthcare. The sample of OECD countries and emerging market economies form four distinct welfare state regime clusters: institutional, neoliberal, populist and residual. We unveil the composition and performance of welfare state components in each welfare state regime family and develop politics-based working hypotheses about the formation of these regimes. Institutional welfare state regimes perform high in social security, healthcare and social assistance, while populist regimes perform moderately in social assistance and healthcare and moderate-to-high in social security. The neoliberal regime performs moderately in social assistance and healthcare, and it performs low in social security, and the residual regime performs low in all components. We then hypothesize that the relative political strengths of formal and informal working classes are key factors that shaped these welfare state regime typologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sanitary household waste disposal was achieved in China, an efficient source separation system has not been built yet. The Unit Pricing System has been proved effective for household waste sorting by developed countries and regions, while rare developing countries have successfully introduced the system in their local context. The study, taking an interactive perspective of dominant factors of residents' waste sorting and governments' intervention, combines theoretical analysis with system simulation to dissect the evolution process of residents' waste sorting and local governments' Unit Pricing System policy making, and to provide a Unit Pricing System policy making tool to support policy implementations. The results suggest introducing a Unit Pricing System can significantly push ahead the household waste sorting behaviour for cities with relatively low initial status of environmental awareness, and immediately trigger sorting behaviours for cities with higher initial status of environmental awareness. The study can also benefit other developing countries when imposing waste sorting management instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the measurement of efficiency and productivity in the tourism industry at the micro level has been the subject of considerable research in recent years, there has been little research at the macro level. Using data envelopment analysis, this paper analyses the efficiency of the tourism sector in 105 countries, including 34 developed and 71 developing countries. It finds that globalization and accessibility are critical for the efficiency of the tourism sector in developing countries and that labour productivity may be a good proxy for the efficiency of the aggregate tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews research studies on the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of rural dwellers in developed and developing countries. The analysis suggests that the information needs of rural communities from all countries are very similar, although rural communities they do vary from region to region and from country to country depending on socio-economic conditions. These needs are mostly related to the daily life of rural dwellers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper compares the effect of terrorism on the tourism industry in developing and developed countries. Analysis of a cross-sectional data set of 60 countries supports the hypothesis that terrorism's effect on the tourism industry is larger in developing countries than in developed countries. Based on this result, developing countries especially should implement ways to prevent terrorism and avoid the detrimental effects on their tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many low-income households in rich countries have very little wealth, but the role of intergenerational wealth transmission in underpinning this deficit is not known. This article seeks to fill that gap by investigating patterns of past wealth transfer receipt for low-income versus other households in seven rich countries and assessing the contribution that these transfers, or their absence, make to current wealth levels. We find that households on low incomes are relatively disadvantaged in terms of intergenerational transfers received in the past, both in terms of the likelihood of having received any and the amounts received by those who do benefit from such transfers. The role that this disadvantage plays in the linkage between current low-income and low wealth is assessed and evidence presented that it is significant. Simulation of a universal wealth transfer scheme or 'capital endowment' on reaching adulthood for two countries shows that such a policy could lead to a marked decline in the proportion of low-income adults with negative or no wealth. This and alternative or complementary policy responses to these wealth deficits merit the most serious attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the populations of the richest advanced industrial societies have achieved unprecedented levels of formal credentials, analysts report on the massive scale of underutilisation of knowledge and skills in current market economies. This paper describes the underemployment situation in the Netherlands (1977-95).We show by different methods that the education-jobs gap 'has widened increasingly. The return to credentials of Dutch employees has diminished for every educational category Within the total labour population,an increasing share of employees can be considered as underemployed and deal with credential inflation. At the lower levels of education men have suffered from credential inflation more than women. At the higher levels of education it is the reverse. ft also appears that young people deal with a `waiting-room effect': they enter the labour market at relatively low skill levels, given their educational level and gender. A further breakdown by educational specialisation shows that employees with an educational background in health care or technical studies have suffered relatively more from credential inflation compared to those with a commercial education. We conclude by stating that in spite of much rhetoric about the skill deficiencies of the current workforce, the lack of decent jobs has caused basic allocation problems at the Dutch labour market From a human resources perspective, the growing wastage of employees' potential should not be underestimated or dismissed. We argue that an effective allocation of knowledge and skills to occupations will he the basic tenet of labour market policy and new forms of work organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science, and public engagement with science, has become prominent in science policy programmes. Given the expectations attached to citizen science in academic and science policy discourses, it is worthwhile to look at where the actual work is done. The case of South Africa, the study focus, is interesting because the country follows similar programmes as many developed countries, but has a socioeconomically and educationally more unequal society. Thus, South Africa presented a test example of whether the institutional similarities of science or socioeconomic and educational differences prevail in shaping the reality of citizen science. Results from 56 projects showed that nearly all of them were limited to data collection in life science fields and were managed largely by one university and mainly communicated within the respective science communities. This led us to conclude that the ambitious rhetoric accompanying citizen science in science policy programmes is not matched by reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to help serve community members suffering from public library access inequity, many library institutions provide mobile library services to help them connect directly with their communities and provide strong social, educational and emotional support to those in need. Via the use of a series of in-depth one-on-one interviews with individual mobile librarians practising in different parts of the world, this article aims to examine the new and changing roles of mobile libraries and librarians – the roles they play in supporting communities that suffer from a lack of readily accessible library resources, have extreme social inequity, or have lost touch with their usual library community owing to natural disasters. Nine mobile librarians took part in this study and the countries they represent are as follows: Australia, China, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, India, Japan, the USA and Zimbabwe. The user groups of the nine participating mobile libraries included refugees, impoverished children, migrant families and disaster-affected populations, who suffered, in particular, from extreme educational and informational inequality. The interview findings from the study indicate that mobile libraries play an important role in providing resources to different disadvantaged user groups, as well as enabling those with limited access to educational facilities and reading programmes with opportunities to survive and prosper in their communities. Not only do mobile libraries provide age- and content-appropriate resources and alternative literacy programmes for their patrons, but they also create new spaces for social connection for community members who may be disparate, isolated or physically unable to venture far from home. In summary, mobile libraries have the potential to function as a 'social equaliser' by extending the philosophy of social equality and erasing social, economic and educational barriers through the provision of literacy and learning opportunities for community members of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we make sense of the great Western malaise? This article argues that it results from a sharp decline in the capacities of Western governments to accomplish basic socioeconomic goals. These failures (objective and perceived) are undermining the legitimacy of Western states and fuelling political disarray. For two hundred years, the modernisation of industrial society went together with the building of capable and legitimate states. Today, it is difficult to see what progressive 'projects' remain that reinforces the state's primacy and legitimacy. The paper examines three basic state responses to declining capacity and legitimacy: 'shedding', 'shifting', and 'shouldering'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical section of this paper describes three mechanisms through which science in non-Western countries is institutionalized to follow the forms that are prevalent in the major industrial nations. The empirical section, which is based on a sample of 73 less developed countries (LDCs) and underdeveloped countries (UDCs) demonstrates that the findings are inconsistent with predictions made by theories of economic development and modernization. These theories predict a positive relationship between the degree of institutionalization and economic performance, but, for LDCs we find no such relationship; for the UDCs, it is even negative. Thus we conclude that institutional isomorphism and conformity to external rational myths are loosely coupled with internal economic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberal theories of post-industrial society and Marxist theories of the labour process tend to converge in their respective accounts of the place of supervisors in relation to putative changes in the organisation of work. A common conjecture is that supervisors are progressively being denuded of theft powers and functions within industry. This paper uses data from a national sample survey of Britain to discuss the substance of the supervisory role in modem capitalist enterprises. The conclusion reached is that direct supervision in the workplace is not obviously in decline. The data also raise issues about the categories of employment status used in official statistics as well as those of the Goldthorpe class schema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empowering ordinary citizens with the capacity to deliberate is a core issue in science communication. Despite growing deliberative practices in developed nations, it is significantly less understood how public deliberation can happen among populations who live with limited educational resources and poor urban infrastructure in developing countries. This article studied a case of a well-designed deliberation method, Deliberative Poll, in Tamale, Ghana. I analyzed the stimulus information video and thousands of speech acts from deliberation transcripts to examine how expertise was used and what was deliberated in public dialogue. A broad range of expertise and interests were represented. Participants had thoughtful discussions on complex policy issues and their discussion results were considered by local policymakers. This article contributes to our understanding of how to effectively foster public deliberation among populations in the Global South and measure the nuances of expertise and public reasoning on science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'mass tourism' can simply be an empirical description of tourism enjoyed by many in modern, industrial societies. However, in context, it often refers to more than this. The 'mass' involves an aggregation of individuals, and involves assumptions and inferences about those individuals and their society. Hence mass tourism is, in an important sense, a social construct. It is therefore surprising that there is little consideration of this aspect of 'mass tourism' and its corollary, the 'mass tourist' in relevant literature. The article develops a provisional periodisation of mass tourism in social thought, linking constructions of the mass to the politics of the day. It has an exploratory character, suggesting themes for contestation and/or further research. It indicates changes in the view of mass tourism, but also important continuities relating to an assumption of a lack of agency on the part of mass tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many developed countries consider that disability benefit receipt is too high and more disabled people should be in paid work. Employment programmes designed to achieve this have tended towards less financial support and more requirement to engage in activity. But emphasis on social inclusion through paid work coupled with inadequate benefits and mandated activity can cause distress and worsened health. It is therefore vital that politicians understand the likely impact of employment programmes before introducing them. In this article, a new framework based on five 'Ds' (diagnosis, destination, development, design and delivery) is used to analyse the UK's Work and Health Programme. It is shown that the programme is likely to fail: it includes measures that do not work, and may cause harm, whilst ignoring measures that are known to work. Based on this, it is recommended that this programme be scrapped and the government start listening to disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some countries have more skill-selective labour immigration policies than others? Despite general agreement that high-skilled immigrants are economically and socially desirable, some countries extensively select high-skilled from low-skilled labour immigrants, while others do not. While most political economy accounts indicate an explicit connection between relative skill selectivity and welfare states, two different hypotheses emerge regarding the direction of this relationship. The fiscal cost hypothesis puts forward that the tension between welfare state generosity and immigration motivates greater selectivity as states try to reconcile fiscal pressures for closure with continuing needs for immigration. The decommodification hypothesis, in contrast, holds that the capabilities of generous welfare states to decommodify their citizens also decrease rationales to be more skill-selective towards labour immigrants. Developing an original measure of skill selectivity in labour immigration policies for 20 developed democracies from 2000 to 2010, we test these two hypotheses. Our results indicate that differences in decommodification levels appear to be substantively and negatively associated with differences in skill selectivity levels, while changes in welfare spending over time, particularly among high-spending countries, rather than differences in spending levels, seem to be positively associated with increasing skill selectivity. This suggests potential tensions between the political responses to economic and demographic changes in the form of immigration policy adjustments and the underlying social logic of modern welfare states. The findings contribute not only to the study of high-skilled immigration, but also advance the current research on the tension between immigration and the welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a mini review of the published research focused on understanding environmental and human health impacts nearby waste incineration plants. We found no studies indicating that modern-technology waste incineration plants, which comply with the legislation on emissions, are a cancer risk factor or have adverse effects on reproduction or development. There are several factors in favor of this affirmation: (a) the emission levels of the plants currently built in the developed countries are several orders of magnitude lower than those of the plants in whose environments epidemiological studies have been carried out and which have found some kind of negative association in terms of health; (b) risk assessment studies indicate that most of the exposure is produced through the diet and not by a direct route; and (c) monitoring dioxin level studies in the population resident in the environment of incineration plants did not reveal increases of these levels when compared with a population living in reference areas. A necessary condition for the development of a waste incineration plant is to generate the conditions to prevent any impact that activates or potentially carries damage or risks to the environment and, in particular, to health. This makes it imperative to use a preventive strategy through the implementation of a previous environmental impact assessment and the establishment of emissions standards and an emissions monitoring program in order to ensure the prevention of environmental damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to extract community work models based on the practical experiences of community workers in Taiwan. A set of 10 selected variables, amended from Rothman, was employed in analyzing the community workers' experiences of community capacity building for the 26 communities affected by Typhoon Morakot. Four model prototypes were inducted as 'service and demonstrate', 'training and tutoring', 'stimulating and encouraging', and 'consensus action'. These models are meaningful for showing the practical application and knowledge inheritance of Western community theories and models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the redistributive efficiency of social transfers and direct taxation in a panel of 28 developed economies during the period 1995–2010. In order to explore how redistribution is achieved through these fiscal policies, a two-stage approach is applied. First, we evaluate their redistributive efficiency – the degree of redistribution attained for a given level of transfers and taxes – using data envelopment analysis (DEA). We find lower redistributive efficiency in Southern Europe and the United States and higher efficiency levels in the Nordic and Central European countries and Australia. Second, we use panel regression analysis to identify the determinants of efficiency differences and reveal the crucial role of government quality as well as factors affecting the redistributive profile of fiscal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article empirically traces trends in family policy in 23 high-income countries since the 1960s. A range of data on income supports for families with children, family-related leave and early childhood education and care are brought together and analysed. The results show that family policy has developed by layering, in terms of both content and time period. A ‘foundational phase’ is characterised by investment in cash and tax allowances for families and employment leave for mothers, while a ‘consolidation phase’ sees states adding to their family policy portfolio, especially through the diversification of family-related leave and augmentation of child-related care services, increasing their overall family policy expenditure and continuing to support families financially but with a preference to direct this through the tax system. There is no inexorable development path though, either within or across countries. A layering development pattern suggests that analysis of family policy over time needs to be oriented to examining both continuity and change and, as the conclusion makes clear, there are many fruitful lines of further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article is based on the premise that journalists play an important role as mediators of scientific information and their interpretations of climate change influence media debates and public opinion. The study maps the minds of climate journalists from five different countries (Germany, India, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and different types of leading media outlets. It identifies five cognitive frames that vary between attributing the responsibility for climate change to lobbying and national interests, blaming consumerist culture and the capitalist system, and expressing technological optimism. The study provides evidence for the emergence of a sustainability frame, indicates a “blame game” between industrialized countries and emerging economies, and shows the demand for a global ecological discourse. Finally, it explores how individual factors such as specialization, professional aims, and political alignment correlate with the cognitive frames of journalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teenagers do better at reading when they are motivated to read. The Programme for International Student Assessment assesses reading literacy for 15-year-olds in over 70 countries worldwide, and also includes questions that explore the relationships between motivation and reading. Country-level results indicate that developing countries have lower reading scores than developed countries. However, they also indicate that students in many developing countries are more motivated to read and spend more time reading than students in developed countries. These results suggest that the ideal role for libraries is to ensure students’ motivation to read through the provision of a variety of materials, a supportive environment for literacy and reading conversations, and encouraging student autonomy in making their reading choices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As society evolves its welfare level increases, and as a consequence the amount of municipal solid waste increases, imposing great challenges to municipal authorities. In developed countries, municipalities have established integrated management schemes to handle, treat, and dispose of municipal solid waste in an economical and environmentally sound manner. Municipalities of developing and transition countries are not exempted from the challenges involving municipal solid waste handling, but their task is not easy to accomplish since they face budget deficits, lack of knowledge, and deficiencies in infrastructure and equipment. In the northern territory of Mexico, the municipality of Durango is facing the challenge of increased volumes of waste with a lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure. This article analyses the evolution of the municipal solid waste management of Durango city, which includes actions such as proper facilities construction, equipment acquisition, and the implementation of social programmes. The World Bank, offering courses to municipal managers on landfill operation and waste management, promoted the process of knowledge and technology transfer. Thereafter, municipal authorities attended regional and some international workshops on waste management. In addition they followed suggestions of international contractors and equipment dealers with the intention to improve the situation of the waste management of the city. After a 15-year period, transfer of knowledge and technology resulted in a modern municipal solid waste management system in Durango municipality. The actual system did not reach the standard levels of an integrated waste management system, nevertheless, a functional evaluation shows clear indications that municipality actions have put them on the right pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents findings from a large-scale newspaper analysis of climate change discourses in four developed countries, using corpus linguistics methodology. We map the discourse over time, showing peaks and troughs of attention and explaining their causes. Different connotations of common terms such as global warming and climate change in different countries are analysed. Cluster and key-word analysis show the relative salience of specific words and word combinations during crucial periods. We identify main claims makers and the relative visibility of advocates and sceptics. The main finding is that former are far more prominent in all countries. We also look at the coverage of ‘climategate’. Finally, we make reference to existing theoretical frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the enduring conclusions of political economy is that the government’s share of the economy tends to grow over time and with a rising gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Yet, from the late 1980s through to 2008, government spending as a percentage of GDP declined in the typical year in affluent democracies. Synthesizing and building on literatures on the welfare state, state size and neoliberalism, we evaluate three explanations for the expansion and retrenchment of government spending as a percentage of GDP. We estimate fixed effects models of three measures of changes and cuts in government spending. In the full sample 1971–2008, changes and cuts were driven by the structural pressures of unemployment and trade openness, and the institutional factor of the adoption of the Euro. However, this conceals important historical variation. In the earlier period of expansion, the power resource of unionization was the most robust influence. In the later period of retrenchment, changes and cuts were shaped by the adoption of the Euro and a set of structural pressures. In contrast to previous research, changes and cuts in government spending are not associated with a country’s GDP per capita after the mid-1980s. We conclude by discussing implications for the welfare state and neoliberalism, and by encouraging caution for universal theories of state size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of increasing cost pressures, public healthcare systems in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries face the question of whether and to which extent new high-tech drugs are to be financed within their public healthcare systems. Systematic empirical research that explains across-country variation in these decisions is, however, almost non-existent. We analyse an original dataset that contains coverage decisions for 11 controversial drugs in 25 OECD countries using multilevel modelling. Our results indicate that the ‘generosity’ with which controversial new drugs are publicly financed is unrelated to a country’s wealth and general expenditure levels for healthcare. However, healthcare systems financed through social insurance contributions tend to be more generous than tax-financed ones. Moreover, we uncover evidence suggesting that the institutional characteristics of the decision-making process matter systematically for decisions on whether to finance controversial drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]