Search

The question of whether welfare benefits imprison recipients in unemployment traps has been at the centre of academic and political debates in recent decades. Empirical evidence at the micro level supports the existence of work disincentive effects of welfare benefits, although of a small magnitude. However, the question of whether this translates into lower aggregate employment remains unsettled. This study innovates the existing literature by providing an estimation of the impact of the monetary component of the Italian minimum income scheme (MIS) on the employment rate. Isolating this impact from the spurious pro‐work effects of the Active Labour Market Policies embedded in every contemporary MIS is possible because in the Italian case, in the first quarters of implementation of the policy, the activation side was not operating. We adopt a difference‐in‐differences method and find that the impact of the monetary component of the Italian MIS on the employment rate is not statistically significant. The finding is robust to different treatment definitions, different specification models and weighted and unweighted econometric analysis. We then carry out a heterogeneous analysis and find that the impact, despite being indistinguishable from zero on average, is significant and negative for provinces with weak labour demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has highlighted that decentralization is key to understanding the marketization of the Swedish welfare state, while local political factors are important to explaining the subnational differences in actual degrees of welfare service privatization. Other research has highlighted the impact of pragmatism rather than ideology in local government's decisions to outsource welfare services, including policy diffusion through geographical proximity to highly privatized municipalities. However, little research has been done on the role or type of political representation and whether this matters to the diffusion of welfare service privatization. Thus, there is little knowledge about whether local governments are primarily responsive to public preferences, the ideological position of the local government, or influences from neighboring municipalities. Drawing on the literature on political representation and policy diffusion, I test three hypotheses: that the local governments are primarily responsive to public preferences (sanction representation), that local governments are primarily responsive to their own ideological position (gyroscopic representation), or that local governments are primarily influenced by outsourcing in neighboring municipalities (contagion). Using a time‐lagged correlational design with survey data covering both local politicians and ordinary municipal residents, as well as public accounts of municipal outsourcing, I find that public preferences play a negligible role to the privatization process. A minor part of the between‐municipal variation in welfare service privatization can be attributed to the preferences of local politicians (gyroscopic representation), while a more substantial part is due to pressures from outsourcing among municipal neighbors (contagion). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technology (ICT) and digital media are less accessible for persons with intellectual disability (ID) but are important for citizenship. The aim was to conceptualize officials understanding of ICT usage among people with ID, and to analyze the possible influence of this understanding on the provision of services for people with ID. A qualitative study was conducted, using semi-structured interviews with municipal officials and politicians in the disability service area. Thematic analyses were conducted. ICT use is understood as an arena for democratization. Findings also illustrate the tension between integrity and protection as well as between legal and moral aspects of digital transformation in service provision. This understanding of digitalization is permeated by an individualized approach but conditioned by organizational issues. Disability services can be understood as undergoing digital transformation where regulative and normative elements in this area need to be harmonized to facilitate digitalization successfully. Points of interest: This study examines politicians' and officials' perceptions of the digitalization of intellectual disability services. This is important as it influences the possibility for persons with ID to be online. Digitalization is understood to enable democratization in terms of participation in decision-making, and social activities, and to 'be a part of society' but the support and structure to be online are under construction. The article suggests that the process of digitalization is also about the responsibility of its provision and use, laws, and of morals, and integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A frequent question in discussions about democracy is whether input from the public is ever considered and to what extent by politicians. This influence of public opinion on the realm of welfare policies has not been extensively explored, and most analyses are less precise for being conducted before the passage of the national welfare reform in 1996, better known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). Bringing the analysis to a period after the reform to account for contextual changes since its passage, this study uses the multilevel and poststratification (MRP) model considered superior in analysis of subnational opinion using national survey data to assess the influence of public opinion on welfare policies at the state level. Collecting data from the 2014 CCES and a new developed welfare generosity index, I find that public opinion does not have any influence on how generous welfare programs turn out in their states, unless it is interacted with state government ideology. It seems that the ideology of the state government and the state poverty rate are the major determinants on welfare policies outcomes in the states, although the latter had different effects for TANF and SNAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of corporate governance (CG) in Indonesian society necessitates consideration of the socio-cultural values that exist and evolve within individual lives. The foundation of the Indonesian state, Pancasila, embodies the socio-cultural ideals of the Indonesian people. The five CG-relevant Pancasila principles are divinity, human rights, nationality, leadership, and social welfare. Pancasila corporate governance (PCG) is CG that incorporates Indonesian cultural values. The association between PCG and firm value (FV) is investigated in this study. Up to 66 samples were collected for the years 2009 through 2018 after the sample was chosen based on specific criteria. The declaration of the five Pancasila principles serves as a proxy for PCG. Tobin's Q serves as a gauge for a company's worth. Multiregression analysis was employed in data analysis. This study concluded that while nationality and divinity had no effect on FV, human rights, leadership, and social welfare did have a substantial impact on FV. The single most important factor in the creation of corporate governance is the national culture and values. It stems from national cultures and beliefs that permeate the community and have an impact on relationships within it. It is expected to be a norm in the neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Value chain interventions have become widespread throughout the international development sector over the last 20 years, and there is a need to evaluate their effectiveness in improving women's welfare across multiple dimensions. Agricultural value chains are influenced by socio‐cultural norms and gender dynamics that have an impact on the distribution of resources, benefits, and access to opportunities. While women play a critical role in agriculture, they are generally confined to the least‐valued parts of the value chain with the lowest economic returns, depending on the local, social and institutional contexts. Objectives: The review assesses the effectiveness of approaches, strategies and interventions focused on women's engagement in agricultural value chains that lead to women's economic empowerment in low‐ and middle‐income countries. It explores the contextual barriers and facilitators that determine women's participation in value chains and ultimately impact their effectiveness. Search Methods: We searched completed and on‐going studies from Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection (Social Sciences Citation Index [SSCI], Science Citation Index Expanded [SCI‐EXPANDED], Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Science [CPCI‐S], Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Social Science & Humanities [CPCI‐SSH], and Emerging Sources Citation Index [ESCI]), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, EconLit, Business Source Premier, APA PsycInfo, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane, Database of Systematic Reviews, CAB Abstracts and Sociological Abstracts. We also searched relevant websites such as Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR); the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); AgriProFocus; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF); Donor Committee for Enterprise Development; the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); the International Labour Organisation (ILO); the Netherlands Development Organisation; USAID; the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; the International Food Policy Research Institute; World Agroforestry; the International Livestock Research Institute; the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; the British Library for Development Studies (BLDS); AGRIS; the IMMANA grant database; the 3ie impact evaluation database; Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA); The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J‐PAL); the World Bank IEG evaluations; the USAID Development Data Library; Experience Clearinghouse; the proceedings of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Academy conference; the proceedings of the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) Conference; the proceedings of the North East Universities Development Consortium (NEUDC) Conference; and the World Bank Economic Review. The database search was conducted in March 2022, and the website search was completed in August 2022. Selection Criteria: The review includes value chain interventions evaluating the economic empowerment outcomes. The review includes effectiveness studies (experimental and non‐experimental studies with a comparison group) and process evaluations. Data Collection and Analysis: Two review authors independently assessed studies for inclusion, extracted data, critically appraised the studies, and synthesised findings. Results: We found that value chain interventions are successful in improving the economic conditions of their intended beneficiaries. The interventions were found to improve women's economic outcomes such as income, assets holdings, productivity, and savings, but these effects were small in size and limited by low confidence in methodological quality. The meta‐analysis suggests that this occurs more via the acquisition of skills and improved inputs, rather than through improvement in access to profitable markets. The qualitative evidence on interventions points to the persistence of cultural barriers and other constraints. Those interventions implemented in Sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia are consistently more successful for all outcomes considered, although there are few studies conducted in other areas of the world. Conclusions: The review concludes that value chain interventions empower women, but perhaps to a lesser extent than expected. Economic empowerment does not immediately translate into empowerment within families and communities. Interventions should either moderate their expectations of empowerment goals, or they should be implemented in a way that ensures higher rates of participation among women and the acquisition of greater decision‐making power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The number of people fleeing persecution and regional conflicts is rising. Western countries have applied increasingly stringent measures to discourage those seeking asylum from entering their country, amongst them, to confine asylum seekers in detention facilities. Clinicians have expressed concerns over the mental health impact of detention on asylum seekers, a population already burdened with trauma, advocating against such practices. Objectives: The main objective of this review is to assess evidence about the effects of detention on the mental and physical health and social functioning of asylum seekers. Search methods: Relevant literature was identified through electronic searches of bibliographic databases, internet search engines, hand searching of core journals and citation tracking of included studies and relevant reviews. Searches were performed up to November 2023. Selection criteria: Studies comparing detained asylum‐seekers with non‐detained asylum seekers were included. Qualitative approaches were excluded. Data collection and analysis: Of 22,226 potential studies, 14 met the inclusion criteria. These studies, from 4 countries, involving a total of 13 asylum‐seeker populations. Six studies were used in the data synthesis, all of which reported only mental health outcomes. Eight studies had a critical risk of bias. Meta‐analyses, inverse variance weighted using random effects statistical models, were conducted on post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Main results: A total of 27,797 asylum seekers were analysed. Four studies provided data while the detained asylum seekers were still detained, and two studies after release. All outcomes are reported such that a positive effect size favours better outcomes for the non‐detained asylum seekers. The weighted average SMD while detained is 0.45 [95% CI 0.19, 0.71] for PTSD and after release 0.91 [95% CI 0.24, 1.57]; for anxiety 0.42 [95% CI 0.18, 0.66] and for depression 0.68 [95% CI 0.10, 1.26] both while detained. Based on single‐study data, the SMD was 0.60 [95% CI 0.02, 1.17] for depression and 0.76 [95% CI 0.17, 1.34] for anxiety, both after release. Three studies (one study each) reported outcomes related to psychological distress, self‐harm and social well being. Psychological distress favoured the detained but was not significant; whereas both effect sizes on self‐harm and social wellbeing indicated highly negative impacts of detention; in particular, the impact on self‐harm was extremely high. The OR of self‐harm was reported separately for asylum seekers detained in three types of detention: Manus Island, Nauru and onshore detention. The ORs were in the range 12.18 to 74.44; all were significant. Authors' conclusions: Despite similar post‐migration adversities amongst comparison groups, findings suggest an independent adverse impact of detention on asylum seekers' mental health, with the magnitude of the effect sizes lying in an important clinical range. These effects persisted beyond release into the community. While based on limited evidence, this review supports concerns regarding the detrimental impact of detention on the mental health of already traumatised asylum seekers. Further research is warranted to comprehensively explore these effects. Detention of asylum seekers, already grappling with significant trauma, appears to exacerbate mental health challenges. Policymakers and practitioners should consider these findings in shaping immigration and asylum policies, with a focus on minimising harm to vulnerable populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Social prescribing is often described as an intervention that can help reduce health inequalities yet there is little evidence exploring this. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of accessing and analysing social prescribing (SP) service user data to demonstrate the impact of SP on health inequalities. Methods The sample size consisted of records for 276 individuals in Site 1 and 1644 in Site 2. Descriptive analyses were performed to assess the characteristics of people accessing SP, the consistency of data collected and the missingness across both sites. Results Both sites collected basic demographic data (age gender, ethnicity and deprivation). However, data collection was inconsistent; issues included poor recording of ethnicity in Site 2, and for both sites, referral source data and health and well-being outcome measures were missing. There was limited data on the wider determinants of health. These data gaps mean that impacts on health inequalities could not be fully explored. Conclusions It is essential that SP data collection includes information on user demographics and the wider determinants of health in line with PROGRESS Plus factors. Considering equity around who is accessing SP, how they access it and the outcomes is essential to evidencing how SP affects health inequalities and ensuring equitable service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: In this article, we examine the historical and cultural foundations of Nordic states' strong contemporary social indicators to understand whether their successes can be replicated in other contexts. Design/methodology/approach: We draw on a range of academic literature to frame a comparison of two regions' cultural and theological roots, identifying contrasts to make arguments about prescriptions for contemporary welfare policy. Findings: We find Nordic history contributes to a duty-based culture with strong cohesion and social trust. These cultural norms make palatable welfare policies with strong activation measures, while the US model prefers to avoid the latter because of its strong cultural orientation to rights and autonomy. Social implications: To mitigate differences between the Nordic states and other cultural contexts, policymakers seeking to replicate Nordic welfare successes should consider welfare programming that combines stronger activation policies with oversight and relational components that mitigate gaps in social cohesion. Originality/value: We uniquely bring together the literature on comparative welfare policy and on religion and culture to understand the precursors of contemporary attitudes and their implications for welfare policy prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, the UK government limited the number of children for a whom a low-income family could claim a means tested benefit (the "child element" of "Universal Credit") to two. Since then, over 400,000 families—including 1.5 million children—have been affected by the "two-child limit." Emerging research indicates that the limit has done little to influence fertility rates, nothing to influence workforce participation, and a great deal to increase financial hardship and poverty. Via a synthesis of existing research, and a critical analysis of formal policy dialogue, I explore the specifically reproductive politics of the two-child limit. I cast the limit as "successful" reproductive governance, a "technology of discipline" with complementary effects and rationales, which works by further marginalizing intersectionally marginalized women. In concluding, I argue that the state justifies this abject outcome via what has been termed "cultural gaslighting." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within integration programs and practices, refugee women are repeatedly offered rescue and emancipation. This article explores how emancipation intersects with material and social injustices of integration practices, and how refugee women in particular become subjects for emancipation. It examines the bordering practices of integration and emancipation, and identifies how integration practices symbolize refugee women as, here called, "oppressed," "spoiled," "willing," "surprisingly productive," or "familiar." It investigates how these symbolizations circulate in emancipatory practices that are steeped in national imaginaries, as well as in welfare state work ethics. Emancipation is confined to submission to exploitative reproductive work and tied to consumerism. But it also has ambivalent moments around regularizing refugee women's strategically needed care-work. The article suggests that differential emancipation reproduces complex and violent logics of gendered racial capitalism and coloniality of the Danish welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study describes knowledge, perceived competence, and behaviors relative to intimate partner violence (IPV)-related brain injury (BI) among staff in residential domestic violence shelter programs across a New England state. A 23-item questionnaire was administered to registrants of an online IPV-related BI training series. Within this sample, knowledge about IPV-related BI was high, but relative to providing screening, accommodations, and specialized referrals to survivors with BI, perceived competence was low, and behaviors were infrequent. IPV shelter agencies should facilitate IPV-related BI training programs for staff and prioritize developing and implementing BI screening, accommodation, and referral policies and procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specific aspects and territorial characteristics of migration have been extensively studied, while the primary living conditions of foreigners have been less compared in-depth. Using data from the Labor Force Surveys and EU-Silc for the year 2019, relating to six key aspects of daily life, in this study, foreign-born people living in the five main European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and the European Union were compared for the frequency of costs (e.g., for welfare services) and benefits (e.g., for employment) for the host society. Subsequently, the comparison of them, made by juxtaposing natives and non-natives, allowed for a definition of the level of primary integration (distance of immigrants from natives on the same aspects). The results show that the degree of congruence between the frequency of costs and that of benefits in the immigrant population is strongly influenced by the economic situation, favorable for Germany and the United Kingdom in 2019, with a lower recurrence of hardship cases among immigrants, but high wealth did not automatically reduce their differences. Instead, a small gap between immigrants and natives may also be due to the progressive impoverishment of the latter (Italian case). Therefore, especially in periods of economic stagnation, the different impact of it and of welfare measures on the immigrant population compared to natives requires the analysis of their actual living conditions, as the traditionally used economic aggregates (especially GDP) do not reveal the disparities in the distribution of resources between the various social and ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a competitive matching model in which indivisible assets are reallocated among many traders. The model has three features: (i) traders are heterogeneous in their prospects as buyers, sellers, and also in their stand-alone values with endowed assets, (ii) buyers do not know true values of assets sold, (iii) sellers can disclose values of their assets by paying fees. Despite its complexity, the model admits closed-form solutions. Two main results emerge. First, if full Disclosure is facilitated by a monopolist, it captures a large fraction of the welfare gains. Second, adding the option of minimum disclosure, when combined with a cap regulation on price-dependent fees for full disclosure, significantly weakens the monopolist's power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Forest Products Industry is the property of China Forest Products Industry Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The measurement of women's economic welfare and exploring its underlying factors have been undervalued in the context of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This study addressed this gap by focusing on assessing women's subjective economic welfare and its socioeconomic and cultural determinants in the education and health sectors within Mardan, Northern Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: The study used stratified random sampling techniques for the selection of sample respondents and collected data through a well-structured questionnaire. To measure women's economic welfare, the study utilizes Lorenz curves, the Gini index, the Sen Social Welfare function and an individual's gross monthly income. Furthermore, the ordinary least squares method was utilized to analyze the determinants of economic welfare. Findings: The findings show greater income inequality and a lower welfare level for women in the education sector compared to the health sector. Likewise, the study identifies several key determinants, such as age, educational qualification, job experience, respect for working women, outside and work-place problems and the suffering of family members of working women for their economic well-being. Originality/value: This study makes valuable contributions to the literature by focusing on the cultural perspective of Pakhtun women in Mardan and providing a context-specific understanding of subjective economic welfare. Additionally, the authors collected first-hand data, which gave an original outlook on working women's current economic welfare level. Furthermore, this study undertakes a comparative analysis of working women's welfare in the health and education sectors. This comparison offers a more accurate portrayal of the challenges and opportunities specific to these occupations. Peer review: The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2023-0246 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the context of sustainable development, the greatest challenge facing society today is to improve welfare of the disadvantaged while preserving the environment. This paper constructed a theoretical framework of "policy‐welfare‐environment," explored the effects in terms of individual welfare enhancement and village environment improvement, and conduct empirical tests on a sample of 1208 rural households in China. The results show that: (1) The assistance policy can significantly improve the overall welfare of the disadvantaged groups, and meanwhile, it can improve different dimensions of welfare, with the degree from high to low was a social opportunity, spiritual feeling, and economic situation. (2) The assistance policy can increase the probability of adopting environmental protection behavior, which in turn can significantly improve the village environment. (3) Welfare improvements in social opportunities mediate between the assistance policy and village environment improvements, while improvements in spiritual feelings and economic status do not. In addition, there is age heterogeneity in the welfare enhancement effect of the policy in the economic status dimension and the spiritual feeling dimension. The conclusions provide valuable policy enlightenment for assistance policy formulation and environmental governance, and can protect the ecological environment while improving public welfare, which is in line with the trend of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeMaterials and methodsResultsDiscussionThis study investigates the role of Public Service Motivation (PSM) in retaining highly skilled and qualified child welfare graduates within the public child welfare sector.Three entire cohorts of child welfare student social workers over three years (N = 125) in BSW and MSW child welfare programs at seven universities in a Southern state were surveyed to examine the effects of task self-efficacy achieved through the curriculum and public service motivation on retention intention among social work students specializing in child welfare practice at both the baccalaureate and master’s levels. Mediation analysis was conducted to estimate the indirect effect of self-efficacy on students’ retention intention.The self-efficacy of child welfare students, operationalized as their confidence in performing competencies, significantly influences their intention to remain in the field of child welfare. Furthermore, self-efficacy among child welfare students has a statistically significant effect on their PSM. PSM, in turn, significantly impacts their intention to persist in child welfare work.The findings indicate that PSM partially mediates the relationship between students” self-efficacy and their intent to remain in child welfare work, even when controlling for educational background. We recommend that child welfare agencies recognize and nurture workers” PSM by incorporating practices that promote PSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While bats are tremendously important to global ecosystems, they have been and continue to be threatened by loss of habitat, food, or roosts, pollution, bat diseases, hunting and killing. Some bat species have also been implicated in the transmission of infectious disease agents to humans. While One Health efforts have been ramped up recently to educate and protect human and bat health, such initiatives have been limited by lack of adequate data on the pathways to ensure their support. For instance, data on the role of bats in supporting different components of human welfare assets would be utilized as a stepping stone to champion conservation campaigns. Unfortunately, these data are limited and efforts to synthesize existing literature have majorly focused on few components human welfare leaving other important aspects. Methods: Here, we analyze benefits associated with bats in the context of welfare economics considering all the asset components. We surveyed scientific and gray literature platforms utilizing particular keywords. We then classified these values using integrated approaches to understand different values across human welfare assets of "health," "material and immaterial assets," "security or safety" and "social or cultural or spiritual relations". Results: We found 235 papers from different countries indicating that bats play fundamental roles in supporting human welfare. These benefits were more prevalent in Asia and Africa. In terms of the use of bats to support welfare assets, bats were majorly utilized to derive material and immaterial benefits (n = 115), e.g., food and income. This was followed by their use in addressing health challenges (n = 99), e.g., treatment of ailments. There was a similarity in the benefits across different regions and countries. Conclusion: These results indicate potential opportunities for strengthening bat conservation programs. We recommend more primary studies to enhance understanding of these benefits as well as their effectiveness in deriving the perceived outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, on any given day, about 45,000 children and youth aged 0–17 (about 1 per cent of Australian youth) are in the care of the state, often cared for through delegation‐funded child welfare organisations. Many of these children are in out‐of‐home care of such organisations for brief periods of time, but a substantial number remain in care until their mandatory emancipation. About 3600 youth a year are obliged to leave care at 18 years of age, due to child protection orders ending before their 18th birthday. Many advocates in the field, including former youth in out‐of‐home care represented in the CREATE Foundation, believe that this is much too young to be out on their own. Founded in 2016, Home Stretch is a national advocacy campaign to extend the leaving care age for young people in out‐of‐home care from 18 to 21 years in all Australian jurisdictions. Prior to the Home Stretch movement, no Australian state, territory or federal government (with the partial exception of the ACT) had indicated any action, interest or desire to extending its services to children in state care past 18 years. Yet, extended care in varying forms has been found recommended in various government enquiries over the past several decades. Seven years after the Home Stretch launch, extended care is now offered in all eight Australian jurisdictions, and at last count, over 4200 young people are in extended care arrangements to 21 years across the country. This is a remarkable social policy about face by the Government in a relatively short space of time. In this article, we describe the advocacy strategy employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research questions addressed in this study are: “Who supports basic income (BI) in Korea?” and “What type of BI do supporters endorse?” To understand the support for BI in detail two key factors were considered: job insecurity and the receipt of no‐strings cash benefits during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The types of BI were categorized based on regularity, individuality, and adequacy. A series of logistic regression analyses was conducted using nationally representative survey data from 2020. The results revealed that job insecurity and the receipt of no‐strings cash benefits during the pandemic were significantly associated with the support for BI. Additionally, the study explored significant correlates of the support for each feature of BI. Job insecurity and the receipt of no‐strings cash benefits were significantly associated with the regularity of BI but not with its individuality and adequacy. Interestingly, among the participants who supported universal BI, only 9% believed that BI should be regular, individual, and sufficient to cover the minimum cost of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind reversals resulting in southerly flow along the California coast are not well understood in terms of how aerosol and cloud characteristics change. This gap is addressed using airborne field measurements enhanced with data from spaceborne remote sensing (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), surface stations (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments), and models (Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System and Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System), with a focus on submicron and supermicron aerosol, as well as cloud microphysical variables: cloud droplet number concentration (Nd), cloud optical thickness (COT), and cloud droplet effective radius (re). Southerly flow coincided with higher values of submicron aerosol concentration (Na) and mass concentrations of species representative of fine-aerosol pollution (NO 3- and nss-SO 42-) as well as shipping and continental emissions (V, oxalate, NH 4+ , Ni, OC, and EC). Supermicron Na did not change; however, heightened levels of acidic species in southerly flow coincided with reduced Cl - : Na + , suggestive of Cl - depletion in salt particles. Clouds responded correspondingly in southerly flow, with more acidic cloud water and higher levels of similar species as in the aerosol phase (e.g., NO 3- , nss-SO 42- , NH 4+ , V), along with elevated values of Nd and COT and reduced re during campaigns with similar cloud liquid water paths. Case study flights help to visualize offshore pollution gradients and highlight the sensitivity of the results to the presence of widespread smoke coverage including how associated plumes have enhanced supermicron Na. These results have implications for aerosol–cloud interactions during wind reversals and have relevance for weather, public welfare, and aviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the relationship between multidimensional factors, such as environment, health status, behavior, social support, and the well-being of middle-aged and older adults. Methods: This study utilized data from 2 waves of the nationally representative Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging Survey Report (TLSA) conducted in 2015 and 2019. The TLSA assesses socioeconomic status, physical and health status, the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5 index), and social support. Data regarding the degree of digital development were obtained from the 2020 Township Digital Development Report. We applied a generalized estimating equation (GEE) to analyze the influencing factors. Results: This study included 4796 participants. Residing in areas with a higher degree of digital development, having a higher socioeconomic status, and experiencing better physical and mental health were significantly associated with well-being. Furthermore, emotional and attentive support mediated the association between physical and mental status and well-being. Conclusion: People's awareness of searching for and receiving social support and medical resources is important for enhancing their well-being. It is also crucial to pay attention to the living environment and maintain one's health status to promote well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a renewed interest in third sector organizations with hope for contributions to systems of new public governance and welfare services. This study is based on a survey to the local authorities in Sweden and aims to analyze how collaboration between public and third sector organizations occurs at the local level. A special focus for the study is idea-driven public partnerships (IOPs). The results indicate that collaboration mainly occurs outside of the core fields of welfare and also that the national level agreements set standards to be used in especially the larger local authorities who are more in need of formalized policies to handle the local relations. The institutionalized collaborative relations are diverse and mainly meant to promote a thriving third sector for its democratic values, but there are also certain welfare fields with less local remit such as sports, leisure time activities, and homelessness where NPOs are not crowded out by the public sector. Collaboration with IOPs are more common in larger local authorities and places with a larger proportion of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Based on CSS 2019 data, this article analyzes the impact of Basic Medical Insurance for Urban and Rural Residents (BMIUR) on perceived social equity of residents. Method: Using the CSS data of 2019, this article analyzes the influence of BMIUR on the perception of social equity of residents, on the basis of 2SLS model and mediating effect model. Results: We find that BMIUR has a significantly positive impact on the perception of social equity. That is to say, BMIUR can improve residents' evaluation of social equity and further promote the level of social equity, which makes residents more happiness. The conclusion remains valid after using robustness test and propensity score matching to conduct counterfactual reasoning. The discussion of mechanism indicates that the influence of BMIUR is mediated by enhancing social capital, improving satisfaction of income distribution and reducing self-paid medical expenses. This study also finds that the influence of BMIUR is more obvious in the low-income, low-skilled and mid-west groups. Conclusion: The reform of the medical security system should be regarded as a foothold for improving people's well-being and promoting social equity; Expanding people's social capital through multiple channels and improving income distribution mechanisms; Strengthen vocational skills training, especially to provide more public services and social security for low-income groups, low-skilled groups, and groups in the western region of China, in order to improve the welfare and policy effectiveness of China's social security reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the role of Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMK) in improving the economy of Pegat Bukur Village in Berau Regency. BUMK is a legal entity established by the village to manage business and productivity to improve the welfare of the village community. This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach. The focus of the research is to identify and analyze the BUMK program in managing the potential of Pegat Bukur Village, analyze the role of BUMK in improving the village economy, and develop a model for the development of BUMK Batu Bual Sejahtera. The results of the study show that the Batu Bual Sejahtera BUMK in Pegat Bukur Village has a significant role in improving the village economy. BUMK Batu Bual Sejahtera is able to take advantage of the potential of the village into 17 business units. Through various business units that have been formed, BUMK Batu Bual Sejahtera is able to play a role in increasing community income, opening new jobs and reducing unemployment, helping the village financial sector with the potential for village original income, and community involvement in village development. BUMK also has an impact by increasing people's income, reducing the unemployment rate and independence of Kampung Pegat Bukur. The development of BUMK Batu Bual Sejahtera uses a development model with a Pentahelix actor approach where there are governments, communities, companies (Business), academics and the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across much of the South, digital technologies are increasingly central to the expansion of state social protection systems. Supported by major development agencies, many of these distributive technologies are developed and implemented by financial technology companies with the specific aim of accelerating financial inclusion. While researchers have documented the influence of these financial actors and logics over social policy, we know less about how these interventions are transforming the experience of receiving social protection. Based on qualitative and observational research with social grant recipients in South Africa, this research demonstrates how digital and financial technologies produce confusion, informational opacities and new forms of exclusion among grant recipients. It suggests that the increasingly prominent role of financial technologies in the delivery of social protection undermines state capacity and further entrenches the influence of neoliberal logics over social policy. Finally, the article suggests that these technologies may be transforming the nature of social citizenship in South Africa, undermining efforts to advance universal and redistributive social protection policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State socialist Vietnam formally embraced market reforms in the mid-1980s, and since then advancing marketization under the undisrupted rule of the Communist party. As marketization deepens, the party state's legitimacy continues to rest on socialist practices of governance, structures of feeling and visions of a class-free society. This political-economic context gives rise to struggles between market and socialist logics over the social question in an economy that now powers global production with raw material and cheap labour, much of which is migrant labour. This article highlights these struggles through an analysis of the public debates around the regulation of overtime work during the revision of the 1994 Labour Code by Vietnam's National Assembly in 2019, which foresees limiting it to ensure workers' well-being. While parties to the debate position themselves as pro-business or pro-workers, they all evoke socialist narratives of nation-building, solidarity and care while emphasizing the market ethos of competitiveness and productivity. In arguing for removing the limit, the pro-business camp highlights the workers' responsibility to contribute to the competitiveness of the country and their employers by working overtime to make up for their low productivity. In contrast, the pro-worker camp pleads for limiting overtime work on the grounds of workers' poor health and difficult family lives, portraying their sufferings as deserving compassion. Despite these contrasting justifications, both arguments are characterized by the assumption of self-responsibility as the mainstay of well-being and failure to acknowledge the deeper societal problems posed by the commodification of labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does crisis open-up – or foreclose – new possibilities for alternative economic futures? This article explores the possibilities afforded by crisis for reconfiguring redistribution and welfare in contexts where access to income via work is increasingly tenuous. To do so, we turn to South Africa, where we examine the unfolding political possibilities and support for more generous and universal forms of social protection and (re)distribution during and after the Covid pandemic. In particular, we analyse visions of alternative redistributory policies both from above and from below, via original empirical data on the views of low-income inner-city residents in Johannesburg; interviews with government actors and civil society activists; and a close reading of media and policy discourse around social protection between 2020 and 2023. We argue while framing Covid as a crisis forced the state to embrace less workerist approaches to social protection, the very fact that new policies were rooted in an emergency context may have blunted more radical redistributory visions. This argument is underscored by the vacillations and internal contradictions of the South African government's expansion of its social grant system, as well as by the delimited scope of grassroots demands for more generous or unconditional economic support during and after the pandemic. We make the case that 'crisis temporalities' – and the temporality of work and welfare more generally – is critical to understanding the lack of political will and popular demands for more radical forms of redistribution and economic security beyond work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how livelihood security is co-produced through multiple strategies in Southeast Asia's agrarian transformation, by considering the case of Cambodian migrant workers, who cobble together their livelihood through a combination of land, labour and debt. These workers leverage small landholdings as collateral to take on debts to finance migration to Thailand, where low wages and insecure employment inhibit their ability to repay such debts. The traditional social welfare role of land as a safety net is superseded by the use of land as collateral to access microfinance loans, which are also commonly used to respond to livelihood shocks. In this financialised context, social protection schemes insufficiently address the combined livelihood risks that are assumed by workers and do not provide meaningful protection to workers. Drawing on field interviews, we argue that these various supposed sources of livelihood security rather act to increase precarity for workers, by exacerbating labour discipline and dependence on employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnographic insights into people's working lives can help us envision social policy to build dignified workspaces. This article explores the interlinkages between work and social protection, by drawing attention to two dimensions of pheriwale's everyday working lives: first, how they relate to their work, and second, how they are situated within the Indian welfare context. Pheriwale are a group of traders in Delhi, India, who collect and sell secondhand/used-clothes. Like much of the Indian workforce, pheriwale's work is classified as 'informal', since they remain outside social security tied to formal employment, they largely rely on irregular flow of income and primarily belong to the lower-caste groups. Low-income groups in India are entitled to various welfare schemes; however, accessing and receiving these welfare benefits may not always be consistent or dependable. In Delhi, pheriwale have been trading used/secondhand clothes for almost a century and they are one of the visibly women-dominated trading groups in the city. This article builds on four months of qualitative fieldwork at pheriwale's marketplace in West Delhi, between 2017 and 2019. By following pheriwale's work experiences through the conceptual lens of relational autonomy, this study highlights two key findings. First, due to the nature of self-employment, pheriwale shared how they have relative control of time and energy in their working routines. Second, in the face of an unreliable welfare state, pheriwale rely on building familial means of social protection to sustain lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue explores the intertwining reconfigurations of labour and welfare in the Global South by bringing together eight empirical studies of different national and transnational contexts and three commentaries. It asks how Global South people and states alike have come to prioritize market logics as guiding principles for welfare systems, moving away from collective risk-pooling towards individual responsibility, and how this reorientation is connected to the restructuring of labour. In this introduction to the special issue, we discuss the genealogies of the social question and review the growing academic discussion on the changing landscape of welfare in the Global South. We then underscore how the contemporary social question is predominantly framed in the terms of people's capacity for market participation in the specific empirical contexts discussed by our authors. The framing of the social question as such, and the accompanying solutions to it, we argue, disregards politics, political economy and social justice at the cost of the more urgent social question that confronts the increasingly asymmetrical power relations between labour and capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between labour and social policy is at the heart of the social question. Scholars often treat this link as either a causal relation out there or a conceptual connection in policy makers' minds. This article examines its sociotechnical materiality instead. It follows anthropologists who ask how bureaucrats practice policy and scholars of science and technology studies who explore how social and technical aspects are interrelated in knowledge processes. China studies has suggested that the minimum livelihood guarantee (dibao) was originally designed as a market-oriented response to transformations of labour such as mass layoffs, peasant proletarianisation and associated unrest but later revamped to only combat extreme poverty. Ethnographic insights into dibao policy in a village in Sichuan show how its designed links to labour were erased and transformed through different methods of bureaucratic targeting, as well as expectations about the bureaucratic ability to know. For a time, dibao was even integrated into alternative rural development projects aimed at decommodification. Studying social policy as a knowledge process uncovers how its sociotechnical links to labour reconfigure it as an answer to the social question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical link between labour and welfare is increasingly considered in the transnational register, largely because labour mobilities demand a rethinking of nation-based social protection systems. Transnational labour mobilities also illuminate other dimensions of boundary-crossing, including formality–informality, citizenship–non-citizenship and production–reproduction. These additional considerations call for going beyond the problem of transnational welfare access. We argue that the prism of social reproduction enables such a rethinking of the labour–welfare relationship. In this article, we conceptualise an expanded notion of welfare as flourishing social reproduction, in contradistinction to the principle of welfare deriving primarily from paid work and labour market participation. We apply this theorisation of welfare to our qualitative case study of the experiences and interests of Polish and Ukrainian migrant workers in Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom employed in care provision, food production and housing construction sectors. In the geopolitical setting of uneven and combined Europe, embodying high levels of differentiation together with advanced transnational social protection, we explore the role of differentiation of migrants in labour markets (along work, migration and citizenship axes) and the extent to which transnational mobility facilitates the improvement of social reproduction. While the low-waged labour of Polish and Ukrainian men and women working in care, food and housing furnishes their own and local workers' social reproduction needs, we find that migrant workers' welfare as flourishing social reproduction remains wanting, even for those with already privileged access to the current 'gold-standard' transnational social protection offered by the EUs freedoms of movement framework. Welfare remains centred on individualised paid work logic, leaving a vast range of needs unmet and work and workers excluded, bearing implications for prevalent transnational social protection efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revise a result stating that there is a positive relationship between contributions and welfare in a public good provision game under price uncertainty (Gradstein et al. Soc Choice Welf 10(4):371–382, 1993). The authors state in Proposition 3 that welfare decreases when price uncertainty induces a reduction in private contributions. By contrast, we show that, under certain conditions, a reduction in contributions can be associated with an improvement in consumer welfare. This result is important because public policy regarding the provision of public goods is often based on indicators such as citizen participation, which, as this note shows, may constitute a misleading signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of stress during pregnancy can have lasting effects on maternal and offspring health, which disproportionately impacts families facing financial strain, systemic racism, and other forms of social oppression. Developing ways to monitor daily life stress during pregnancy is important for reducing stress-related health disparities. We evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of using mobile health (mHealth) technology (i.e., wearable biosensors, smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment) to measure prenatal stress in daily life. Fifty pregnant women (67% receiving public assistance; 70% Black, 6% Multiracial, 24% White) completed 10 days of ambulatory assessment, in which they answered smartphone-based surveys six times a day and wore a chest-band device (movisens EcgMove4) to monitor their heart rate, heart rate variability, and activity level. Feasibility and acceptability were evaluated using behavioral meta-data and participant feedback. Findings supported the feasibility and acceptability of mHealth methods: Participants answered approximately 75% of the surveys per day and wore the device for approximately 10 hours per day. Perceived burden was low. Notably, participants with higher reported stressors and financial strain reported lower burden associated with the protocol than participants with fewer life stressors, highlighting the feasibility of mHealth technology for monitoring prenatal stress among pregnant populations living with higher levels of contextual stressors. Findings support the use of mHealth technology to measure prenatal stress in real-world, daily life settings, which shows promise for informing scalable, technology-assisted interventions that may help to reduce health disparities by enabling more accessible and comprehensive care during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One in four South African women will experience intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime, potentially increasing their biological stress. In South Africa, limited IPV and stress research has utilized multiple timepoints or examined modifying factors. Cash transfers (CTs) are associated with reduced IPV and stress and may be an intervention target. Aims: We used data-driven methods to identify longitudinal IPV trajectory groups among South African adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), estimate each group's association with stress, and assess modification by a CT. Methods: A total of 2,183 South African AGYW ages 13 to 24 years from the HIV Prevention Trials Network 068 study were randomized to a CT or control group. Physical IPV was measured five times (2011–2017), and stress was captured once (2018–2019). Stress measures included the Cohen Stress Scale and stress biomarkers (C-reactive protein (CRP), cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1)). Group-based trajectory modeling identified IPV trajectories; ordinal logistic regression estimated the association between trajectory group and stress. Results: A two-group quadratic trajectory model was identified (higher trajectory group = 26.7% of AGYW; lower trajectory group = 73.3%). In both groups, the probability of IPV increased from ages 13 to 17 years before declining in early adulthood. However, the higher group's probability peaked later and declined gradually. The higher trajectory group was associated with an increased odds of elevated CRP (OR: 1.41, 95% CI [1.11, 1.80]), but not with other stress measures. The CT modified the relationship with CMV: a positive association was observed among the usual care arm (OR: 1.59, 95% CI [1.11, 2.28]) but not the CT arm (OR: 0.85, 95% CI [0.61, 1.19]). Conclusions: Sustained IPV risk during adolescence was associated with elevated CRP in young adulthood. The relationship between IPV and elevated CMV was attenuated among those receiving a CT, suggesting that CTs could possibly reduce biological stress due to IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical Social Policy (CSP) proudly launches the Journal's Living Activism Section. This co-produced introduction to the Living Activism section of CSP, includes the ongoing impact of the CSP Solidarity Fund, lessons from the 2023 CSP gathering 'Learning with Solidarity Funded Activist Groups' and an account by the Solidarity Funded activists Women and Digital Inclusion (WODIN). The Living Activism section of CSP is rooted in and continues to grow in the soil of activist's situated knowledge. What is clear is that the 'critical' of critical social policy happens at the grassroots. The aims of the Living Activism section of CSP are focussed on drawing out the learning from the lived experience of activist work, including the inherent challenges, tensions and victories of resistance and transformation for social justice. The Living Activism section of CSP is an integral part of decolonisation. We are clear that to decolonise does not mean to diversify or increase variety, rather it is a questioning and taking action to redress which actors are privileged and placed at the centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government's recent announcement that the highly controversial Work Capability Assessment (WCA) will likely be abolished leaves questions of what precisely will emerge in its place. This commentary revisits a construct central to the attempted justification of the WCA, that of 'common health problems', which may well continue to leave a legacy in delineating purported 'deserving' and 'undeserving' impairment, ill-health and related disability. After outlining the politically strategic application of this construct in social policy, concerns are raised for long Covid. In particular, the risk of long Covid following the trajectory of another post-infection diagnosis, myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome, is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resistance to housing and welfare reforms on economic, 'practical' grounds was shattered by the covid-19 pandemic, which demonstrated that where there is a will there is a way when it comes to providing housing. Despite a purported 'right' to adequate housing, many people in the UK face profound challenges accessing stable accommodation. Drawing from a biographical-narrative study, this article details experiences of men who have the right to adequate housing denied and thus experience housing insecurity. Subsequently, it explores how such insecurity exacerbates pre-existing mental health problems. The core argument of the article is that welfare reforms produced the sense of a constant threat of homelessness and destitution for the 17 male participants in the study who claimed sickness benefits. This sense of constant threat manifested itself through (a) the production of present homelessness at the time of the research and (b) and underlying anxiety, fear and threat of homelessness. The article contends that the UK social security system perpetuates the structural and emotional drivers of mental distress, creating a deleterious cycle of poverty, insecurity and ill-health, concluding that the provision of stable housing is an upstream intervention to improve mental health and reduce social exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Already in the 1980s, Black feminists contributed to political debates on the Dutch welfare state. Their intersectional analyses of social citizenship were directly based on the lived experiences of Black women in the Netherlands. However, then and now, these contributions have been largely overlooked in both Dutch politics and welfare state research, leading to social policies that do not correspond with the lived experiences of all women. Through archive research, and using the analytical framework of political claims-making, this article sheds light on the social rights claims of the Surinamese-Dutch feminist organization Ashanti that was active between 1980 and 1987. Their Black feminist perspectives provide important insights into the underlying mechanisms of in- and exclusion of the Dutch welfare state, from the standpoints of Dutch citizens and families that did not necessarily fit the picture of the "imagined citizens" for whom the Dutch welfare state was built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society organizations (CSOs) that deliver services on behalf of public authorities operate under increased competitive and standardization pressures. Given this background, many CSOs experience a need to justify why public authorities should continue to fund them. In this article, we underpin and develop a new understanding of added value, proposing it to be the perceived social value of services or programs provided by a CSO that differs positively from the perceived social value of services or programs provided by other organizations and can be identified as functional, altruistic, emotional, or social. We elaborate on these four forms of added value and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The context of this paper is family situations where young people are experiencing significant behavioural and emotional problems. Based on a qualitative study, it offers an empirical and theoretical contribution to the understanding of family‐related factors that promote or hinder behaviour change. Data were collected through face‐to‐face, semi‐structured group interviews with nine families (28 participants), all of them mandatory recipients of child welfare services in Croatia. Thematic analysis comprised primary coding designed to elicit information about individual family members' capacity for change and secondary coding of family‐level phenomena. The results indicated 10 phenomena that were judged to represent factors that helped or hindered change. The discussion section suggests three broad categories of capacity to change at family level (Goals and Priorities; Problem solving dynamics; and Development of role relationship). This analysis is offered as the basis for an examination of the concept of family capacity for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families from migrant backgrounds are found to generally underutilize mainstream child and family support services and recourse more to their social networks and community‐based actors for support. This article explores the role of migrant community resource persons (CRPs). Drawing on the novel concept of welfare bricolage, the study sought to unravel CRPs' take on family support and their position in the family support landscape beyond the dominant framing as instrumental intermediaries. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 27 CRPs in Flanders, Belgium, to which thematic analysis was applied. This thematic analysis was guided by key principles of welfare bricolage. The findings add to the existing knowledge that CRPs creatively and flexibly shape community‐based family support outside and independent of the predefined, mainstream pathways. CRPs seek to strengthen families and their communities by purposefully assembling and deploying a wide range of resources from various support systems. The findings expand the notion of family support, what it is and who provides it, and thus provide an impetus to reconsider child and family social work in superdiverse settings. This article therefore informs government authorities and formal and informal actors working to support family welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]