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The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5) indicates that child stunting in India was severe and has been deteriorating since 2015. This trend could have worsened since the pandemic and the stringent lockdowns meant to contain it. There has been an acute increase in impoverishment as governmental food policies have further exacerbated rather than mitigated inequalities. Families eligible under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, have been provided with double food grain rations during two waves of the pandemic. However, nearly 42% of India’s population without these ration cards have been largely excluded from additional food relief from the central government. Simultaneously, India’s food grain stocks in government granaries have accumulated to their all-time peak with 2 years of bumper harvests. Therefore, in light of the acute distress faced by marginalised communities due to the pandemic, this article analyses the availability of adequate food grain stocks and contends that the time is opportune for the universal expansion of the public distribution system.

Abstract This article interprets emerging scholarship on rental housing platforms—particularly the most well-known and used short- and long-term rental housing platforms—and considers how the technological processes connecting both short-term and long-term rentals to the platform economy are transforming cities. It discusses potential policy approaches to more equitably distribute benefits and mitigate harms. We argue that information technology is not value-neutral. While rental housing platforms may empower data analysts and certain market participants, the same cannot be said for all users or society at large. First, user-generated online data frequently reproduce the systematic biases found in traditional sources of housing information. Evidence is growing that the information broadcasting potential of rental housing platforms may increase rather than mitigate sociospatial inequality. Second, technology platforms curate and shape information according to their creators’ own financial and political interests. The question of which data—and people—are hidden or marginalized on these platforms is just as important as the question of which data are available. Finally, important differences in benefits and drawbacks exist between short-term and long-term rental housing platforms, but are underexplored in the literature: this article unpacks these differences and proposes policy recommendations. Policy and practice recommendations As rental housing technologies upend traditional market processes in favor of platform oligopolies, policymakers must reorient these processes toward the public good. Long-term and short-term rental platforms offer different market benefits and drawbacks, but the latter in particular requires proactive regulation to mitigate harm. At a minimum, policymakers must require that short-term rental platforms provide the information necessary for cities to enforce current, let alone new, housing regulations. Practitioners should be cautious inferring market conditions from rental housing platform data, due to difficult-to-measure sampling biases.

This paper studies sister city relations between the EU and Turkey. Town twinning agreements have been used as a means to promote EU values. Over the past decades, town twinning agreements have seen an enormous widening. Mindful of the deterioration of EU-Turkey relations, the paper suggests three future scenarios for the development of EU-Turkey town twinning relations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the single deadliest acute public health crisis in American history, and these deaths are a salient threat to the functioning of family and social networks. We assess counts and rates of parental and other in-home caregiver loss using death data published by the CDC and household composition data available through the American Community Survey's Public Use Microdata Sample. We find that, through mid-November 2021, more than 167,000 children under the age of 18 lost a parent or other in-home caregiver to COVID-19. Most of these children are under the age of 13 and, though this experience is universal across racial and ethnic groups, ages, and states, racial and ethnic disparities in caregiver loss exceed already high disparities in COVID-19 deaths. We summarize literature on the impacts of parental loss and, after reviewing potential interventions for these children, offer recommendations to policymakers and practitioners.

One year after the European work–life balance directive, which recognises the need for work–family policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parents’ work–life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretical frameworks hold in this new environment with combined old and new policy frameworks. We are also challenged to understand the nuanced ways in which the first lockdown affects the combination of paid work and care. We address both of these issues, providing a cross-sectional comparative analysis of highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work–life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland and the Netherlands. Our findings show that highly educated Finnish mothers have more difficulty combining work and care during the first lockdown than Dutch mothers. The absence of state-provided care during the lockdown creates greater difficulty for full-time working Finnish mothers in a dual-earner/state-carer system than an absence of such care in the Dutch one-and-a-half earner system, where most mothers work part time. Further analyses suggest variation in part-time and (nearly) full-time hours mitigates the work–life balance experiences of highly educated Dutch mothers. Additional factors explaining cross-country variation or similarities include the presence of young children and the presence of a partner. We discuss these findings in light of current theoretical frameworks and highlight avenues for future research. acceptedVersion

With the growing availability of digital administrative data and the recent advances in machine learning, the use of predictive algorithms in the delivery of labour market policy is becoming more prevalent. In public employment services (PES), predictive algorithms are used to support the classification of jobseekers based on their risk of long-term unemployment (profiling), the selection of beneficial active labour market programs (targeting), and the matching of jobseekers to suitable job opportunities (matching). In this chapter, we offer a conceptual introduction to the applications of predictive algorithms for the different functions PES have to fulfil and review the history of their use up to the current state of the practice. In addition, we discuss two issues that are inherent to the use of predictive algorithms: algorithmic fairness concerns and the importance of considering how caseworkers will interact with algorithmic systems and make decisions based on their predictions.

This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to investigate how intra-year caregiver work-hours volatility is related to child poverty, measured through both the official poverty measure (OPM) and the supplemental poverty measure (SPM). I further assess varying degrees of buffering effects of cash benefits, in-kind benefits, and tax transfers on income in the context of work-hours volatility. Results indicate that Black and Hispanic children, as well as those living with unpartnered single mothers, faced substantially higher variability in household market hours worked. Hispanic children experienced not only greater volatility in their caregivers’ work hours, but also higher poverty levels, even after taking government programs into account. I find that a 10 percent increase in intra-year hours volatility is linked to roughly a 2 percent and 1.6 percent increase in OPM and SPM child poverty, respectively. In-kind benefits are more effective in buffering household income declines resulting from unstable caregiver work hours, followed by tax transfers and cash benefits, which each offer somewhat less of a buffering effect. The effectiveness of near-cash benefits is particularly salient among Black children and children of unpartnered single mothers. Hispanic children also benefited from these transfers’ compensating effects, but to a lesser degree. These results provide new evidence to inform public policy discussions surrounding the best ways to help socioeconomically disadvantaged families to retain benefits and smooth their income in the face of frequent variation in work hours and, thus, earnings.

Gli interventi rivolti alle minoranze rom e sinta sono fortemente marcati da una scarsa conoscenza dei gruppi in questione, se non dalla presenza di informa-zioni errate, di stereotipi radicati e di forti pregiudizi. Non entreremo qui nel merito della fenomenologia degli stereotipi diffusi nella popolazione italiana o fra gli operatori sociali. Cercheremo semmai di definire alcuni caratteri di questi gruppi la cui conoscenza è essenziale ai fini di una corretta programmazione sociale. Procederemo con estrema sintesi e per punti. 1. Il mistero rom: la varietà. 2. La condizione giuridica. 3. I conflitti locali con la società maggioritaria. 4. Il razzismo e la discriminazione. 4.1. Criminalizzazione e criminalità. 5. La debole rappresentanza e la frammentazione degli interventi. 6. La scolarizzazione. 7. Avvertenze di metodo nella costruzione di politiche per i gruppi zigani. 8. (False) Controversie in vista della programmazione di interventi

Labor market structures and job characteristics have changed in the United States over the last few decades – often making work more unpredictable. Employment instability, or job churning, may have distinct consequences for households’ economic well-being. Meanwhile, American social policies have shifted from cash-based benefits toward in-kind and work-conditioned programs. Yet, we know little about how social programs buffer the financial hardships imposed by economic shocks due to job churning. This paper harnesses novel data collected at 3-month intervals to study the associations between household members’ employment trajectories and (1) household income packages, (2) poverty status, and (3) material hardships, paying particular attention to whether government benefit receipt buffers against the adverse financial consequences of unstable employment. We find that consistent unemployment is most strongly associated with low income and poverty but not material hardship. Unstably employed households have almost twice the likelihood of experiencing all domains of material hardship relative to consistently employed households. Our results also suggest that cash transfers buffer against the negative impact of persistent unemployment, while in-kind transfers buffer against the impacts of unstable employment. Altogether, the results highlight the roles and extent of impacts of cash, in-kind benefits, and tax system, which can inform future policy recommendations in an age of high levels of economic inequality.

The objective of the paper is to explain a case of social innovation in mental health services, moving from a psychiatric hospital, classically a total institution, to a healthier, diversified, and personalized care service. The research was conducted by a participant observation method, on the long run, from 1996 to 2006 in Milan (Italy): more than 25 meeting and 40 semi structured interviews were conducted. It looks at a case of ‘social entrepreneurship’ in Milan which contributes to the transformation of a large, closed psychiatric hospital into a more open and therapeutic environment for mental health services users, as well as for ordinary citizens of the whole metropolitan area. Most of the literature correctly emphasize governance and administrative capability as crucial variable for satisfaction of needs, recognition of capability and sustainability of projects. The paper shows the relevance of exogenous resources, non-local mobilisations, and loosely connected social movement networks to enact communicative spaces and challenge closed and inertial policy communities.

La problématique de cet article est relative à la difficulté des penser et mettre en œuvre des politiques sociales différentiés, par rapport à la multiplicité des situations et compétences des personnes dites Roms dans les villes de l’Europe occidentale. Le cas des innovations dans les politiques locales italienne sera mobilisé pour développer des réflexions valables aussi en France pour le travail social et les politiques locales en directions de ces groupes. 1. Une représentation homogénéisant. 2. La vulnérabilité des groupes Roms. 3. Création et mise en place de politiques à l'endroit des groupes tziganes : questions méthodologiques et de design. 4. La variété d’instruments comme principe de design. 5. (Fausses) Controverses en vue de la programmation d'interventions sociales. 6. Construction du consensus, volonté politique et formes de médiation. 7. L’action collective des Roms comme levier de l’action publique locale

After a period of general fervour for social capital, civil society and NGOs’ involvement, current literature is more cautious, trying to test the outcomes of networks’ participation on the quality of democracy. Third Sector political capabilities for voice, negotiation, lobbying and campaigning are very important variables. The article focuses on the formation of these capabilities in a contentious process of policymaking. Starting on a case study in the Lombardy Region, it shows how conditions, mechanisms and processes of Third Sector engagements play a role in the learning and gradual change of political capabilities. Particularly, it stresses the relevance of deliberative arenas for third sector coordination and reflexivity. Looking at the political outcomes in the implementation of the Social Care Reform at the Regional level, the article formulates a hypothesis about the policy dependency of Third Sector legitimate power.

The idea of violent uncertainty was first introduced in the New England Journal of Medicine (Grace et al., 2018) making claims about the deleterious impacts of insecure immigration status on the health of migrants. Policies of uncertainty are said to directly and indirectly create harm by impacting on individual's health via detention and public degradation and undermining healthcare services. We offer original empirical evidence indicating an association with uncertainty, in the form of asylum waiting times, on refugees' self-reported health. We devise four hypotheses that: long waiting time for asylum decisions increases likelihood of self-reported health problems and the effect persists overtime, that female refugees report higher levels of health problems resulting from uncertainty and religion moderates the association between health and uncertainty. We use data from the UK longitudinal Survey of New Refugees wherein all new refugees were sent a baseline survey immediately after receiving refugee status and then follow-up surveys 21 months later. The findings show longer asylum waiting time is associated with poor health. Female refugees were more likely to report poor emotional and physical health. The negative effect of asylum waiting time on emotional health persists 21 months post settlement and is worse for women. The hypothesisabout the ameliorating effect of religion is only partially supported. Our findings supports existing theory and qualitative studies about the deleterious effects of using policies of waiting-related uncertainty for managing migration. Given the wide use of such policies in the Global North, our work is suggestive of likely generalisability. Thus, countries with large refugee populations might want to consider our findings when developing asylum policy which minimises impact on refugee health.

This article describes a qualitative study designed to explore both how community practice social workers identify professionally and to examine their view towards professional regulation. Thirty-five MSW-level social workers in a large metropolitan region who self-identified as community practice social worker participated in in-depth interviews. The respondents shared their views regarding professional identification as social workers and the impact of professional identity on their work as community practitioners. Approximately half of the respondents indicated that they only sometimes or never identify as a social worker. The respondents were generally critical of the licensing burden placed upon them as community practice social workers.

The kuluna phenomenon is a social pathology having many causal factors in multidimensional systems such as the microsystem and the macrosystem. So the changing process requires first the prevention by elaborating a public policy with a multisector impact. But many times reaction is applied instead of preventing to avoid gangsters among young in the city of Kinshasa by the public managers. In this article, we give some prerequisites for the elaboration of a multisector public policy and the praxis, concerning legal authorities and the Christian social workers through the churches and other Christian social organizations which are called to work in the sense of a contextual mission, and deal with spiritually in addition to the psycho-sociological questions. The findings of this research show evidence in the hyper military environment of Kinshasa city and the Kuluna phenomenon. Demilitarization of the city is imperative

In 2018, EU Member States adopted a 17-item scale to measure child deprivation and monitor progress in their fight against child poverty. This indicator will be collected in future each three years via an ad hoc module of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Previous research has shown how deprivation measures can be implemented more efficiently and with minimal information loss using adaptive testing, at least in the context of a single country. This paper examines the scope to implement the adaptive approach in a multi-national context with wide variations in deprivation levels and potentially in cultural preferences for consumption. The paper shows that the adaptive approach works effectively in this context. Time savings of around 40 per cent can be achieved with very minimal information losses both at the EU level and at the level of each individual country. Time savings are much greater in countries with lower deprivation. The adaptive approach may therefore offer particular advantages in a multi-national context as it can provide a consistent measure for all participating countries while targeting survey time and resources where they are most needed.

Time spent waiting for services represents unproductive time imposed on individuals trying to fulfill basic needs. While qualitative and ethnographic work has found that income disparities also translate into disparities in time kept waiting for services, little evidence exists to confirm the scale and extent of socioeconomic differences in waiting time. We use time diary data from the nationally representative American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to estimate the difference between high- and low-income people in time spent waiting for basic services. We find that, relative to high-income people, low-income people are 3 percentage-points more likely to spend time waiting on an average day and their waiting spells are 12 minutes longer on average. The income gap in waiting time cannot be explained by differences in family obligations, demographics, education, work time, or travel time. Further, we find that high-income Black people experience the same higher average wait times as low-income people regardless of race. Our results suggest socioeconomic and racial inequalities in neighborhood quality, work schedule flexibility, and access to services exacerbate inequality in daily quality of life and the availability of productive time.

In response to increasing concerns about jail and prison overcrowding, many officials and legislatures across the U.S. have undertaken different efforts aimed at reducing the prison population, such as reduced sentence lengths and early release of prisoners. Thus, there is currently a high degree of public interest regarding how these changes in policy might affect recidivism rates of released offenders. When considering the research on the relationship between incarceration and recidivism, many studies compare custodial with non-custodial sentences on recidivism, while fewer examine the impact of varying incarceration lengths on recidivism. This article provides a review of the research on the latter. While some findings suggest that longer sentences may provide additional deterrent benefit in the aggregate, this effect is not always consistent or strong. In addition, many of the studies had null effects, while none of the studies suggested a strong aggregate-level criminogenic effect. Overall, the literature on the impact of incarceration on recidivism is admittedly limited by important methodological considerations, resulting in inconsistency of findings across studies. In addition, it appears that deterrent effects of incarceration may vary slightly for different offenders. Ultimately, the effect of incarceration length on recidivism appears too heterogenous to be able to draw universal conclusions. We argue that a deepened understanding of the causal mechanisms at play is needed to reliably and accurately inform policy.

Many states expanded their Medicaid programs to low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These expansions increased Medicaid coverage among low-income parents and their children. Whether these improvements in coverage and healthcare use lead to better health outcomes for parents and their children remains unanswered. We used longitudinal data on a large, nationally representative cohort of elementary-aged children from low-income households from 2010-2016. Using a difference-in-differences approach in state Medicaid policy decisions, we estimated the effect of the ACA Medicaid expansions on parent and child health. We found that parents’ self-reported health status improved significantly post-expansion in states that expanded Medicaid through the ACA by 4 percentage points (p < 0.05), a 4.7% improvement. We found no significant changes in children’s utilization of routine doctor visits or parents’ assessment of their children’s health status. We observed modest decreases in children’s body mass index (BMI) of about 2% (p < 0.05), especially for girls.

This paper investigates heterogeneity of preferences for disability services within the theoretical framework of consumption values. We conducted interviews with people with a disability and disability service providers to develop survey items, then conducted a survey with 2000 adult Australian residents who either had a disability or were carers of a person with a disability. After conducting descriptive analyses and data-driven market segmentation, findings revealed that, at the aggregate level, basic or functional benefits of disability services are most important. However, when accounting for heterogeneity, very distinct benefit patterns emerge, pointing to the substantial potential for improving disability services by catering to distinct market segment needs. These insights have the potential to improve disability service provision, thus maximally harvesting the opportunities from disability service models that now often include commercial providers, and enabling people with disabilities to make optimal choices in relation to both services and providers.

On March 23, 2020, the Indian government announced a national lockdown, barely giving a four-notice to a country of 1.3 billion people. What unfolded next was a humanitarian crisis, including deaths caused by the lockdown. The Indian government has been in denial about these deaths and the data on them. In this article, we describe the motivation, process, and details of our attempt to gather data on the human costs of the lockdown. Using media reports, we recorded a total of 989 deaths under 11 categories from March-July 2020. These deaths highlight the devastating consequences of a harsh and sudden lockdown on the vulnerable sections. They also underscore the need for strong social security efforts to reduce the aftereffects of the lockdown and the pandemic.

This research builds upon the previous publications claiming that the male sex population and both sex individuals of advanced age are more susceptible to COVID-19’s risks. Relations between sex and age gradients are explored analytically based upon the proposed log-polynomial regression model of COVID-19 mortality. This model enables predicting mortality risk at any arbitrary age, as well as the derivation of several useful secondary metrics: • Sex differential: a ratio of male-to-female death risks for a given age group. • Age parity: age at which both sexes have an equal vulnerability. • Age lag: the number of years to subtract from a male’s age to match a female’s death risk. • Male equal risk age: male’s age at which male’s odds of dying from COVID-19 will equate female’s given the cutoff age. These metrics allow solving such practical problems as, e.g., prioritizing vaccine based on COVID-19 mortality risk associated with sex and age. Modeling techniques, refined in the paper, are by no means unique to COVID-19 and would apply to analyses of other diseases.

India’s national lockdown in 2020, in response to the Covid-19 crisis, was one of the harshest in the world. Multiple household surveys indicate that the lockdown and the economic recession that followed led to a severe nutrition crisis. Food deprivation was most intense during the national lockdown but continued throughout the year. Relief measures helped, but they compensated for just a fraction of people’s income losses, even among poor households. It is doubtful that employment, income and nutrition among informal-sector workers and their families ever regained their pre-lockdown levels before a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic hit the country in early 2021. The Indian government’s failure to put in place more effective relief measures is a serious denial of people’s right to food. With relief measures off the table in 2021, at the time of writing, there is a serious danger of another wave of intense food deprivation. [This paper was prepared for the Centre for Health Equity, Law and Policy (C-HELP).]

This paper applies improved household income data to reevaluate the levels, trends, composition, and role of social policy in extreme child poverty in the U.S. from 1997-2015. Unlike prior research, we correct for the underreporting of means-tested transfers and incorporate the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). Doing so reduces the share of children below $2 per day from about 1.8% to 0.1%. That said, we acknowledge use of survey data omits the estimated 1.3 million homeless children in 2014-2015. We find that three different measures of extreme child poverty have declined since 1997. Unlike prior literature’s focus on single motherhood, citizenship status is the more consequential characteristic. Between 58-73% of children in extreme poverty live in households headed by non-citizens. Simulations granting them access to the median SNAP benefit reduce their extreme poverty substantially. Two-way fixed effects models show that higher state-level generosity and take up of SNAP and TANF significantly reduce extreme poverty. Unlike prior research’s focus on the decline of TANF, we show SNAP has grown in generosity and take-up. In turn, changes to social policy since 1997 have probably had offsetting effects on extreme child poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed employment situations for workers everywhere. This is especially true among people with disabilities and chronic health conditions who face greater risks in contracting COVID-19 and experience larger disadvantages within the labor market. Drawing from original data gathered through a national online survey (N= 1,027) and integrated set of virtual interviews (N= 50) with Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions, our findings show that although the pandemic has not directly led to job losses for most people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, respondents who have lost employment due to COVID-19 are struggling. Even though employed workers have been faring better, half were concerned about losing their jobs within the next year, and these concerns were more prevalent among part-time and non-union workers. Our findings emphasize the potential for growing economic insecurity as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on employment situations among marginalized groups.

Similar to how physicians practice evidence-based medicine to treat individual patients, policymakers should govern the public's health according to evidence-based data. Initiated by the World Health Organization's directive to make COVID-19 research open and freely accessible, (1,2) multidisciplinary studies are still published daily. Collectively, policymakers worldwide have not used available data effectively to make noteworthy reductions in the pandemic that is now over a year old. This brief commentary introduces a policy problem, then shares 3 categories of successful case studies as possible solutions: [1] Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC): Vietnam and Iran, (3,4) [2] public health practitioners: social workers in Africa and pharmacists in Zambia, (5,6) and [3] public health programs: a smoking cessation program and inmate health program. (7,8) Examples from LMIC were selected to demonstrate practical, cost-effective and duplicable methods. A collaborative multidisciplinary approach with community health partners is also proposed. (2,9)

Paid parental leave offerings in the U.S. are relatively rare and unequal. Yet, little is known about public opinions about paid leave and the factors that distinguish adults’ attitudes about them. With the use of data from the General Social Survey, we investigated attitudes about paid parental leave availability, preferred lengths of paid leave offerings, and government funding of leave in the U.S. We found overwhelming support for paid parental leave availability, an average preference for four months of paid leave offerings, and common support for at least some government funding for leaves. Older and more politically conservative individuals were consistently less supportive of paid parental leave availability, longer lengths of leave, and government funding of leave. Women, supporters of dual-earner expectations, black individuals, and those who were not working in paid labor were typically more supportive of generous paid parental leave offerings. These findings suggest that there have been longstanding desires for more widespread and generous paid parental leave offerings in the U.S. but that this has not yet been sufficient to prompt widely applicable policy changes across the nation.

The relationship between the Indian central government and the states has become increasingly fractious in the recent past with chief ministers tabling laws in state legislatures to counter those enacted by Parliament, protesting pandemic protocols and vociferously demanding compensation for losses in tax revenues. In this context, Louis Tillen’s Federalism is an apt publication to dissect the political economy of India’s state-centre relations in a country marked by deep socio-political and myriad regional divisions.

Objectives: To examine the association between wage-setting policy and food insecurity. Methods: We estimated multilevel regression models, using data from the Gallup World Poll (2014–2017) and UCLA’s World Policy Analysis Center, to examine the association between wage setting policy and food insecurity across 139 countries (n = 492 078). Results: Compared with countries with little or no minimum wage, the probability of being food insecure was 0.10 lower (95% confidence interval = 0.02, 0.18) in countries with collective bargaining. However, these associations varied across employment status. More generous wage-setting policies (e.g., collective bargaining or high minimum wages) were associated with lower food insecurity among full-time workers (and, to some extent, part-time workers) but not those who were unemployed. Conclusions: In countries with generous wage-setting policies, employed adults had a lower risk of food insecurity, but the risk of food insecurity for the unemployed was unchanged. Wage-setting policies may be an important intervention for addressing risks of food insecurity among low-income workers.

COVID-19 has renewed the importance of science diplomacy, with international cooperation and scientific collaboration across borders more critical than ever to combat the pandemic. To better disseminate rapidly developing innovations and scientific expertise, there is a need to reevaluate the relationship between modes of scientific communications and traditional diplomatic channels. Although science diplomacy is traditionally between national governments or international organizations such as the United Nations, individual connections between scientists from different countries is itself a form of science diplomacy. Scientific conferences are a key component of science diplomacy and more broadly bring scientists and their industrial, governmental, and philanthropic partners together from across the world to discuss major scientific advances and challenges. Through international scientific collaborations that will form during such conferences, the scientific community can broker new partnerships where formal political relationships are strained. Thus, it is essential that virtual scientific conferences are made accessible in order to facilitate effective science diplomacy. Here we explore the major obstacles of in-person conferences (high cost, locally-focused, and less equitable) which limit how global conversations can benefit from scientific knowledge, as well as opportunities offered by virtual meetings (affordability, global participation, equitable nature) to foster science diplomacy. Further, we provide recommendations that can enable future conferences, both fully or partially virtual, to strengthen science diplomacy post-COVID-19.

Innovation is seen as a way for the public sector to improve performance and reduce costs. This is particularly attractive for developing countries in which large parts of the population do not have access to quality basic services. Public sector managers looking to adopt innovation practices have established enabling structures and processes for their municipality or department, and have sought to empower civil servants with an innovation ‘culture’ or ‘mindset’. However, the growing pressure for public officials to adopt innovation thinking and engage with external innovators can create tensions with existing processes and ‘bureaucratic’ practices. Through a case study of South Africa’s state-owned enterprises, municipalities, sector departments and public innovation intermediaries, this chapter argues that a more nuanced view is needed of the diverse actors, roles and activities that do (and could) support public sector innovation. Each of these entities contributes specific legitimacies and capacities to innovation processes, based on underlying values, which can be better recognised and supported to achieve positive innovation outcomes and more inclusive service delivery.

A growing number of public servants are involved in activities aimed at supporting industrial and social innovation in their regions, whether by firms, academia, civil society or community-based organisations. But what capabilities and legitimacy do government officials and their agencies have to engage meaningfully with these innovation actors? Much of the current research highlights significant friction between the open, agile behaviour needed to support innovation and the inertia of established bureaucratic procedures and attitudes. A common response is that the public sector needs to be ‘de-bureaucratised’. Through a case study of South Africa, this chapter seeks to provide a more nuanced picture of the capacities and routines that are important for enabling innovation. This is done by highlighting (1) the significant diversity of public organisations and officials influencing industrial and social innovation; (2) the reasons why certain procedures and practices are in place; and (3) potential adjustments through which innovation support can be improved, including how it can better serve inclusive development goals. This analysis is an initial attempt to profile the distinctive characteristics of innovation enablers in the public sector, and provides a framework for identifying routines through which innovation and inclusive development outcomes may be achieved.

Background Although the COVID-19 pandemic has led to worsening mental health outcomes throughout the Canadian population, its effects have been more acute among already marginalized groups, including people with disabilities and chronic health conditions. This paper examines how heightened fears of contracting the virus, financial impacts, and social isolation contribute to declining mental health among this already vulnerable group. Objective/hypothesis This paper investigates how increases in anxiety, stress, and despair are associated with concerns about getting infected, COVID-19-induced financial hardship, and increased social isolation as a result of adhering to protective measures among people with disabilities and chronic health conditions. Methods This study uses original national quota-based online survey data (n=1027) collected in June 2020 from people with disabilities and chronic health conditions. Threelogistic regressionmodels investigate the relationship between COVID-19’s effects on finances, concerns about contracting the virus, changes in loneliness and belonging, and measures taken to combat the spread of COVID-19 and reports of increased anxiety, stress, and despair, net of covariates. Results Models show that increased anxiety, stress, and despair were associated with negative financial effects of COVID-19, greater concerns about contracting COVID-19, increased loneliness, and decreased feelings of belonging. Net of other covariates, increased measures taken to combat COVID-19 was not significantly associated with mental health outcomes. Conclusions Findings address how the global health crisis is contributing to declining mental health status through heightened concerns over contracting the virus, increases in economic insecurity, and growing social isolation, speaking to how health pandemics exacerbate health inequalities.

This study examines how people with disabilities and chronic health conditions—members of a large and diverse group often overlooked by Canadian public policy—are making sense of the Canadian federal government’s response to COVID-19. Using original national online survey data collected in June 2020 (N= 1,027), we investigate how members of this group view the government’s overall response. Although survey results show broad support for the federal government’s pandemic response, findings also indicate fractures based on disability type and specific health condition, political partisanship, region, and experiences with COVID-19. Among these, identification with the Liberal party and receipt of CERB stand out as associated with more positive views. Further examination of qualitative responses shows that these views are also linked to differing perspectives surrounding government benefits and spending, partisan divisions, and other social and cultural cleavages. La présente étude porte sur la façon dont les personnes atteintes de handicap ou de maladie chronique — appartenant à un vaste groupe diversifié, souvent ignoré des politiques publiques canadiennes — interprètent la réaction du gouvernement fédéral canadien à la COVID‑19. À l’aide de données nationales exclusives tirées d’un sondage en ligne effectué en juin 2020 (N= 1 027), nous analysons le point de vue des membres de ce groupe quant à la réaction globale du gouvernement. Bien que les résultats du sondage témoignent d’un large appui à la réaction du gouvernement fédéral à la pandémie, nos observations révèlent également des failles selon la nature du handicap et les particularités liées à l’état de santé, l’allégeance politique, la région et les expériences en ce qui a trait à la COVID‑19. Entre autres éléments, l’allégeance au Parti libéral et le statut de bénéficiaire de la PCU se signalent comme étant associés à des points de vue plus positifs. Un examen plus approfondi des réactions qualitatives montre que ces points de vue sont également liés à des perspectives divergentes entourant les prestations et les dépenses gouvernementales, les divisions partisanes et autres clivages sociaux et culturels.

Since 2004, four states have begun to offer paid family leave benefits intended in part to improve labor outcomes for women as they often take on the additional burden of caregiving responsibilities. Using American Community Survey data, we analyze the effect of these policies on the gender wage gap and find results consistent with these intentions. Employing a difference-in-difference design, our analysis finds significant increases in female earnings relative to men, as well as hours worked, in states with paid family leave policies. These results remain positive across racial groups and demonstrate particularly strong effects among women who gave birth in the past year.

The Novel Coronavirus Pandemic provides a unique opportunity to test theories of policy feedback in times of national emergency. An important question in this field is whether the discrepancy between public attitudes and emergency rules makes ordinary citizens less likely to comply, which in turn can undermine the goals of that national emergency policies such as the recent lockdown. In this study, we first compare 2016 institutionalized non-Covid related public preferences for government intervention to government actions taken at the outbreak of this pandemic in early March 2020 across 32 middle to high income countries, using aggregated data from the International Social Survey Program and country-level Blavatnik Coronavirus Government Response Tracker data. Then, we use the relative discrepancy between them to predict public behaviors shortly after the initial outbreak in late-March into early April using the Measuring Worldwide COVID-19 Attitudes and Beliefs survey. We find no association between public preferences and government response at the outbreak; however, we find some tentative evidence that the discrepancy between them shows a relationship with public behaviors in the subsequent stage, after adjusting for the local severity of the outbreak and the current level of government intervention. Where the government took much stronger interventions in the outbreak stage relative to public preferences for non-Covid government interventions, the public were more likely to engage in risky social behaviors, such as going out when asked not to, attending social gatherings, or not keeping a safe distance from others. In contrast, where the government took weaker measures, the public were instead more likely to avoid risky social behaviors. Although we cannot conclude whether this means that the enforced measures were more or less effective, our results may suggest that governments took stronger measures in countries where they expected more risky behaviors and that there may be a tradeoff between institutionalized public preferences and the ability to curtail social behaviours.

Indian states have alcohol policies ranging from strict prohibition to high taxation and overregulation. A pernicious effect of prohibition, in particular, has been the clogging of judiciary, disproportionate impacts on the poor and marginalized and diversion of already limited state capacities. In this article, we examine the role of state policy in India in addressing alcoholism’s deleterious impacts such as economic hardships, domestic violence and high disease burden. We have traced the current policy ambivalence to India’s history with attitudes ranging from permissiveness, colonial-era commodification to prohibition. We argue that India’s current alcohol policy can be understood as a combination of ‘old’ paternalism built on moral-religious ideas and ‘hard’ paternalism where the state interference overrides conscious choice of individual agent. We propose a ‘new-soft,’ post colonial framework which strikes a balance between individual choice, public health, gender parity and state revenues while eschewing disproportionate prosecution and punishment.

In this brief research article, I demonstrate how predictive analytics or machine learning can be used to predict outcomes that are of interest in public policy. I developed a predictive model that determined who were not able to work during the past four weeks because the COVID-19 pandemic led their employer to close or lose business. I used the Current Population Survey (CPS) collected from May to November 2020 (N=352,278). Predictive models considered were logistic regression and ensemble-based methods (bagging of regression trees, random forests, and boosted regression trees). Predictors included (1) individual-, (2) family-, (3) and community or societal- level factors. To validate the models, I used the random training test splits with equal allocation of samples for the training and testing data. The random forest with the full set of predictors and number of splits set to the square root of the number of predictors yielded the lowest testing error rate. Predictive analytics that seek to forecast the inability to work due to the pandemic can be used for automated means-testing to determine who gets aid like unemployment benefits or food stamps.

Township communities in the democratic South Africa are still grappling with the injustices of the pre-democratic era, resulting in social fragmentation and weakened social networks and engagement platforms. Successful social investment programmes need to be hinged upon robust and sustainable community engagement fora that enhances participation, opinion sharing, concept/project ownership, more perspectives and participant value-affirmations and contribution-recognition. RENEILWE Community Engagement model, a multi-layered, interdisciplinary and comprehensive socio-cultural and economic growth strategy, is aimed at engaging communities through the implementation of varied engagement and participatory methods. Community engagement is technically a term also known as citizen/civic engagement or collective interaction that uses various approaches to include people in matters of public concern for social change. Participatory and transformative approaches with the goal of increasing awareness and empowering communities to take charge of their transformation are the primary means of expected inclusion in the RENEILWE community interaction programme.

Population ageing is presented as one of the ‘grand challenges’ of the twenty-first century. Yet, policies designed to offset these challenges seem to be a jumbled, disjointed mix with no clear, overarching narrative. One of the successes of climate change science is the development of a clear, distinguishable framework to plan action: adaptation, mitigation, and resilience. This framework can be applied to designing better policy for ageing: adapting to support people in need today; mitigating future challenges by ensuring that people and institutions ‘age better’; and building resilience by developing both a longer-term perspective and policy learning framework.

Experience-based household food insecurity (HFI) indicators can be used to rank households across the continuum of levels of severity of HFI. However, studies have not closely examined if there is value for policymakers to receive information on all or just some of the HFI levels. We examined peer reviewed and gray literature reports to answer this question. Reporting on different HFI levels is key for targeting and evaluating policies and programs. In addition, there are dose-response or curvilinear relationships between HFI levels and diverse physical and mental health outcomes, and early childhood development indicators. The process of introduction of HFI experience-based measures in Latin America improved the understanding of the meaning of different HFI levels among policymakers, media and population at large. Findings strongly suggest that HFI can only be properly understood and addressed by assessing and reporting on all levels of HFI at the local, provincial, national, regional and global levels. Tracking and reporting secular trends of different HFI levels is key during major economic shocks and public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applications of big data have been surging as of late, and the field of public policy does not stand on the sideline while this dramatic wave of new technologies makes its way across the disciplines. However, theory-driven fields may experience radical change, as data fundamentalists claim the end of theory will come due to the nature and practicality of big data. In this paper, the position of social protection is examined with regard to the effects of the already observed shift towards such computational methods. I argue that such dramatic end of theory will not come for social protection policy, as the specialists and theorists take up the role of interpreter of data, performing the needed task of translating the vast collection of information into a useable collection or result. Vital in this position is the contact with the political economy, a task impossible to result in fruitful outcome without the interpreter. To strengthen this position in regard to social protection and big data, two examples are outlined: ‘Citizen Based Analytics’ in New-Zealand and the Big Data Quality Task Team of the UNECE.

Despite the common public image of homelessness (read: a single “vagrant” person), families with children represent one-third of the homeless population—an especially-serious social problem, since family homelessness has long-term negative impacts on two generations simultaneously. This interdisciplinary study examined the complexities of family homelessness in Fort Worth, Texas. A literature review outlined pathways into family homelessness, shared experiences, and common intervention strategies. An original qualitative study followed, employing a phenomenological approach to interview families in a local rapid-rehousing program. Open-ended question allowed free description of personal realities. Audio-recorded responses were analyzed for relevant themes, commonalities, and variations. Findings suggested that Fort Worth families’ pathways into homelessness are consistent with “life shock theory,” whereby those already financially-strained suddenly experience compounding stresses, leading to homelessness. The study found local and national experiences to be similar; however, it was limited by a convenience sample exclusively comprised of women nearing a housing goal, potentially coloring their outlooks. Finally, the study raised the question whether rapidly-rehoused Fort Worth families are well-positioned for stability. The similarity of participants’ concerns pre- and post-homelessness suggested that some families may transition to a status still “at risk,” rather than “stably-housed.” Considered in the context of previous research, findings supported further interdisciplinary inquiry into how longer-term, post-housing support might promote housing stability.

In Scotland, and United Kingdom, there are stark inequalities in the experience of older age, particularly for those with limited social contact, poorer health, located in deprived neighbourhoods (Centre for Ageing Better 2015). This mixed-methodology research, reports survey findings with n=169 community dwelling older adults in Scotland (average age 79.5), supported with qualitative interviews to evidence the underexplored connection between food insecurity and physiological risk indicators of undernutrition (malnutrition), with psychosocial indicators of healthy ageing. Findings are grounded in collaboration with a third sector social enterprise – Food Train, who provide food shopping and volunteer meal making for those aged 65+. Findings revealed correlations between food insecurity and early indicators of malnutrition risk with poorer wellbeing, and social connectedness. Supported food access mitigates the negative cycle of food insecurity on mental health, via empowerment (locus of control) over one’s life. Qualitative findings suggest that risks of food insecurity may not be financial (food poverty), or attributable to health realities associated with ageing. Rather, psychosocial health and wellbeing diverge as older adults attempt to draw upon available resources, reflective of their own social capital. Mitigators of malnutrition risk includes empowerment through social care located in the third sector, as well as social aspects of food access e.g. social eating, warranting future investigation. These findings are considered post Covid-19, with key policy implications.

Public support for the welfare state is shaped by beliefs about whether recipients are deserving or not. In the case of unemployed people, beliefs about whether they are at fault for their situation or not play a central role in shaping deservingness perceptions. Political actors and lay accounts suggest that living in disadvantaged places can shape attitudes towards welfare recipients. Existing research disagrees on whether higher local unemployment improves attitudes by providing information about the labour market, or worsens them by priming fears of welfare dependency. Thus, this study investigates whether individuals living in areas with higher unemployment benefit claims are more or less likely to believe that the unemployed are responsible for their situation. I innovate using a large sample of longitudinal data from the British Election Study to investigate the role of measuring unemployment benefit claims at multiple spatial scales, and over time. The results provide little evidence of a relationship between local unemployment and beliefs about the causes of unemployment, especially among affluent people. These findings challenge claims that antipathy towards unemployment benefits is shaped by exposure to unemployed people and undermine arguments that spatial segregation by income leads to decreased solidarity with the unemployed.

Advancements in ICTs have heightened the potential of such technology to automate jobs and render labour redundant en masse, uniting the concerns of sociologists, policy makers, and economists alike. Realistically, however, concern revolves not around redundancy of labour, but the polarising effect automation exerts on jobs. This polarisation stems from the claim that automation 'hollows out' mid-skill jobs, thereby increasing demand for high- and low- skill jobs. Job polarisation widens wage disparity, lowers the aggregate skill level of labour and exacerbates existing social inequalities. Proponents of laissez-faire automation argue that while automation may exert adverse effects on labour in the short run, it is bound to realise higher net benefits and employment in the long run. Such an understanding which is based on the Schumpterian notion of creative destruction is predicated on the fact that firms would adopt only such technology which bring about substantial strides in productivity. However, world over and in India firms have been merely substituting labour with capital, without any greater efficiency gains. This trend is only set to worsen with the ongoing health crisis due to varied reasons. In such a situation, it becomes imperative to design novel methods of social security.

This paper calls for transformative science to catalyze the needed change in the agricultural sector. It sheds light on the current dysfunctional system of resource allocation of the CAP and its poor economic, ecological and social outcomes. While the disparity between the desired outcomes and the reality is undisputed within research, former reforms have resulted in little change of the CAP. However, there is now a window of opportunity for real change with the transitional phase of the CAP, the shock event of the Coronavirus pandemic as a magnifying glass for underlying systemic problems and the proclamation of the European Green Deal, in particular the Farm-to-Fork-Strategy. The current system is impoverishing our biodiversity, soils, health and rural socio-economic tissue. To break this downward spiral, the authors suggest allocating resources according to the common good that a farm produces. To design change, this article assigns a major role to transformative science and lays out starting points and missions for further research.

Field interventions employed to improve preventive health behaviors and outcomes generally use well-established approaches; however, recent studies have reported that health education and promotional interventions have little to no impact on health behaviors, especially in low- and middle-income countries. We aimed to develop a conceptual framework to improve intervention designs that would internalize these concerns and limitations. We identified three major experimental design- and implementation-related concerns associated with mental models, including the balance between the treatment and control groups, the treatment group’s willingness to adopt suggested behaviors, and the type, length, frequency, intensity, and sequence of treatments. To minimize the influence of these aspects of an experimental design, we proposed a mental model-based repeated multifaceted (MRM) intervention design framework, which represents a supportive intervention design for the improvement of health education and promotional programs. The framework offers a step-by-step method that can be used for experimental and treatment design and outcome analysis, and that addresses potential implementation challenges.

This paper explores the problem of low accuracy in disability benefit assessments, using the UK as an example. The UK's disability benefits system has been subject to substantial reforms in the previous decade, and continues to be in flux. I suggest the introduction of financial incentives to shift the assessment process towards treating claimants' statements at face value (and running the risk of false positives), away from the current practice of treating all claimants with scepticism (and running the risk of false negatives).

This cross-national survey-based study examined in real time how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted food-centric matters in 1,732 Chinese and 1,547 U.S. households during the stay-at-home directives. Both cohorts reported increased efficiency in use of food, families spending more time cooking and eating together, and more prudent use of food with less waste. Food purchasing patterns shifted from frequent trips to the store to dramatic increases in online ordering. A small proportion (11% Chinese, 2% U.S. respondents) reported clinically significant weight gains of >4.5 kg. Household food insecurity worsened, with large increases in people worrying about or experiencing food shortage. Collective grocery-shopping experience by survey respondents indicated that the functional stability of food supply systems remained steady. All food types were somewhat available, except for noticeably higher prices widely reported by the Chinese cohort. This study offers insights into future food patterns and sheds light on long-term questions for additional research about how people make decisions and food behavioral changes at times of crisis and the consequences thereafter.