Social Welfare Research Papers

Caregivers of persons with dementia do not use community resources until late in the disease process, despite the fact that judicious use of community resources can delay nursing home admission. Data from the National Caregiver Training Project, based on progressively lowered stress threshold (PLST) model, were used to examine variables related to use of community resources. Spouse and adult child caregivers were divided into two groups based on amount of community resources used per week. Within this geographically diverse sample of caregivers, 64% did not use professional services, 79% did not use respite services, and 65% did not use other services. Being a spouse decreased the odds that the caregiver would use community resources. Resource use was also related to the care recipient's problems with activities of daily living and the increase in frequency of memory and behavioral problems.

- by and +1
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- Nursing, Resource use, Social Welfare, Respite Care
- by Ndangwa Noyoo
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- Social Work, Social Welfare

This research highlights the crucial role of an intimate link between a disabled person's self-identity and the perceived fairness of legal procedures. In doing so, it brings to the foreground a wholly ignored aspect of procedural justice. Earlier researchers have failed to delve into the role identity politics plays in the relationship between the institutions and the beneficiaries of their services, and the way different members of a group understand and define themselves. This research explores the way people with disabilities in the United States, with different kinds of disability identities, experience and evaluate the procedure of claiming Social Security benefits. The findings suggest that disabled people who identified with the social model of disability (as opposed to the medical-individual models) hold a critical view of the procedure for retaining benefits. They felt they had no control over it, could not voice their opinions, were mistreated by representatives, and had to present an image that was not necessarily true of their disability. They also saw the procedure as discouraging them from participating fully in the labor market, and consequently integrating better in society, an idea that was not present among disabled people who identify with medical-individual models. Exposing this relationship between the way people perceive themselves and the way they experience and evaluate legal procedures can contribute to the creation of better policies, while improving communication between the state and members of the disability community, along with other marginalized groups.

- by Doron Dorfman
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- Self and Identity, Disability Studies, Welfare State, Procedural Justice

Nel quadro del dibattito attuale e urgente sulle forme alternative e praticabili di welfare, il volume raccoglie contributi provenienti da diverse esperienze e territori - una fattoria sociale, i servizi di collocamento mirato, le associazioni di volontariato, la cooperazione sociale, i servizi socio-sanitari - proponendo un cambiamento di paradigma culturale ed economico. Al centro viene messa la prossimità, che può diventare una soluzione per ottimizzare risorse e qualità della vita tramite nuove forme di scambio e collaborazioni che non si limitano a "tollerare" la diversità, ma la valorizzano. Il welfare di prossimità, che già esiste, ha bisogno di essere perfezionato con le istituzioni esistenti, come sistema aperto capace di affrontare le sfide del futuro.

- by Chiara Venturelli
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- Social Inclusion, Social Welfare

I Centri di accoglienza sono le strutture nelle quali viene offerta una prima ospitalità e assistenza ai migranti. In Italia, negli anni e soprattutto in occasioni di «emergenze umanitarie», sono stati aperti tipi differenti di Centri. L'articolo, oltre a descrivere le differenti caratteristiche delle strutture oggi operative, presenta parte del dibattito in corso tra giuristi, scienziati politico-sociali ed esperti di servizi sociali, evidenziando i principali discorsi retorici sul tema e gli elementi di etichettamento degli stranieri inseriti in un progetto di assistenza.

- by Marco Accorinti
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- Social Policy, Migration, Migration Studies, Sociology of Migration
- by Richard J Fafara
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- Social Welfare, RECREATION

The consequences of the social welfare function of Bentham and Mill (B-M) for optimal population size are explored when individuals' utility is a function of own consumption, the number of progeny, and the welfare of those children.

- by Marc Nerlove
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- Geography, Demography, Economics, Population Dynamics

Many OECD countries have replied to economic recessions with an adaption in public spending on social benefits for families and young people in need. So far, no study has examined the impact of public social spending during the recent economic recession on health, and social inequalities in health among young people. This study investigates whether an increase in public spending relates to a lower prevalence in health complaints and buffers health inequalities among adolescents. Data were obtained from the 2009/2010 "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)" study comprising 11 - 15-year-old adolescents from 27 European countries (N = 144,754). Socioeconomic position was measured by the Family Affluence Scale (FAS). Logistic multilevel models were conducted for the association between the absolute rate of public spending on family benefits per capita in 2010 and the relative change rate in family benefits (2006-2010) in relation to adolescent psychological health co...

- by Katharina Rathmann
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- Mental Health, Child health, Family, Adolescent Health

Almost alone among modern industrialized nations, the United States has chosen to finance the provision of health care to its citizens through a patchwork system centered around employer-sponsored private health insurance. Employer-sponsored insurance is, at least in part, supplemented by government entitlement programs, most notably Medicare and Medicaid, for those excluded from private insurance either because, like the elderly and the disabled, they utilize too many services, or, like the poor, they cannot afford to purchase it. Private health insurance therefore represents, in our system, access to health care itself for the largest portion of the population. During the early years of the epidemic, AIDS was seen as a major challenge to this unique American health care financing system. It was commonly asserted that AIDS would inevitably undermine the financial stability of the private health insurance industry and, ultimately, its ability to provide health insurance to the American people. This assertion was, to some degree, based on early cost estimates which suggested that the lifetime hospital cost per individual with AIDS was as high as $147,000.' One officer of one insurance carrier saw AIDS metaphorically as a natural catastrophe, akin to floods, which only the federal government, with all its resources, could cover. 2 As the epidemic has unfolded it is increasingly clear that such assertions were highly alarmist and, indeed, self-serving on the part of some in the health insurance industry.' AIDS * Ph. D. , Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, New York City.

- by Gerald Oppenheimer
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- Law, Economics, Government, Social Justice
- by Jeff Richardson
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- Sociology, Psychology, Economics, Health Economics

One goal of this paper is to present an integrated tripartite model of violence, with a focus on structural violence within an oppression paradigm. Using qualitative and quantitative data from 27 women (70% African American and 30% European American) who participated in a national substance abuse treatment demonstration program, we describe a model of violence in which structural violence is presented within a transactional relationship with interpersonal, and intrapersonal violence. We suggest that the effects of structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal violence are magnified when race and poverty are considered. The second goal of the paper is to present a preliminary test of the new model of violence. Results indicated that different levels and types of violence are interrelated. Implications of these findings for empowering solutions are suggested.

- by Diana Woolis
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- Psychology, Violence, Poverty, Social Interaction

This paper attempts to take the first steps toward developing a theory of non-governmental organizations (NGO)-state relations under dictatorship. Drawing on evidence from East Asia, the author argues that dictatorships typically employ one of two strategies in attempting to govern NGOs. First, some dictatorships follow a corporatist strategy, in which business associations, development, and social welfare organizations are co-opted into the state and controlled through a variety of strategies. Second, other dictatorships pursue an exclusionary strategy in which NGOs are marginalized and replaced with state institutions. Variation in the strategy chosen may be explained by differing levels of elite competition and the type of development strategy. Single-party states tend to regulate elite conflicts better and thus often choose corporatist strategies. In personalist regimes dictators tend to fear the organizational and mobilizational potential of NGOs and thus tend to pursue exclusionary strategies. This choice, however, is conditioned by the development strategy employed, as socialist development strategies reduce the incentives to allow NGOs.

Using a simple downstream duopoly model with vertical relations and downstream R&D, we investigate the effect of non-assertion of patents (NAP) provisions. A monopoly upstream firm decides whether to employ NAP provisions. If it does so, it freely incorporates the R&D outcomes into its inputs. Incorporation improves the efficiency of the downstream firms' production. We have interpreted the introduction of NAP provisions as a source of technology spillover. Using the technologies of two downstream firms is optimal for the upstream firm if and only if the degree of technology spillover is small. In addition, if the ex ante cost difference between the downstream firms is significant, such technology spillovers erode both the profit of the efficient downstream firm and social welfare. We interpret our result in the context of an actual antitrust case related to this model.

- by Koki Arai and +1
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- Social Welfare, Investment, Profitability

Background: Approximately 55,000 children in New Zealand do not eat breakfast on any given day. Regular breakfast skipping has been associated with poor diets, higher body mass index, and adverse effects on children's behaviour and academic performance. Research suggests that regular breakfast consumption can improve academic performance, nutrition and behaviour. This paper describes the protocol for a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial of a free school breakfast programme. The aim of the trial is to determine the effects of the breakfast intervention on school attendance, achievement, psychosocial function, dietary habits and food security. Methods/Design: Sixteen primary schools in the North Island of New Zealand will be randomised in a sequential stepped wedge design to a free before-school breakfast programme consisting of non-sugar coated breakfast cereal, milk products, and/or toast and spreads. Four hundred children aged 5-13 years (approximately 25 per school) will be recruited. Data collection will be undertaken once each school term over the 2010 school year (February to December). The primary trial outcome is school attendance, defined as the proportion of students achieving an attendance rate of 95% or higher. Secondary outcomes are academic achievement (literacy, numeracy, self-reported grades), sense of belonging at school, psychosocial function, dietary habits, and food security. A concurrent process evaluation seeks information on parents', schools' and providers' perspectives of the breakfast programme.

- by Cliona Mhurchu
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- Mental Health, Diet, Public Health, Adolescent

The authors report the results of an evaluation of services provided by 54 Illinois domestic violence agencies. In collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago evaluation team, domestic violence advocates identified services to be evaluated, specified desired outcomes of those services, and participated in developing measures of those outcomes in both English and Spanish. Within the limitations of the study, outcomes were positive in all four program areas: hotline, counseling, advocacy, and shelter. The authors then discuss implications for evaluation of domestic violence programs that maintain victim safety as a guiding principle.

- by Paul Schewe
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- Criminology, Psychology, Domestic Violence, Community-Based Mental Health Services

Abstract. We use a controlled laboratory setting to experimentally examine the role of auditing and market-based-governance in restraining managerial expropriation and in-accurate financial reporting. Managerial expropriation is broadly... more

- by sudeep ghosh
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- Financial Reporting, Social Welfare, Preliminary draft

Price capped firms enjoy a large degree of pricing discretion, which may harm customers and competition. We study two alternative regulatory regimes to limit it: the first regime (Absolute) places a fixed upper limit to the prices charged in captive markets, while the other regime (Relative) constrains the captive prices relatively to the competitive ones. Under the Relative regime, captive prices are only weakly lower and competitive prices are always higher than under the Absolute regime. However, the number of competitors and/or their output may be higher under the Relative regime. While the effects on aggregate welfare are ambiguous, there is some evidence that the Relative regime is more likely to increase consumers' surplus and social welfare the more efficient are the competitors.

- by Alberto Iozzi
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- Economics, Competition, Applied Economics, Regulatory Economics
- by Sonam Singh
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- Violence, Migration, United Nations, Police

The great European dream was to diminish militant nationalism' (Antony Beevor). The future remains open, and some degree of nationalism may be constantly present, but one thing can be expressed with confidence: the European Union has successfully averted conflict within the 'club' and has been a clearly powerful incentive for reconciliation between former enemies as well as bringing democracy in countries formerly ruled by dictatorships. The present crisis apart, the European project remains incomparable. Indeed, this presents an inescapable imperative to any notion of resistance towards the completion of the European integration project. This article focuses on the integration project of the Old Continent's southeastern corner; more specifically, it concerns how a culture-based or incited-conflict can shape a specific cultural setting and, in return, how that culture can be transformed into one of cooperation. The inquiry is placed in the context of the relationship with, and impact of, the EU, which can serve both as example and promoter of such a culture.

- by Qerim Qerimi
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- International Relations, Political Science, Organized Crime, Co-operation

This paper uses data from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to empirically test Wagner's Law in explaining public expenditure growth in association with economic growth; and if this growth enhanced the public welfare. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has witnessed a marked increase in government expenditure. We use the Engle and Granger (E-G) two-step cointegration method to examine the relationship between government expenditure and economic growth. Out of the four model specifications that we have tested, two models indicate that a positive long run relationship exists between government expenditure and economic growth. However, the income elasticities are not large enough to suggest that the growth in government expenditure exceeds the growth in national income; only that upward pressure is exerted. Looking at available data it is clear that governmental expenditures from GDP expansions increased public welfare for Saudis over the test period.

- by Albert Wijeweera
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- Economics, Econometrics, Economic Growth, Applied Economics

Using a comprehensive panel data set of China's state-owned enterprises, we investigate the impacts of privatization, of different time sequences and extent of non-state ownership, on social welfare and firm performance. Attention has been focused on the sources of gain in the firm performance and the long-run impacts of privatization. It is found that privatization of China's state-owned enterprises was achieved with limited compromise on the social welfare responsibilities, and much gain in firm performance was obtained by motivating the management and reducing the agency cost at the management level. 3 enterprise themselves or delegate the management to professionals. Any agency cost arising from the separation of ownership and management as in the case of publicly held firms could be dealt with through monitoring by the board members, proxy fights by the shareholders, or corporate takeovers in the capital market. State-owned enterprises in China are very much like the publicly held firms of the developed economies in the sense that their ownership is widely held by all people in the society, but the de facto control of the state-owned enterprises is held by the State Assets Agency -the equivalent of the board of the directors. What is different in China is that the owners (all people in the society) do not have the direct authority in choosing the members of the State Assets Agency and appointing the management of the state-owned enterprises. The State Assets

- by Zhigang Tao
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- Health Care, Economic Development, China, Comparative Economics

Bijna tachtig procent van de Nederlanders gebruikt de vakantie om familiebanden aan te halen of tijd aan vrienden te besteden. Ruim 36 procent gaat op vakantie bovendien nieuwe relaties aan. Dat concludeert promovenda Carlijne Philips in haar proefschrift over gemeenschapsvorming tijdens vakanties. Philips beschrijft hierin drie uiteenlopende vakantiebestemmingen: de partyscène op Ibiza, een vakantiedorp van Club Med op Mallorca en de Amsterdamse camping Bakkum. Philips verrichtte een grootschalig kwantitatief onderzoek naar gemeenschapsvorming van de Nederlander op vakantie.

- by Carlijne Philips and +1
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- Neuroscience, Sociology, Welfare Economics, Leisure Studies

The U.S. welfare system underwent sweeping reforms in the 1990s, culminating in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. Several new components were introduced into the main cash welfare program for low-income, predominantly single-mother families, now known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): (i) stricter work requirements for virtually all welfare recipients; (ii) much tougher "sanction" policies, which reduce or terminate benefits to women for not complying with the rules; and (iii) the imposition of a federal 5-year lifetime maximum on the receipt of benefits. Since the mid-1990s, the welfare caseload has plummeted and hundreds of thousands of poor single mothers have entered the workforce. Experts concur that the caseload reduction is a consequence of welfare reform, the booming economy in the 1990s, and the expansion of work support programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (1).

- by Elizabeth Votruba-drzal and +1
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- Mental Health, Cognition, Parenting, Science
- by Celia Iriart
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- Human Rights, Politics, Social Justice, Capitalism
- by Evangelos Koutronas
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- Social Welfare

We measure the effect of urban hospital closure on the operating efficiency of the remaining hospitals in the local market. Closure of a hospital other than the least efficient can be detrimental to social welfare because treatment costs will be higher at surviving hospitals. The results show that hospital closure has led to an evolutionary increase in efficiency in urban

- by Gloria Bazzoli
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- Health Economics, Health Services Research, Applied Economics, Social Welfare

Despite a lack of applied research, social partnerships are increasingly being adopted by both government and non-government agencies to meet localised needs in education and other fields. This paper discusses the findings of an investigation of how social partnerships can best be formed, developed and sustained over time. Earlier work identified partnerships arising from community concerns, governmental enactment and negotiation between community and government agencies. However, across these distinct kinds of social partnerships, the partnership work that was central to their operation was particularly relevant. In the study reported here, researchers engaged with 10 longstanding social partnerships to elicit, synthesise and verify the principles and practices underpinning their work. The principles and practices that are proposed as most likely to assist the effective formation, development and transformation of social partnerships over time comprise building and maintaining: (i) shared goals; (ii) relations with partners; (iii) capacity for partnership work; (iv) governance and leadership; and (v) trust and trustworthiness. These principles stand as ideals and goals to guide the development and continuity of social partnerships that can support important educational initiatives, and provide bases for evaluating partnership work. However, rather than being benign, this work and these practices are often underpinned by contested relations as much as collaborative work.

- by Stephen Billett
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- Latin American Studies, Political Economy, Education, Sociology of Education

Researchers and policymakers are moving towards a model defined as people-powered health — where care is discussed as transforming from a top-down service to a network of coordinated actors. At the same time, for large numbers of people, to self-organize around their own healthcare needs is not a matter of predilection, but increasingly one of necessity. Piracy and Care are not always immediately relatable notions. Yet, bringing the idea of a pirate ethics into resonance with contemporary modes of care invites a different consideration for practices that propose a paradigm change and therefore inevitably position themselves in tricky positions vis-à-vis the law and the status quo.

- by Valeria Graziano
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- Health Care, Public Health, Social Welfare, Piracy

Questo libro parla di case, parla delle persone che le abitavano e parla delle politiche abitative pubbliche nel Novecento. Lo fa partendo dall’analisi della storia dell’Istituto autonomo case popolari di Torino, uno dei principali enti coinvolti nella realizzazione degli interventi nel campo dell’edilizia sociale in una grande città industriale. L’obiettivo è ricostruire con un taglio storico il complesso modello di governo della casa pubblica, esaminando i vari attori coinvolti, istituzionali e sociali.
Il volume è diviso in tre parti: la prima si occupa della fondazione dello Iacp e delle politiche abitative tra età liberale e fascismo; la seconda si concentra sulle emergenze e sulla gestione dell’ente nel periodo della Ricostruzione e del miracolo economico; la terza parte ricostruisce il rapporto tra l’ente e gli abitanti delle case popolari tra gli anni Cinquanta e gli anni Ottanta.

- by Viella Editrice and +1
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- Modern History, Welfare State, Italy (History), History of Social Welfare

Probabilistic information is used increasingly, from medical research to weather forecasting. The relationship between probability and causality requires an acceptable philosophical account. Social work, which contributes to healthy wellbeing, increasingly uses language of probabilistic causal relationships between harms and subsequent limitations to healthy functioning. This paper explores causal understandings of probabilistic knowledge using concepts of the theologian, Thomas Aquinas. Social welfare terminology regarding risk (such as factors that are 'causative of' child abuse) is explored using epistemological concepts from scholastic philosophy. Aquinas' anthropological concepts related to modern 'risk science' and his concepts of rationality, harm and prudence are applied to contemporary social welfare.

- by Brian Taylor
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- Social Work, Social Sciences, Welfare State, Virtue Ethics

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2005 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Santa Barbara, California, organized and chaired by Kamilla L. Venner. This symposium integrated current empirical research on the course of recovery from alcoholism from multiple perspectives, an aim that is consistent with NIAAA's new focus on the process of recovery. The presentations and presenters were as follows: (1) The Role of Community Services and Informal Support on 7-Year Drinking Outcomes in Treated and Untreated Drinkers, by Helen Matzger; (2) The Sequence of Recovery Events in a Native American Sample, by Kamilla L. Venner; (3) Transformational Change in Recovery, by Alyssa A. Forcehimes; (4) Social Settings and Substance Use: Contextual Factors in Recovery, by Rudolf H. Moos; and (5) A Broader View of Change in Drinking Behavior, by discussant Mark L. Willenbring. A theme connecting the presentations was that treatment is but one discrete aspect to recovery and that sustained recovery is often influenced by an individual interaction with others within a social context. Collectively, presentations underscored the need to think more broadly about factors contributing to the remission of alcohol dependence.

- by Kamilla Venner
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- Psychology, Behavior, Social Support, Treatment Outcome

While agreeing with the importance of art as a stimulus for the imagination in social work practice, Healy takes issue with the broader aspirations of the article. Healy questions whether art can or should be used to foster "a collective moment of political truth" for social work, as such an inspiration is likely to gloss over the important differences in context and purpose that profoundly shape the nature of social work in the wide variety of contexts where it is practised. Healy argues for the recognition of art as a possible contributor to knowledge and practice but contends that an ongoing and productive engagement with other forms of knowing is equally if not more critical to the development of social work knowledge and identities.

- by Karen Healy
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- Social Work, Political Science, Social Welfare

Recent literature on the interactions between labor unions and monetary institutions features either a supply or a demand channel of monetary policy, but not both. This leads to two opposing views about the effects of central bank conservativeness. We evaluate the relative merits of those conflicting views by developing a unified framework. We find that: (i) the effect of conservativeness on employment depends on unions' relative aversion to unemployment versus inflation, and (ii) for plausible values of this relative aversion (and more than one union), social welfare is maximized under a highly conservative central bank. We also evaluate the effects of centralization of wage bargaining and product market competition on unemployment and inflation.

- by fabrizio coricelli
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- Economics, Wage bargaining, Monetary Policy, Social Welfare

A coupled oscillator approach to game theory has been designed to resolve two of its major problems: The arbitrariness of valuing cooperation greater than competition in determining social welfare; and the lack of interdependent uncertainty. The bistable approach means that agents in relationships are more likely to be found in reactive states that correspond to their observation-action or energy-time levels.

- by Dominique Morgan
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- Game Theory, Coupled Oscillator, Information Flow, Social Welfare

In 2014, a new system has been put in place for the inspection and approval of social welfare institutions in Denmark. In as little as 10 weeks, 330 new employees in five regional centres participated in an introductory course, designed as work place learning with extensive use of e-learning and IT-based teaching materials. This paper presents the experiences of this particular project, and goes on to discuss the following points:  The blended learning designuse of IT for teaching, learning and communication  Digital learning materialsprincipals of design and use  Work place learning and learning from workthe interplay between experiences of the learner and the curriculum of the program  The approach taken to customising the e-learning design to the needs and demands of a particular case.

- by Marianne Georgsen
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- Blended Learning, Social Welfare

Language analysis can help explore how public debates on these issues have evolved, and build understanding of how people form opinions. This paper employs a variety of techniques from cognitive linguistics, a field dedicated to how people process information and communicate, to examine how people reason and come to conclusions about poverty and income in Australia.

- by Maiy Azize
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- Social Psychology, Communication, Languages and Linguistics, Welfare State

Physicians are currently presented with very difficult ethical issues regarding who receives what level of medical care and for how long. A meaningful response to these perplexing issues necessitates a collaboration of doctors with others steeped in religious and ethical traditions. This paper addresses the complicated issue of the rationing of health care, and this issue is then addressed by responses from representatives of the religious community. This symposium took place at the New York Hospital--Cornell Medical Center in March 1991.

- by Joseph J. Fins
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- Religion, Economics, Decision Making, Poverty

Synopsis -South Africa has been in the forefront of countries that articulate gender rights as vital human rights. Therefore, it came as no surprise to many observers that when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission began hearings in 1996 to investigate human rights abuses during the apartheid era, women's stories were being neglected, and the country was getting a distorted view of the past. In response to pressure from women's organizations, the TRC held three all-women hearings in which women were encouraged to tell their own stories of human rights violations. This article highlights women's oppression during the period of review (1960)(1961)(1962)(1963)(1964), the TRC's handling of gender issues, and an assignment of the TRC's contribution toward the promotion of gender rights.

- by Lyn Graybill
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- Cultural Studies, Law, Human Rights, Civil Rights
- by Vijayan Pillai
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- Social Work, Political Science, Social Welfare, Social

A multiagent system may be thought of as an artificial society of autonomous software agents and we can apply concepts borrowed from welfare economics and social choice theory to assess the social welfare of such an agent society. In this paper, we study an abstract negotiation framework where agents can agree on multilateral deals to exchange bundles of discrete resources. We then analyse how these deals affect social welfare for different instances of the basic framework and different interpretations of the concept of social welfare itself. In particular, we show how certain classes of deals are both sufficient and necessary to guarantee that a socially optimal allocation of resources will be reached eventually.

- by Nicolas Maudet
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- Artificial Intelligence, Welfare Economics, Social Choice Theory, Social Welfare
- by Mary Ann Burg
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- Affordable Housing, Social Welfare, Case Study, Social Science

Poverty and poverty reduction are currently the central concerns of development discourse and policy. Despite recent theoretical advances, poverty analysis continues to be dominated by an income/consumption conception of poverty. We argue... more

- by David Hulme
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- Economics, Politics, Social Welfare, Inequality

Activation and 'coercion' among Swedish social assistance claimants with different work barriers and socio-demographic characteristics: What is the logic?i jsw_858 1..13 Nybom J. Activation and 'coercion' among Swedish social assistance claimants with different work barriers and socio-demographic characteristics: What is the logic? The study analysed how the work barriers and sociodemographic characteristics of both activated and nonactivated social assistance claimants influence their participation in activation and exposure to coercion, measured as two opposite indicators-sanctions and exemptions. The study covered 372 social assistance claimants in four municipalities during a period of 1 year. The results suggest that resource activation, which entails education and/or work practice in regular workplaces, often targets claimants who lack work motivation, whereas job activation, which aims at quick entry into the labour market, targets young claimants and claimants who lack formal skills (education and/or work experience). Swedish men older than 25 years appear to run the highest risk of facing sanctions irrespective of participation in activation. Exemptions vary more than sanctions between activated and non-activated claimants. The results are discussed in terms of five logics operating in social work.

- by Jenny Nybom
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- Social Work, Social Sciences, Political Science, Social Welfare

This paper examines the role that the search for and removal of non-renewable fossil fuels plays in northern, often Aboriginal, communities in Canada. Such settlements at the social, political, and geographic "periphery" or "frontier" of Canada are often characterized by transient populations and social welfare challenges. While the economic boom brought about by oil and gas development is undeniable, it is unevenly spread. Further, communities that would otherwise be facing sizable challenges now must address even greater and more urgent struggles. These rural and remote settlements have drawn strength from their social cohesion, but presently, the strain is heightened. Insiders may be at odds with outsiders; one generation may be divided against the generation before and after it. Environmental concerns and traditional culture may be displaced by competing interests. In this paper we provide an overview of the existing and proposed extraction of nonrenewable natural resources in several parts of northern Canada and examine their economic impact, but also their social impact. In particular, we focus on their ramifications in terms of community cohesion in general and on Aboriginal communities more specifically.

La loi C-32 "An Act to Amend the Copyright Act" a reçu l'aval royal le 25 avril 1997. Ceci était connu sous l'appellation "Phase II" de la réforme des droits d'auteur qui est entré en vigueur en 1988. En plus d'amendements techniques, elle apporte de profonds changements à la loi sur les droits d'auteur: une clarification des exemptions pour les institutions charitables tels que les universités et bibliothèques; des règles plus sévères contre l'importation parallele de livres; des droits sur les cassettes audio vierges dont les recettes iront aux collectivités des droits d'auteur; et des "droits de voisinage" pour les artistes du son ainsi que les producteurs. Il y a deux façons distinctes de penser à la loi sur les droits d'auteur. La première se concentre sur les droits naturel des créateurs au revenu généré par leurs travaux. L'autre se concentre sur le problème économique de conception d'un régime de droit d'auteur qui maximise le bien-être social. L'auteur suggère qu'alors même que les deux points de vue ont été mis de l'avant lors du débat sur la réforme, le point de vue sur les droits naturels a eu plus d'influence sur la conception de la loi C-32 que le point de vue économique.

- by Michael Rushton
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- Economics, Social Welfare, Profitability, Public Administration and Policy

Social support is fundamental for social integration and emotional well-being. One aspect of social support that is often the focus of attention is the size of a person's support network. However, additional complex measures of social support are necessary to capture qualitative aspects of support networks, such as the diversity in types of support available from specific types of alters. This paper presents a simple way to acquire this comprehensive information and a condensed way to represent the complexity of a person's support network so this information can easily be included in classic survey analyses. Log-linear latent class analysis is used to construct a typology of ego-centric support networks showing the types of support respondents can expect from alters with a specific role. Depending on the role relation for the five support items, this diversity can adequately be represented by distinguishing 2-4 types of respondents. For the role relation friends, we can differentiate between respondents who expect only companionship from their friends, those expecting emotional support as well as companionship, and respondents expecting no social support at all from their friends. For immediate kin, we find those with only emotional support, those with emotional and instrumental support, those with all types of support, and finally a group of respondents expecting no support at all from immediate kin. The approach presented in this article enables a more detailed measurement of the dimensions of social support contents by managing to compile the diversity by distinguishing types of respondents. Such typologies can easily be used as explanatory variables in subsequent analyses.

- by hans waege
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- Sociology, Anthropology, Statistics, Social Networks

Nella Provincia autonoma di Trento le persone che si sono trovate a vivere la cosiddetta "terza età" del loro ciclo di vita hanno ricevuto un'attenzione particolare fin dalla nascita del regime pubblico di welfare. Oggi la spesa media pro-capite destinata al complesso dell'assistenza agli anziani è pari a 2,5 volte quella media nazionale. Volendo gettare uno sguardo prospettico, seppur sintetico, sulla realtà trentina che farà da scenario alla terza età nel prossimo futuro, si possono identificare quattro elementi in cambiamento: 1) le persone anziane tra il 2012 e il 2020 cresceranno di numero del 22%, con un'accelerazione ulteriore nel 2030, quando gli ultra 65enni saranno 151 mila contro i 102 mila di oggi, con un aumento di circa il 50%; 2) anche i soggetti anziani non autonomi aumenteranno non solo in numero assoluto, in diretta conseguenza dell'incremento stimato della popolazione anziana in generale, ma anche in cifra relativa: essi toccheranno le 18 mila unità rispetto alle attuali 12 mila, alle quali si aggiungerebbero gli anziani non autonomi in via temporanea, pari ad altre 9.000 unità nel 2030 contro le 6.000 attuali; 3) la domanda di posti letto in RSA e di servizi domiciliari, come pure il carico che farà capo alle famiglie, subiranno un incremento inevitabile, il che comporterà la necessità di incrementare l'offerta attuale dei servizi di 1/4 circa nel 2020 e del 50% nel 2030; 4) la spesa pubblica prevista in futuro subirà un incremento necessariamente parallelo: rispetto al 2012, quando la spesa provinciale riguardante solo gli anziani presenti nelle RSA risultava pari a 123,2 milioni di euro, essa dovrebbe crescere via via sino a raggiungere i 181,8 milioni di euro nel 2030. Queste cifre invitano a chiedersi "con quali risorse pubbliche e private potranno essere affrontati gli oneri assistenziali che ne derivano?". Ancora, "le famiglie potranno a loro volta svolgere le funzioni necessarie di care giving così come hanno fatto fino ad ora, visto che stanno aumentando i nuclei familiari costituiti da una singola persona?". Una risposta interessante a tali quesiti è stata recentemente offerta dalla cooperativa sociale S.A.D., che ha avviato la sperimentazione di un'iniziativa di cohousing inter-generazionale in grado di creare delle innovative condizioni di abitare collaborativo tra giovani ed anziani: la "Casa alla Vela".

- by Enrico Bramerini
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- Social Policy, Social Welfare, Cohousing

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- by James E . Wadsworth
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- Cultural Studies, Welfare State, Government, Child Welfare
- by Bernhard Brümmer
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- Economics, Social Welfare, Technical Change, Agricultural Production

Social Welfare Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)