Suchergebnisse

The main aim of the report is to emphasise the need for strategic visions for Australia to embrace and incorporate a social dimension if they are to be both balanced and relevant. It argues that economic progress does not occur in a social vacuum and focuses on the longer-term role of social goals and policies in the context of a re-invigorated and vibrant economy. Economic performance is important in determining the material standards which the population is able to enjoy, but many social goals are achievable in their own terms, irrespective of economic constraints. Others will assist, not impede, economic progress. Social policy, like all areas of government policy, is a means toward an end, and the ultimate objective of all social policies is the achievement, or at least the enhancement, of social justice. A balanced approach to development must thus combine economic progress with social justice, as must any future vision for national performance.

The purpose of the Social Inclusion Monitor is to report on progress towards the national social target for poverty reduction, which is to reduce consistent poverty to 4 per cent by 2016 and to 2 per cent or less by 2020. It also reports on the Irish contribution to the Europe 2020 target, and on poverty trends for children and jobless households, for which specific sub-targets are to be set by Government. The Monitor is prepared by the Social Inclusion Division in the Department of Social Protection, as part of its remit to monitor poverty trends. It is primarily based on the findings of the 2011 Survey on Income and Living Conditions, undertaken by the Central Statistics Office. The income reference period for the survey was January 2010 to December 2011.

The general purpose that guides this article is to contribute to the critique and study of the possibilities of reformulation of the category of social totality and social change or some of their central elements, as theoretical alternatives to think again about the urgent and historical matter of development (mainly in its economic dimension), in order to face the new cultural and political challenges present in Latin American societies. ; Orienta el desarrollo del artículo el propósito de contribuir a la crítica y al estudio de las posibilidades de reformulación de la categoría de totalidad social y cambio social o bien de elementos centrales de las mismas, como alternativas teóricas para repensar la urgente e histórica cuestión del desarrollo (principalmente en su dimensión económica) y con ello hacer frente a los nuevos desafíos culturales y políticos que se presentan en las sociedades latinoamericanas.