Suchergebnisse

Britain's Household Benefit Cap restricts the amount of benefit income unemployed households can receive. In this article, it is examined using material held at the UK's National Archives recording debates about a proposal to introduce a similar policy – a benefit limit – in the first Thatcher Conservative government elected in 1979. It was rejected, but the Household Benefit Cap was introduced three decades later. The article locates debates about, and the practice of restricting benefit income, in perennial social security concerns with the financial incentive to do waged work. The article argues that while there are material differences that help explain the different policy outcomes in 1980 and 2010, they can primarily be explained by changing ideas about the roles of social security policy, including the development of the 'incentive paradigm' concerned with manipulating behaviour; a loss of concern with the hardship that would come with the introduction of a benefit restriction and a view that institutions other than the state are better placed to address poverty and buttress work incentives.

In teaching Southeast Asian literature in English in Thailand, a lecturer presented a brief historical background of each country. After lecturing on each country's literature background, the students were assigned to write the reflection essays on short stories studied in class. Then, a lecturer summarized the issues discussed in class and from students' reflection essays. This article is resulted from the case study of teaching modern Southeast Asian Literary Works in English at IAC international studies ASEAN-CHINA program, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat university, Thailand. A lecturer and students discovered gender and political issues in Laotian, Burmese and Vietnamese short stories. Laotian and Vietnamese short stories A Bar at the Edge of Cemetery and The Khaki Coat represent writers' attitudes towards their communist/socialist government. Laos and Vietnam share social problems such as poverty-famine, economic inequality and class struggle. Additionally, Laotian, Burmese and Vietnamese short stories also portray gender issues such as gender inequality, women's liberation movements, and the effects of war on women.

Older adults with low socioeconomic status who age in their communities can be invisible. These people have unique needs and while there are systems in place to provide services, there is always room for improvement. Programs are available to older Oregonians who are financially vulnerable to address their basic needs. This work investigates the current challenges to addressing these basic needs and areas where advocacy work could be applied for this population. Financially vulnerable older adults, especially those at or below the federal poverty line, face issues of food insecurity, problems finding adequate but affordable housing, the costs and accessibility of caregivers and medical care, and more. These realities have repercussions on health and quality of life for lower income older adults. These factors, additionally correlate in different ways with higher likelihood of negative health outcomes and greater likelihood of disability and death. Interviews with five professionals working to provide governmental assistance to this population reveal both what is being done and areas of improvement for these services.

The purpose of this study is to describe theoretically and applied zakat as an Islamic financial instrument that has one function to alleviate poverty. The function of zakat is in line with the goal of sustainable community economic development which is a form of global commitment in spurring economic growth for the better. This type of research is mixed methods using the Analytical Process Networking approach. The analysis technique of this research used purposive sampling. Objects in the study include zakat management organizations, academics, government, and practitioners. The findings of this study are that the priority of implementing zakat distribution in supporting sustainable community economic development is the social aspect with a rater agreement W=0.36444. Four strategies can achieve sustainable community economic development, namely: 1) Improving the quality and quantity of concern for community social institutions and stakeholders; 2) Improve disaster risk reduction comprehensively and efficiently; 3) Improving the quality of fair law enforcement 4) Increasing job opportunities and concern for community MSMEs.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, categorized as an industrial novel of the Victorian Age, reflects social conditions of the period like social injustices, class division, employer – employee relations and labor – capital issues depending upon the developments of the Industrial Revolution. While dealing with the issues of the period by using several opposites in content like 'north and south', 'employer and employee', 'power and poverty', the novel uses 'marriage' as an apparent theme in the narrative. What is more, mutual understanding and reconciliation between the sides, employers and employees, and apparently between the protagonists, Margaret Hale coming from the rural area and Mr. Thornton, the mill owner, are at the forefront as a theme in the novel. The novel uses 'the hands' metaphor between the employers and the working class representing reconciliation which is also a mark of Christianity. Moreover, this Christian virtue has overtones of Unitarianism in the process of negotiation, and the attitudes and thoughts of some characters.

Although the exact impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on the inclusion of vulnerable children and young people - nationally and internationally - is unknown, historical failures to address the link between poverty and low educational outcomes have reversed any progress hitherto achieved. This thematic issue speaks to the challenges faced by, and promises of inclusion made to, children and young people in the most vulnerable circumstances: It brings together a set of articles that detail the challenges educators, educational institutions, and students faced during the pandemic, while also discussing innovative approaches to include pupils in mainstream education and help them make progress against the odds. The pandemic has been an opportunity for both learning and unlocking potentialities toward innovative solutions. Taking stock of these solutions is important in preparing and strengthening schools, educators, and students to face the post‐pandemic era that is dawning, for public education systems need not only be seen as sites of frustration and challenge, but also as sites of promise and possibility.

Surely we live in the most exciting, fascinating and challenging, if also the most complex, frightening and confusing time in human history. Even the most affluent and comfortable people in the world now face the sudden confluence of the biggest global crises ever-in energy, finance and global warming, not to mention the continuing crises of poverty, war, ecosystem destruction, air, water and soil pollution, etc. As these great global crises converge upon us with terrifying speed and impact, we seem to be numbed to the staggering amounts of new money printed for government bailouts of banks and businesses in the West while public debt and unemployment soar. In the East we fear the loss of newly found wealth and newly created or entered markets. Everywhere we are paralyzed by the dire warnings of scientists about desertification, temperature and sea level rise that governments are reluctant to address, along with the enormous waste of massive resources in many places on warfare.

This study examines how successful the NYC's participatory budgeting (PB) has been in promoting social equity in its city council districts. Drawing on secondary data coming from NYC council data and American Community Survey, this study specifically examines how successful PB has been in engaging under-represented groups in its decision-making process, and in allocating funds equitably. Findings suggest that districts with a higher percentage of Asian-American and mixed race residents have a higher percentage of PB voters. The study finds that African–Americans, residents of Hispanic origin and women were not significant predictors of PB voters. Additionally, results indicate that districts with a higher percentage of people living below the poverty level and more Asian-American residents allocate more funds to PB projects. Other under-represented groups such as foreign born population and youth between 14 and 18 years of age did not have a statistically significant relationship with neither PB voters nor funding.

Latin American governments swiftly implemented income assistance programs to sustain families' livelihoods during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. This paper analyzes the potential coverage and generosity of these measures and assesses the suitability of current safety nets to deal with unexpected negative income shocks in 10 Latin American countries. The expansion of pre-existing programs (most notably conditional cash transfers and non-contributory pensions) during the COVID-19 crisis was generally insufficient to compensate for the inability to work among the poorest segments of the population. When COVID-19 ad hoc programs are analyzed, the coverage and replacement rates of regular labor income among households in the first quintile of the country's labor income distribution increase substantially. Yet, these programs present substantial coverage challenges among families composed of fundamentally informal workers who are non-poor, but are at a high risk of poverty. These results highlight the limitations of the fragmented nature of social protection systems in the region.

The impact of social inequality on children has enormous implications for young people throughout their life journey by negatively impacting their health, well-being and life chances. Following the democratisation of Brazil, significant change resulted in improvements to the social welfare and health care systems, which had begun to address long-standing social and health problems. This article critically explores the implications of current retrograde right-wing populist political government policies for Brazilian children within the context of efforts to reduce income inequality and improve the life chances of children. While recognising the enormous challenges of poverty, racial discrimination, precarity and socio-economic conditions, social work has recognised that the enactment of the profession requires political engagement and action against all inequality in professional practice. The implications of retrogressive policy are explored, and the authors call upon the profession globally to recognise these structural socio-economic challenges and question whether social work can afford not to be engaged in seeking change.

Abstract
Asset-based community development (ABCD) has become a popular approach to community work, with the claim that it can support high poverty communities to drive the process of community development. Yet there is little detailed evidence on the efficacy of the ABCD model, and how this relates to the political, economic, and social context in which the intervention is located. This article presents research from a community case study in Scotland to explore how Theory-Based Evaluation can clarify ABCD's hypothesis for change. Understanding ABCD's causal mechanisms allows a nuanced consideration of why it may have limited impact and highlights the importance of context when planning community interventions. The study demonstrates that ABCD can generate locally led activity and build social networks but is unlikely to achieve a 'tipping point' from activity generation into wider community association without pre-existing resources being in place. Community association relies on pathways of activism that support local action incrementally and require resources in support of this.

AbstractSubsistence markets are characterized by being composed of economic agents with low levels of education, marketing and management skills, and income. There are common in developing countries. Promote entrepreneurship in these markets is a strategy to reduce poverty, contributing to sustainable development goals. Small‐scale timber businesses (SSTB) in Misiones (Argentine) work in these markets. Innovation and marketing capabilities in SSTB are important factors in the growth of such businesses. Internal trust is a potential factor that could increase the effect of these capabilities, possibly limited by opportunism. This paper analyses marketing and innovation capabilities in SSTB, examining the possible moderating effect of trust (or opportunism) in the process of generating performance from these capabilities, using partial least squares with data of timber businesses in Misiones (Argentine). The findings indicate that SSTB present innovation and marketing capabilities that generate competitiveness, but the interactive influence of trust on the impact of these capabilities on performance is either neglected or negative, suggesting certain opportunism.

The United Nations'(UN) response to reports of UN personnel perpetrating sexual violence proclaims "zero-tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA)." Drawing on Carol Bacchi's "what's the problem represented to be (WPR)?" framework, this article unpacks how UN policy solutions represent the problem of SEA. It explores the discursive effects of the UN's problematization of SEA drawing on Sara Ahmed's analysis of audit systems and non-performativity within performance cultures. It scrutinizes the Secretary-General's reports on SEA data and policy documents, including training and risk assessment materials. The analysis shows that UN policy problematizes SEA as transactional sex, inevitable in conditions of poverty and gender inequality. Solutions individualize perpetrators as rule-breakers subject to discipline and generalize victims as among the many impacted by SEA globally. Such solutions situate the UN as the answer to, rather than cause of, SEA and restore a narrative of the UN as defender of the vulnerable.

Clifford Shaw's (1930) The Jack-Roller is a landmark study of naturalism, ethnography and crime. It is the 'own story' of Stanley—a young delinquent in Chicago. Shaw's series of ethnographic studies on delinquency sought to humanize deviance in opposition to pathological understandings of delinquency. The article looks on the representation of crimes committed and punishment received by young male and female delinquents. Shaw's argument focuses on structural inequalities and poverty as the cause of deviance; as a result, female delinquency was not explained by sexual promiscuity, although he failed to recognize young women's vulnerabilities. The second edition of The Jack-Roller introduced by Howard Becker (1966, Introduction. The Jack-Roller: A delinquent boy's own story, pp. v–xviii) redefined Shaw's study within the symbolic interactionist tradition. From the 1950s, Shaw and Becker disagreed over the writing of the deviant's 'own story,' the control of the narrative and the authorial voice. The article adds to the literature on narrative, female deviance and youth delinquency.