Abstract Throughout the twentieth century, Switzerland has been one of the OECD countries with the highest proportion of immigrants in its population. The aim of this article is to show how institutional factors have shaped the opportunities for change in immigration and immigrant‐employment‐related policies there in the 1990s. Whereas unemployment had remained low in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a marked increase at the beginning of the 1990s. Existing migration policies were considered a central cause of this increase, since the great majority of foreigners who had come and settled in Switzerland in the periods of economic expansion were low‐skilled, and were now over‐represented among the unemployed. The reforms undertaken in the field of immigration and integration policy to respond to these new problems have been determined by specific institutional factors: direct democracy, a defensive migration regime, the development of immigrant rights and the weak autonomy of the central state. These factors account to a large extent for the limited scope and specific pathways of policy reforms in these two domains.
The purpose of the present work is to widen the debate and encourage future research about the contribution that companies can make to alleviate social problems that have never been as pressing as today. This is the essence of Creating Shared Value (CSV), a new and ground-breaking concept coined by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer (2011) who sparked a global movement to redefine the role of business in society around a simple but powerful idea: business success and social progress are interdependent. My research has been divided into three chapters. The first one is about a brief literature review about the long and diverse history of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the primordial notion from which CSV started, going through the major contributors who have progressively drawn companies' attention to their moral duty to society. However, CSR falls foul of an intrinsic philanthropic motif that is conventionally at odds with the generation of profit or any financial gain. Therefore, in order to overcome this strong criticism, CSV is presented as a new and flawless approach overcoming all the various limitations of CSR, in which finally social issues represent new business opportunities, not as costly problems to solve. The second chapter is entirely dedicated to the Novartis case study to describe a practical application of the CSV model within a large corporation. Specifically, I analyse the project that Novartis embarked upon, called Arogya Parivar, a social program that offers effective, low-cost medications against infectious and chronic diseases that are prevalent in rural India. By the means of some strategic tools like the Pestle analysis, it might result quite arguable to embark upon an initiative like the one at consideration, as it targets a market that is going through a critical economic juncture and that is affected by political instability. However, it turns out to be a very strategic move when it comes to 'democratizing healthcare' at a profit, an objective that could significantly contribute to the prosperity of that social context and simultaneously lead the entire company to obtain a sustained competitive advantage. In the light of this, Novartis is presented as a starling example of a business implementing a CSV strategy that has been successfully co-creating sustainable financial and social value in India. In the end, I conclude with a forward-looking vision on the future of businesses, which to me is based on the democratization of commerce through an 'inclusive capitalism' that makes sure that globalization will benefit all. There is an incredible value lying right at 'the bottom of the pyramid', which requires though a paradigm shift in the thinking process of the private sector: the poor need no longer to be seen as an intractable problem of capitalism, but as a viable market, a source of innovation and significant market capitalization. In this view, Creating Shared Value represents the only opportunity to bring on the same track the success of a business and the welfare of the community. A company is a such a systemic entity in the context in which it takes action that pursuing adversarial objectives is something that does not benefit any of the parts involved. The business world does not only represent a source of labour supply or of provision of products and services, but also the fundamental engine for innovation and economic development that will unleash an enormous wave of growth for the entire planet.
Thriller is considered to be a subgenre of criminal fiction, in which the most significant role is played by fast-paced action, suspense, spectacular events. In case of so called international and political thrillers it should also be mentioned that their authors construct their plots around the problems such as global conflicts, international conspiracy, terrorism, the development of nuclear weapon. However, problems commonly mentioned by many authors of other subgenres of criminal fiction, are also present in the novels classified as thrillers. The collapse of well-being society, unstable interpersonal relationships, mental problems of an individual, childhood traumas are therefore often mentioned by the writers, although they do not usually constitute main subjects of the novels. The article concentrates on some examples from international and political thrillers, in which such issues seem to be equally important, written by the most popular Finnish authors of this particular genre, namely Ilkka Remes and Taavi Soininvaara
Розглядаються головні соціальні проблеми Греції: зайнятості та безробіття, бідності, загострені економічною кризою 2008–2009 рр. Наголошується на інтенсивності прояву проблем на рівні всього Європейського Союзу. З'ясовано зв'язок між характеристиками ринку праці та рівня освіти населення Греції. Продемонстровано наростання нерівномірності розподілу доходів населення внаслідок економічної кризи. Main social problems in Greece: employment and unemployment, poverty, deepened d by the economic crisis of 2008–2009 are considered. The intensity of problems compare to the European Union level are emphasized. The relationship between the characteristics of the labor market and the education level of the population of Greece are regarded. Growing of unequal distribution of incomes due to the economic crisis are shown.
Purpose – In their income inequality theory (IIT), Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett posit that income inequality is at the heart of social "ills". However, their critics argue that the hypothesis is biased and that "cherry picking" is used and support for the IIT is obtained by selecting a suitable sample of countries. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach – With a sample of 127 countries, the authors study to what extent the correlation between income inequality and social "ills" varies among countries sampled by geography, religion and income level.
Findings – The results of the analysis show that the strength and sometimes the direction of connections between inequality and social "ills" vary according to countries' cultural background and historical legacies. The IIT is not a universal law. However, it is on a firmer footing than competing explanations.
Originality/value – The results contribute both to material and methodological debate on consequences of income inequality.
