Suchergebnisse

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the relationship between rough sleepers, welfare and policy in the city of Liverpool, taking Liverpool City Council's Homelessness Strategy 2008‐2011 as a starting point. The paper takes as its premise the notion of rough sleepers as among the most vulnerable and marginalised in society, and questions how well they are protected by policy.Design/methodology/approachThe approach used is analysis and contextualisation of the strategy document in terms of welfare and criminological perspectives.FindingsThe paper posits that the city's European Capital of Culture Status for 2008 has acted as a springboard for further consumerist and regeneration‐driven aspirations, facilitated by restriction of entitlement to access city space for groups such as rough sleepers. The piece explores responses to rough sleepers and other "undesirable" city centre space users in Liverpool and contends that their behaviour and activities are criminalised. Ultimately, it is argued that the city, whilst it prioritises its goal of becoming a "world‐class city", fails to deliver in terms of its welfare obligations.Originality/valueIt is argued that the failure of the strategy to adequately consider the direct needs of rough sleepers renders them subject to other approaches, namely criminalisation. The article is valuable to both academics interested in aspects of social justice and practitioners engaged in policy making, in that it highlights some of the ways in which policy can fail to meet its basic requirements.

American 16- and 17-year-olds ought to be allowed to vote in state and national elections. This claim rests upon a line of argument that begins with an exegesis of legal and philosophical notions of citizenship that identify core qualities of citizenship: membership, concern for rights, and participation in society. Each of these qualities is present in rudimentary form in childhood and adolescence. Analyses of national survey data demonstrate that by 16 years of age--but not before-- American adolescents manifest levels of development in each quality of citizenship that are approximately the same as those apparent in young American adults who are allowed to vote. The lack of relevant differences in capacities for citizenship between 16- and 17-year-olds and those legally enfranchised makes current laws arbitrary, denying those younger than age 18 the right to vote. Awarding voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds is important, given the changing age demographics in the country, which have resulted in the growing block of older voters displacing the interests of younger Americans in the political arena. Finally, the authors critically examine claims that adolescents are neither neurologically nor socially mature enough to vote responsibly and conclude that empirical evidence and fairness suggest that 16- and 17-year-olds ought to be awarded the vote. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

Apartheid South Africa enacted physical, structural, and symbolic forms of violence on racially marked South Africans, and postapartheid South Africa has enacted ambitious—though also limited—laws, policies, and processes to address past injustices. In this article, the author traces the South African political histories of one self-defined group, the Lemba, to understand how the violence they collectively experienced when the apartheid state did not acknowledge their ethnic existence continues to shape their ideas of the promise of democracy to address all past injustices, including the injustice of nonrecognition. The Lemba are known internationally for their participation in DNA tests that indicated their Jewish ancestry. In media discourses, their racialization as black Jews has obscured their racialization as black South Africans: they are presented as seeking solely to become recognized as Jews. The author demonstrates that they have in fact sought recognition as a distinct African ethnic group from the South African state consistently since the 1950s. Lemba recognition efforts show that the violence of nonrecognition is a feature of South African multicultural democracy in addition to being part of the apartheid past. The author argues that the racialization of religion that positions the Lemba as genetic Jews simplifies and distorts their histories and politics of race in South Africa.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the current trend towards integrating employment policies against Amartya Sen's capability approach. By contrast with the conventional efficiency measures, it focuses on two main issues: to what extent does the integration of policies result in more performing programs when it comes to empowering the beneficiaries? What is the impact of integrated programs in terms of freedom to choose and capability for voice? These issues are investigated against a Swiss case study, i.e. the CII‐MAMAC project.Design/methodology/approachAn investigation relying on qualitative interviews conducted with 25 local agents and managers belonging to the various institutions engaged in the CII‐MAMAC project and an in‐depth documentary survey of the official texts (laws, directives, etc.).FindingsIntegrating employment policies is very ambivalent in terms of both empowerment and freedom to choose. On the one hand, it can certainly lead to an increased effort in terms of empowerment, while on the other hand, it may reinforce paternalistic views of the welfare state envisaging the beneficiary as an obedient subject, rather than an active citizen. All in all, integration cannot be seen as the panacea to problems of inefficiency and unfairness in social policies.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper focuses on one case study. Other in‐depth investigations are needed for issuing more general conclusions.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates that using the capability approach to assess public policies opens new paths for evaluation research in this field.

PurposeThe aims of this paper are to summarise the rapid expansion in the proportion of the elderly across the globe and to highlight the main factors causing this. Specific areas of the globe will be focused on in more detail before the authors discuss some of the key challenges and consequences of global ageing for global society.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a literature review of major trends and implications of population ageing across the globe.FindingsAs a consequence of the global demographics of ageing, societies are being confronted with profound issues relating to illness and health care, access to housing and economic resources including pension provision. We have witnessed an unprecedented stretching of the human life span. This ageing of the global population is without parallel in human history. If these demographic trends continue to escalate, by 2050 the number of older people globally will exceed the number of young for the first time since formal records began, raising questions of the power of the nation state in the context of global ageing and of the changing nature of the global society that is emerging.Originality/valueThis is an original paper that aims at reviewing the major population trends across the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa. The implications of demographic change are grounded in context of global changes that highlight social, economic and political implications of global ageing.

In this article, the authors respond to the Raudenbush and Maughan commentaries elsewhere in this volume. Stephen Raudenbush's principal criticism of the group-based trajectory model is that it reifies the idea that people follow a small number of immutable trajectories of behavior. This criticism reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the statistical role of trajectory groups. Trajectory groups describe the trajectory of behavior that has actually occurred; that behavior is not reified but real. There is nothing in a trajectory group model that asserts the behavior pattern is permanent, that no intervention can change it, or that it will continue beyond the time period of the observed data. The question of whether a group-based trajectory model or a hierarchal linear model can provide a better statistical representation of change is an empirical rather than philosophic question. The answer will undoubtedly be context-specific. Barbara Maughan's comments were cast as reflections from a developmental psychopathology perspective. The authors are in complete agreement with Maughan's observations about the importance of using diverse methods in studying developmental psychopathology and of unpacking the developmental trajectories of the constituent components of antisocial behavior. The authors would only add that the developmental origins of these behaviors should be studied from as early in life as possible. References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2005 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

The analysis of urban black politics requires examining both the magnitude of the problems confronting black office holders at the municipal level and the politico-social context within which black leadership seeks to confront these problems. With regard to the former, typically cities with black leadership are older, poorer, and blacker than most in the United States. Problems of poverty long predate black political ascendancy and are usually not mitigated by federal or state income transfer policies. These problems have a ripple effect, hurting ghetto business, black and white, and diminishing choice with regard to housing, education and health care. With regard to understanding the socio-political context within which urban black leadership is exercised, the important factors are: (a) the political and moral inaccessibility of certain policies theoretically available to white leadership (for example, the "planned shrinkage" of low income communities via cuts in service as an alternative to citywide cuts in services); (b) the fiscal strain of varying degrees of severity; (c) the apportioning of power among city offices as reflected in the structure of city government; (d) the character of state and federal initiatives; and (e) racism as it is manifested in institutional and affective forms. This paper explicates each of these factors, addressing the policy impact of urban black leadership and the capacity of the formal political system to promote ghetto reform.

Americans are living longer today than ever before in history. There will be about 31.8 million elderly people by the year 2000. The basic issue facing government today is how to provide or pay for quality care at an afford able price. It is recognized that institutionalization of the elderly is essential for some but inappropriate for others. Doc umentation is available to show that deterioration of patients' conditions can be linked directly to institutionalization and prolonged bed rest. Of the one million elderly persons in long-term care fa cilities, 17 to 25 percent are placed there because there are no alternative care services available to them. The Depart ment of Health, Education, and Welfare has undertaken a major effort to include home health and social services as part of a broad cost containment effort to prevent inappropri ate institutionalization. Home health and community services need to be linked with the total health care delivery system. There must also be an assessment system to assure that ap propriate and effective services are delivered to the right individuals. The Patient Appraisal, Care-Planning, and Eval uation (PACE) program, developed and tested by the Depart ment, provides such a system. In order to provide effective and quality services for the elderly, a partnership is required that will involve federal, state, and local governments, and providers and consumers of health services.

This country is not yet involved in an energy crisis of paralyzing proportions; nor is such a crisis inevitable. Yet, we have been drifting into "crisis country," and shortages will worsen if the nation does not face the fact that its energy budget is very much out of balance. Our national energy policies—inherited from an era of carefree abundance—call for promotion, growth and lavish use of energy. These policies are outmoded. In simple terms, our predicament today is that we are making less, but using more, energy. In order to avoid an energy breakdown, we must face disagreeable facts, abandon old habits and make the difficult choices in volved in shaping new policies. To make overall sense, energy decisions should be measured against some basic social goals upon which most of us can agree: (1) adequate supplies; (2) protecting the environment; (3) keeping prices reasonable; and (4) avoiding foreign policy problems. While imported oil can serve as a stopgap solution for our immediate energy problems, we cannot expect to continue raising the scale of our imports to match spendthrift demands indefi nitely. In the long run, the course which will best serve the important goals of energy policy is one that will attack the waste in our energy consumption and slow down growth. At the same time, it is essential that we mount the urgently needed effort for research and development of new, cleaner and more abundant energy sources.

Conflicting forces within society provide the framework of market and political decision. This article examines the three most pervasive mechanisms causing communicative turbulence and thus affecting decision. These three forces, media, education, and planning, are dealt with as separate entities in view of their related but somewhat disparate character. Taken together they do, however, hold out the greatest hope in meeting the critical problems of the day. And, taken separately, they can each create turbulence of such intensity as to threaten nearly all constructive efforts toward meeting the challenges of urban change and reformation. Today, the media are forsaking their objectivity and their public service responsibility for an interpretative role which deprives society of a sound information source. Television in its present aspects is an active deterrent to successful public education. Public education is foundering from a complex of confused programs and interpolations from the various special interest groups and the interpositioning of the courts between the citizens and their elected local school boards. Solutions suggested are both new and old. Higher education is suffering from the effects of the student population explosion, further complicated by special interest pressures and by unwise quasi-dictation from certain federal agencies. The planning process, as prerequisite to improved management in all areas of social activity, is beginning to show advances in effectiveness owing to accumulated experience, increased and assimilated data, and growing public acceptance, particularly in the field of urban planning.

Two questions arise in dealing with this issue: (1) To what extent is our existing military power relevant? (2) What forms of power are needed to enable the United States to achieve its objectives? The process for developing a relevant military posture can best be described as a rational, iterative method involving the interaction of four elements: (1) policy objectives which are derivatives of more transcendent national goals, (2) environment, (3) strategy, and (4) military capabilities. To the degree that we can control and utilize the interaction of these elements, we can begin to formulate positive responses to the two questions posed. Our social and political heritage weighs heavily against military power ever becoming an end in itself. A goal-oriented military force structured according to this process, while still responding to the realities of the environment, acts against such an eventuality. Military power remains relevant to the attainment of both domestic and international goals, since security from external threat is a precondition for internal development and progress. Until substantive changes in the international environment occur, our military power should take those forms which enable it to (1) deter nuclear attack on the United States; (2) contain the level of potential conflict with another nuclear power; (3) insure our national survival should nuclear war occur; (4) protect United States interests; and (5) promote the cause of peace abroad.

The great volume of arrests for public drunken ness—one third of all arrests—imposes a heavy burden on the criminal justice system. Because the offense is not considered serious, due-process safeguards are lacking in the arrest and prosecution of the offender. Little attempt is made within the jails to treat the complex medical problems of offenders, many of whom are alcoholics. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (hereinafter referred to as the National Crime Commission) recommended that drunkenness be handled not as a crime but as a public health problem. A treatment program was urged by the Commission which would provide co-ordinated, comprehensive services including supportive residential housing. The first part of the proposed program is a detoxification center which serves as an appropriate "sobering up" facility. Anyone may leave the center when sober; those who appear to need the services, however, will be urged to remain. With the emergence of court decisions barring the prosecution of alcoholics, the temptation will be to commit these people to civil facilities. Many constitutional problems are raised by civil commitment, especially in the absence of successful treatment programs. Professionals should make a concerted effort to protect the rights of alcoholics and should insist upon an allocation of funds which would permit the establishment of voluntary detoxification-treatment programs and supportive social and welfare services.

The history of criminal statistics bears testimony to a search for a measure of "criminality" present among a population, a search that led increasingly to a concern about the "dark figure" of crime—that is, about occurrences that by some criteria are called crime yet that are not registered in the statistics of whatever agency was the source of the data being used. Contending arguments arose about the dark figure between the "realists" who emphasized the virtues of com pleteness with which data represent the "real crime" that takes place and the "institutionalists" who emphasize that crime can have valid meaning only in terms of organized, legitimate social responses to it. This paper examines these arguments in the context of police and survey statistics as measures of crime in a population. It concludes that in exploring the dark figure of crime, the primary question is not how much of it becomes revealed but rather what will be the selective properties of any particular innovation for its illumination. Any set of crime statistics, including those of survey research, involve some evaluative, institutional processing of people's reports. Concepts, definitions, quantitative models, and theories must be adjusted to the fact that the data are not some objectively observable universe of "criminal acts," but rather those events defined, captured, and processed as such by some institutional mechanism.

In addition to formally constituted relationships among the states in the American system, there have also evolved several informal relationships. The latter supple ment the former in making co-operation effective among the states. Of the informal relationships, perhaps the oldest and among the most effective has been the movement for uniform state laws. Through this movement, now almost three-quar ters of a century old, agreement has been sought and fre quently reached on an impressive number of social and eco nomic issues deemed to require uniform treatment among the several states. This uniform treatment has been accom plished primarily through the preparation of drafts of legis lation by a conference on uniform state laws, meeting annu ally, in which all states are represented. These drafts encom pass the recommendations of technical specialists and affected private interests, and are sponsored before the state legisla tures for adoption. A broad measure of uniform agreement among a great majority of states has been accomplished by this approach in many subject-matter areas, even though some of the topics dealt with have been very technical in nature. Besides this trend in interstate relations there also have emerged closer working relationships in the field of interstate trade and in other areas. Through them a greater measure of consistency and agreement on the part of each state with respect to certain interstate problems has been effected.

The idea for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was originated by James Farmer in a 1941 memo randum calling for personal nonviolent direct action to end discrimination, and by a group of University of Chicago students who staged the first successful United States sit-in in 1942. Early chapters of CORE were college-centered be cause of the demands on time involved in its training projects and in the sit-ins and picket-lines themselves. CORE's early demonstrations took place mainly in the North and were mostly aimed at increasing public accomodations for the Negro. In the 1950's CORE expanded rapidly, forming chapters through out the South and widening its membership to include rep resentatives of all social classes. It also widened its goals by working for improvement in Negro employment and housing conditions. By 1964, CORE had an income of $900,000 and a professional staff of 137, as well as a solid nucleus of CORE chapters throughout the country. The dramatic sit-ins and Freedom Rides organized by CORE have had visible results in civil rights legislation and in increased public accomodation for Negroes. Its future efforts will be concentrated on training its burgeoning numbers of new members and on working for the improvement of Negro living conditions, voter registration, and employment. To accomplish its new goals, however, it will continue to employ its characteristic nonviolent direct action methods—Ed.