Suchergebnisse

Scott Lincicome and Alfredo Carrillo Obregon


It's a well‐​known fact in the nation's capital that politicians' rhetoric gets progressively detached from reality as a November election approaches. During a race's final few months, inconvenient things like "facts" and "logic" tend to get thrown out the window as candidates get desperate for votes.
On trade, at least, it seems President Biden has kicked off the 2024 "silly season" more than a year early.
In particular, Biden's recent proclamation announcing World Trade Week 2023 (and implicitly justifying his tariff‐ and subsidy‐​heavy "worker‐​centric" trade policy) stated that, "For decades, the middle class and thriving towns across America were hollowed out as good‐​paying jobs moved overseas and factories at home closed down." Were this claim in the middle of an early‐​autumn stump speech—from Biden or former President Trump—we may have given it a pass. But since the claim comes in the middle of a World Trade Week proclamation from the sitting president of the United States, we feel compelled to correct the record.
First, the only "hollowing out" of the American middle class over the last few decades has been due to U.S. households moving up the income ladder, not down. For example, Census Bureau data show that between 1990 and 2019—the era of "peak globalization"—the share of middle‐ and low‐​income U.S. households (adjusted for inflation) have both declined, while the share of U.S. households annually earning $100,000 has increased (see Figure 1). Research on individuals' wages shows much of the same thing.











Wage and income gains have been solid for lower‐​income Americans over this same period. The Congressional Budget Office, for example, finds a 55 percent increase in the inflation‐​adjusted incomes of U.S. households in the bottom 20 percent. These improvements would be even larger after accounting for taxes and transfers. (As noted in the introduction of the new Cato Institute book, Empowering the New American Worker, household income gains are likely not owed to a substantial increase in two‐​earner families since 1990.) According to the most recent calculations from economist Michael Strain, moreover, inflation‐​adjusted wages increased between 1990 and 2022 by 50, 48, 38, and 39 percent at the 10th, 20th, 30th, and 50th (median) percentiles, respectively (see Figure 2).











Second, while it is undeniably true that the United States has fewer manufacturing workers today than in the 1970s or 1980s and that most jobs (even male‐​dominated, blue‐​collar ones) are in services, American industrial jobs have not all been "shipped overseas." As explained in a 2022 Cato paper, globalization undoubtedly eliminated some U.S. manufacturing jobs, especially labor‐​intensive, low‐​wage industries like textiles/​apparel and furniture, but the main, long‐​term drivers of U.S. manufacturing job‐​losses are productivity gains and a shift in U.S. consumption from goods to services. Thus, countries around the world—including ones with large and persistent trade surpluses and active industrial and labor policies—have experienced their own, if not larger, declines in manufacturing jobs, and recent increases in U.S. manufacturing jobs have been accompanied by stagnating U.S. manufacturing productivity.
Furthermore, as explained in Empowering, there are still manufacturing jobs available in the United States—for those who want and can qualify for them:
Contrary to the conventional wisdom…, the current U.S. manufacturing job situation is not due to a lack of demand for these workers (caused by globalization or automation, for example): in the first quarter of 2022, there were around 850,000 unfilled manufacturing job openings, and new research from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute estimates that this figure could hit 2.1 million by 2030.

A year later, even after a significant cooling of the U.S. manufacturing sector, job openings there are historically elevated. At the same time, the Census Bureau reports that very few prime‐​age American workers are out of work because they can't find a job (Figure 3).











Third, President Biden ignores, as we explained in a 2022 paper, the tens of millions of American jobs in services and in manufacturing that are today dependent on trade and globalization:
[A] 2020 report found that trade—imports and exports—directly or indirectly supported approximately 40.6 million jobs in both goods‐​producing industries (agriculture, construction, manufacturing, etc.) or services‐​producing industries (wholesale/​retail trade, transportation, professional services, etc.). Imports alone support an estimated 17.3 million American jobs in transportation, logistics, wholesale and retail trade, and other services industries, which comprise more than 10 percent of total employment in the sector. And almost half of all dollars spent on imported goods go to American workers rather than to the foreigners producing the goods. Thus, new research finds that, while only 6 percent of U.S. firms in manufacturing and services are goods traders, these firms account for half of economy‐​wide employment today and supported 60 percent of all new net jobs created after 2008, primarily through the establishment of new businesses. [See Figure 4.]
Meanwhile, foreign direct investment supported approximately 8 million jobs in 2019. By contrast, these same American workers are harmed by protectionism: higher input costs, for example, typically mean reduced wages or unemployment in the consuming company or industry at issue.












Surely, not every American worker has come out ahead since the United States became more integrated into the global economy, but—even leaving aside the important consumption benefits that globalization has provided all Americans (even ones who lost jobs from import competition)—the narrative of broad, trade‐​driven declines in middle class jobs and lifestyles is simply false. As the Financial Times' Martin Wolf put it in April (citing the latest academic research), "contrary to the widespread view, it is untrue that liberal trade is a dominant or even significant cause of the woes of the working classes of western societies." Indeed.
Finally, similar conclusions may be drawn regarding American communities—including ones once dependent on manufacturing. For example, a 2018 Brookings Institution report found that 115 of the 185 counties that had a disproportionate share (20 percent or more) of manufacturing jobs in 1970 had successfully transitioned away from manufacturing by 2016. Of the remaining 70 "older industrial cities", 40 had exhibited "strong" or "emerging" (above‐​average) economic performance over the same period. Thus, by 2016 almost 85 percent of American communities once dependent on manufacturing—and thus potentially "hollowed out" by new import competition—had moved or were moving beyond their industrial past. That a handful of U.S. "mill towns" hadn't adjusted in more than four decades reveals other (and deeper) problems than simply exposure to the modern global economy. For example:






"Labor Market Conflict and the Decline of the Rust Belt" https://t.co/WN5RINmBF1"Rising foreign competition plays a more modest role quantitatively, and its effects are concentrated in the 1980s and 1990s, after most of the Rust Belt's decline had already occurred." 👀 pic.twitter.com/4c9xWaWgud— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) May 12, 2023




Anecdotal evidence supports these conclusions. Former textile town Greenville, South Carolina is (along with its next door neighbor Spartanburg) today a bustling metro area with a diverse economy—including several multinational manufacturers. Just up the interstate, Hickory, North Carolina—a former textile and furniture hub that was the poster‐​child for the persistent ravages of the so‐​called "China Shock"—has just been named by U.S. News and World Report as the "best affordable place to live in the United States" for 2023–24. (Speaking of the China Shock, the authors of those influential studies have since acknowledged that, once you consider the substantial consumer gains from China trade, just 82 of 722 U.S. commuting zones, representing 6.3 percent of the U.S. population, would experience net welfare losses. Other scholars, of course, challenge the China Shock approach and conclusions more broadly.)
For Hickory, the USNWR highlights that manufacturing continues to account for most of the area's jobs, yet "the industry is [now] diversified, with plastics, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals playing a bigger role." Moreover, Google and Apple have established data centers in the area, and service‐​sector businesses are growing. Recognizing the area's potential, Appalachian State University will open a Hickory‐​based campus this August.
Coming in second on the same USNWR list is former steel town Youngstown, Ohio, which is "in the midst of a cultural and economic renaissance" driven mainly by service‐​sector businesses.
So much for being "hollowed out."
None of this means, of course, that certain American communities and workers don't face real challenges in today's globalized world. But alleging that trade caused these ills not only ignores the gains that the vast majority of Americans have experienced since the United States opened to the world decades ago, but also distracts from—as Empowering details—"the panoply of federal, state, and local policies that distort markets and thereby raise the cost of health care, childcare, housing, and other necessities; lower workers' total compensation; inhibit their employment, personal improvement, and mobility; and deny them the lives and careers that they actually want (as opposed to the ones DC policymakers think they should want)."
Blaming trade for these and other policies' failures might make for a good campaign soundbite, but that doesn't make it any less silly—especially during World Trade Week.

Esta tesis tiene dos motivaciones principales. La primera está fuertemente conectada con el concepto feminista "lo personal es político". Esta frase se popularizó con la publicación de un ensayo de 1969 de la feminista Carol Hanisch bajo el título "Lo personal es político" (Hanisch, 1969). "Lo personal es político" — también denominado "Lo privado es político" —enfatiza que las experiencias que tienen las mujeres, que a menudo son entendidas como personales por la sociedad y por ellas mismas, pueden tener un vínculo con la cultura patriarcal y desempeñar un papel en la opresión y discriminación hacia la mujer. En otras palabras, los "problemas personales" de las mujeres (por ejemplo, los vinculados con el sexo, el cuidado de niños, el acoso sexual, el abuso sexual, el microsexismo en el trabajo, las diferencias salariales con sus homólogos masculinos, o sentirse responsables de la mayoría de las tareas del hogar, entre otros) son todos problemas políticos que precisan de intervención política para que se generen cambios. Tomando este pensamiento como punto de partida, esta tesis doctoral plantea dos hipótesis. En primer lugar, este estudio defiende la existencia de un género dentro del cómic que se denomina «cómic testimonial feminista». Estos cómics evidencian—sobre todo a través de historias personales— ciertos patrones dentro de la cultura patriarcal que a menudo se normalizan: patrones de opresión o violencia hacia las mujeres. Cuando existe un caso de discriminación, abuso o cualquier acto de misoginia hacia una mujer, este tiende a ser invisibilizado al entenderse como un incidente aislado. Sin embargo, existen patrones de comportamiento en la sociedad que vinculan todos estos actos de violencia. Los orígenes de estos patrones están en la propia cultura patriarcal. La opresión sistemática —no solo hacia las mujeres sino hacia todos los grupos discriminados— , siempre tiene sus raíces en cómo el poder ha sido históricamente mantenido por ciertos grupos y no por otros y, por lo tanto, es la cultura que emana de esta historia la que sostiene la opresión sistemática al normalizar creencias dañinas. Paralelamente, los cómics testimoniales feministas no han sido debidamente valorados anteriormente por su aporte a la concienciación sobre esta situación. La invisibilización de este movimiento es consecuencia de la invisibilización de la opresión de las mujeres como cuestión política y social. En segundo lugar, este estudio analiza cómo los cómics son un medio ideal para generar empatía y, por lo tanto, para promover el cambio social. Las teorías y estudios sobre el lenguaje visual y el lenguaje del cómic, unidos al cómic siendo históricamente relacionado con subculturas que se centran en la problemática de los grupos marginados y discriminados, son los pilares que sustentan esta hipótesis. Este segundo enfoque nace de un interés personal por el lenguaje visual —y, específicamente,el lenguaje de los cómics— y por tratar de responder a la cuestión de cómo los cómics han estado vinculados a la cultura underground y a los grupos discriminados durante tanto tiempo. Esta investigación propugna que los cómics son un medio ideal para promover la empatía. Por tanto, se puede suponer que es un gran medio para enseñar valores sociales a los lectores. Por tanto, en este estudio se analiza cómo funciona el lenguaje de los cómics y si genera empatía de manera efectiva. Además, no hay duda de que el campo del estudio del cómic necesita de más aportaciones académicas ya que cada día gana más interés en el público. ; Esta tese ten dúas motivacións principais. A primeira está fortemente relacionada co concepto feminista de "o persoal é político". A frase fíxose popular coa publicación dun ensaio de 1969 da feminista Carol Hanisch baixo o título "O persoal é político" (Hanisch, 1969), tamén chamado "o privado é político", subliña que as experiencias que teñen as mulleres, que a miúdo son entendidas como "persoais"; pola sociedade e por elas mesmas, poden ter un vínculo coa cultura patriarcal e desempeñar un papel na opresión e discriminación das mulleres. Noutras palabras, os "problemas persoais" das mulleres (por exemplo, os vinculados co sexo, os coidados infantís, o acoso sexual, os abusos sexuais, o micromachismo no traballo, diferenzas salariais cos seus homólogos masculinos e sentirse responsables da maioría das tarefas do fogar, entre outros) son todos problemas políticos que precisan da intervención política para que se produzan cambios. Partindo desta reflexión, esta tese de doutoramento aborda dúas hipóteses principais. En primeiro lugar, o estudo defende a existencia dun xénero dentro do cómic que denomínase como "cómic testemuñal feminista". Estes cómics expresan, principalmente a través de historias persoais, certos patróns dentro da cultura patriarcal que adoitan a normalizarse. Estes son patróns de opresión ou violencia cara ás mulleres. Cando se produce un caso de discriminación, abuso ou calquera acto de misoxinia cara a unha muller, pódese invisibilizar como incidente illado. Non obstante, existen pautas de comportamento na sociedade que vinculan todos estes actos de violencia. As orixes destes patróns son a propia cultura patriarcal. A opresión sistemática "non só cara ás mulleres, senón cara a todos os colectivos discriminados", ten sempre as súas raíces en como o poder foi mantido históricamente por certos grupos e non por outros. Polo tanto, é a cultura que emana desta historia a que sustenta a opresión sistemática mediante a normalización de crenzas nocivas. Así mesmo, o cómic testemuñal feminista non foi debidamente valorado anteriormente pola súa contribución á concienciación sobre esta situación. A invisibilidade deste movemento é consecuencia da invisibilidade da opresión da muller como cuestión política e social. En segundo lugar, a banda deseñada é un medio ideal para xerar empatía e, polo tanto, para promover o cambio social. As teorías e estudos sobre a linguaxe visual e a linguaxe da banda deseñada, xunto cunha historia da banda deseñada relacionada coas subculturas que se centran na problemática dos colectivos marxinados e discriminados, son os piares que sustentan esta hipótese. Esta segunda aproximación parte dun interese persoal pola linguaxe visual "e concretamente pola linguaxe do cómic", e de tentar responder a como a banda deseñada estivo tanto tempo vinculada á cultura underground e a grupos discriminados. A hipótese que responde a este fenómeno é que a banda deseñada é un medio ideal para promover a empatía. Polo tanto, pódese supoñer que é un gran medio para ensinar valores sociais aos lectores. A través deste estudo analízase como funciona a linguaxe da banda deseñada e se xera empatía de forma eficaz. Ademais, non hai dúbida de que o campo do estudo do cómic precisa de máis achegas académicas xa que cada día cobra máis interese por parte do público. ; This thesis has two main motivations. The central one is strongly connected to the feminist concept "the personal is political". The phrase was popularized by the publication of a 1969 essay by feminist Carol Hanisch under the title "The Personal is Political" (Hanisch ,1969), .The "personal is political", also termed "The private is political", emphasises that the experiences that women have and often are understood as "personal" by society and by themselves, may have a link to patriarchal culture and play a part in womens oppression and discrimination. In other words, women's personal issues (e.g sex, childcare, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, microsexism at work, not being paid the same as their male colleagues and feeling responsible of the majority of the household tasks among others) are all political issues that need political intervention to generate change. Taking this thought as a departure point, this doctoral thesis addresses two main hypotheses. Firstly, this dissertation defends the existance of a genre within comics which, due to its testimonial and feminist value, will be referred to as «feminist testimonial comics». These comics express, mainly through personal stories, certain patterns within the patriarchal culture that are often normalized. These are patterns of oppression or violence towards women. When there is a case of discrimination, abuse or any act of misogyny towards a woman, it can be invisibilised by being understood as a isolated incident. However, there are behavioural patterns in society that link all these acts of violence together. The origins for these patterns are the patriarchal culture itself. Systematic oppression not only towards women but towards all discriminated groups has always their roots in how power has been historically held by certain groups and not others and thus, it is the culture that emanates from this history that holds systematic oppression by normalising damaging beliefs. Concurrently, the feminist testimonial comics have not been properly addressed before for their contribution to awareness on this situation. The invisibilisation of this movement is a consequence of the invisibilisation of womens oppression as a political and social matter. Secondly, comics are an ideal means to elicit empathy and, therefore, to promote social change. Theories and studies about visual language and the language of comics joined with a history of comics being related to subcultures that focus on the problems of marginalized and discriminated groups are the cornerstones that support this hypothesis. This second approach is born from a personal interest in visual language — and specifically comics— and how comics have been linked to underground culture and discriminated groups for so long. One of the hypothesis for this phenomena is that comics are an ideal mean to promote empathy. Therefore, itcanbeassumedthatitis a greatmeans of teaching social values to readers. Through this study there will be a focus on how the language of comics works and if it elicits empathy effectively. Without doubt, there is a need to study the languages of comics, a form of artistic communication that is gaining more interest from the public and the academic world every day.

The reform of Child foster care system has recently been one of the priority areas of Lithuanian Social Policy. This process began in our country more than ten years ago following the adoption of the relevant legislation and was largely influenced by the Ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1993) and by country's membership in the European Union (since 2004). However, this process is found to be too inefficient and slow. In spite of some positive developments in the area, each year a large number of children - more than two thousand - are still deprived of parental care, and at the end of the year there are almost ten thousand of them in such situation (which amounts to 2 percent of all children living in Lithuania). Almost half of these children are provided with institutional care, other children are fostered in families (the vast majority of whom are relatives) and only a small part – in family communities.Researchers, social policy experts and representatives of institutions have been expressing criticism towards institutional care for several years.Although international and national laws state that institutional care may only be established for a child as a last resort after all possibilities to accommodate the child in a foster family have been exhausted, statistics show that in many cases because of the underdeveloped system of family foster care and lack of alternative forms of help, the accommodation of a child in a boarding institution is the first and unique means (according to the statistics, in 2014 40% of children were housed in institutions). It is known that the majority of Lithuanian children's boarding institutions are not suitable for positive child socialisation, not because of material conditions (a large part of the institutions have been restructured), but mainly due to the fact that these structures cannot provide a close family environment, nor they are able to meet the needs of a child in fulfilling relationships with adults. Recent studies have demonstrated that the intellectual and psychical development of children living in boarding institutions slowed down not insomuch due to congenital factors or central nervous system damage, but to the quality of relations and the lack of efficient interaction with adults. The accommodation, supervision and certain security are ensured for the children but they are not protected from mental deprivation that continues in other forms. The researchers point out that attachment disorders and conditions of care at home can cause a variety of children's health, cognitive, emotional, moral sphere issues (Browne, 2009, Wheten, Osterman 2014).Although a lot of attention in Lithuania is drawn to a child foster care, the amount of research on this topic is not numerous, especially regarding the topic of de-institutionalisation process. Most scientists explored the institutional child care characteristics and the impact on child development and socialisation. Žalimienė (2007) conducted institutional child care quality research, Zbarauskaitė (2012), Lesinkienė and Karalienė (2008) et al. conducted studies on children living in residential institutions in the light of the attachment theory. These revealed the negative impact of institutions on child's psychosocial development, possible behavioural and emotional problems. Snieškienė and Tamutienė (2014) did the comparative analysis of different forms of childcare from the point of view of human rights – they compared children living in the institutions and in foster families. The study reported that the implementation of indicators of children's rights are more favourable in the case of family foster care, besides, children experience fewer socialisation problems and are more likely to positively evaluate their living environment and relationships with adults than those living in boarding institutions. Vitkauskas (2010) also examined the child fostering problems from the child protection perspective. Poviliūnas (2014) who has investigated enforcement of child's welfare policy in Lithuania, argues that it is necessary to speed up the process of de-institutionalisation, and to ensure individualisation of each step, taking into consideration specific interests, needs of each child and other circumstances. Bobinienė and Voitechovič (2012) described possible prevention and intervention measures of child care de-institutionalisation and emphasised the importance of social work with social risk families. Preventive work with families is also highlighted by Pūras (2012) and other authors.This paper analyses current situation of de-institutionalisation of children's boarding institutions that has started a few years ago in Lithuania, as well as the position, preparation and participation of social workers of those institutions in this process; an example of those who already work in new circumstances is presented as a good practice. The following methods of research have been used: the analysis of the literature, the analysis of legislation, interviews with experts.The purpose of empirical research (interview) was to identify the position of social workers working in children's boarding institutions, their preparation for de-institutionalisation and participation in the process. To this end, narrative interviews with seven experts from four different children's boarding institutions were conducted, namely: two institutions in big cities that are similar in the number of accommodated children and in principles of work organisation, one institution in a small town, and one children's boarding institution where the de-institutionalisation had already started. The interviews and analysis were carried out according to the Grounded theory methodology – Strauss, Corbin version (2008). Several experiences and insights expressed by the interviewees are summarised in this paper and, despite the limitations of the study, results reflect certain trends significant to this process. Of course, a more detailed examination of the situation requires further research.The analysis of academic literature, research, and legislation revealed that de-institutionalisation of children's boarding institutions is a complex and gradual process that involves not only the shutdown of stationary institutions, but also requires the establishment of alternative help services, development of preventive work with families in order to reduce the number of children getting into the foster care system. Therefore, incompetent and unprepared actions may bring risks to the children in question: they can be forcibly sent back to live in their own problematic families or held up with them, mechanically transferred to other places of residence, regardless of their actual situation, needs and best interests. On the other hand, it is observed that in Lithuania the de-institutionalisation process is too slow and inefficient. Although the reform process was initiated more than ten years ago, there are still some problematic points: no adequate legal framework, lack of clear and unified "Action Plan" to be implemented in different regions, there is no clear financial mechanism. Moreover, the plan to reduce young children's accommodation in institutions and to decrease the number of social risk families and their children failed; there is still shortage of social services for families, there is no legal regulation of help for a family in a situation of crisis (currently only families included in the Social Risk Record can receive help), etc.The expert interviews showed that professionals lack information and discussions on the topic of de-institutionalisation within boarding institutions, with external experts as well as representatives of responsible authorities. On the other hand, no initiatives from the informants themselves were observed. Ignorance increases anxiety among workers: they raise questions and doubts about the reform process, they remember unsuccessful projects, worry about their jobs or changes in duties. For this reason, it seems that social workers are skeptical about the de-institutionalisation and even oppose it. Hence, all the informants have confirmed that this reform is necessary because the institutions are not equal to family environment and do not correspond to the needs of children. Furthermore, we have seen that those, who have a strong motivation to work with children, are willing to continue their work under new conditions, and those who have weak motivation have more doubts and are not sure that they will conform to the new system.The research highlighted most important factors that could lead to a successful implementation of the reform: dissemination of information, adequate professional training/retraining of specialists, increasing of social workers' salaries and financial resources in general, analysis of foreign experiences, preparation of detailed projects, oriented to the needs of children and promotion of a coherent preventive work with families.To sum up, it can be said that attempts to reform the child foster care system in Lithuania have indeed been considerable. However, programs, regulations, concepts, strategies have so far been viewed as recommendations and up to now there have been relatively few real steps to reform the existing arrangements.According to the analysed material, it can be deduced that the de-institutionalisation process lacks political will and the unitary participation of all subjects involved and finally that of the entire society. That is why one gets the impression that, like in the fable of S. Krylov, the "carriage" does not start moving. Hopefully representatives of the academic community will get more and more involved in this process with research and scientific insights, recommendations, texts and curricula of the teaching programs, etc. ; Straipsnyje nagrinėjama vaikų globos namų deinstitucionalizacijos problema Lietuvoje, pateikiamos kai kurių globos namų socialinių darbuotojų įžvalgos ir patirtys šiuo pereinamuoju laikotarpiu. Institucinė vaiko globa pastaraisiais metais kritikuojama kaip ydinga vaiko visapusiškam vystymuisi ir ugdymui, tačiau pastebima, kad prasidėjusi sistemos pertvarka yra sudėtingas procesas, pastaraisiais metais daugiausia stringantis dėl politinės valios stokos, dalyvaujančių subjektų (valdžios institucijų, globos namų, bendruomenių, mokslininkų) aktyvaus ir darnaus veikimo bei bendradarbiavimo trūkumo. Kartu akivaizdu, kad vaikų globos namų deinstitualizacija yra nacionalinio lygmens problema ir šis procesas neįmanomas be didesnio visos visuomenės įsitraukimo ir žmonių sąmoningumo pokyčių.

This study uses a randomized experiment to evaluate the impacts of the training and internship program piloted in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu counties by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance and the Government of Kenya with support from the World Bank's Kenya Youth Empowerment Project. The program provided three months of classroom-based technical training coupled with three months of internships in private firms to vulnerable youths between ages 15 and 29 years, with vulnerable being defined as those out of school and/or with no permanent job. The analysis in this paper is based on survey data collected before the program started (July 2012) and 15 months after the program ended (July 2014). The results of the impact evaluation show that the program has been successful in placing youths in paid jobs and has contributed to an increase of 15 percent in current employment among male participants. The evaluation also found that the program has had positive effects on wage earnings, especially those of females and among older males, with wages increasing by about K Sh 5,000 for males and by K Sh 7,500 for females. With a total unit cost of K Sh 97,000 per beneficiary, an estimated K Sh 6,768 monthly wage for males and K Sh 9,623 monthly wage for females, the program's benefits exceeded the costs for males and females. The program also encouraged youths to participate in either (certified) skills training or an internship program, and helped to increase the probability of participants' opening a bank account and accumulating savings (for females).

It is increasingly recognized that young people are central to issues of crime and violence in South Africa. While research, policy and programming have historically focused on children and adults, there is a growing emphasis on youth as both victims and perpetrators of violence. This report presents the findings of a country assessment commissioned by the World Bank to support its incorporating human rights into youth violence programming and policy dialogues in Mexico and South Africa project. This aims to encourage policy dialogue on youth and violence with the South African government and other stakeholders. The report: (i) examines the current situation of youth violence in South Africa; (ii) summarizes the policy response by the government and the prevailing legal and institutional framework; (iii) identifies innovative programming by civil society organisations; and (iv) identifies entry points for deeper policy dialogue and improved interventions to address youth violence.

Many countries with scheduled elections this year face a difficult choice in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic: how to balance public health considerations with holding a free and fair election. Learn more from NDI Senior Associate and Director of Electoral Programs Pat Merloe and Program Director Julia Brothers as they talk about democratic back-sliding during this crisis, electoral integrity, and ways civil society organizations can still make a difference.
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Pat Merlow: In the public health crisis, especially where governments are weak or people are suspicious of governments, trusted voices are really important to get out accurate information.
Julia Brothers: Hello, this is Julia Brothers. I'm the Program Director for Elections at the National Democratic Institute. Welcome to Dem Works.
JB: Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic is sewing insecurity among the public, which can be exploited by authoritarians to consolidate power in sideline democratic institutions. It also poses severe technical, political, and social threats to elections themselves.
In many countries, the effects of the virus may strain citizen relationships with government and elected [inaudible] officials, intensify political tensions and the potentials for violence, disenfranchise voters and increase conditions for democratic backsliding.
Today I'm joined by Pat Merlow, senior associate and director of electoral programs at NDI. Welcome to the podcast, Pat. Thank you for being here.
Pat Merlow: Hi, Julia.
JB: So the COVID-19 crisis is causing enormous challenges for every country, including those with scheduled elections this year. What are the biggest concerns deciding whether to hold or postpone elections?
PM: Elections must be held in ways that safeguard public health and in ways that ensure genuine opportunities for the electorate to vote. Universal and equal suffrage, which is in every modern constitution, means inclusion, not exclusion. So we have to also hold elections in ways where the political parties and the candidates have a fair chance to compete for votes without a playing field that's being manipulated or intentionally or unintentionally tilted in one party's favor.
So striking a proper democratic balance of public safety and credible election processes is different and really difficult in every country. Depends a lot on the level of economic and technological development in the country on the nature of social cohesion versus divisions in the country and political polarization.
So in many countries where NDI works, the concern is whether authoritarians will rush through elections with undue public health risks in order to gain an electoral advantage or to postpone elections under conditions that advantage their attempts to gain and maintain more power.
A second troubling circumstance in countries that are unstable or prone to various kinds of violence, where constrains of the public health crisis can be used by malign actors to flood the population with this information... I mean we're hearing this term infodemic; also hate speech and other means to scapegoat religious or ethnic minorities, LGBTQ people or women in order to gain political advantage.
That's not all the countries where NDI works, but even those are neither authoritarian nor fragile states, the COVID-19 crisis is still posing gigantic challenges both on the public health and to electoral integrity.
JB: Right. I mean these factors present themselves as challenges to electoral integrity, not just where there might be bad faith actors that are trying to utilize this crisis to consolidate power, but also just in addressing basic issues related to how to make sure that you're maximizing participation during a public health crisis.
What are some of the factors that these countries would need to think about in terms of actually implementing elections either during a public health crisis or immediately after.
PM: There really are a number of factors that have to be considered. So the first thing that comes to everybody's mind of course is what do you do? Can people actually go to polling places or should they be under some sort of the shelter in place lockdown-like circumstances.
That doesn't just affect whether to vote. That really has to do with whether you can register to vote safely or not. In countries where there are not a high level of electronic engagement where the digital divide falls really widely across broad swipes of the population, gathering those people into places to register to vote or to vote is really the only means of doing it. So the question of a postponement becomes really an operative question.
Then we're concerned with what are the conditions for the postponement and how does that interrelate with the declarations of states of emergency, whether they're being done properly with the kinds of constraints on limitations on powers or whether they're being done in ways that usurp power.
JB: Yeah. I think one of the major concerns, especially thinking about citizens being able to participate in the process, is that during a pandemic, if voters are concerned about going out to vote, chances are that that's not going to be an equal distribution among the population, where there are a vulnerable populations that will be more impacted.
You'll see disproportionate levels of low turnout among certain communities like senior citizens or persons with disabilities or women who disproportionately have the burden of childcare and are in a situation where you don't have options for even temporary childcare because of social distancing regulations.
Well, this seems like a good place to take a short break.
For more than 35 years, NDI has been honored to work with courageous and committed pro-democracy activists and leaders around the world to help countries develop the institution's practices and skills necessary for democracy success. Welcome back.
JB: So we talked a bit about the postponements that we're seeing around the world in terms of electoral timelines. Are election observers relevant during electoral delays, especially if there's restrictions on movement in the population if they're under some form of shelter in place or lockdown.
PM: Yeah. So Julie, you mentioned that NDI works in more than 70 countries and in fact, working with nonpartisan citizen groups and coalitions and various organizations is one of the hallmarks of NDI's work over more than 35 years now and certainly the 25 years where I've been involved.
There's a network of citizen election observers, there are nine of them in various regions of the world and they're amalgamated in more than 250 organizations from 90 countries. Those organizations have been sharing best practices and ideas about what can be done.
So let me just quickly mention a couple of them. There are four areas where they have been able to focus. One are ways to assist; that is, to assist public health agencies and the electoral authorities to bring about safe elections and fair elections.
The second is ways to address authoritarian opportunism and how states of emergency and various conditions are being used by those who would usurp the citizens of power.
The third are ways to address disinformation, hate speech and attempts at hyperpolarization that influence and create unfair conditions for elections.
The fourth way is to address, as you mentioned earlier, examples of where a health crisis can lead to disenfranchisement or further tilt the playing field so that it's an unfair circumstance.
JB: Yeah, I mean you mentioned especially tracking the authoritarian leaders who are potentially taking advantage of the health crisis to grab power and subvert democracy and in some unstable countries, this can threaten heightened instability.
What can election servers be doing to address that or what are they currently doing to address that?
PM: The most important thing is citizen election observers in all kinds of countries have been time tested and over the series of elections cycles two, three, even four in many countries, they've built national networks and they've established themselves as trusted voices.
In a public health crisis, especially where governments are weak or people are suspicious of government, trusted voices are really important to get out accurate information from the health authorities, accurate information from the electoral authorities about what to do, where to do things and so on.
Also, they have networks that can collect information; even during lockdowns. You and I were in a conversation with one of the partner organizations with whom we work in Sri Lanka just last week. The head of that organization is working on a civil society task force.
That task force is considering how to gain access to women's shelters, to older people's homes, to places where there's foster children's care, drug treatment centers, and so on because these are vulnerable populations that are being hit hard by the crisis.
One of the things that he pointed out in our conversation is that the government is taking advantage of the postponement of the election for electoral advantage by handing out dry goods to citizens and even medical supplies through the political party rather than as an impartial governmental service to the people.
So the question that he posed was, even during lockdown, is there a way that our network of over 1,000 people could begin to document this and report it so that we can lift up to the public the nature of this problem that's coming about and see if we can't get some accountability and get them to cut back.
So even during a lockdown, it's possible for the citizen observer groups to do things that are extraordinarily relevant.
JB: Yeah, I mean it seems like there are certainly opportunities for electoral observers to be monitoring the kinds of things that they would normally be looking at in a pre-election period when their elections are delayed... Issues related to is the government still helping to create conditions for a credible and competitive process in the midst of a public health emergency. Are conditions being put in place to ensure that marginalized populations are not sidelined from the process.
But it also kind of expands it a little bit too in that there are these potentially other issues that that groups may consider looking at. Like you mentioned, how health resources are being distributed and what kinds of policy changes are being made and how were those being made?
What's the decision-making process around things like delaying the elections, around emergency voting procedures? Are they inclusive? Are all the parties being brought in to them? Is civil society be brought into these discussions and taking a look at some of these new conditions that observers may otherwise not necessarily be monitoring in a pre-election period.
I think the other issue here is there are constraints here in terms of potentially being able to deploy a bunch observers out into the field to collect information if you're in a lockdown situation.
So it's been interesting talking with groups to see how they're thinking creatively about how they can collect some of this information remotely. What kind of data exists that you can collect whether it's open data sources from the government looking at budgets, looking at how budgets are changing and how resources are moving.
You mentioned looking at disinformation, being able to monitor social media and seeing what data could be collected from that.
It's been interesting to see how citizen election observers around the world are getting creative and still doing their jobs while being sometimes trapped at home.
PM: Absolutely. You mentioned the disinformation... One of the things that we've been seeing is that in Russia for example, they have been making use of the COVID crisis to begin to track people even more carefully to introduce facial recognition technologies and cameras.
The term that's been throwing around is cybergulags being created there. With China's facial recognition technologies and the way that's been used to suppress the weaker minorities, China has been introducing that working with governments and other places in the world to try to get that into voter registration so that you have biometric voter registration data that includes facial recognition technology.
So in this era, getting access to government decision making, getting access even to the health data and disaggregated by gender, by vulnerable groups and so on is part of the work that election observers normally do. Demanding open electoral data can lead easily to the same kinds of advocacy around open health data.
One of the other things I thought that you've touched on that's interesting is the states of emergencies and the relationships between that and postponement. There's more than 45 countries at this point that have postponed elections at the national and sub-national level.
Not all of them are problematic by any means, but in a lot of countries, there have been extended states of emergency without any end date. The postponements have no end date on them.
One of the things that election observers can do is to join with... And many of them are human rights organizations and bringing about the rules that have been established in the international arena for limiting the duration of states of emergencies, that the measures that are taken have to be proportionate to the nature of the threat to the nation to bring those issues up and do advocacy around them and to help those of us in the international arena be aware of where these problems are in various countries.
JB: With that, I think we'll take a quick break. We'll be back after this quick message.
One of the things that Secretary Albright has said is that it's absolutely essential for young people to understand that they must participate and that they are the energy behind democracy.
You can hear more from other democracy heroes by listening to our Dem Works podcast. It is available on iTunes and SoundCloud.
So before the break, we were talking about the role that citizen election monitors are playing in the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on electoral integrity. Are there other considerations that citizen election groups should be thinking about in the need for electoral integrity in their countries?
I'm thinking especially related to how groups can make sure that their observers are safe while also being able to collect information and an advocate for critical processes and good governance.
PM: That's really a critical question, Julia. A good example that comes to mind is in Mali, which has had very few reported cases of COVID-19, there was a parliamentary election just two weeks ago. The government, for national security reasons, has had to postpone those elections for almost two years and they were really in a phase of saying we need to push it ahead. In fact, there had not been a reported COVID-19 death until just a few hours before the election date.
So it went forward and the citizen observers with which NDI has been working in that country in the weeks leading up to that advocated that the polling stations had to have masks for the staff; had to have gloves; had to have hand sanitizers or hand washing stations because hand sanitizer is hard to get in a lot of places in Mali.
They made sure that their observers had those materials themselves. I think 1,500 observers went out to polling stations across the country. In their own headquarters and gathering data, there was social distancing that took place and they did a lot of checking in with their observers about how they were doing, how they were feeling over the course of the day.
So one thing that the citizen observers can do is to join with organizations that are health advocates for those places where either voter registration is about to take place or voting is about to take place to ensure that the conditions minimize the risk.
We just saw this over this past weekend in the elections that were held in South Korea. Whether or not you might think that the election should go forward, there was a country where there's a lot of public confidence in what the government has been doing and in the integrity of the election authorities and voter turnout was not terribly affected by this.
So there is something that can be done immediately and as you have mentioned, there are numerous things that can be looked at by citizen observers without ever really leaving their homes or their headquarters. One of those, as you mentioned, is disinformation. Our partners in Georgia, for example, have uncovered a link between Russian propaganda, which has gone up around disinformation around COVID-19 and linking it to destabilizing public trust in Georgia's government.
There's a really interesting report that they came out with just last week on that front. So how does COVID-19 and elections interface is something that can be explored in a number of dimensions.
JB: We've talked mostly about the work of nonpartisan civil society organizations and their own countries that are confronting this challenge. Is there a role for international election observers on terms of electoral oversight during a public crisis, especially knowing that they will have some of the same if not even more constraints than citizen election monitors?
PM: It's a very difficult role at the moment for international election observers. We've been in touch with our colleagues at the African Union and the European Union, at the United Nations and Organization of American States and so on. Many of them have been bringing teams home from countries. Some of them have been postponing or canceling sending teams out.
At the same time, there are a number of things that international observers can do. As you mentioned, you can look at things from a distance. You can review the legal framework, which is part of what every international election observation and citizen observers do.
You can compare what has been done over the past few cycles of elections, where recommendations have been made, whether those recommendations were acted upon or whether you find the same problem repeating in the next report and prioritize the issues that you might look to and even be able to inform diplomats and others about things that they should be raising with government.
You can look at disinformation and other information disorder, hate speech and so on, from afar. Certainly you can tune in with what the critical people inside a country who are working on these issues have been doing. You can conduct some long distance interviews with key people in the citizen groups and in the election authorities and the political leaders to learn their opinions about what the state of play is in the country and their concerns going forward.
But when it comes time to put people on the ground, we have to look at travel restrictions. We have to look at countries where foreigners have been seen as people who bring in COVID-19 and there's been violence against them; so security of observers is important. And the numbers of people who may go or where they may be deployed depending upon hotspots in the country and so on.
So this is something that over the course of this year will be a challenge. And the next thing will be a challenge for international election observers is that as so many elections are being postponed, they're being postponed probably towards the end of this year or the beginning of next year, which already has many scheduled elections. So there may be an overwhelming demand for which the supply of financial and human resources runs short.
JB: It does seem like at this point, especially knowing that international election observers in a lot of the places just can't deploy right now, one of the roles to play here is really trying to raise the voices of the citizen groups on the ground that are able to actually do some on the ground observation.
Also keeping in mind, especially for the places we're concerned about authoritarian overreach, thinking about how we can use some of these international mechanisms to push back on democratic backsliding and mitigate tensions in places where it could potentially be a bit more unstable with the current situation.
PM: You're right. That's the contribution that the international community can do, too... To really amplify the voices of the citizenry and to augment their efforts to bring about respect for civil and political rights.
When you have a network of thousands of citizens who have taken the time and the effort to go out of their homes, into the street, to look at what the nature of the threats of violence or vote buying or intimidation to document how these things of disproportionally driven women or restricted women's political and electoral participation, would they have taken the time to go into polling stations, sometimes under threat or coercion?
These people have become a solid core of citizen empowerment in so many countries around the world, and each of those citizens, of course, is using WhatsApp and other ways of talking and they're influencers within a country.
They can gather information, they can give accurate information out, but as they report up through their networks, if there's good collaboration between the reputable citizen groups and the credible international election observers and the international community more broadly, we can use that cooperation that we've been working on over the years to try to bring attention, even when it's hard to shine a light directly on problems in countries that are being affected by this crisis and facing political challenges and stress.
JB: Well, thank you again, Pat, for joining us. I think this has been a particularly relevant discussion. I'd also like to say thank you to our listeners.
To learn more about NDI or to listen to other Dem Works podcasts, please visit our website@www.ndi.org
PM: Thank you, Julia and thank you to the listeners.





Democracy (General), Elections Podcasts Listen democracy

Adam N. Michel and Vanessa Brown Calder


First introduced by Republicans as part of the Contract with America, the child tax credit (CTC) has won wide bipartisan support as an income‐​transfer program to fight poverty, a subsidy to middle‐​class families, and a tool to boost declining fertility, yet it is poorly suited to meet each of these goals.
Republicans doubled the CTC in their 2017 tax reform, and Democrats temporarily expanded it again in their 2021 COVID package, increasing the dollar value and removing the de facto work requirements. Republicans and Democrats agree that the CTC should be larger, the only disagreement is on how much the credit should be enhanced. There are bipartisan efforts in the House and the Senate to expand the CTC, while some states have moved forward with their own child tax credit programs.
The CTC is a costly transfer program for taxpayers with kids who do not need government handouts and who do not meaningfully change their fertility decisions in response to larger payments. As an anti‐​poverty program, the CTC is poorly targeted, and without income requirements, regular no‐​strings‐​attached payments from Washington are counterproductive for the most vulnerable families.
There are better ways to support families by reducing the regulations and other barriers that increase the costs of core child‐​related goods and services. Without substantial deregulation, increasing direct government payments to families will simply lead to higher prices rather than expanded supply.
By making payments through the tax code, the CTC allows Republicans to support spending they would otherwise oppose since tax credits operate outside the annual Congressional appropriations process. Democrats support the CTC because they recognize it for what it is, a subsidy program administered through the tax code. Congress should repeal the CTC and use the savings to lower tax rates for Americans broadly. It certainly should not be expanded.
History of the CTC
The child tax credit was first introduced in 1997 as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act. It quickly increased from $400 to $1,000 while lowering the earned income requirement from $10,000 to $3,000. The credit was further expanded in 2017 as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which increased the credit to $2,000 per child, lowered the earned income threshold, and raised the beginning of the income phaseout from $110,000 to $400,000 for married taxpayers ($75,000 to $200,000, single). The 2017 reform also eliminated the child and dependent exemption, which was more than offset by the $1,000 increase in the CTC for a taxpayer at or below the 25 percent income tax bracket (about $150,000). Along with a majority of the other changes enacted in 2017, the CTC and additional exemptions return to their previous values in 2026.
In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act temporarily increased the CTC for just one year to $3,600 for children under 6 years old and $3,000 for children under 18 years old. The full credit was also made temporarily fully refundable by removing the earned income requirements, and half of the credit was delivered as advance payments directly into taxpayers' bank accounts each month. Figure 1 shows the maximum CTC amount from its introduction through 2026 for 0–5‑year-olds, including the scheduled reduction under current law.











Is the Child Tax Credit an effective subsidy?
The CTC provides a large subsidy to families with children. Unlike the earned income tax credit (EITC), cash aid (TANF), food aid (WIC, SNAP), and public health care (Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program), the CTC is primarily a subsidy for middle‐ and upper‐​income Americans. As currently designed, the CTC is not primarily an anti‐​poverty program. Only 19 percent of child tax credit expenditures are claimed by the lowest quintile of income earners. Jacob Goldin and Katherine Michelmore find that 87 percent of filers in the bottom income decile of AGI are completely ineligible for the CTC, and "the majority of filers in the bottom thirty percent of the distribution are only eligible for a partial credit."
Arguments for expanding the CTC usually assume that the cost of raising a child has increased and affordability has broadly declined. Relatedly, some proponents worry that U.S. fertility is below the replacement rate and believe that expanding government subsidies will meaningfully increase women's lifetime fertility. Still, others focus on how larger income transfers could reduce poverty. The CTC is poorly targeted to meet each of these goals.
Poverty
Because the CTC phases in for filers with income over $2,500 at a 15 percent rate, the credit creates an incentive to work by adding a 15‐​cent subsidy to each additional dollar earned, until the full credit is reached. As is the case with the EITC, the work incentives are often partly or fully offset by the "income effect," under which the subsidy allows a worker to meet his material needs with fewer hours worked.[1] Expanding the dollar value of the credit will have income effects that at least partially offset the work incentive.
To better target the lowest income families, others propose permanently increasing the credit and eliminating the earned income requirement, as was temporarily done in 2021 during the pandemic. Proponents claim that such a permanent change would reduce child poverty by more than 40 percent. Such estimates fail to account for how newly eligible families will change their behavior.
Taking behavioral effects into account, Kevin Corinth, Bruce Meyer, Matthew Stadnicki, and Derek Wu estimate that the larger CTC without income requirements would lead 1.5 million workers to stop working (83 percent of whom would be the sole earner in the household). The net effect of expanding the CTC would reduce overall child poverty by 22 percent and would not reduce deep poverty (50 percent of the poverty line). Results from the Joint Committee on Taxation found that the expanded CTC would result in similar reductions in labor supply.
Corinth and Meyer estimate that any reductions in poverty from a larger CTC that is targeted at families without market income would come at a fiscal cost that is almost double that of other programs, such as food stamps. The CTC is neither an efficient nor an effective policy tool to reduce child poverty.
Cost of raising a child
Although Americans frequently cite affordability concerns as an obstacle to fertility, analysis indicates that family costs have not outpaced incomes and that the cost of raising a child has fallen, not grown, over time.
For example, Angela Rachidi compares family incomes to family‐​related costs and finds that family incomes have grown steadily since the 1980s and costs have generally not outpaced them. Instead, Rachidi suggests that family's increasing expectations around—and consumption of—various goods and services (home size, vehicle ownership, clothing) drive perceptions of affordability decline. Moreover, various measures of social support and community support have declined in ways that may make it more difficult to raise a family.
Economist Jeremy Horpedahl similarly finds that the annual cost of raising a child in the United States has fallen from 21.8 percent of median family income in 1960 to 12.6 percent of median family income in 2020 for two‐​earner families, with the 2020 figure constituting the lowest cost yet (Figure 2). For single‐​earner families, the annual cost of raising a child in the United States fell from 27 percent of median family income in 1960 to 23.7 percent of median family income in 2020.[2]











Some proponents of the CTC argue that the presence of children reduces a family's ability to pay and thus deserves an offsetting subsidy, regardless of whether the cost of raising a child is increasing or decreasing. While children do come with additional costs, so do many other decisions individuals and families make, such as living in a high‐​cost area for economic or educational reasons.
Lastly, subsidies could be counterproductive as they will tend to be captured as higher prices of child‐​related services without supply‐​side reforms to expand access. Although evidence indicates that family affordability is not broadly in decline, the price of core child‐​related goods and services could certainly be lower with regulatory reforms.
Fertility
U.S. fertility is below‐​replacement level and converging with the low fertility rates of other countries. Subsidies for families with children, including the CTC, have been proposed as one way to mitigate this decline. Such financial transfers or cash benefits are especially ineffective at reducing fertility decline.
A review of studies with experimental or quasi‐​experimental designs finds that financial transfers result in a short‐​term increase in births while leaving the long‐​term total unaffected. A United Nations working paper finds that financial transfers' "impact on completed fertility is rather small… Furthermore, the effects of financial transfers usually have the biggest influence on fertility of the low educated, low‐​income, or jobless for whom public transfers are of higher value."
As stated elsewhere, these low‐​income households rarely qualify for the CTC's middle‐ and upper‐​income benefit. The CTC is thus doubly ineffective at increasing fertility: not only do financial transfers have a small or insignificant effect to begin with—altering fertility timing rather than total births—but the CTC does not target the demographic that would be most influenced to increase their fertility behaviors in the presence of financial benefits. Targeting low‐​income households comes with other costs to labor force participation and more fundamental questions about the prudence of governments' involvement in fertility decisions.
A better way?
Although the CTC fails at many objectives, there are numerous options for state, local, and federal policymakers interested in supporting families and making family life easier. To increase affordability, reforms to housing, food, formula, and childcare policy should be enacted. To reduce stress, increase opportunity, and reduce the cost associated with buying a home in the "right" neighborhood, further reforms to educational choice must be adopted.
Parents typically have limited financial resources, but just as importantly, limited time. Enacting reasonable independence laws and reforming home supervision laws would reduce the time cost of parenting while providing growth opportunities for school‐​age kids. Overly burdensome car seat requirements, with little associated safety benefit, should also be reconsidered.
Adopting these reforms would do much more for parents and children than expanding the CTC. On the other hand, expanding CTC spending without deregulating the goods and services that parents demand would be counterproductive and regressive. Ultimately, Congress should repeal the CTC entirely.


[1] Incentives depend on whether a person is not working or working to begin with, and whether the worker's earnings place them on the phase‐​in, plateau, or phase‐​out region of the benefit schedule. See here.


[2] Where single‐​earner families includes both single parent families and married couples where one parent is in the labor force.

This report presents the final evaluation of a project called: "Sammen for barn og unge – bedre samordning av tjenester til utsatte barn og unge.» Norwegian Social research (NOVA) was commissioned by The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) and The Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion (BLD) who stood behind the project. The basic idea has been that the various local authorities involved in assisting children and youth at risk, have to have well coordinated and functional ways of collaborating, if they are to offer the aid the youngsters need. The main goal of the project has been to develop functional models for interdisciplinary collaboration at the local level. These models can serve as inspiration and guides for other municipalities and be developed further. The three year project, started in the end of 2008, has supported fifteen selected municipalities in their efforts to develop good interdisciplinary models for such collaboration. In addition to financial support the participating municipalities received assistance in their efforts to raise the level of competence, internal control, secure support from administration and amongst the employees, clarify placement of responsibility and improve the quality of meetings etc. Each municipality tried out their own version of an interdisciplinary collaborative model. Some models had a narrow scope, while others included virtually all the local authorities that are involved with children and youth. The present evaluation includes six of the fifteen municipalities. These are: Haram, Harstad, Moss, Risør, Bærum and Fet. They were chosen to illustrate the variation in size and geographical location amongst the participating municipalities. Elaborate descriptions of the models are available online at: http://www.ks.no/Sammen-for-barn-og-unge The municipality of Harstad had a model that included a wide scope of participants; the public health centers, school health services, child welfare services, mental health care services, psychiatric services for children and youth, police, nursery schools, schools and The Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration. They established an interdisciplinary "preventive" forum that played a central role in their local project. The forum worked with improving cooperation between the involved stakeholders and the implementation of a handbook in collaboration, was important. Haram had a program that included several developmental projects. They targeted the organization, management and structural aspects in the municipality. A key partner in their developmental efforts was the office "Tiltakstjenester for barn og unge", which included local health centers, child welfare services and the educational – psychological services. They also worked with other agencies, local and governmental. The municipality of Risør based their project on a previous one that had targeted youth at risk of becoming addicted to drugs. In their project they intended to coordinate the services for children and young adults, and developed a model for coordinating local measures to prevent crime, called the SLT- model - to strengthen primary preventive action. The development of a guidebook was central in their work. All services connected with children and young people are potential partners in their model. Moss had a model that aimed at implementing an overall childhood plan. The project was organized through the establishment of interdisciplinary teams in three city districts. The teams work with cases at the system level. Fet participated with a model where the interdisciplinary groups were organized around each school and childcare center. There are three main elements in their model. One is a resource team, in which an educational- psychological professional is added to the unit's own group. The second are interdisciplinary groups, consisting of the unit leader, an educational- psychological resource, Child Welfare Services, school nurse and the resource team. The interdisciplinary group visits the schools and child care centers every 4-6 weeks. The third is a coordinating working committee. The members of the committee are the leaders of each of the units that work with children and youth. Participating in the project are the health services, the educational- psychological services, Child Welfare Services and the coordinator for interdisciplinary collaboration for children and youth. During the project period this municipality also collaborated with Oslo University College on teaching 80 employees about interdisciplinary interaction. Bærum participated with a model that consisted of collaboration between the Child Welfare Services and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. They have focused on developing their joint expertise and intensifying the collaboration between ten employees in each of the two services. They intend to transfer their good experiences to other collaborative constellations. While they were developing their competences, they also worked together on cases that involved other agencies. Network meetings and kickoffs were essential to getting the interaction started. The aim of the evaluation has been to evaluate and describe changes in the interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaboration during the project period. Only 14-18 months passed between the first and second collection of data, which limits the likelihood of there having been any major changes in the municipalities. Organizations take time to change, and a year and a half is a short time in this respect. Municipalities usually also have several projects going on at the same time, which makes it difficult to know what is caused by which process. In our evaluation we have looked at criteria that characterize good types of cooperation. Amongst these are; regular meetings, clear allocation of responsibility, formalized routines, management follow-up and the correct skills and knowledge. Other characteristics of collaborative competence are knowledge about each others routines, work practices, duty of confidentiality and informing. The intent has been to understand which processes the employees have participated in and their experiences. We collected data for the evaluation twice. The first round was in the fall of 2009 in four of the municipalities and in January 2010 in the last two municipalities. The first round consisted of individual interviews and focus groups with the employees, and also gathering information from statistics and documents. The second round was the winter / spring of 2011. In February/ March we sent an electronic questionnaire with questions about how the employees in the involved services, in all six municipalities, experienced the interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaboration. In the spring of 2011 we did a new round of individual and group interviews. After the first round of data collection NOVA wrote a status report about how the collaboration was perceived in the municipalities. Some of the municipalities used that Paper as a basis for the continuation of their efforts and development of their models. The first stage of the study showed that there was a lot of variation between the municipalities regarding how far they had developed their models for cooperation. There were some common experiences that can be summed up as follows: The participating services overall had high level of expertise. It was challenging to get the professionals working in "the field" committed to collaboration. All the municipalities experienced that there wasn't enough time for extensive collaboration. Collaboration wasn't always useful. Many had established routines for regular meetings, but the challenge was to make them meaningful, constructive to improving the services to the clients. Several were discontent with the results of the meetings. In general improvement of cooperational skills was required. There was discontentment with how the duty of confidentiality was handled. There was a lack of knowledge about and understanding of the partner's services, responsibilities and roles. There was a need for more knowledge about one's own organization and possible offers in the municipality. There were few who knew about the project "Sammen for barn og unge" at the time of the first round of data collection. The municipalities had made some changes between the first and second round of data collection. Some of the common experiences at the end of the project can be summarized as follows: Many employees were involved in interdisciplinary cooperation. Most were aware of the importance of collaboration in creating better services for the users. Several formal routines for collaboration have been established. Within the municipalities there were differing experiences of the changes in routines. Some experienced many changes in routines, while others didn't notice that any changes. Collaborative skills had improved through courses and the practice of collaboration itself. The respondents were generally more favorable to collaboration. Several focused on collaboration, and had a better understanding of its importance. The answers show that management can improve their facilitation of collaboration. Not everybody interpreted the changes that happened as results of the project, often they focused on the changes themselves. In the second data set there were fewer differences between the municipalities with regard to how collaboration was experienced. There were large variations in the degree interdisciplinary collaboration had contributed to an increase in perceived efficiency. A main challenge has been to incorporate collaborative routines amongst all employees. Staying focused increases the chances of success, without focus a model can deteriorate easily. With time and patience many eventually succeed at having constructive meetings, even if they felt meaningless in the beginning. There was less dissatisfaction with the routines for giving feedback. (During the project a new law about the Child Services duty to give feedback to someone who made a report was passed.) Most reply that collaboration has been on the agenda for years. Those who say they do experience a difference say it's mainly due to the common platform that has been established. Obstacles to interdisciplinary collaboration can amongst other things be due to differences in professional cultures, unrealistic expectations, lack of knowledge about the others, complex routines, lack of skills needed for collaboration, limited feedback, management's insufficient prioritization etc. To overcome such obstacles it is important to grasp the attitudes, knowledge and various types of cooperation that exist. The following factors were considered important in our study: Openness: Cooperation regarding clients and the development of good relations are dependent upon inclusion of the involved parties and that sufficient and meaningful feedback is given. Meeting places: The employees appreciate joint courses and places to meet. Herein joint conferences and other get-togethers are also included. Personal relations: To make interdisciplinary cooperation work, people need to spend time getting to know each other. There is an evident need to get to know the people in the other fields and authorities, and do things together. Formal structures: are necessary to anchor the collaborative efforts. Formal structures such as meetings, contribute to enhance competence in teamwork. Thereby it becomes easier to clarify roles and premises, in addition to giving an opportunity to discuss disagreements. Management's responsibility: It is very important that the attention to cooperation and enabling of it is a management priority. Management must lay the foundation for, motivate and follow up collaborative possibilities. Collocation: Those who are located together say it contributes to strengthening cooperation and establishing collaboration. Client participation: Involving parents contributes to good results. It is especially beneficial when children, youth and parents / guardians participate throughout the whole process. Tools: Manuals and guides can be very useful tools when used. A common intranet could be used more actively for communication. ; Denne rapporten er en sluttevaluering av kommuneprosjektet Sammen for barn og unge – bedre samordning av tjenester til utsatte barn og unge. Prosjektet ble satt i gang for å prøve ut tverrfaglige samarbeidsmodeller i 15 kommuner, rettet mot barn og unge som er avhengig av flere tjenester på kommunalt nivå.NOVA har evaluert arbeidet i seks av kommunene. Evalueringen viser at det er avgjørende å ha en fast struktur på samarbeidet, med klar ansvarsfordeling og klare oppgaver. Videre må man kjenne til hverandres ansvarsområde, klargjøre forventninger, vise respekt for de ulike fagområdene, bygge opp personlige relasjoner, samt utarbeide skriftlige rutiner som sikrer gode tilbakemeldinger.

La formulación de políticas para satisfacer las necesidades de cuidado de la sociedad nunca había sido más urgente que ahora. En muchas partes del mundo desarrollado, la creciente participación de la mujer en el empleo remunerado ha socavado el modelo tradicional del padre como sostén de la familia, el cual descansaba sobre la disponibilidad de una esposa dependiente que permanecía en el hogar para cuidar de los hijos y los parientes discapacitados, mayores o frágiles. Con este documento se busca comprender la forma en que se configuran las políticas del cuidado. Se examina la dinámica existente entre la forma en que el público formula demandas de cuidado y las distintas maneras en que las políticas de cuidado se crean y aplican en diferentes contextos nacionales, regionales e históricos. El énfasis de este estudio recae principalmente en las políticas de cuidado infantil para las madres y los padres trabajadores de Europa, pero también se abordan las políticas dirigidas a las personas discapacitadas y a los proveedores de cuidado no remunerados. El objetivo de este trabajo es entender la relación, en determinados contextos, entre (i) la articulación de las demandas con base en las necesidades de aquellos que brindan o reciben cuidado; (ii) los marcos políticos y la lógica de las políticas relativas a las necesidades de cuidado; y (iii) los resultados de dichas políticas para distintos grupos de beneficiarios y proveedores de cuidados. El documento se divide en dos secciones principales. La primera se ocupa de las diferentes formas en que los actores políticos enmarcan o delimitan las políticas de cuidado en Europa. La sección comienza con un breve repaso de las teorías y los conceptos que sustentan el documento, para luego proceder con la aplicación de dichas teorías y conceptos en un análisis sobre la forma en que se interpretan las necesidades de cuidado en las demandas de aquellos que representan a los proveedores y beneficiarios del cuidado. Se definen cinco áreas de demandas: conciliación entre el trabajo y el cuidado; apoyo a las personas discapacitadas; cuidado no remunerado; exigencias de flexibilidad por parte de los sindicatos; y cuidado suministrado por migrantes. Según la autora, las demandas de cuidado en estas áreas, tomadas en su conjunto, amplían las exigencias de reconocimiento, derechos y redistribución de responsabilidades en materia de cuidado y apuntan hacia un marco general de justicia social. El análisis de la formulación de políticas en Europa revela que algunos de los discursos relacionados con las nociones de justicia social se ven reflejados en la política del cuidado, pero también muestra que el marco predominante es el de la política del cuidado como forma de inversión social en capital humano. En este documento se examinan las oportunidades y limitaciones políticas relativas al surgimiento de derechos sociales para los padres e hijos en Europa. En la segunda parte del documento se examinan las políticas en diferentes contextos nacionales a partir de las siguientes interrogantes: ¿qué factores llevan a la formulación de las políticas? y ¿qué significa esto para los resultados que pueden obtenerse en relación con las desigualdades sociales? Los factores analizados son el cambio demográfico, la inversión social, la generación de empleo y la naturaleza mundial de la política del cuidado. A manera de conclusión, se señala en el documento que las políticas del cuidado en Europa están impregnadas de tensiones y contradicciones dimanantes de las perspectivas tanto de los proveedores como de los beneficiarios del cuidado. Por una parte, se han registrado importantes cambios en los diez últimos años. Por ejemplo, el reconocimiento del potencial de empleo de aquellos que hasta ahora han permanecido marginados del trabajo remunerado, como las madres y las personas discapacitadas; el reconocimiento de la capacidad de los hombres para suministrar cuidado; el aumento de las responsabilidades del Estado como proveedor de cuidados, en especial el cuidado infantil; y el reconocimiento de los parientes proveedores de cuidado. Por la otra, estas oportunidades han venido de la mano con limitaciones, entre ellas el sentido de obligación de las madres y las personas discapacitadas de conseguir trabajo a menudo en las partes más precarias del mercado laboral; una mayor comodificación de los servicios de cuidado; y la producción de padres y proveedores de cuidado, personas mayores y discapacitadas que ejercen su opción como consumidores en el mercado del cuidado, en lugar de hacer oír su voz como ciudadanos en el ámbito público del cuidado. Estos acontecimientos también han tenido como consecuencia la creación de una fuerza laboral migrante pobremente remunerada. En esta situación, el desafío clave radica en utilizar aquellos espacios en los cuales el cuidado se ha politizado y se han adquirido derechos para fomentar el valor político, social y económico del cuidado como componente fundamental de las demandas de justicia social nacional y transnacional. / ; Abstract. The question of how to devise policies to meet the care needs of society has become more urgent than ever. In many parts of the developed world, women's increasing involvement in paid employment has undermined the traditional male breadwinner model which assumed the availability of a dependent wife at home to care for children, disabled family members and older, frail relatives. This paper seeks to understand how care policies are shaped. It looks at the dynamic between how constituencies make care claims and the ways in which care policies are constructed and delivered in different national, regional and historical contexts. The focus is mainly on childcare policies for working parents in Europe, but the purview here also includes policies for disabled people and unpaid carers. Its aim is to provide an understanding, within particular contexts, of the relationship between (i) the articulation of claims based on the needs of those who provide and/or receive care; (ii) the political frames and logics of policies which attend to care needs; and (iii) the outcomes of such policies for different groups of care receivers and providers. The paper is divided into two main sections. The first focuses on the ways different political actors frame care policies in Europe. It starts with a brief review of the theories and concepts that inform the paper. It goes on to apply these to an analysis of how care needs are interpreted in the claims of those representing the providers and receivers of care. Five areas of claims are identified: work/care reconciliation; disabled people's support; unpaid care; trade union demands for flexibility; and migrant care work. It proposes that, together, claims in these areas expand demands for recognition, rights and the redistribution of responsibilities in relation to care, and that they look to an overarching frame of social justice. The analysis of policy making in Europe shows that some of the discourses attached to notions of social justice find reflection in care policy but that the dominant frame is that of care policy as a form of social investment in human capital. The paper examines political opportunities and constraints in the emergence of social rights for parents and children in Europe. The second part examines policies in different national contexts by asking which issues drive policies and what this means for outcomes in terms of social inequalities. The issues examined are demographic change, social investment, employment creation and the global nature of care policy. In conclusion, the paper finds that care policies in Europe are imbued with tension and contradiction from the perspective of those who provide and receive care support. On the one hand, the last decade has seen important changes: for example, the recognition of the employment potential of those previously marginalized from paid work such as mothers and disabled people; the recognition of men's caring capacities; the rise of state responsibilities for care provision, especially in child care; and the recognition of family carers. On the other hand, these opportunities have been accompanied by constraints, including a sense of obligation by mothers and disabled people to find work often in the more precarious parts of the labour market; the increased commodification of care services; and the construction of parents/carers, older and disabled people exercising choice as consumers in the care market, rather than exercising their voice as citizens in the public domain of care. Such developments have also had the consequence of creating a poorly paid migrant labour economy of care. In this situation the key challenge is to use those spaces in which care has become politicized and rights have been won to advance the political, social and economic value of care as a crucial component in claims for national and transnational social justice. / ; Résumé. Comment concevoir des politiques qui puissent répondre aux besoins de soins des sociétés? La question se pose en termes plus urgents que jamais. Dans bien des pays développés, les femmes sont de plus en plus nombreuses à avoir un emploi rémunéré, ce qui a affaibli le modèle traditionnel de l'homme soutien de famille, qui supposait la présence au foyer d'une épouse à charge s'occupant des enfants ainsi que des parents handicapés ou âgés et fragiles. L'auteur de ce document cherche à comprendre comment sont conçues les politiques des soins et de l'assistance aux personnes. Elle examine la dynamique entre les revendications des différents publics en la matière et la façon dont les politiques sont élaborées et appliquées dans divers contextes nationaux, régionaux et historiques. Elle s'est intéressée principalement aux politiques de garde des enfants mises en place pour les parents qui travaillent en Europe, bien que les politiques relatives aux handicapés et aux soignants non rémunérés entrent aussi dans son champ d'étude. Son objectif est de faire comprendre, dans des contextes particuliers, la relation entre (i) l'articulation des revendications qui partent des besoins des soignants et/ou des soignés; (ii) les cadres et logiques des politiques soucieuses de répondre aux besoins en matière de soins et d'assistance aux personnes; et (iii) les effets de ces politiques sur les différents groupes de soignés et de soignants. Le document se divise en deux sections principales. La première porte sur la manière dont différents acteurs politiques conçoivent les politiques de soins et d'assistance aux personnes en Europe. L'auteur commence par un bref exposé des théories et des concepts qui informent le document. Elle poursuit en les appliquant à une analyse des besoins en matière de soins et d'assistance tels qu'ils ressortent de l'interprétation qu'en donnent les représentants des soignants et des soignés dans leurs revendications. Elle recense cinq domaines de revendication: nécessité de concilier travail et soins; aide aux personnes handicapées; soins non rémunérés; revendications syndicales de flexibilité; et place des migrants dans le secteur des soins. Elle suggère que, collectivement, les revendications dans ces domaines tendent à obtenir une reconnaissance, des droits et une redistribution des responsabilités en matière de soins et d'assistance aux personnes, et se réfèrent à un modèle général de justice sociale. L'analyse des politiques élaborées en Europe montre que certains des discours qui s'inspirent des notions de justice sociale se traduisent concrètement dans les politiques de soins et d'assistance aux personnes mais que le cadre dominant consiste à concevoir la politique de soins et d'assistance aux personnes comme une forme d'investissement social dans le capital humain. L'auteur examine ce qui, en politique, favorise l'émergence de droits sociaux pour les parents et les enfants en Europe et ce qui y fait obstacle. La deuxième partie est consacrée à l'examen des politiques dans leurs différents contextes nationaux. L'auteur examine les questions qui peuvent être à l'origine de ces politiques-l'évolution démographique, l'investissement social, la création d'emplois et la nature de la politique des soins dans le monde-et se demande quels en sont les résultats en termes d'inégalités sociales. En conclusion, l'auteur estime que les politiques des soins en Europe sont pleines de tensions et contradictions du point de vue des soignants comme des soignés. D'une part, d'importantes évolutions se sont produites en dix ans: on reconnaît aujourd'hui l'employabilité de personnes qui étaient tenues naguère à l'écart de l'emploi rémunéré telles que les mères de famille et les personnes handicapées, de même que les aptitudes des hommes en matière de soins; les Etats assument davantage de responsabilités dans la prestation de services, en particulier dans le secteur des garderies pour enfants et l'on reconnaît le rôle des soignants familiaux. De l'autre, ces chances ne vont pas sans contraintes: ainsi, les mères et les personnes handicapées se sentent obligées de trouver du travail, souvent dans les secteurs les plus précaires du marché; on assiste à une marchandisation accrue des services de soins et les parents, soignants, personnes âgées et handicapées sont plus perçus comme des consommateurs faisant des choix sur le marché des soins que comme des citoyens dans le domaine public des soins. Ces évolutions ont eu aussi pour effet de créer une économie des soins portée par des travailleurs migrants mal payés. Dans ces circonstances, le grand défi est d'utiliser les espaces dans lesquels les soins sont politisés et où des droits ont été acquis pour faire valoir l'aspect politique, social et économique des soins comme revendication cruciale de justice sociale aux plans national et transnational.

Ein Anspruch von Lernwerkstätten ist es, an der Entwicklung der jeweiligen Institution mitzuwirken. Der Band zeigt die Bedeutung von Hochschullernwerkstätten für die Gestaltung von Hochschullandschaft(en) und fokussiert fünf Themenbereiche: Welche historischen Entwicklungen lassen sich feststellen? Wodurch werden die Selbstverständnisse in Hochschullernwerkstätten geprägt? Wie können Hochschulen und Universitäten von Prozessen der Inklusion / Exklusion in Hochschullernwerkstätten partizipieren? Welche spezifischen Perspektiven werden in Bezug auf Professionalisierung und Reflexion deutlich? Inwiefern können Kooperationen und kooperatives Lernen innerhalb von Hochschullernwerkstätten auf andere universitäre Bereiche übertragen werden? (DIPF/Orig.)

This report is a part of larger welfare and social policy work agenda which the Turkish State Planning Organization and the World Bank are carrying out collaboratively. The work agenda includes the preparation of a number of conceptualized, and in part of co-authored, analytical studies on topics ranging from examines the equity determinants to investigating the links between poverty, employment creation, and growth. Further, the work agenda comprises a number of human development dialogues for which we are inviting international experts and practioners to share their experiences about social policy reforms with the Turkish government and the wider academic and non-governmental public. This report examines life chances. Life chances for today Turkish people, most importantly future generation, today's children. The results presented in this report show that life chances differ in important dimensions today, and that Turkey could immensely improve its human and economic development potential by maximizing such opportunities.

Author's introductionThis review of recent feminist analyses and theorizing of labor markets uses a global lens to reveal the forces shaping gender inequality. The first section introduces the key words of globalization, gender and work organization. Next, I examine gender as embodied labor activity in globalized worksites, and the effects of globalization on gendered patterns of work and life. Putting gender at the center of globalization discourses highlights the historical and cultural variability of gender relations intersecting with class, race and nationality, and highlights the impact of restructuring on workers, organizations and institutions at the local, national and regional as well as transnational levels. Then I turn to look at labor market restructuring through commodification of care, outsourcing of household tasks and informalization of employment to show how these processes shape the complexity of relationships between and the interconnectedness of social inequalities transnationally and in global cities. Place matters when analyzing how service employment alters divisions of labor and how these labor market changes are gendered. Global restructuring not only poses new challenges but also creates new opportunities for mobilization around a more robust notion of equality. The final section explores the development of spaces for collective action and the rise of new women's and feminist movements (e.g., transnational networks, non‐governmental agencies). The study of globalization, gender and employment has broad importance for understanding not only the social causes but also the social consequences of the shift to a post‐industrial society.Author recommendsAcker, Joan 2004. 'Gender, Capitalism and Globalization.'Critical Sociology 30, 1: 17–41.Feminist scholarship both critiques gender‐blind globalization discourses and an older generation of women and development theories. By tracing the lineage of current feminist literature on globalization to women and development research, Joan Acker shows both the continuities and distance traveled from the previous terrain of debate. New feminist scholarship on globalization owes a debt to these important, albeit limited, studies of women at work in Latin America, Africa and Asia, but acknowledges the need to go beyond the category of women to analyze specific forms and cultural expressions of gendered power in relationship to class and other hierarchies. One of the major advances in feminist theory comes under the microscope of Acker's keen analysis when she excavates how gender is both embodied and embedded in the logic and structuring of globalizing capitalism. This extends the case she made in her earlier pioneering research on gender relations being embedded in the organization of major institutions. For the study of globalization, Acker posits that the gendered construction (and cultural coding) of capitalist production separated from human reproduction has resulted in subordination of women in both domains. Acker uncovers the historical legacy of a masculine‐form of dominance associated with production in the money economy that was exported to and embedded in colonialist installation of large‐scale institutions. By the late 20th Century large‐scale institutions promoted images and emotions that expressed economic and political power in terms of new articulations of hegemonic masculinity. As an article outlining debates on the nature of globalization and of gender, it serves as a good introduction to the topic.Chow, Esther Ngan‐Ling 2003. 'Gender Matters: Studying Globalization and Social Change in the 21st Century.'International Sociology 18, 3: 443–460.Chow's introduction to the special issue on 'Gender, Globalization and Social Change in the 21st Century' in International Sociology (2003) reviews the literature on gender and globalization and provides an excellent overview of 'gender matters.' Her definition of globalization captures salient features of the current era. This definition encompasses the economic, political cultural and social dimensions of globalization. Further, she offers a framework for studying the 'dialectics of globalization', as 'results of conflicting interaction between the global and local political economies and socio‐cultural conditions…' A dialectics of globalization is a fruitful approach for studying transformative possibilities. This article could serve as background reading or as part of an introductory section.Arlie Russell Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 2003. 'Love and Gold.' Pp. 15–30 in Global Women: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild. Metropolitan Books.Hochschild's chapter in Global Women examines the transfer of traditional women's work to migrant women. Women in rich countries are turning over care work (nannies, maids, elder care) to female migrant workers who can be paid lower wages with few or no benefits and minimal legal protections. This global transfer of services associated with a wife's traditional role extracts a different kind of labor than in prior migrations based on agricultural and industrial production. Emotional, sexual as well as physical labor is extracted in this current phase of globalization; in particular, emotional labor and 'love is the new gold'. Women migrate not only to escape poverty, but also to escape patriarchy in their home countries by earning an independent income and by physical autonomy from patriarchal obligations and expectations. Many female migrants who leave poor countries can earn more money as nannies and maids in the First World than in occupations (nurses, teachers, clerical workers) if they remained in their own country. Thus, migration can be seen as having contradictory effects on women's well‐being and autonomy. This chapter can be used in a section dealing with the specific topic of globalization and care work or in a section introducing the topic of gendered labor activities.McDowell, Linda, Diane Perrons, Colette Fagan, Kath Ray and Kevin Ward. 2005. 'The Contradictions and Intersections of Class and Gender in a Global City: Placing Working Women's Lives on the Research Agenda.'Environment and Planning A 37, 441–461.This group of prominent social geographers from the UK collaborates to great effect in a welcome addition to the literature theorizing the complex articulations of gender and class in global cities. Their detailed research comparing three localities in Greater London is a corrective to the oft‐cited multi‐site study of global cities by Saskia Sassen. They find that Sassen underestimates gains and losses for both men and women in the 'new' economy. Place makes a difference when assessing the impact of women's increased rates of labor market participation on income inequality and patterns of childcare. The article outlines a new research agenda by 'placing' working women's lives at the center of analysis.Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar 2008. The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization. New York: New York University Press.Rhacel Salazar Parrenas brings together her influential research on Filipina migrants and extends her path‐breaking ethnographic analysis to include Filipina domestic workers in Rome and Los Angeles and entertainers in Tokyo. David Eng incisively captures the importance of Parrenas's analysis when he states, 'Extracted from home and homeland only to be reinserted into the domestic spaces of the global north, these servants of globalization exemplify an ever‐increasing international gendered division of labor, one compelling us to reexamine the neo‐liberal coupling of freedom and opportunity with mobility and migration'. The book is well suited to illuminate discussions of domesticity and migration, transnational migrant families, the impact of migration laws in 'home' and 'host' countries, and transnational movements among migrant women.Walby, Sylvia. 2009. Globalization and Inequalities: Complexity and Contested Modernities. London: Sage.This book introduces new theoretical concepts and tests alternative hypotheses to explain variation in trajectories of gender relations cross‐nationally. It synthesizes and reviews a vast literature, ranging from the social sciences to the natural sciences to construct a new approach to theorizing the development of gender regimes in comparative perspective. Sylvia Walby seeks to explain the different patterns of inequalities across a large number of countries. The analysis differentiates between neo‐liberal and social democratic varieties of political economy, and makes explicit the gender component of institutions and their consequences. The project builds on Walby's pioneering work on comparative gender regimes, and extends the research by operationalizing empirical indicators for a range of key concepts, and by analyzing links between a wide set of institutions (including economy, polity, education and violence) and how these are gendered in specific ways. As in the past, Walby is not afraid to tackle big questions and to offer new answers. Throughout the book, like in her previous body of research, Walby takes on the question of social inclusion/exclusion and critically interrogates concepts of democracy, political participation, equality and rights. Walby uses a comparative lens to examine the democratic 'deficit' in liberal and social democratic countries, and how migration restructures patterns of inequality and the consequent reconstitution of national and ethnic relations within countries. There is more to the book than abstract theoretical debates. Walby poses and assesses alternative political projects for achieving equality. The book is an original contribution that will likely influence sociology in general and theories of social change in particular.Online resourcesStatus of women in the world: United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) http://www.unifem.orgUNIFEM was established at the United Nations in order to foster women's empowerment through innovative programs and strategies. Its mission statement summarizes UNIFEM's goals as follows: 'Placing the advancement of women's human rights at the center of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses on reducing feminized poverty, ending violence against women; reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war'. The website includes information on global initiatives such as zero tolerance of violence against women, the impact of the economic crisis on women migrant workers, and strategizing for gender proportionate representation in Nigeria. Primary documents relevant to women's advancement appear on the website; these include the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. UNIFEM publishes monographs assessing the progress of women around the world. One notable example is the 2005 publication on Women, Work & Poverty by Martha Chen, Joann Vanek, Francie Lund, James Heintz with Renana Jhabvala and Christine Bonner. http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/PoWW2005_eng.pdf Gender equity index http://www.socialwatch.org/en/avancesyRetrocesos/IEG_2008/tablas/valoresdelIEG2008.htm Social Watch produces an up‐to‐date gender equity index composed of three dimensions and indicators: empowerment (% of women in technical positions, % of women in management and government positions, % of women in parliaments, % of women in ministerial posts); economic activity (income gap, activity rate gap); and education (literacy rate gap, primary school enrollment rate gap, secondary school enrollment gap, and tertiary education enrollment gap). These separate indicators in addition to the gender equity index are arrayed by country. There are 157 countries, representing 94% of the world's population, in the sample. Mapping these indicators across countries presents a comparative picture of the absolute and relative standing of women and gender equity in the world.Focus QuestionsKey words: Globalization1. What is meant by globalization?

   a. To what extent is globalization new? Or is globalization another phase of a long historical process?
   b. Can we differentiate inter‐national (connections between) from the global (inter‐penetrations)?

Feminism and globalization

 How do feminist interventions challenge globalization theories (for example the presumed relationship between globalization and homogenization and individualization)?
 How do different feminisms frame and assess the conditions of globalization around the world?

Gender and globalization

 What role do women, and different women, play in the global economy?
 Are patriarchal arrangements changing as a result of greater economic integration at the world level?

Migration and mobilities

 What does Parrenas mean by partial citizenship?



 How does it relate to the case of Philippine migrant workers?
 What is the relationship between 'home' and 'host' nations?
 How important is a vehicle like the Tinig Filipino in forging 'imagined communities' and new realities?



 What is the mix of choice and compulsion in the different migrations mobilities of men and women?

Globalization and politics

 Are women subject to the same kinds of legal protections (and regulations) that evolved in earlier periods?
 Do new flexible production processes and flexible work arrangements undercut such legal protections?

Globalization and collective mobilization

 Does globalization open spaces for new women's movements, new solidarities, new subjectivities and new forms of organizing?

Sample syllabusCourse outline and reading assignments Conceptualizing the 'Global' and 'Globalization' Dicken, Peter, Jamie Peck and Adam Tickell. 1997. 'Unpacking the Global.' Pp. 158–166 in Geographies of Economies, edited by Roger Lee and Jane Willis. London: Arnold.Amin, Ash and Nigel Thrift. 1996. 'Holding Down the Global.' Pp. 257–260 in Globalization, Institutions, and Regional Development in Europe, edited by Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Acker, Joan. 2004. 'Feminism, Gender and Globalization.'Critical Sociology 30: 17–42.Background Reading:Gottfried, Heidi. 2006. 'Feminist Theories of Work.' Pp. 121–154 in Social Theory at Work, edited by Marek Korczynski, Randy Hodson, Paul Edwards. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Peterson, V. Spike. 2008. 'Intersectional Analytics in Global Political Economy.' in UberKeruszungen, edited Cornelia Klinger and Gudrun‐Axeli Knapp. Munster: Wesfalisches Dmpfboot.Chow, Esther Ngan‐Ling. 2003. 'Gender Matters: Studying Globalization and Social change in the 21st Century.'International Sociology 18 (3): 443–460.Walby, Sylvia. 2009. Globalization and Inequalities: Complexity and Contested Modemities. London: Sage. Gender and Globalization Gottfried, Heidi. Forthcoming. 'Gender and Employment: A Global Lens on Feminist Analyses and Theorizing of Labor Markets.'Sociology CompassFernandez‐Kelly, Patricia and Diane Wolf. 2001. 'Dialogue on Globalization.'Signs 26: 1243–1249.Bergeron, Suzanne. 2001. 'Political Economy Discourses of Globalization and Feminist Politics.'Signs 26: 983–1006.Freeman, Carla. 2001. 'Is Local: Global as Feminine: Masculine? Rethinking the Gender of Globalization.'Signs 26:1007–1037. Theorizing Politics and Globalization Sassen, Saskia. 1996. 'Toward a Feminist Analytics of the Global Economy.'Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 4: 7–41.Parrenas, Rhacel Salazer. 2001. 'Transgressing the Nation‐State: The Partial Citizenship and 'Imagined (Global) Community' of Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers.'Signs 26:1129–1154.Bosniak, Linda. 2009. 'Citizenship, Noncitizenship, and the Transnationalization of Domestic Work.' Pp. 127–156 in Migrations and Mobilities: Citizenship, Borders, and Gender, edited by Seyla Benhabib and Judith Resnik. New York: New York University Press.Background Reading:Benhabib, Seyla and Judith Resnik. 2009. 'Introduction: Citizenship and Migration Theory Engendered.' Pp. 1–46 in Migrations and Mobilities: Citizenship, Borders, and Gender, edited by Seyla Benhabib and Judith Resnik. New York: New York University Press. Migrations, Mobilities and Care Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 2003. 'Love and Gold.' Pp. 15–30 in Global Women: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild. Metropolitan Books.Hondagneu‐Sotelo, Pierrette. 2001. Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring the Shadows of Affluence. Berkeley: University of California Press.Parrenas, Richard Salazar. 2008. The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization. New York: New York University Press.Pyle, Jean 2006. 'Globalizations, Transnational Migration, and Gendered Care Work.'Globalizations 3(3): 283–295.Qayum, Seemin and Raka Ray. 2003. 'Grappling with Modernity: India's Respectable Classes and the Culture of Domestic Servitude.'Ethnography 4: 520–555. Restructuring and Gender Inequality in Global Cities McDowell, Linda, Diane Perrons, Colette Fagan, Kath Ray and Kevin Ward. 2005. 'The Contradictions and Intersections of Class and Gender in a Global City: Placing Working Women's Lives on the Research Agenda.'Environment and Planning A 37: 441–461.McDowell, Linda. 1997. 'A Tale of Two Cities? Embedded Organizations and Embodied Workers in the City of London.' Pp. 118–129 in Geographies of Economies, edited by Roger Lee and Jane Willis. London: Arnold.Bruegel, Irene. 1999. 'Globalization, Feminization and Pay Inequalities in London and the UK.' Pp. 73–93 in Women, Work and Inequality, edited by Jeanne Gregory, Rosemary Sales and Ariane Hegewisch. New York: St. Martin's Press. Embodiment and Restructuring Halford, Susan and Mike Savage. 1997. 'Rethinking Restructuring: Embodiment, Agency and Identity in Organizational Change.' Pp. 108–117 in Geographies of Economies, edited by Roger Lee and Jane Willis. London: Arnold.Gottfried, Heidi. 2003 'Temp(t)ing Bodies: Shaping Bodies at Work in Japan.'Sociology 37: 257–276. Gender in the Global Economy: Post‐Socialist and Emerging Economies Salzinger, Leslie. 2004. 'Trope Chasing: Engendering Global Labor Markets.'Critical Sociology 30: 43–62.Kathryn Ward, Fahmida Rahman, AKM Saiful Islam, Rifat Akhter and Nashid Kama. 2004. 'The Nari Jibon Project: Effects on Global Structuring on University Women's Work and Empowerment In Bangladesh.'Critical Sociology 30: 63–102Otis, Eileen. 2007. 'Virtual Personalism in Beijing: Learning Deference and Femininity at a Global Luxury Hotel. Pp. 101–123 in Working in China: Ethnographies of Labor and Workplace Transformation, edited by Ching Kwan Lee. Routledge.Background Reading:Ferguson and Monique Mironesco (eds.). 2008. Gender and Globalization in Asia and the Pactific: Method, Practice, Theory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Globalization and Policy Developments Lenz, Ilse. 2004. 'Globalization, Gender and Work: Perspectives on Global Regulation.' Pp. 29–52 in Equity in the Workplace: Gendering Workplace Policy Analysis, edited by Heidi Gottfried and Laura Reese. Lexington Press.Woodward, Alison. 2004. 'European Gender Mainstreaming: Promises and Pitfalls of Transformative Policy.' Pp. 77–100 in Equity in the Workplace: Gendering Workplace Policy Analysis, edited by Heidi Gottfried and Laura Reese, Lexington Press.Fraser, Nancy. 2007. 'Reframing Justice in a Globalizing World.' in Global Inequality, edited by David Held and Ayse Kaya. Polity. Gender and the New Economy Walby, Sylvia, Heidi Gottfried, Karin Gottschall and Mari Osawa. 2006. Gendering and the Knowledge Economy: Comparative Perspectives, Palgrave, See chapters by Sylvia Walby, Mari Osawa, and Diane Perrons.Ng, Cecelia. 2004. 'Globalization and Regulation: The New Economy, Gender and Labor Regimes.'Critical Sociology 30: 103–108. Globalization and Transnational Organizing Ferree, Myra Marx. 2006. 'Globalization and Feminism: Opportunities and Obstacles for Activism in the Global Area.' Pp. 3–23 in Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights, edited by Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp. New York: New York University Press.Yuval‐Davis, Nira. 2006. 'Human/Women's Rights and Feminist Transversal Politics.' Pp. 275–295 in Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights, Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp. New York: New York University Press.Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2006. "Under Western Eyes" Revisited: Feminist Solidarity Through Anti‐Capitalist Struggles.' Pp. 17–42 in Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, edited by Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.