Suchergebnisse

Living in segregated areas with concentrated neighbourhood poverty negatively affects the quality of life, including the availability of local jobs, access to services, and supportive social relationships. However, even with similar neighbourhood poverty levels, the degree and structure of spatial separation vary markedly between such areas. We expected that the level of spatial segregation aggravates the social exclusion of its inhabitants by negatively affecting their social capital. To test this hypothesis, we identified three low‐income neighbourhoods with high poverty rates (78%) in a medium‐sized town in Hungary, with different levels of integration in the city (based on characteristics such as the degree of spatial separation, infrastructure, and availability of services). The three neighbourhoods were located in two areas of differing degrees of integration in the fabric of the city: fully integrated, semi‐integrated (integrated into the surrounding residential area but isolated from the city), and non‐integrated. 69% of the 394 households in these areas were represented in our sample (one respondent per household). We interviewed respondents regarding the size and composition of their personal networks. Our results, which also distinguished between Roma and non‐Roma inhabitants, showed that those living in the spatially more integrated area not only have the largest and most diverse networks but seem to have a strong, "bonding‐based" cohesive community network as well. Even the non‐Roma who live there have ethnically heterogeneous - in other words - Roma network members. The disintegrated area, on the other hand, is characterised by both spatial and social isolation.

This article touches on the integrative aspects of non-verbal cultural communication as exemplified by diverse pantomime genres in modern Europe. The starting point being the characteristic features of this form of art, as well as its genesis and functions in the Eastern and Western parts of the globe. Festivals, which have been rapidly developing in the world of pantomime and street art since the beginning of the 1970s, play an exceptional role in European cultural exchange. They are, however, generally ephemeral projects, often placed besides institutionalised mainstream culture, with no aspirations to become part of the EFA for example. Nonverbal cultural communication in Europe is still poorly integrated and yet maintains a remarkable diversity of genres and multi-colour forms. Such decentralisation is also the source of its strength manifested by its ease in reaching an incredibly diverse audience, the ability to obtain feedback from mass audiences, its expansiveness (taking up various spaces), its flexible approach in its quest for answers - but at the same time respecting the rudiments of the rich, native European tradition of popular culture. It seems that EU institutions nowadays notice the significant role of this type of intercultural communication, as evidenced by, for example, the Commissioner Gabriel's statement regarding a meeting with EFA representatives on 22nd June 2021. The European Union has no harmonisation competences in the area of culture, but rather solely complementary and supporting functions with regard to Member States' activities - one can count on EU sectoral support funds from the Creative Europe Programme. The subsidisation of festival, confrontation, and meeting movements related to non-verbal cultural exchange can take place (and does take place) through regions, local governments, or cultural institutions.

In times of educational expansion, privileged families are looking for new strategies of distinction. Referring to Pierre Bourdieu's theory of distinction, we argue that choosing Latin at school – a language that is no longer spoken and therefore has no direct value – is one of the strategies of privileged families to set themselves apart from less privileged families. Based on two surveys we conducted at German schools, the paper analyzes the relationship between parents' educational background and the probability that their child will learn Latin. Results indicate that historically academic families have the strongest tendency towards learning Latin, followed by new academic families, and leaving behind the non-academic families. We distinguish between four causal mechanisms that might help to explain these associations: cultural distinction, selecting a socially exclusive learning environment, beliefs in a secondary instrumental function of learning Latin, and spatial proximity between the location of humanist Gymnasiums and the residential areas of privileged families. The hypotheses are formalized by means of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG). Findings show that the decision to learn Latin is predominately an unintended consequence of the selection of a socially exclusive learning environment. In addition, there is evidence that especially children from historically academic families learn Latin as a strategy of cultural distinction.

The purpose of this article is to present a methodology and results for nowcasting poverty and inequality indicators during economic growth and the Covid-19 pandemic in Lithuania. Nowcasting combines the techniques of tax-benefit microsimulation and calibration of the survey weights. For the microsimulation, the tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD is used together with its additional components for Lithuania, which were developed by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania. Three economic forecasts, developed by the Bank of Lithuania for 2020, are used: the rapid V-shaped recovery scenario, intermediate U-shaped recovery scenario and a slow extended U-shaped recovery scenario. The results show Lithuania's favourable tendencies in reducing poverty and inequality in the general population and by age groups in the context of rapid economic growth and improving the improved labour-market situation in 2018-2019. The results of 2020 suggest that relative at-risk-of-poverty rates and inequality in the country are likely to decline. The foreseen decrease in the at-risk-of-poverty rate is primarily due to reducing poverty risk among older people and children. The most vulnerable age groups include youth (18-24 years) and the elder working-age population (50-64 years). Poverty rates for these groups are likely to increase in 2020. However, it should be noted that the at-risk-of-poverty rates had also declined in Lithuania during the first years of the previous economic crisis. Decomposition of demographic/employment changes and policy effects for 2019-2020 show that due to demographic and employment changes, poverty and inequality is likely to increase in Lithuania in 2020. The impact of the policy effect is progressive, more favourable to the less well-off, leading to a reduction in poverty. Progressiveness is due to the fact that during the quarantine period, flat benefits were provided to a large part of the society: children, pensioners, job-seekers, self-employed.

Abstract

Research background: This paper analyses how different income sources affect the level of inequality in Poland, with focus on the role of family and children related allowances in decreasing income inequalities in 2015–2017. Therefore, the study has focused on the various subgroups of households with children.

Purpose: The paper is aimed at examining the extent to which family and children related allowances affect household income inequality and identifying whether they affect inequality in various groups of households in the same way.

Methodology: The study was carried out on micro-data gathered by Eurostat. To examine the extent to which different income components affect income inequality, we decompose the Gini coefficient according to the method introduced by Lerman and Yitzhaki.

Results: Our study revealed that for most households with children, the inequality-reducing effect due to family and children related allowances increased in 2017 compared to 2015. However, despite the additional child-raising benefit under the "Family 500+" programme, income taxes and social security contributions remained by far the most important factor in reducing household income inequalities in Poland.

Novelty: To our knowledge, no study has yet attempted to assess the extent to which family and child-allowances affect income inequality based on real data. The present analysis takes a step towards filling this gap. Unlike other studies based on microsimulation, in this paper we made use of the representative micro-data derived from the EU-SILC study.

This paper analyzes the phenomenon of severe material deprivation (SMD) in relation to socio-economic characteristics of Italian and Spanish households. Italy and Spain have registered very different shares of severe material deprivation (households that cannot afford a minimum acceptable way of life, which is a social exclusion problem) since the 2008–2009 economic crisis, despite having similar experiences of poverty as measured in monetary terms. The analysis divides SMD into low-severe (basic or secondary or financial deprivations), medium-severe (when household suffer of two categories of deprivation) and acute-severe (when households suffer from all deprivations) and finds many interesting features associated with these categories. For example, temporary work does not shield a household from acute SMD, especially in the south of both countries, and maximum work intensity does not protect against financial distress in Italy and the Spanish South. These findings should stimulate policymakers, as local policies are needed to alleviate social exclusion.

This paper proposes to broaden the focus of analysis when studying the importance of parental context for a child's educational achievement and attainment. Research has assessed the relevance of social origin primarily in the form of effects of parental characteristics. However, two additional aspects require further attention: first, individual-level distributions of the respective characteristics, and second, the composition or associations of context characteristics at the family level. This means that, in fact, three spheres of stratification need to be considered when assessing social origin's relevance for education. Going beyond parent-specific effects, this paper compares 61 countries with regard to the relevance of parental context in children's educational achievement. Using large-scale data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 study, individual-level information on school students and their parents is used to derive country-specific macro-level indicators. These indicators are then used for comparative analyses. The analyses are also replicated using different measures for social origin and achievement. The results confirm that it is reasonable to consider various components when conceptualising and interpreting the level of origin-based inequality in education. There are marked international differences in the specific relevance of these components, but there are no clear associations between these dimensions.

This paper proposes a novel measure of civic norm compliance. We combine the literature on norm compliance from institutional economics and social philosophy. Institutional economics draws on survey data to measure civic norms, whereas social philosophy offers a theoretical framework that proves fruitful when used to operationalize civic norms. This paper shows that significantly different results emerge when the operationalization of civic norms in institutional economics draws on the theoretical framework that social philosophy offers. Furthermore, this study is relevant for social philosophy too, as it shows the potential of survey data as a test-bed for philosophical theories of norm compliance.

The present study aimed to predict job control (i.e., task discretion) based on class and occupation with skill use as a (hypothesized) mechanism in four Western European countries by using the OECD adult skill survey (PIAAC). The countries were Denmark, Belgium, Italy, and the United Kingdom (UK). The study used a Bayesian approach that included multilevel models combined with measurement models. The study uses the international standard classification of occupations with two digits (clustering variable) as well as the European socioeconomic classification (ESeC) measured with three social classes. The results indicate that greater worker technical skills (computer use) and social skills (e.g., negotiate and influence) predict higher levels of job control. Social classes interact with skills to predict job control (except Belgium). Occupational computer skills predict job control (in Belgium and Italy). In conclusion, the study supports predictions by neo-Durkheimians, neo-Weberians, New Structuralists, and relational approaches to inequality.

Die in der Wissenschaft bilanzierte postpolitische Konfiguration der Politik hat eine wissenschaftliche Ungenauigkeit: Die Einschätzung und Bewertung des (Miss-)Erfolgs von (Klima-)Bewegungen begründen sich aus der diskursiven Konstruktion des Politischen und der Politik selbst heraus. Sie ist daher blind für ein durch soziale Bewegungen im Politischen Sinne erkämpftes verändertes Mensch-Natur-Verhältnis, da sie Natur als ein gesellschaftliches Konstrukt ohne Eigenlogik versteht. Für eine dezidierte Analyse sozialer Bewegungen im postpolitischen Kontext ist es also von Nöten, ein brauchbares Naturkonzept für ebenjenen 'blinden Fleck' zu entwerfen. Die Konzeption der gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnisse soll dabei helfen: Diese begreift die Natur als eine Kategorie, die in einem dialektischen Verhältnis zur Gesellschaft steht. Natur wird durch den Menschen sozial produziert, entzieht sich aber einer vollkommenen Kontrolle durch ihren nichtidentischen Moment: Natur kann nicht eins mit dem menschlichen Denken sein. Dennoch bleibt das Verhältnis zwischen Mensch und Natur immer ein rein gesellschaftliches. Unter Rücksichtnahme aktueller Theoriedebatten wird ein Zusammenführen der Theorie des Politischen und der Theorie der gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnisse getestet. Unter Bezug auf den Hambacher Forst wird diskutiert, ob die Einführung eines Mensch-Natur-Verhältnis als Kategorie in der Theoriedebatte des Politischen es ermöglicht, eine rein 'negativen' Bewertung des gesellschaftlichen (Miss-) Erfolges sozialer Bewegungen vorzubeugen.

Die Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Bevölkerungsumfrage zeigen überwiegend ein kritisches Gesellschaftsbild: zu viel Materialismus und Egoismus, zu wenig Solidarität und Toleranz. 54 Prozent fällen spontan kritische Urteile, die vor allem den Wertehaushalt und das Sozialverhalten betreffen wie Egoismus, Materialismus, Unfreundlichkeit, Respektlosigkeit. Darüber hinaus wird vor allem die Spaltung der Gesellschaft beklagt, und zwar sowohl die Polarisierung der Werte und Meinungen wie auch die soziale Spaltung, die Kluft zwischen den sozialen Schichten. Gleichzeitig erkennen viele das erreichte Wohlstandsniveau und die damit verbundenen finanziellen Spielräume an wie auch das soziale Netz, das es ermöglicht, Schwächeren zu helfen. Diese positiven Aspekte finden allerdings in Ostdeutschland signifikant weniger Anerkennung. Rücksichtnahme und Toleranz - sei es gegenüber Älteren, Kindern oder Zuwanderern - attestiert dagegen nur eine Minderheit der Gesellschaft.

AbstractWhile the sustainability of pension systems facing demographic ageing has been widely discussed, the adequacy of retirement income has often been neglected in current debate. However, considerable poverty and income inequality in old age exists across Europe. Using recent EU‐SILC data (2017/18), the comparative analysis of poverty rates and income inequality in old age shows important cross‐national variations that need to be seen in context of market‐related inequalities but also the specific pension system. Beveridge basic security is not always capable of effectively reducing poverty despite the explicit goal to do so. In addition, private funded pensions may generate social inequality. Some contributory Bismarckian systems are better suited to reduce poverty, but given their focus on status maintenance also reproduce inequality. Poverty rates are low due to encompassing basic pensions in Dutch and some Nordic multipillar systems and in core Central and Eastern European countries. Bismarckian pensions such as in Germany are generating some inequality and medium level of poverty, while France and some Southern European countries perform better on poverty but reproduce larger inequalities. Beveridge systems such as in the United Kingdom and Switzerland with rather meagre basic multipillar systems have relatively medium to high poverty risks. In addition, the Baltic countries and new EU member states in the periphery have the highest poverty rates across Europe. The analysis shows that the minimum income provision of public pension systems matters most for poverty risks, while the overall pension architecture has an impact on reproducing inequality in old age acquired during working life.

Von verletzten Ehrgefühlen als Kriegsgrund, Männerfreundschaften in der Außenpolitik und der Frage, ob Staaten Emotionen haben. (IP)

Despite its broad usage, universalism as a concept is not always clearly defined. In this article, a multidimensional definition of universalism in social policy is developed, based on four policy characteristics: inclusion, financing, provision, and the adequacy of benefits. In the empirical part of the article, the feasibility of this definition is tested by an analysis of recent changes in the Swedish welfare state, which is typically described as universal but has undergone substantive reforms since 1990. Four social policy areas are examined: pensions, social insurance, health care, and family policy. The results indicate that Swedish welfare policies retain their universalistic character in some dimensions but have become less universalistic in others. This demonstrates that a multidimensional approach is best suited to capture in full the nature and implications of welfare state reform.