Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn recent years, the welfare state literature has been witnessing a "religious turn," (re)reminding us the pivotal role of religion in shaping the modern welfare state. Notwithstanding its theoretical importance, this turn has been largely confined to European, North American, and antipodean settings. By drawing upon the historical case of Israeli burial services, this study seeks to make a modest step in closing this theoretical and empirical gap. Specifically, its findings point to the historical role of the Judaism in establishing universal burial services, funded by the state and operated almost exclusively by religious burial societies. Moreover, this policy legacy, which already had its roots in the British Mandate rule, is still at work, even in an era of "permanent austerity." These findings problematize mainstream historical observations, which view the Israeli welfare state as a secular project, by suggesting a more nuanced and progressive role for Judaism in its history.

AbstractLittle scholarly work has focused on the lived experience of people claiming disability benefits. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with 30 Jewish‐Israeli men and women with physical impairments, this paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature. Analysis of the interviews yielded three main themes: the material and psycho‐social aspects of the Israeli disability benefits system, respectively, and the coping strategies applied by the participants in their efforts to navigate the system and address their needs. The distinction between the first two themes is discussed as resonating with recent calls for an integrated disability justice conceptualization, one that entails both redistributive and recognitive aspects. The third theme is highlighted as countering the image of 'passivity' that is all too often associated with being on disability benefits.

AbstractDespite its centrality to the experience of death and grief, it is only in recent years that the economic burden following family bereavement has been recognized by social care professionals and scholars. Based on the realization that death and bereavement are grounded in social context, and assuming this economic burden is a multifaceted phenomenon, the present study compares the British and Israeli welfare systems in three policy settings: social security, funeral services, and bereavement leave. The findings suggest that while in both systems bereavement and especially widowhood is considered a deserving category, recent pressures for restructuring the British welfare state have been successful in shifting provision from the state to the market. The findings also show that in both cases, albeit to a lesser extent in Israel, current policy measures are not fully aligned with critical scholarship on bereavement and its financial consequences, nor with socio‐economic and demographic trends. These disparities are addressed using the notion of disenfranchised grief and by emphasizing the pivotal, although often overlooked role of the welfare state in constituting it. Lastly, the differences between the two cases are discussed in terms of the powerful role of Judaism in shaping Israeli policy.

AbstractBy integrating a social perspective of disability with an ideational approach to social policy, the present study seeks to illuminate the central role of ideas in shaping disability policy. Using employment policy towards civilian disabled people in the newly established Israeli State (1948–65) as a case study, this examination highlights the key role played by the Israeli welfare system in excluding disabled people and structuring the disability category. This case illustrates how the paradigmatic perception of disability, loaded with patronizing attitudes towards the new Mizrachi immigrants, operated both as 'cognitive locks' and as a means for gradual yet transformative change. It is argued that this kind of ideational change is best identified and interpreted by assuming that paradigms are relational in nature.

AbstractEncounters with welfare state bureaucracy are often burdensome and might even result in administrative exclusion and non‐take up. With the growing scholarly interest in administrative burden experiences, a particular focus has been on learning costs, with evidence suggesting that difficulty obtaining reliable and useful information is one of their most fundamental aspects. We still lack a systematic conceptualization of bureaucratic information and its various dimensions. In this non‐representative exploratory study, we draw on interviews with 15 Israeli social benefit claimants to delve deeper into the nature of the information required in encounters with welfare state bureaucracy. Using thematic analysis, we identify five dimensions of such information: primary information on the existence of the benefit, as opposed to secondary procedural information on the claiming process; universal, wide‐ranging available information, in contrast to personalized information; one‐ versus two‐directional information transfer; covert, informal and dynamic, as opposed to overt, publicly available information; and finally, online versus offline information. We suggest that this exploratory conceptual framework can serve as a starting point for future studies to develop deeper understanding of the information citizens need in their encounters with welfare state bureaucracy.

Abstract
Social workers play a key role in supporting the labour market inclusion of disabled people. Nevertheless, we know little about how they perceive the barriers that disabled people face and their role in addressing them. In particular, we need to know more about the extent to which they adopt an individualised versus a social model of disability. To address this gap, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-three Israeli social workers providing employment-related services via public and non-profit organisations. A thematic analysis revealed that the participants tended to view their clients' barriers as related to individual characteristics, including their impairment, level of functioning and soft skills. Whereas social barriers were acknowledged as well, these were usually framed as related to employers' attitudes, including ignorance, stigma, fear and distrust. In addition, recognition of these social barriers was usually detached from the social workers' daily, individualised practices.

AbstractBackgroundPeople with intellectual disabilities have the right to live in the community. As social workers have an important role in decisions regarding residential settings, this study examined their recommendations regarding residential living arrangements of individuals with intellectual disabilities.MethodUsing a factorial survey approach 174 social workers were presented with true‐to‐life vignettes and asked to provide their recommendations regarding housing in community apartments, hostels (large group homes) and meonot (large institutions).ResultsHigher likelihood of recommending housing in a community apartment was associated with mild intellectual disability, lack of daily support needs, no sexual abuse history, and stated preference for a community apartment. Social workers' experience in working in a specific residential setting was associated with recommending it.ConclusionsOngoing training on rights‐based ethics and the importance of community inclusion should be provided to social workers. Further, community alternatives should be made available to all individuals with disabilities.

Studies on the development of social policies have provided us with a rich body of knowledge. However, being based mostly on class, gender or racial analysis, this body of work has seldom used disability as an analytical framework. This article proposes a systematic research agenda for addressing this lacuna. Drawing on the political and institutional approaches, this article illustrates how mainstream theories on social policy development cannot be assumed applicable to disability policies 'as is'. To apply them effectively, we argue, students of social policy need to rework them in light of the insights of disability studies. Such conceptual work would involve closer attention to the uniqueness of disability as a socio-political category. Integrating these social policy theories with disability studies will allow us to better identify the unique political and institutional factors behind the trajectories of disability related policy. We conclude this discussion with suggestions for future research.

Drawing on interviews with disability and income support beneficiaries, the article examines the encounters of Israeli citizens with the National Insurance Institute. Using the administrative burden conceptualisation, our analysis highlights three known types of costs: compliance, learning and psychological. The current study provides further conceptualisation of these burdens by unfolding the role of three concrete elements involved in generating these burdens: waiting, communication breakdowns, and administrative errors. These elements are discussed in terms of their contribution to a better understanding of bureaucratic procedures that constitute administrative burdens in the context of the benefit claiming process.

AbstractBackgroundFollowing the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD), various countries have recently amended their legal capacity laws with the aim of restricting the use of guardianship and increasing the use of other, less restrictive practices, mainly supported decision making. As social workers have a key role in carrying out these reforms, this study examines how Israeli social workers make legal capacity‐related decisions.MethodSemi‐structured interviews with 27 Israeli social workers.ResultsThematic analysis identified three factors driving social workers' recommendations regarding guardianship and supported decision‐making: the person's diagnosis and functioning level, and the presence of a supportive family. A fourth factor, the person's preferences, played a complex and more limited role.ConclusionsMany changes have yet to be made to fully apply the support paradigm in Israel, since social workers still tend to base their recommendations on factors not fully aligned with the CRPD.