Suchergebnisse

Introduces the volume on both the social & economic impact of late 1990s welfare reform acts in the US & UK. Neither the worst-or best-case scenarios have occurred: caseloads have declined but not poverty levels. This book's concern is not with the traditional quantifiable effects measured by policy analysis so much as with the significance of political theory for understanding the effects of welfare reform. Particular emphasis is given to John Rawls's ideas about justice. Next the volume's contributors are introduced, followed by summaries of the individual papers. References. K. Coddon

Introduces the volume on both the social & economic impact of late 1990s welfare reform acts in the US & UK. Neither the worst-or best-case scenarios have occurred: caseloads have declined but not poverty levels. This book's concern is not with the traditional quantifiable effects measured by policy analysis so much as with the significance of political theory for understanding the effects of welfare reform. Particular emphasis is given to John Rawls's ideas about justice. Next the volume's contributors are introduced, followed by summaries of the individual papers. References. K. Coddon

"The German welfare state has a number of programmes and instruments in place that ameliorate the Impact of the economic crisis. Overall its social insurance schemes are robust and their financial condition seems to be healthier than only a few years ago. Nevertheless, the current economic recession constitutes a 'stress test' for welfare state arrangements. Should the recession last long and Iead to a considerable increase in unemployment, the Government will be forced to increase social insurance contributions, raise the subsidies to the social insurance funds from general revenues or cut entitlements. For those ineligible for the earnings-related unemployment insurance benefits the Government provides a monthly means-tested unemployment assistance benefit of about E 350 (for an individual) plus housing allowance. However, it has to be mentioned that the poverty rate has increased from 12% in the Tate 1990s to 18% in 2005. A more differentiated analysis Shows that low-wage work has increased significantly; furthermore, the percentage of poor among the unemployed had risen by almost 15 percentage points, i.e. even before the comprehensive reform of the unemployment insurance scheme was implemented in 2004, whilst the poverty rates for pensioners and single parents have only 'marginally' increased or stayed constant (see table 4). It remains to be seen whether the current recession will lead to a further increase in relative poverty or inequality, or whether the recent increase in inequality will even decline, during the current recession." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

In the coming decades in the process of globalization the position of the USA and Europe will weaken, while the role of developing countries will increase. The role of the two largest emerging economies – China and India – will be of special significance.
What future will these fast-growing giants face? The demographers
agree that pretty soon India will lead the world in population and thus surpass China, while China will encounter serious population ageing. But economic and political scenarios of the future are quite different: from resounding success and world leadership to collapse caused by demographic and socio-political troubles.
Which of them is more feasible? In the present article I analyze the Chinese and Indian development models separately and comparatively and make prognosis of their perspectives in the twenty-first century. Such an analysis could be helpful for understanding Russia's ways of development.

"The use of the concept 'underclass' has been the subject of considerable debate among scholars of urban poverty. Many question the meaning of the term and its value as a social category, and react critically to the way the term has been appropriated by those intellectuals and journalists whose ideological views and orientations strongly influence their perceptions of the urban poor (Hughes 1989; Aponte 1990; Katz 1993; Gans 1995; O'Connor 2001). However, in their critical commentary the scholars of urban poverty do not address, in theoretical terms, the scientific import of the concept 'underclass;' that is, its role in the description, explanation and prediction of social behavior. Rather they object to the way the term is used to label a subgroup of the urban poor whose cultural traits are thought to be different from those of the larger society. In this paper, the author considers whether a theoretically defined concept of underclass - as opposed to the nonsystematic and atheoretical usages - can be helpful in social scientific discourse. But first, by way of background, let him examine briefly the various ways the term 'underclass' has been used in published writings down through the years." (excerpt)

In Mali, the middle-class diet has changed over time as a result first of colonization & then of globalization. While the middle-class Malians have kept a culturally defined food system, they have adopted many new imported foods. However, in an international discourse that focuses on Mali's poverty, the cuisine of the middle class has been ignored. This chapter looks at changes in Mali's domestic political economy that have facilitated a growing middle class; conducts a subsector analysis to outline the structure of the food system -- from producers to consumers; & analyzes the invisibility of this system & how this influences our understanding of food globalization & development planning. It is concluded that a lack of data on the urban middle-class diet has skewed analyses of food groups, thereby distorting the targeting of foreign aid toward development of export crops, mainly cotton, to the neglect of food crops. References. J. Stanton

The panel study ^"Labor Market and Social Security" (PASS), established by the Institute for Employment Research, is a central data source for research on unemployment, poverty, and the welfare state in Germany. Since 2007, approximately 12,000 persons in more than 8,000 households have been interviewed annually. The study's design particularly allows for evaluating the situation of recipients of basic income support, called unemployment benefits II (UB II) in Germany. With the influx of refugees to Germany, the structure of UB II recipients changed and as a consequence Arabic-speaking persons needed to be integrated into PASS. In 2016, that is, in PASS wave 10, we were faced with several challenges to meet the needs of this new population. This paper focuses on fieldwork issues: How did we access the special population of Arabic-speaking respondents and which contact strategies were necessary to reach refugees? And how did we manage to conduct the interviews given the respondents' different cultural backgrounds and their special living conditions as refugees in Germany? The sampling structure of PASS allows for comparing the refugee sample and the general UB II recipients. A great willingness to participate and high motivation was apparent among the refugees. It was possible to obtain access to the refugee households both by telephone and face-to-face. Whereas non-response occurred to a larger extent in the general refresher sample due to refusals, in the refugee sample it was caused by lower reachability.

"Since the Tate 1990s there has been a rising trend of Vietnamese women migrating to neighbouring countries (Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and China) for marriage. Previous studies of such cross-border marriages have emphasized either issues of choice and agency for women, or their poverty and victimhood. This chapter analyses this trend along the lines of the debate on the East Asian model of welfare and family policy, with case studies in Taiwan and South Korea. It views commercially arranged transnational marriages (CATM) as an institution that connects changing gendered regimes of social reproduction at the sending and receiving ends. Mediated by a combination of asymmetrical relations - gender, class, age, ethnicity, and national belonging - this institution operates in a transnational space through which material and symbolic resources are circulated. These in turn construct subjectivities and identities for participating actors. There is a dimension of trans-masculinity embodied in the practices of CATM and this requires further exploration regarding informed consent and the rights of its users. Beyond this, CATM should be further analysed in the context of changing family welfare and intergenerational care as gendered regimes, and such an analysis should also address how households adapt and devise new strategies to sustain and reproduce themselves economically, socially, and culturally. Such an understanding can help open the research agenda on social policy and rights and provide a regional perspective." (author's abstract)

What should be the role of academia & intellectuals in the global justice movement? The author investigates "critical globalization studies"-previously critical development studies-to argue that despite the neoliberal There Is No Alternative (TINA) doctrine, academics are all part of the vast mutual liberation society. The author recalls her early critical development studies works How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons for World Hunger (1976) in which she identified the gap in research and analysis that was due to subservience to a dominant ideology that did not have the categories & concepts needed for dealing with the "real reasons". The pressures & constraints on academics that relate to job security place progressive in to the role of taking a vow of poverty or academia. Kuhn's explanation of the reigning paradigm of the hard sciences is related to the fact that progressive foundations would fund "projects" versus the "right wing Gramscians" who believed in the power idea of ideas & cultural hegemony. The science of economics is asserted to be concerned with matters of life and death yet provides no mechanism or methods which oblige power of economic institutions to recognize policy failure. Economics practiced by major global institutions is not concerned with human needs, placing the global justice movement & critical intellectuals in the role of studying the rich and powerful, using methodology to yield fresh perspectives, & attaining a higher level of rigor because, as intellectuals work to treat others, others are also working to free intellectuals. References. J. Harwell

"In order to account for this, we use a sample of 18- to 24-year-olds, who received state benefits in January 2005. They were interviewed at the end of 2005 in the survey 'Life Circumstances and Social Security 2005 (LSS 05)' undertaken by the Institute of Employment Research in Germany. The aim of the study was to evaluate the living conditions of the benefit recipients and the effectiveness of the benefit system. For our analyses, we subsequently use a combination of objective measures of multiple deprivations and a subjective rating of the individual's sense of belonging to society. In particular, we discuss the living conditions of young benefit recipients in terms of housing, debts, consumption, education, Labor market integration and health, and examine whether the experience of multiple deprivation among young benefit recipients indeed leads to the subjective experience of social exclusion. Additionally we ask if there exist buffer mechanisms that could prevent young people who face multiple deprivations from a subjective feeling of social exclusion. For this purpose, we shall proceed as follows: the following chapter introduces the legal facts and empirical findings on young people in the German welfare system and at risk of poverty. Section three then discusses the theoretical framework and assumptions. Section four provides information about the data and methods used for this analysis. Our results are presented in section five. Section six provides a discussion of the major results, and finally section seven gives concluding remarks on the theoretical perspectives on social exclusion and for social policies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

"In order to account for this, we use a sample of 18- to 24-year-olds, who received state benefits in January 2005. They were interviewed at the end of 2005 in the survey 'Life Circumstances and Social Security 2005 (LSS 05)' undertaken by the Institute of Employment Research in Germany. The aim of the study was to evaluate the living conditions of the benefit recipients and the effectiveness of the benefit system. For our analyses, we subsequently use a combination of objective measures of multiple deprivations and a subjective rating of the individual's sense of belonging to society. In particular, we discuss the living conditions of young benefit recipients in terms of housing, debts, consumption, education, Labor market integration and health, and examine whether the experience of multiple deprivation among young benefit recipients indeed leads to the subjective experience of social exclusion. Additionally we ask if there exist buffer mechanisms that could prevent young people who face multiple deprivations from a subjective feeling of social exclusion. For this purpose, we shall proceed as follows: the following chapter introduces the legal facts and empirical findings on young people in the German welfare system and at risk of poverty. Section three then discusses the theoretical framework and assumptions. Section four provides information about the data and methods used for this analysis. Our results are presented in section five. Section six provides a discussion of the major results, and finally section seven gives concluding remarks on the theoretical perspectives on social exclusion and for social policies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku). Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten. Forschungsmethode: empirisch-quantitativ; empirisch; Längsschnitt. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 2005 bis 2005.

"The long-term increase in longevity, coupled with the progressive compression of morbidity experienced in Europe in the last decades, improved the well-being of many older individuals. However, a failure to adjust the retirement age has exposed poor households to financial distress (Angelini et al. 2009). Staying longer in the labour force may be a solution to preserve an adequate level of resources and limit the risk of economic deprivation, it is also an effective mean to maintain social ties and foster an active life. However, working longer requires investment in human capital over the life cycle (Mahyew & Rjkers 2004), as acquired skills become obsolete as time goes by. The rapid technological progress prevailing in many sectors makes training the older workforce the only effective policy to prevent skills obsolescence (Bishop 1997, Belloni & Villosio 2014).; The aim of this chapter is to investigate whether participation in training helps keeping older workers (aged 50 - 65) in employment. In particular, we use Wave 4 and Wave 5 of SHARE to test the effect of training participation in 2010 (Wave 4) on changes in labour market status between 2010 and 2012 (Wave 5), controlling for a rich set of observable individual characteristics. Information on self-reported current economic status allows us to distinguish between six labour force states: employed or self-employed, unemployed, permanently sick or disabled, retired, homemaker and 'other'. To measure training participation we exploit a question in Wave 4 (part of the module 'Activities') which asks respondents whether they attended any educational or training course in the last twelve months.; The main result of this chapter is that individuals who took part in training activities in the year prior to the 2010 (2009 for Estonia) interview are significantly less likely to leave the labour market. Training older workers may therefore prevent them from being exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion. This chapter is organised as follows: the next section reports the descriptive evidence regarding labour market status in the last two waves of SHARE and participation in training activities. The following section presents the results of a multivariate analysis, which aims at capturing the effect of training on the probability of exiting the labour market. The last section concludes the chapter, providing some policy implications of our analysis." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).

"The long-term increase in longevity, coupled with the progressive compression of morbidity experienced in Europe in the last decades, improved the well-being of many older individuals. However, a failure to adjust the retirement age has exposed poor households to financial distress (Angelini et al. 2009). Staying longer in the labour force may be a solution to preserve an adequate level of resources and limit the risk of economic deprivation, it is also an effective mean to maintain social ties and foster an active life. However, working longer requires investment in human capital over the life cycle (Mahyew & Rjkers 2004), as acquired skills become obsolete as time goes by. The rapid technological progress prevailing in many sectors makes training the older workforce the only effective policy to prevent skills obsolescence (Bishop 1997, Belloni & Villosio 2014).; The aim of this chapter is to investigate whether participation in training helps keeping older workers (aged 50 - 65) in employment. In particular, we use Wave 4 and Wave 5 of SHARE to test the effect of training participation in 2010 (Wave 4) on changes in labour market status between 2010 and 2012 (Wave 5), controlling for a rich set of observable individual characteristics. Information on self-reported current economic status allows us to distinguish between six labour force states: employed or self-employed, unemployed, permanently sick or disabled, retired, homemaker and 'other'. To measure training participation we exploit a question in Wave 4 (part of the module 'Activities') which asks respondents whether they attended any educational or training course in the last twelve months.; The main result of this chapter is that individuals who took part in training activities in the year prior to the 2010 (2009 for Estonia) interview are significantly less likely to leave the labour market. Training older workers may therefore prevent them from being exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion. This chapter is organised as follows: the next section reports the descriptive evidence regarding labour market status in the last two waves of SHARE and participation in training activities. The following section presents the results of a multivariate analysis, which aims at capturing the effect of training on the probability of exiting the labour market. The last section concludes the chapter, providing some policy implications of our analysis." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))