Does Active Labour Market Policy have an Impact on Social Marginalization?

Countless evaluations of active labour market policy (ALMP) have been conducted in the last decade. The common denominator for most of these evaluations is a focus on employment (self‐sufficiency) as the dependent variable, where the success of ALMP is measured in terms of the number of unemployed finding ordinary employment after (or immediately before) participating in an activation programme. The main argument in this article is that this focus is inadequate. For many long‐term unemployed people, it would be an understatement to describe the road to employment as merely ‘bumpy’. Research must take this into consideration. This article therefore deals with the Danish activation policy from a new perspective by analyzing the impact on different aspects of social marginalization, focusing on long‐term social assistance recipients. Using data from a comprehensive, representative quantitative survey of Danish unemployed conducted in 2007, the first analysis convincingly reveals that we fail to find any systematic correlation between participation in ALMP and any of the social marginalization indicators. The second analysis presents a more mixed picture of the participant's own assessment of the impact of ALMP on their self‐esteem; some are quite positive, while others are more neutral or even rather negative. Taking the existing research into account, these results leave us with conceptual and methodological questions for further research.     

Kosovo's social policy during self‐management,UNMIK and independence: Persisting high inequality and social exclusion

This study examined: (i) Kosovo's social policy's poverty and inequality outcomes in recent history, namely during Yugoslav self‐management socialism (1952–1989), the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (1999–2008) and independence (2008 onwards), and (ii) the impact of local politics in the more recent trajectory of social policy. The study shows that the poverty rate after the war (1999) is significantly lower than it was during socialism, but that there is persistent high and deepening Gini inequality and social exclusion. Transfers and taxes of the residual‐liberal policy have reduced more pretransfer–pretax inequality, and especially poverty, compared with self‐management's insurance‐dominated socialism, but their effectiveness is declining due to the policy's underlying long‐term, pro‐market logic and its increasing particularism with respect to short‐term transfers. The article argues that the main local political cleavages have originated from self‐management socialism's extensive stratification. These cleavages matter in distributive conflicts, and they mattered also during the UNMIK period by easing the pathway for the unprecedented influence international organisations have had on policy formation.     

Linking taxation and social protection: Evidence on redistribution and poverty reduction in Ethiopia

Although redistribution results from the simultaneous effects of taxes and transfers, analyses of their distributional effects in low‐income countries have largely been undertaken from singular perspectives. This article jointly assesses the distributional effect of taxes and transfers (through social protection) using Ethiopia as a case study. We find that Ethiopia's flagship social protection programme is more effective than income taxation in achieving poverty reduction, while neither policy achieves a sizeable reduction in overall inequality. We also find that Ethiopia does not currently have the capacity to close the poverty gap or to fully fund its main safety net programme using domestic income sources alone.     

The Search for Coordination: The Case of the Central Policy Review Staff and Social Policy Planning, 1971–77

The Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) attempted to create an ambitious strategy for the horizontal coordination of social policy in the UK during the early 1970s. The attempt – inspired largely by planning, programming and budgeting systems – was a failure, and gave way to a much modified ‘joint framework for social policies’ in 1975. Recent research has compared the CPRS's joint framework approach to the Labour government's promotion of ‘joined‐up government’ (JUG) in the 2000s. This article provides a case study of the CPRS's work on social policy planning, using archival sources. The case study addresses themes that remain significant, particularly approaches to and the politics of horizontal coordination. Finally, the article makes a modest attempt to signal the differences between the 1970s' approach and ‘JUG’.     

Social Policy in Greece: Rhetoric versus Reform

This paper reviews the major social policy developments in Greece during the 1980s and 1990s, focusing on social security, health and employment policies. It argues that the concept of social policy and the practice of politics have been distorted in this country. Social policy reflects the legacy of a heavily politicized and centralized policy‐making system, an impoverished administrative infrastructure and poorly developed social services. Its emergence is characterized by the pursuit of late and ineffective policies. It lacks continuity, planning and coordination, being oriented towards short‐term political expediency. It is largely insurance‐based, reproducing huge inequalities and institutional arrangements which are behind the times. It provides mainly cash benefits, low‐quality but rather expensive health services and marginal social welfare protection. Moreover, the lack of a minimum income safety net confirms the country's weak culture of universalism and social citizenship. By implication, complex policy and interlocking interest linkages have tarnished the “system” with a reputation for strong resistance to progressive change. At the same time, sources of change such as globalization, demographic developments, new household and family/gender patterns, unstable economic growth, fiscal imperatives, programme maturation, as well as persisting unemployment, changing labour markets and rising health care costs, have produced mounting pressures for welfare reform.     

Asset‐based policy in rural China: an innovation in the retirement social insurance programme1

In response to growing rural–urban inequality, China is undertaking a series of policy initiatives to promote rural development. In addition to redistributive policy aiming at social protection, asset‐based policy, which integrates social protection and social investment, are a viable option for progressive rural development. In 1998, the Hutubi local government in Xinjiang, China, implemented an innovative retirement programme that allows account holders to use accounts as legal collateral to borrow small loans and invest in productive assets, education, and small businesses. Using the data gathered by the programme organizers and in‐depth interviews with programme participants, this case study closely examines the Hutubi programme. We examine the programme's key features, which have effectively encouraged asset building in a rural community, and identify the programme's strengths and weaknesses. The success of the Hutubi programme has implications for asset‐based policy development in rural China.

为了回应城乡日益扩大的不平等, 中国现正实施一系列新政策以鼓励农村发展。 除了以社会保护为目的的再分配政策外, 资产为本的政策综合了社会保护和社会投资, 是推进农村进步性发展的可行选择。 1998年, 中国新疆呼图壁地区政府实施了崭新的养老计划, 容许户口持有人利用保险户口作为法律担保, 借出小额贷款及投资在具有效益的资产、教育及小型企业上。

透过项目组织者所收集的数据, 以及与参与者进行的深入访谈, 本研究个案将详细剖析呼图壁项目。 我们检视了项目的主要特征, 这些特征有效地促成了农村社区资产的建立。 我们还分析了项目的优缺点。 呼图壁项目的成功对中国农村实行资产为本的政策发展有着深远的启示。     

Mothers at the Service of the New Poverty Agenda: Progresa/Oportunidades, Mexico's Conditional Transfer Programme

This article considers some of the changes and continuities in social protection in Latin America through a focus on the ways in which motherhood is positioned as key to the success of the new anti‐poverty programmes that have followed structural reform. It examines a flagship cash transfer programme known as Progresa/Oportunidades (Opportunities) established in Mexico in 1997 and now being widely adopted in the region. Characterized by some commentators as a quintessentially neo‐liberal programme, it is argued that Oportunidades represents a novel combination of earlier maternalist social policy approaches with the conditional, co‐responsibility models associated with the recent approaches to social welfare and poverty relief endorsed by international policy actors. In the first section, the gendered assumptions that have governed Latin American social policy are described; the second outlines social policy provision in Latin America and identifies the key elements of the new approaches to poverty; and the third critically examines the broader implications of the Mexican programme's selective and gendered construction of social need premised, as it is, on re‐traditionalizing gendered roles and responsibilities.     

Financial crisis and the developmental states: A case study of Hong Kong

Studies taking a mediation perspective have highlighted how the actual impact of economic globalisation is mediated by institutions that include welfare regimes. Some have examined how the welfare systems of East Asian developmental states have changed and adapted since the Asian financial crisis of 1997/1998. Using Hong Kong as a case study, this article examines how the developmental state of Hong Kong mediated the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008, particularly on disadvantaged groups. Hong Kong's welfare regime has provided insufficient support to ‘non‐productive’ groups despite incidents of social crisis. The government's welfare responses have been characterised by long‐term strategies to improve the competitiveness of the economy, and short‐term measures to boost the spending power of the general public. Measures targeted at disadvantaged groups have been piecemeal and minimal. The government's approach towards crisis management after 2008 has been similar to that taken after the 1997/1998 financial crisis.     

The Hutubi Model: what have we learned?

Created to address some of the limitations in China's rural retirement insurance policy, the Hutubi Model represents an innovative approach to asset building. A key feature of the model, the Hutubi loan programme, operated in Hutubi County, Xinjiang, China, from 1998 to 2010. It allowed farmers in Hutubi to borrow against their rural retirement accounts, taking loans for investment in farming and other priorities. This study examines the institutional incentives and structures that enabled the programme to help farmers build assets. We also discuss the programme's implications for the development of asset-based social policy in rural China and consider recent policy developments there. Among these is a new rural retirement social insurance programme.     

Room to move? Professional discretion at the frontline of welfare‐to‐work

Outcomes of social policies have always been mediated by the discretionary agency of front‐line staff, processes which nevertheless have received insufficient attention in policy evaluation and in the social policy literature more broadly. This article takes the case example of the policy reforms associated with the Australian government's welfare‐to‐work agenda. Drawing on two discreet research projects undertaken at different points in the policy trajectory, the practices of social workers in Centrelink – the Commonwealth government's primary service delivery agency involved in welfare‐to‐work – is examined. Centrelink social workers have been and remain one of the core groups of specialist staff since the Department's inception in the late 1940s, working to improve the well being of people in receipt of income security. Their experiences of the recent past and their expectations of the future of their professional practice as welfare reform becomes more entrenched are canvassed. In summary, the discretionary capacity of the Centrelink social workers to moderate or shape the impact of policy on income security recipients is steadily eroding as this group of professionals is increasingly captured by the emerging practices of workfare.     

Child Poverty and Ecological Contexts of Deprivation and Well‐being: A Critical Review of Budgeting and Social Policy in India

In the context of global developments in the measurement of child poverty, this article critiques the limited success of the Indian government to develop a comprehensive social policy approach to address multi‐faceted deprivation suffered by Indian children. Since independence in 1947, Indian governments have focused on childhood deprivation through various programmes to improve food security, education and health. However, these programmes have functioned in siloes without any linkages to each other, along with poor budgetary commitment which has resulted in sub‐optimal policy outcomes. Based on the theoretical approaches of Amartya Sen's capability approach and Townsend's consensual approach to poverty measurement, this article highlights the intrinsic importance of child well‐being to society. To achieve its objectives, the article is organized into four main parts. First, the article provides an overview of Indian children's deprivation and poverty, and the policy approach. Second, it provides conceptual advancements globally on the measurement of child poverty and deprivation. Third, it highlights the importance of utilizing these indicators to measure child poverty in the Indian context. Fourth, it concludes with a critical analysis of children's budgets and social policy in India to highlight that the Indian government's approach towards child well‐being is not only conceptually flawed, but that its commitment is extremely poor.     

Social impacts of the Global Financial Crisis on China and its policy initiatives

The Global Financial Crisis has brought eminent, negative economic and social impacts on China since late 2008, including a considerable decline in GDP growth and a rapid rise in unemployment. Drawing on the published literature and official statistical data, this paper examines the social consequences of the Global Financial Crisis in China, explores various policy initiatives taken by the Chinese government and assesses the effectiveness of these policy initiatives. It argues that the Global Financial Crisis has led to high levels of enterprise bankruptcy and job losses in China. Rural migrant workers and new university graduates are the two social groups most adversely affected. The economic stimulus package and expanded social programmes tend to be short term and economic oriented. Whether the policy initiatives have been effective in mitigating the social impacts of this crisis and correcting the structural imbalance of China's economy is unclear. The paper concludes by suggesting that a new policy approach should be taken to timely and effectively address the negative social impacts of the Global Financial Crisis on China, in particular by providing a more inclusive and comprehensive social safety net, prioritizing employment generation, and addressing housing deficits.     

I’m respectful. Why don’t they like me? Evaluator and gender effects of showing respect and children’s social competence

Despite extensive research on the importance of conceptualizing respect, little is known about how respect recipients and peer onlookers evaluate showing respect. Few studies have examined how such evaluations affect children's peer relations across four levels of social complexity (individual, interactions, relationships, and group), and few have assessed how gender influences the evaluations of showing respect to peers on peer social competence. This study used multi‐group structural equation modeling (MSEM) to examine how (a) cross‐evaluators’ views on showing respect mediated the relation between multiple measures of social complexity and children's social competence and (b) whether gender moderated the above relations. Two hundred and sixteen participants were chosen from third to sixth graders (111 girls; M_age =10.30). They completed self‐reports of social competence and showing respect, and peer reports of classmates’ showing respect, overt aggression, physical victimization, mutual friends, and social competence. Self‐evaluations of showing respect were negatively related to group‐level social competence. Peer evaluations of showing respect mediated the association between peer relations (specifically, number of mutual friends and overt aggression) and individual‐level and group‐level social competence. Gender moderated three paths in the model, namely links between overt aggression and (a) peer evaluations for showing respect; (b) group‐level social competence; and (c) individual‐level social competence. Negative associations were stronger for girls than for boys. The research findings suggest that gender norms shape the complex relations between children's showing respect and social competence, and an understanding of these relations must take into account differences in evaluations made by children and their peers.     

Using the case study approach for improved programme evaluations

This paper discusses the case study approach to programme evaluation in the human services and its multiple benefits to the evaluator and to the various stakeholders in the programme being evaluated. Of particular importance is the use of a case study to examine programme processes which then inform the design of the outcome study of programme effects. Following a brief overview of the case study approach in research and its applications, the authors delineate its benefits and illustrate these using the evaluation of a model programme designed to reunify families separated by a child's placement in foster care. The results of the case study more clearly defined the programme's processes for both the researchers and the programme staff, and illuminated the desired outcomes which then were delineated in measurable terms. The result was a design for an outcome evaluation that was consistent with programme goals, processes, and intended benefits. The case study also facilitated communication and collaboration between the researchers and the programme's stakeholders, provided important information for agency decision‐makers, and contributed greatly to the potential for the success of the overall evaluation.     

A comparison of systems and outcomes for safeguarding children in Australia and Norway

Using aggregated national data, this paper compares outcomes of Australian ‘child protection’ (CP) and Norwegian ‘child welfare services’ (CWS). We highlight each nation's context and key elements of their CP/CWS organizations, with emphasis on policy and programme orientation. System outcomes are examined along with the implications of their different approaches. The main policy focus in Australia is protection and risk, while Norway's systemic approach stresses prevention, early intervention and support. These differences influence practitioner's intervention strategies and how the needs of children and parents are met. In Norway, approximately 80% of the children in the CWS receive some sort of supportive services. In contrast, Australian services for supporting families are narrowly targeted. Both countries share the ‘best interest of the child’ principle and an increased focus on children's rights, and have experienced increased service demands and rates of children in out‐of‐home care. The paper explores the relative merits of these systems.     

Women's Organizations,Social Learning,and the Federal State: A Case Study of Canadian Pension Policy

The various ways which federalism influences gender policies has recently received a surge of academic interest. This article contributes to this literature by moving beyond formally adopted policies to study the influence of federalism on social learning amongst women's organizations. Using a most‐likely case study design, this exploratory work traces the policy positions held by women's organizations in Canada during a seven‐year period now known as the Great Pension Debate. Focusing on four empirical indicators of issue attention, participation in policy discussions, specificity of policy proposals, and consensus for reform, the findings suggest that the plurality and temporal proximity of successive policy venues – such as royal commissions and parliamentary committees – created by various governments offered women's organizations an optimum environment to engage in ongoing exchanges leading to the development, and greater specification, of policy positions.     

Straddling Two Continents: Social Policy and Welfare Politics in Turkey

There has been an increasing academic interest in understanding the dynamics of social policy in the Middle East and developing a conceptual ‘model’ to account for the particular characteristics of welfare arrangements in the countries of the region. While part of this framework, Turkey represents an exceptional case due to the Europeanization processes the country is undergoing in various policy areas, including social policy. The influence of the European Union on the shape of Turkish social policy, as illustrated by the government's recent reforms in the labour market and social security domains, is hereby used to outline the position of Turkey vis‐à‐vis both the Southern European welfare regime and the Middle Eastern pattern. This article seeks to assess the dynamics of Turkish social policy in light of the country's political, and socio‐economic dynamics, as well as the external influence exerted by the EU and international financial institutions. The aim is to examine Turkish welfare arrangements in a comparative manner and consider its suitability with reference to either of the two models. Looking at major trends in social security and the labour market, the article argues for a Turkish ‘hybrid’ model embodying the characteristics of both. Subject to EU explicit pressures for reform absent elsewhere in the Middle East, the data nevertheless show that Turkey has yet to make the qualitative leap forward that could place it firmly within the Southern European welfare group.     

Is Personalization the Right Plan at the Wrong Time? Re‐thinking Cash‐for‐Care in an Age of Austerity

As personalization has dominated the policy agenda for reform in social care, its roll‐out as a mainstream option has coincided with global programmes of austerity which have targeted services for disabled people. Was this simply bad timing or was its implementation always part of the agenda for reform? Whilst the principle of cash‐for‐care schemes drew strongly on promoting the independence and autonomy of disabled people, early incarnations of direct payments policy in the UK were initially at least in part rolled out in light of potential cost savings to social care budgets. This article explores these and other issues in light of evaluations of the Scottish government's self‐directed support (SDS) test sites (2009–11) and implementation of subsequent legislation enforcing models of SDS in Scotland from April 2014. Discussion draws on the authors’ recent book (Pearson et al. 2014) to reflect on what the evidence can tell us about radically transforming social care at a time of global austerity.     

Promoting family well‐being and social cohesion: The networking and relational approach of an innovative welfare service in the Italian context

This evaluation study examined a Family Services Centre (FSC) operating in a socio‐culturally deprived suburban area of Southern Italy to explore how promoting innovative practices to meet increasingly complex family needs. The research used a case study approach and a mixed‐methods design: the service's documents underwent a documentary analysis; users' trends and satisfaction levels were examined using quantitative data; service's identity and changes in the perceptions of professionals were analysed by qualitative techniques. Overall, the data highlighted the fact that the FSC can be considered an effective prevention instrument: its family support practices, oriented to the ASPIRE model, ensure accessibility, empowerment and a strengths‐based approach. Thanks to its strengthened mediator role, client participation and caseworkers' ideas, it represents an environment conducive to the development of innovation in social practices, influencing local social policies regarding child and family welfare. Despite its changes, the FSC still promotes family well‐being and social cohesion within the community with its innovative multilevel and multimethod approach. Considerations and lessons learned by this case study could stimulate decision makers and social practitioners to reflect on innovative models to meet families' needs.