The 2015 welfare reform of the National Basic Livelihood Security System in South Korea: Effects on economic outcomes

In July 2015, South Korea’s National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) was reformed for the purposes of eliminating welfare blind spots and reducing poverty. The reform is expected to affect the recipients’ economic behaviours and choices. In this study, we used changes in benefits and eligibility for the NBLSS under the customised benefit system to identify the effects of the change in the NBLSS on a proposed set of economic outcomes – income, labour supply, consumption, savings, poverty reduction. To estimate the effects, we used data from the 10th–12th waves of the Korea Welfare Panel Study and employed a difference‐in‐differences framework integrated with the propensity scores. We found that the NBLSS helps the poor to reduce financial and material hardships through income and consumption increments, but that it does not provide disincentives to the recipients from participating in the labour market or from saving.     

Social investment effects of public education,health care,and welfare service expenditures on economic growth

The purpose of this study is to theoretically and empirically examine whether public spending in education, health care, and welfare service operates as a fruitful investment in welfare states, which has been implied in the literature of social investment arguments. Based on comprehensive review of existing literature, this study suggested a tripartite mechanism of social investment effect of such spending, that is “enhancement of human capital,” “support for labor force participation,” and “job creation.” To find the empirical evidence, a pooled time‐series cross‐section analysis was conducted with the data of 15 advanced welfare states from 1980 to 2015 using estimation technique of fixed‐effect model. The results confirmed that public spending in education, health care, and welfare service had a positive medium‐term as well as long‐term effect on economic performance, while cash‐type welfare spending had an obscure or no visible effect on economy. Government consumption that is a proxy and control variable of size of the welfare state showed a positive effect on real GDP in the medium term but a negative effect in the long run. In conclusion, this study suggests that reinforcing social services should be recognized and dealt with as essence of social investment strategy.     

Homing blogs as ambivalent spaces for feminine agency

This article discusses a form of lifestyle blogging where women blog about their homes and everyday lives. In these homing blogs, self-representations are characteristically spatially demarcated within the private sphere of the home. As these repeated representations of women in their homes take place in the public space of the internet, homing blogs work towards naturalizing the home as a women’s sphere. Written and commented on mostly by other women, homing blogs represent a feminine form of self-expression and communication that functions as a discursive expression of ongoing social, economic, and cultural changes in affluent Western societies. In this article, Finnish versions of these homing blogs are analysed in the cultural and political context of contemporary Finland, and discussed as a form of intimate publics that reverses the gender politics of other historical, semi-public spaces for the exercise of women’s agency, such as the salon.     

A Boy’s Journey: Public Sociology for in and Out of the Classroom

This essay is a response to Stein (2019; 2020) and his use of lived experience to tell the story of violence and the Holocaust. I discuss these works’ contributions to public sociology and teaching.     

城市公共艺术与文化软实力的对接关系研究——以广州为例

文化软实力是一个国家除军事经济之外让别人主动接近的吸引力,城市公共艺术也是一种与大众有亲缘关系的艺术形态。某种程度上说,城市公共艺术是文化软实力在艺术领域的一种显象。广州城市公共艺术在器物层、行为层、制度层诠释了文化软实力的静态和动态的维度。     

以服务基层为导向的全科医学人才培养模式的探索

当前，我国基层卫生技术人员队伍建设相对滞后，已经成为制约基层卫生机构发展的瓶颈。医学院校充分发挥人才培养职能，积极探索符合基层医疗服务特点的全科医生培养模式，对推动我国基层医疗卫生服务质量的提高，促进我国医药卫生体制改革的深化具有重要作用。本文对现阶段我国全科医学人才培养中存在的问题进行了分析，介绍了开展全科医学教育的重要意义，并结合辽宁医学院的工作实践，提出了以服务基层为导向的全科医学人才培养的建议和措施。     

微公益凸显的伦理问题及对策探析

“微公益”是指从微不足道的小事入手开展公益活动，注重由少积多的公益行为。与传统的公益活动相比，微公益呈现出参与人数多、事情小、目标明确、针对性强、运用现代传媒方式等特点。结合微公益呈现的特点，对微时代下的人人公益行为以及微公益过程本身引发的伦理道德问题，如社会信任、道德自觉性、法律关系、公平性、权利与义务等问题进行深入剖析。通过问卷调查法、访谈法，对重庆市公民进行了关于微公益认识与伦理问题的调查研究，从伦理学、社会学的视角着手，介绍微公益伦理问题的表现，分析微公益伦理存在的原因，提出从法律法规的制定、监管力度的完善、诚信品质的落实及网络道德的建设等方面应对微公益凸显的伦理问题。     

大数据与微时代： 虚拟社会公共服务体系的双重建构

大数据与微时代引发了虚拟社会的多重变革，新的服务理念和服务模式呼之欲出，虚拟社会公共服务的走向、模式、内涵正在发生深刻变化。但是受到推送途径、参与机制、数据基础、保障措施等因素的制约，虚拟社会公共服务的质量和效率相对有限，其体系面临着解构与重构。大数据与微时代是当前虚拟社会公共服务体系建构中不可或缺的重要因素，通过培育公共服务精神、推进虚拟社会公共服务均等化发展、强化多元参与主体间的良性互动、完善虚拟社会公共服务体系建构秩序等途径，科学、合理地对其加以运用，将会有效助推虚拟社会公众服务的不断创新和发展。     

民族互嵌式社区居民公共服务幸福感指标体系的构建

构建相互嵌入式社会结构和社区环境，是铸牢中华民族共同体意识，推动多民族社区治理的重要途径。由于多元文化的碰撞交融，社区内部张力扩大，民族互嵌式社区的治理在一定程度上存在着多民族融合表面化、社区共同体意识淡薄等一系列问题。论文结合社会系统论、社区治理论的相关原理，厘清民族互嵌式社区的内涵，提出民族互嵌式社区居民公共服务幸福感指标体系的构想。通过差异化选址、探索性因素分析，形成影响居民公共服务幸福感的社区融合、社区治理、社区文化建设、社会医疗、社区教育五个维度及指标体系，为有效评价民族互嵌式社区公共服务提供借鉴。     

Employers' perspectives on benefit conditionality in the UK and Denmark

This article examines the under-explored demand-side of active labour market policies (ALMPs). Based on interview data from a comparative study of the UK and Denmark, the paper analyses employers' perspectives and experiences of ALMPs. In both countries, employers were favourably disposed towards employing unemployed jobseekers but held negative views on conditionality. First, benefit conditionality led to employers receiving large numbers of unsuitable and unfiltered job applications, with associated negative resource impacts. Second, employers perceived this as a product of ‘box ticking' and compliance targets. Finally, employers criticised policy and media rhetoric for focusing solely on the supply-side and for problematizing unemployed candidates. The paper argues that these crucial, but neglected, employer perspectives demonstrate that the current benefit conditionality regime in the UK risks irrevocably ‘tarnishing' candidates, which undermines, rather than enhances, their chances of securing employment through ALMPs. This unique dataset provides further evidence that the current direction of policy requires urgent and radical re-thinking.