The Great Recession of 2007: An Agenda for Social Justice

The Great Recession, the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, officially began in December 2007 with an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble and lasted until June 2009, resulting in loss in consumer spending and collapse in the nation’s business investment. For American workers, the Great Recession had far-reaching implications: unemployment, underemployment, pay cuts, and cutbacks in household spending. Although social work has a historical commitment to address the vulnerabilities of people and communities, we argue that the profession neglected to understand fully the factors associated with the Great Recession and to mount an agenda for justice in response to its worker-related impact.     

‘Growing Old’ in Shelters and ‘On the Street’: Experiences of Older Homeless People

Homelessness among older people in Canada is both a growing concern, and an emerging field of study. This article reports thematic results of qualitative interviews with 40 people aged 46 to 75, carried out as part of a mixed-methods study of older people who are homeless in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Our participants included people with histories of homelessness (n = 14) and persons new to homelessness in later life (n = 26). Interviews focused on experiences at the intersections of aging and homelessness including social relationships, the challenges of living on the streets and in shelters in later life, and the future. This article outlines the 5 main themes that capture the experience of homelessness for our participants: age exacerbates worries; exclusion and isolation; managing significant challenges; shifting needs and realities; and resilience, strength, and hope. Together, these findings underscore the need for specific programs geared to the unique needs of older people who are homeless.     

Attitudes toward poverty among exit students of undergraduate social work programs in eight Latin American countries

What is the attitude of Latin American undergraduate social work students toward poverty? An earlier study from Europe and other countries worldwide found that most graduating social work students who participated in the research were clear about the socio-structural causes of social problems such as poverty. Still, no data on this topic is available for Latin American countries. The aims of this study were: (1) to describe and to compare eight Latin American graduating undergraduate social work student groups regarding their attitudes toward poverty, as measured by two scales: Causes of poverty scale and Ways of dealing with poverty; and (2) to discuss some of the implications of the study for social work education and practice. Using a quantitative transnational-comparative design, a total sample of 525 nonrandomly selected, graduating undergraduate social work students from eight Latin American countries responded to a self-administered questionnaire. An individualistic attitude to understanding and to dealing with poverty emerged in the majority of the student groups. Multivariate procedures and inferential analyses demonstrated variations across the student groups. Implications for social work education and practice are discussed.     

Asset Accumulation: An Alternative Approach to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are unlikely to be achieved by 2015, owing to conceptual flaws in their design as well as the structural and political constraints faced during implementation at the country level. While criticism of the MDGs is widespread, innovative ideas on addressing these operational challenges are still scanty. By reviewing a number of experiences, including those of the Foundation for the Promotion of Local Development (PRODEL) in Nicaragua and the Ministry of Cities in Brazil, this article highlights the importance of incorporating an asset‐accumulation perspective into MDG‐related policies and programmes as a way of generating an enabling environment that opens up new opportunities for poverty reduction in the cities of low‐ and middle‐low‐income countries.     

An International Comparative Study on Women's Pension Rights and Their Economic Risks

This article examined the theoretical meanings of pension rights and analyzed their effects on women's economic risks in developed countries. First, based on the status of a citizen, worker, parent, and spouse, this study investigated how pension benefits are guaranteed as a citizen regardless of work history, the degree to which women's disadvantageous situations in the labor market and unpaid work are compensated by public pension as workers and parents, and how marital status is treated in the different pension systems. Second, analysis of the effect of pension rights showed that individual rights is a significant factor to prevent economic risks of elderly women. Derived rights did not seem to secure the economic welfare of elderly women, at least in a comparative context. This finding suggested that developing individual rights, rather than derived rights, is the way to guarantee long‐term elderly women's economic welfare.     

Gaps in social protection for health care and long‐term care in Europe: Are the elderly faced with financial ruin?

While public expenditure on health care and long‐term care (LTC) has been monitored for many years in European countries, far less attention has been paid to the financial consequences for older people of private out‐of‐pocket (OOP) expenditure necessary to access such care. Employing representative cross‐sectional data on the elderly populations of 11 European countries in 2004 from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we find that OOP payments for health care and LTC are very common among the elderly across European countries and such expenditures impact significantly on disposable income: up to 95 per cent of the elderly make OOP payments for health care and 5 per cent for LTC, resulting in income reductions of between 5 and 10 per cent, respectively. Failure to prevent financial ruin, as a consequence of excessive OOP payments, is evident in 0.7 per cent of elderly households utilizing health care and 0.5 per cent of elderly households utilizing LTC. Those particularly concerned are the poor, women and the very old.     

Getting Real About Food Prices

The 2008 spike in world grain prices is widely recognised to have had serious impacts on food security and poverty, but these high grain prices are commonly described as low in historical terms – an inconsistency resulting from the use of advanced‐ and global‐economy price indices in calculating real prices. This ignores the high share of food in poor people's expenditures and the indirect effects of income growth on expenditure patterns of rich consumers. Poor consumers have not experienced the same falls in real food prices and are more vulnerable to price shocks. Different price indices must be developed to take account of differences between consumer groups.     

团体心理辅导与贫困大学生的成长

团体心理辅导以团体情景为依托，团体内的人际交互作用，可以促使个体在交往中通过观察、学习、体验来认识自我、探讨自我、接纳自我，调整和改善与他人的关系，学习新的态度与行为方式，以发展良好的适应行为。运用团体心理辅导的训练方法，对贫困大学生进行团体心理辅导，可以改善这一群体的心理健康状况。     

晋冀鲁豫边区1942年～1943年抗旱减灾述论

1942年～1943年,晋冀鲁豫边区遭受了百年罕见的大旱灾.旱灾造成边区农业生产下降,人民生活极端困难,社会秩序紊乱.在中国共产党领导下,除了动员各种社会力量互助互济来救灾民之急以外,边区军民主要通过组织群众兴修水利,抢种、补种和大种,植树造林等方式来进行抗旱减灾与生产重建.这些抗旱减灾措施的实施为当时晋冀鲁豫边区最终战胜旱灾和坚持华北敌后抗战发挥了重要作用,也为以后的抗旱救灾提供了可以借鉴的经验.     

Enriching Resources for the Poor: Lessons from the Philippines

The paper provides an overview of the poverty situation in the Philippines, followed by a brief profile and assessment of two anti‐poverty programs: the Kapit‐Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan‐Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI‐CIDSS) program and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Official statistics disclose that the global economic crisis in 2008 adversely affected Filipino households, leading to higher levels of poverty especially in rural areas. In response, government introduced an Economic Resiliency Program with social protection as one component. Sixty‐six social protection programs were launched, including the two under review. KALAHI‐CIDSS and the 4Ps apply poverty reduction strategies that focus on the development of human and social capital, rather than economic capital. They involve processes and relationships that aim to improve the other dimensions of poverty, such as lack of access to opportunities or deprivation of basic human necessities. Qualitative and quantitative reports describe generally favorable outcomes from both programs. However, these gains at the household level need to be supported by relevant policy, enhanced public services and badly‐needed infrastructure programs from government, in order to sustain achievements culled from social protection programs and attain broader developmental impacts.