Personal income taxation under mobility, exogenous and endogenous welfare weights, and asymmetric information

This paper analyses how governments should tax labour income accruing to a group of highly skilled and geographically mobile individuals who divide their time or career between several jurisdictions. The analysis differs from previous models on migration and taxation by addressing optimal regulation when agents work for several principals. Optimal taxation is developed for social welfare functions with exogenous and endogenous welfare weights. Marginal income taxes are applied for screening purposes, and the rates are lower with endogenous than with exogenous welfare weights. Received: 22 January 1998/Accepted: 3 July 1999)     

Previous sickness presence among long‐term sick‐listed in Norway and Sweden: A retrospective study of prevalence and self‐reported reasons

The aim of the present study was to analyse previous sickness presence among long‐term sick‐listed individuals in Norway and Sweden and the reasons given for sickness presence. The study was based on survey data for 3,312 persons in Norway and Sweden who had been sick‐listed for at least 30 days. Two questions were used. One measured prevalence: During the last 12 months prior to your current sick leave, did you go to work even when feeling so ill that you should have taken sick leave? The second question concerned reasons for sickness presence. Large differences were found between Norway and Sweden in the prevalence of sickness presence. More long‐term sick‐listed Norwegians than Swedes reported sickness presence [adjusted odds ratio (OR) for Sweden 0.65 (0.53–0.80)]. The Swedes more often reported financial reasons for sickness presence [adjusted OR 2.77 (2.1 to ?3.54)], while the Norwegians more often gave positive reasons related to work. The national differences may be related to differences in sickness insurance strategies.     

Sense and sensibility: cohabitation in ‘cohabitation land’

In many European countries, cohabitation has become a prevailing practice. Norway is one of the countries leading this trend; cohabitation before marriage is the norm and a majority of couples become parents before they (eventually) marry. This article explores the meaning of cohabitation for Norwegian couples today through a qualitative analysis of interviews with 17 urban, heterosexual couples. As the trend towards increased cohabitation has emerged so strongly in Norway, such analysis may provide important insights into the possible implications of more widespread cohabitation in Europe. Why is cohabitation so attractive to young Norwegians today? Why do most couples postpone marriage until after they have children? The main finding is that cohabitation in this context is understood as acting according to important norms about intimate relationships. Cohabitation is a way of dealing with the complexity of attitudes towards love and relationships in late modernity. The option of living together outside marriage makes it possible for couples to be sensible (not committing themselves ‘too much’) as well as living together when they want to develop a relationship and are ‘in love’.     

The rights of the child enabling community development to contribute to a valid social work practice with children at risk

This paper presents a way of thinking about and doing child protection work using community development (CD) principles to guide practice. It suggests that a useful addition to CD can be found within the rights of the child provisions in Human Rights conventions. Using examples from the authors' three countries to illustrate the work that practitioners do in their work with children at risk, we argue that social work practice can be enhanced by the inclusion of these principles and practices which are essentially core generic social work practice. However, much of social work with the protection of children is bound by ‘risk’ perceptions which result in investigatory approaches being used as a first action, often to the exclusion of preventive approaches. This article demonstrates that in very different situations from different environments, CD in concert with the principles of the rights of the child can assist good outcomes with children at risk. A model is presented for unifying the worldview of human/children's rights with social work's core concern, the protection of children, using generic social work skills.     

TAKING CONTROL OF ONE'S OWN LIFE?

The Norwegian system of benefits for lone mothers was revised in the late 1990s. The reform entailed an altered conception of the interrelations between gender, the labour market and the welfare state in Norway — basically shrinking the period it is possible to stay at home with your children as a lone mother. This paper discusses the implementation and the consequences of these new policies from a gender and power perspective. The reform was meant to give lone parents more power over their own life, independence, higher income and self-realization. Lone parents’ own statements about their experiences show the problematic aspects of dependency on welfare, as well as the difficult aspects of dependency on the market. The reform was based on two assumptions, namely, that the market provides work opportunities and that gender equality has now been achieved in Norway. The paper concludes that since both assumptions are questionable, those lone parents least capable for this struggle have been turned into pioneers struggling for a place in the market and for that very gender equality.

El sistema Noruego de beneficios para madres solteras fue revisado en los últimos años de los 90. La reforma significo una concepción distinta de las relaciones entre género, el mercado de trabajo y el estado de bienestar en Noruega — básicamente significo una reducción en el tiempo que las madres solteras pueden dedicar a cuidar a sus hijos en casa. Este articulo elabora la implementación y las consecuencias de esas nuevas políticas publicas desde una perspectiva de genero y poder. El razonamiento de la reforma fue que esta llevaría a dar más control sobre sus vidas a los padres solteros, así como más independencia, salarios más altos y que por tanto los padres conseguirían una realización propia mas completa. Sin embargo, las declaraciones de madres solteras en este respecto ilustras los aspectos problemáticos de dependencia en beneficios del estado de bienestar así como las dificultades relacionadas con dependencia de los mercados. Las reforma estuvo basada en dos presunciones, primero, que los mercados proveen oportunidades para conseguir trabajo, y segundo, que Noruega ya consiguió igualdad de genero. El artículo concluye que debido as que estas presunciones son cuestionables, los padre solteros mas débiles se han convertido en pioneros en la lucha por un puesto en el mercado de trabajo así como pioneros en la lucha por la igualdad de genero.     

Multilingualism and identity: articulating ‘African-ness’ in an American high school

This paper draws on qualitative research that examines the language practices and learning experiences of ten adolescent multilingual immigrant and refugee English Learners (ELs) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Specific questions addressed include: How do these students capitalize on home languages as they engage in linguistic practices in English? How do these students take up their identities within the context of a US high school? The project emphasizes a shift away from learning discrete language skills in one language toward a focus on supporting complex language and content learning fluidly across languages and content areas in ways that affirm students’ identities and new learning. Implications for theory and practice will be discussed.     

Civil Society Organizations: the Site of Legitimizing the Common Good—a Literature Review

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - The concept of legitimacy—i.e., being regarded as “lawful, admissible, and justified” (Edwards in NGO...     

Empowerment and globalisation in a Nordic social work education context

The Nordic countries have been experiencing paradigm shifts from a focus on problems, pathology and deficits to more strengths-based, capacity-building and inclusive approaches, especially in the field of child welfare. This article describes joint Nordic (Nordplus) Master level courses that have been introduced to promote a more inclusive and empowering way of working with children and families. The overall theme of the Nordplus project is democratisation of child welfare work. The project includes three separate courses: (i) Empowerment and family decision making in child welfare; (ii) Strengths and solution oriented child welfare work; (iii) Children, youth and participation. The project brought together masters students from the Nordic countries and professional academics from the Nordic countries, South Africa and Australia. This article describes and problematises the learning process and the outcomes of the project. An important aim of the project was to interrogate the relationship between the global and the local.     

Conceptualizing and Measuring Immigration Policies: A Comparative Perspective

In the last decade, researchers have developed many innovative ideas for the construction of indices measuring immigration policies. Methodological considerations have, however, been largely absent from the discussion. To close this gap, this paper investigates the characteristics of existing indices by critically comparing and discussing them. We start by providing a definition of immigration policy which may serve as a benchmark when assessing the indices. By means of the analytical framework developed by Munck and Verkuilen (2002), which we adapt and customize for our analysis, we then evaluate the conceptualization, measurement, and aggregation, as well as the empirical scope of thirteen immigration policy indices. We discuss methodological strengths and weaknesses of the indices, how these affect the research questions that can be answered and what the next steps in index building within the field of immigration policy should be.