Social housing mediation: education path for social workers

ABSTRACT

Social mediation constitutes an alternative method to legal proceedings, providing effective support for the management and resolution of the most common types of conflicts between individuals, within families and among neighbours, as well as other types of disputes that can arise from interactions between people. Over the last 20 years, urban areas in Italy with high concentrations of public housing have gradually become zones of social disadvantage in which conflict is widespread, due to a number of different factors. On the local level, some municipalities have started promoting innovative initiatives, thanks in part to the sharing of successful practices, both nationally and internationally. This paper presents the methodology and results of an innovative intervention of social mediation in public housing contexts, carried out in a number of municipalities in the Marche Region with financing provided under two projects of the European Fund for the Integration of non-EU Immigrants. Particular attention is given to training courses for social workers, as well as to actions carried out in public housing neighbourhoods, together with the public housing tenants, in order to manage the various issues related to housing and to prevent and deal with conflicts by reinforcing relations between neighbours.     

Social Security reform: implications for women

Despite recent economic gains for women, a substantial gender gap in financial security during old age remains, making women more dependent than men upon Social Security. Social Security plays an important role in providing for women's economic security. The implications for women of several proposed changes in Social Security policy, including the call for the partial privatization of Social Security via the introduction of individual accounts, are analyzed. Many of the proposals would have the effect of asking women, particularly low-income women, to shoulder a disproportionate share of the risks and burdens associated with the changes.     

Social capital and leaving the nest: Channels and housing tenures

Young adults in Europe sometimes have trouble moving away from their parents and obtaining a home of their own, which is considered an important step in the transition to adulthood. This paper investigates whether nest-leaving is affected by individual social capital and parental economic capital. The paper also examines how these resources are related to the type of housing tenure obtained and whether the housing was acquired through informal channels. In addition, the paper assesses whether differences in access and returns to social capital can explain the later nest-leaving of the children of immigrants. The study uses a Swedish two-wave panel survey of young adults aged between 19 and 22. Individual social capital is operationalized as an extensive social network measured with the position generator, while parental economic capital is estimated with registered disposable income. The results show that individual social capital is positively related to prospective nest-leaving, but parental income is not. Nevertheless, both individual social capital and parental economic capital are related to the obtained housing tenure type: social capital is linked to informal ‘second-hand’ rental agreements often acquired through contacts, whereas having high-income parents is linked to obtaining owned housing tenure. The children of immigrants are found to be more likely to live with their parents, but this is not explained by lower access or return to social capital.     

Public housing agency preferences for the homeless as a policy lever: Examining county-level housing subsidy receipt and maltreatment rates

This study examines the relationship between county Public Housing Agency (PHA) practices that prioritize families experiencing homelessness and county-level child maltreatment rates. Using data from a survey of PHAs and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) with a sample of 534 counties, we find that policies which give preference to homeless households for housing assistance are associated with reduced victimization and substantiation rates, while policies that reduce barriers to assistance eligibility are associated with reporting rates. Our findings suggest that beyond prioritizing homeless families for housing assistance as a means of ending homelessness, providing families with more expedient access to a valuable public subsidy may have important positive externalities, such as reduced CPS involvement. Additional partnerships between child welfare agencies and housing providers, particularly those that provide housing subsidies, may be worthy of additional investment and evaluation.     

Debt repayment problems: short-term and long-term implications for spending

The paper investigates the economic consequences of financial difficulties. A unique quarterly panel dataset from 2004–2011 from Estonia, a euro area country, makes it possible to estimate the quarterly spending response to debt repayment problems on top of the effect of income and indebtedness. The results imply that problems lead to a substantial short-term drop in spending. Although spending recovers after the debt repayment problems are resolved, the increase is smaller than the original decline and spending remains at a lower level than before the problems emerged. An important finding is that the longer the problems last, the more severe the decline in spending is. The results suggest that the experience of debt repayment problems has severe long-term economic implications, a cost that should be taken into account when the consequences of indebtedness are assessed.

     

Acessibility in collective housing for the elderly: a case study in Portugal

Physical spaces need to be adjusted to suit the changes of a physical, cognitive and emotional order occasioned by the natural aging of people. Ergonomics of the built environment contributes to improving the interaction of the user and physical environment, with a view to their comfort and safety. By thinking through the influence that environments have on the quality of life of the elderly, this article presents an assessment of accessibility in private units--bedrooms and bathrooms--of a Long-Stay Institution for the Elderly (ILPI in Portuguese) in Portugal. The analysis of the physical and spatial conditioning factors by means of the Ergonomics Methodology for the Built Environment (EMBE), proposed by VILLAROUCO (2008), gave evidence of the need for interventions to suitably adapt physical infrastructure, with the objective of promoting the physical well-being of the elderly, and thus, enhancing the autonomy and independence of a wider range of users.     

Social and feminist design in emergency contexts: the Women’s Social Architecture Project,Cox's Bazar,Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

The rapid influx of Rohingya refugees into Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, has led to the formation of huge camps, built on difficult terrain, short of space and with high population density. All these factors present numerous challenges to agencies seeking to provide latrines, water points, and bathing facilities. Feedback gathered from women and girls highlighted significant challenges around access, safety, privacy, and dignity, including management of personal hygiene and menstruation. Within the humanitarian community, site planning and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) infrastructure planning/design processes have mainly been dominated by male architects and engineers, often with gendered assumptions about the user. Acknowledging these challenges, Oxfam implemented the Women’s Social Architecture Project to work with women and adolescent girls, and female architects with a background or interest in social or feminist design and architecture, to add a different perspective into the design and siting of WASH facilities. The project has consisted of formative research with Rohingya women and girls, and design workshops with architects in which Rohingya women have co-created designs that tackle the issues they face regarding WASH facilities. This article provides an account of the progress to date, together with feedback from women and girls and the WASH Sector in Cox's Bazar ahead of the final completion of the project in June 2019.     

Local perspectives on rural housing affordability and implications for the localism agenda in England

Drawing on consultation meetings with eight community groups across rural England, this paper examines local perspectives on housing affordability, and the consequences of low levels of ‘within area’ housing access for rural economies and communities, contrasting the reflective understanding of residents with normative and established perspectives on the same issues. Because it now seems likely that rural planning policy in England will, in some measure, be reconstructed from the bottom-up, prioritising local control, an analysis of residents' perspectives gives some insight into the shape of future policy intervention. The research reveals a highly nuanced understanding of affordability and the development needs of villages. Sometimes local views – particularly those of commuting or retired households – are dismissed as being motivated by NIMBYism. But this is a partial truth, with rural residents displaying reflective dissatisfaction with official perspectives on rural housing problems.     

Social messengers as the new frontier of organization-public engagement: A WeChat study

Mobile-based social messengers have overtaken social networking sites as the new frontier for organizations to engage online stakeholders. This study provides one of the earliest empirical investigations on the antecedents and relational outcomes of pubic engagement with companies via WeChat—one of the world’s most popular social messaging apps. Publics’ social messenger dependency and privacy perception of the medium are found to effectively drive public engagement, which in turn enhances organization-public relationships. Strategic guidelines based on the study findings are provided.     

The sociology of education in seven European countries: Theoretical trends and Social contexts

The present paper aims to describe the main trends in sociological studies of education in the last two decades in six European countries, namely, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Topics addressed include (1) the main thematic trends in the area of educational studies and especially the sociology of education; (2) the interrelations between the social context—and, especially, the educational context—and social theories; (3) the interrelations between the various professional communities involved in educational research and (4) the interaction between international and national approaches in the study of education‐related themes.     

Social contexts and personal relationships: The effect of meeting opportunities on similarity for relationships of different strength

This paper examines the effect of social contexts on similarity in personal relationships. We argue that the effect of social contexts is larger for weaker, and smaller for stronger relationships. Using data from The Survey of the Social Networks of the Dutch (collected in 1999/2000, n = 1007), we first describe where people got to know their acquaintances, friends and partner and that similarity in these relationships with regard to age, level of education, sex, and religion, generally varies. We then inquire whether getting to know each other in a certain context affects similarity, and whether this effect is different for relationships of different strength. Our main conclusion, however, is that the effect of social contexts on similarity is remarkably consistent across partnerships, friendships, and acquaintanceships.     

Translational research: implications for the study of work and family

ABSTRACT

Translational research facilitates the application of knowledge gained from research, bridging the divide between research and practice. In the context of work and family studies, translational research can take a variety of forms, depending upon the degree of engagement with stakeholders or end-users of the research. In this study, we defined and examined indicators of translational research in exemplary work and family research publications, in an effort to shed light on the adaptation of translational research perspectives to the work and family field. Using content analysis, we examined indicators of translational research in the 46 articles nominated for the 2018 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for work and family research. Of the 46 articles in the study, 24 (52.2%) included content suggesting translational research. The most common indicators of translational research involved presenting practical and policy applications or implications of research findings, while fewer articles mentioned developing sustained research-practice partnerships or engaging stakeholders in study design or implementation. We identify several implications of these findings for work and family scholars, academic organizations, professional associations, and the field of work and family research as a whole.     

Social stratification and multiple enterprises: Some implications for farming systems research

The basic thesis of this paper is that the socioeconomic characteristics of household economies delimit the range of viable agronomic alternatives. Agricultural technologies have salient socioeconomic characteristics, which make them appropriate or inappropriate. This varies in ways which are known or knowable, and it is precisely the covariation of the socioeconomic characteristics of farming households, agricultural enterprises and appropriate technologies which can help orient farming systems programs to specific consitituencies.This thesis is developed with respect to three strata of smallholders. Several aspects of fanning systems are considered, including the organisation of crop and livestock production, the marketing of agricultural inputs and products, and the storage of grain for seed. Characteristics of appropriate technologies are identified. A chart summarises the discussion, thereby permitting comparison of the socioeconomic characteristics of appropriate technologies across strata and enterprises.     

South to south learning experiences: Popular housing problems in Nigeria and India

Slums exist in every known city of the world. Their problems are basically that of urban poverty and deprivation. The management of slums and governmental attitudes have varied from one country to another. Generally in most it has been one of intolerance and denial of utilities. Governments in fact pretend they do not exist. India is one country that has lived with slums and will continue to do so. It has shaped policies to recognise their usefulness and provide them with amenities, however minimal. What lessons can we learn in Nigeria from the India experience? The paper highlights the universality of slums and spontaneous settlements in most Third World Cities. It goes on to examine the Nigerian situation with a special focus on Lagos, the present Federal Capital. This is followed by an appraisal of the Indian housing situation. The Slum Upgrading Projects of New Delhi and other Indian cities are also examined in the context of the agencies involved. Finally conclusions and recommendations are made in an attempt to draw parallells and for us in Nigeria to selectively learn from the experience of another major Third World nation.