Innovative approaches to regulating decent work for domestic workers in Côte d'Ivoire: Labour administration and the judiciary under a general labour code

The authors offer a contextualized analysis of judicial decisions rendered during 1971–2013 in Côte d'Ivoire, where domestic work is regulated by a general labour code. Assessments of those decisions, alongside qualitative interviews of institutional actors, elucidate how innovative practices were mainly derived from the code by attentive inspectors and by jurisprudence evolving to treat domestic work like any other. Yet limitations emanating from the inability to grapple with the specificity of domestic work are also identified. Reaffirming that the regulation of domestic work must embrace its duality (work like any other and work like no other), the authors conclude with a call for an international community of learning on decent work for domestic workers.     

ActionAid's Young Urban Women programme in urban India: taking an intersectional approach to decent work,unpaid care,and sexual and reproductive health and rights

This article traces the implementation of a programme with young urban women living in poverty in the Indian cities of Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. This programme aims to increase their economic independence and control over their bodies. It begins from an intersectional analysis of women's access to decent work, their unpaid care work responsibilities, and their sexual and reproductive health and rights. It is part of a multi-country ActionAid intervention, Young Urban Women (YUW). The article looks at some of the strategies used in the programme, identifies successes and challenges, and offers insights for others working with young women in urban areas.     

The gendered pandemic: The implications of COVID-19 for work and family

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly all the aspects of society since it's onset in early 2020. In addition to infecting and taking the lives of millions of global citizens, the pandemic has fundamentally changed family and work patterns. The pandemic and associated mitigation measures have increased the unemployment rates, amplified health risks for essential workers required to work on-site, and led to unprecedented rates of telecommuting. Additionally, due to school/daycare closures and social distancing, many parents have lost access to institutional and informal childcare support during the COVID-19 crisis. Such losses in childcare support have significantly impacted the paid and unpaid labor of parents, particularly of mothers. In this article, we synthesize recent research on pandemic-related changes to work and family in the United States. Applying an intersectionality lens, we discuss the gendered implications of these changes. Because gender inequality in family and work are connected, COVID-19 has, in many cases, deepened the pre-existing gender inequalities in both realms.     

Deepening and widening the gap: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender and racial inequalities in Brazil

Shaped by inconsistent policy decisions, the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil has made structural gender and racial inequalities more acute. Black and low-income women are overburdened with unpaid domestic work, increased domestic violence, and more vulnerable due to informal and exploitative working regimes. These structural aspects are intensifying, since the pandemic has broadened inequalities at the intersection of gender, race, labor market, and social class. We examine pre- and during pandemic inequalities on three dimensions: (a) unpaid domestic and care work, (b) women's labor market participation, and (c) domestic violence. We link the care diamond model and racial stratification forwarding a feminist perspective by examining how the interlocking of race and gender in Brazil renders different socioeconomic dynamics to the detriment of Black and low-income women. Based on this evidence, we stress that a more equal future requires a better social protection and policies targeting the articulation of gender, race, and class.     

Substance use disorders and COVID-19: the role of telehealth in treatment and research

ABSTRACT

Telehealth, or the use of telecommunications and virtual technology to deliver health care and engage with patients outside of traditional health-care facilities, can play an important role in addressing the treatment and study of substance use disorders (SUDs) during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19 and related safety restrictions have thrust healthcare workers and researchers into a new reality of healthcare that relies heavily, or even exclusively, on telehealth methods. These changes have forced treatment providers and researchers to be agile in adopting these methods in order to maintain continuity of patient care and data collection. There are unique considerations that should be taken into account as telehealth practices continue to augment SUD care and research, even when restrictions have been lifted. Overall, we propose that telehealth can support innovation in treatment and research focused on SUDs and should be an integral part of our work, beyond COVID-19.     

Domestic help and the gender division of domestic labor during the COVID-19 pandemic: Gender inequality among Japanese parents

The enduring COVID-19 pandemic has gradually transformed our everyday lives. This study focuses on changes in work and family arrangements, with particular focus on changes in domestic help, and examines its impact on the division of domestic labor. Using a social survey of work and the family conducted in November 2020 and May 2021, the results show that from January 2020 (pre-pandemic) to May 2021, approximately 40% of respondents experienced a reduced gender gap for housework and childcare, while a large gender gap is still observed in the absolute frequency of undertaking domestic labor. Some lifestyle changes triggered by the pandemic, such as an increase in the use of takeaways or delivery meals, and the expansion of working from home, are found to be able to contribute a shift toward more equal sharing of domestic labor. However, the fact that the access to such lifestyle changes is more common among those with a relatively high income or high educational background suggests that the lifestyle changes imposed by the pandemic may exacerbate class disparities in the gender gap in domestic labor. Furthermore, the results show that decreased kinship support results in a greater childcare burden being placed on women.     

Longitudinal Change in Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9–18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined. Linear mixed effect models showed that depression, but not anxiety, symptoms increased significantly (median increase = 28%). The most negative mental health impacts were reported by multiracial adolescents and those under ‘lockdown’ restrictions. Policy makers need to consider these impacts by investing in ways to support adolescents’ mental health during the pandemic.     

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and well-being of children and young people

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact across the world. In this discussion paper, we examine the effect that lockdown has had on the mental health and well-being of children and young people. We write from a UK perspective in the light of the international evidence. Many of the discussion points raised resonate globally. We discuss how these issues can be dealt with and set out potential solutions as we emerge from this global crisis.     

A precarious hegemony: neo-liberalism,social struggles,and the end of Lulismo in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Analysis of Brazil’s political and economic crisis tends to emphasize the economic ‘errors’ that President Dilma Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT) government inherited from her predecessor Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva. It is clear, however, that political regulation is too narrow a focus to understand the current crisis. Such an explanation is unable to reveal the changes in class structure that took place during the Lula era as well as the effects of the international economic crisis. This article identifies the limits of the Brazilian development model and the main features of Lula’s mode of regulation; analyses the conflicts produced by the neo-liberal regime of accumulation and the Lulista mode of regulation, emphasizing the role of precarious work in the current historical cycle of strikes and popular struggles in Brazil; and, finally, interprets the palace coup promoted by the social forces behind the impeachment of President Rousseff.     

Safety and health at work as fundamental rights: A comparative-historical study of the ILO's strategy of realistic vigilance

This article is a comparative-historical study of ILO action on occupational safety and health (OSH) as fundamental rights. In the two decades following the adoption of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the ILO used a realist lens and prioritized the idea that OSH were dependent upon economic preconditions for their protection. This history is revisited in the light of the new complex of global health uncertainty and the addition of OSH to the framework of fundamental principles and rights at work. The analysis highlights the applicability of a realistic vigilance approach to the ILO's current work on OSH.     

Play and learn: Children's agency through the COVID-19 pandemic in Mozambique

Social distancing, one of the measures adopted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, profoundly impacted on the lives of children. The consequences were, however, not homogenous. By focusing on the daily practices of 41 Mozambican children aged 3–10, we consider how differences in socioeconomic backgrounds led children to respond to the social restrictions in ways that made sense to them. Inspired by Abebe (2019), we identify how the interruptions of daily routines enabled specific instances of agency on children's part. These, we argue, produce new forms of continuity.     

In sickness and in health: The politics of public health and their implications during the COVID-19 pandemic

Politics is a major player in health, sickness, and death affairs. This article reviews the role of politics in public health and its impact on health outcomes, mortality ratios, and death scenarios amongst the most vulnerable populations. Furthermore, the article explains the reasons behind the absence of politics from health and public health discourses; and examines the role of politics during the mis/management of COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on Foucault's biopower, Mebmbe's necropolitics, and Butler's precarity, the article illuminates how public health policies are highly political insofar as they offer some individuals access to life but create possibilities of death for others. During COVID-19, politics enabled governors to put at risk the most vulnerable groups, the precariat, namely refugees, asylum seekers, stateless, and immigrants, the majority of whom were impoverished. The article presents COVID-19 as an example of a crisis that unmasks these politics, claiming that these politics are not new but rather a continuum of previous invisible policies that COVID-19 unmasked and intensified. The article describes how the politics of health entail privileging individuals with capital value who can benefit the state's interests and maintains its power.     

Quaranteens: Prepandemic relationship quality and changes in adolescent internalizing problems during the COVID-19 pandemic

This preregistered longitudinal study examined changes in adolescents' depressive and anxiety symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using latent additive piece-wise growth models. It also assessed whether support from and conflict with mothers, fathers, siblings, and best friends explained heterogeneity in change patterns. One hundred and ninety-two Dutch adolescents (Mean age: 14.3 years; 68.8% female) completed online biweekly questionnaires for a year (November 2019–October 2020), consisting of a prepandemic, lockdown, and reopening phase. Depressive symptoms increased following the lockdown and decreased upon reopening. Anxiety symptoms showed an immediate decrease followed by a gradual increase in the reopening phase. Prepandemic family and best friend support and conflict did not explain heterogeneity in depressive and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Absent men: paid domestic work,sexual exploitation and male domination in the family in the USA

This article analyzes the sexual exploitation of paid domestic workers in the US through the lens of male domination in employing families. Departing from the dominant tendency in studies of paid domestic work to focus on relationships between female employers and workers, the article addresses the role of male domination and patriarchal family structures within employing families in the sexual exploitation of domestic workers by male employers. Using materialist feminist approaches, the article argues that domestic workers’ experiences should be seen as embedded in the patriarchal environment created by male household heads who appropriate the labor of other household members, including wives, children and paid domestic workers. The sexual exploitation of domestic workers is then analyzed as being a result of the appropriation of women’s entire personhood by men within the relationship of sexage outlined by Colette Guillaumin.     

Job-strain and well-being among Finnish social workers: exploring the differences in occupational well-being between child protection social workers and social workers without duties in child protection

Work-related mental distress and its impact on employees’ working life is a mounting issue among Finnish social workers. This article focuses on identifying the factors associated with child welfare social workers’ occupational well-being. The occupational well-being of Finnish child welfare social workers (N?=?364) and social workers whose duties do not include child protection work (N?=?524) was explored and compared with each other using t-test statistics and logistic regression analysis. The data, collected in 2014/2015, were obtained from an ongoing longitudinal cohort study on work-related well-being among Finnish public sector employees. A multi-dimensional and holistic approach to occupational well-being was used as the outline for the analysis and comparison of the two groups. Child protection social workers reported higher levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress than social workers without child protection duties. Despite these burdens, both groups showed a similar level of general health, compassion satisfaction and overall occupational well-being. Individual and organizational factors associated with high occupational well-being were identified. Supervision was found to be an important supporting element. This study identified multiple determinants related to social workers’ occupational well-being, comprising positive and negative elements with regard to organizational and individual factors.     

Bear in a Window: Australian children's perspectives on lockdown and experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper examines the reflections of a cohort of Australian children who lived through the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic and experienced being in ‘lockdown’; a state of largely being confined to the home for long periods daily. We report how children reflect on their experiences and illustrate how reflections draw on similar topics focused on localised child concerns regarding health, education, family, digital engagement, mealtimes and food. Further, we argue for the importance of including children's own voices of lived experience in reports regarding life during the pandemic since these perspectives may differ from those reported by adults on children's behalf.     

Disruptions,adjustments and hopes: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child well-being in five Majority World Countries

Drawing on integrated data from focus groups and diary entries, we explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child well-being for children from five Majority World Countries. We focus on the disruptions the pandemic caused, the adjustments made in response to these, and children's vision of a post-pandemic world. Underlying children's experiences of loss, boredom and concerns about educational progress, was an awareness of systemic inequalities that disadvantaged them or others in their community. Findings have implications on capturing children's voices through introspective and dialogical approaches that transcend cultures and for the development of preventive and responsive interventions during crises.     

Digitized diaspora governance during the COVID-19 pandemic: China's diaspora mobilization and Chinese migrant responses in Italy

We explore how the Chinese diaspora state during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 managed to transform a severe health crisis into a geo-political opportunity for transnational nation-building through diaspora governance based on extensive use of social media technologies. By adopting a multi-scalar perspective, we analyse the intertwined nature of top-down and bottom-up processes of the Chinese Party-state's diaspora mobilization. Based on discourse and ethnographic analysis, we argue that China's diaspora governance exposed a new and strong capacity for extra-territorial governance. We explore how discursive hegemony, social control and diaspora mobilization were achieved by widely employing the Chinese social media application, WeChat. We also contend that this was facilitated by the Italian government's and media's pro-China attitudes to emphasize the importance of considering transnational embeddedness when studying the implementation and impact of interactive online technology for diaspora governance in an illiberal political context.     

Young people and social networking sites: exploring the views and training opportunities of CAMHS social workers in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Social Networking Sites (SNS) (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) have become a fundamental part of the daily lives of many young people. SNS engagement has been associated with a number of risks and benefits, some of which are particularly relevant to young people who access child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Consequently, understanding how and why young people engage with SNS, and the associated risks and benefits, may become an increasingly important part of CAMHS social work.

This small-scale study (n = 15) utilised an online survey to explore the importance that a sample of Irish CAMHS social workers attribute to maintaining an awareness of how young people use SNS, whether they, in their professional lives, have been offered the opportunity to learn about SNS engagement among young people, and whether they have taken it upon themselves to learn about this topic.

Findings suggest that participants consider an understanding of SNS to be an important part of CAMHS practice. However, participants report that they do not feel sufficiently aware of SNS trends among young people, suggesting that there is scope for SNS-focused training/learning opportunities among this sample of CAMHS social workers. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are outlined.