Clarifying the concept of the “Social” in risk assessments for human subjects research

International guidelines for the conduct of research with human participants, such as those put forth by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS, 2002), recommend that research review committees account for social risk and benefits to society in their review of proposed research. What do the concepts of the “social” and “society” mean in the context of the review of human participants research? Here we analyze concepts of social and society to define the terms: social harm, social risk, social benefit, and benefits to society. We argue that use of these terms invite more questions than answers and beg for difficult empirical research to determine the nature, likelihood, and magnitude of this category of risk and benefit. Until more research is done and these questions are answered, we advise reviewers to adopt an attitude of provisionalism and caution in their review of specifically “social” risks and benefits and “benefits to society.”     

Justice for children? Child protection and the crimino-legal process

Changes in the crimino-legal process during the last few years have blurred the boundaries between criminal justice and children's welfare in child protection. These developments have, however, received relatively little critical attention within contemporary discourses surrounding child protection. This paper draws upon primary and secondary research findings to explore the appropriateness and effectiveness of current forensically led responses to child abuse. In particular, it questions the adequacy of existing operational constructs of justice in child protection, arguing the case for a far more comprehensive notion of 'justice for children' than presently prevails. Research evidence is reviewed suggesting that current crimino-legally driven practices fail to achieve even the limited objectives of criminal justice, let alone the higher goals of promoting children's welfare or attaining 'justice for children'. Finally the paper explores how these findings may inform and be informed by current debates and practice in social work. While a range of policy and practice remedies are suggested, these, it is argued, must be framed with recognition of the tensions and dilemmas underlying social work in a complex and uncertain social world.     

Social protection for happiness? The impact of social pension reform on subjective well-being of the Korean elderly

Expanding the scope of the traditional indicators used to assess economic progress with measures of subjective well-being has been of growing importance in policy modeling. A recent Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report argued that policy decisions and welfare evaluations should be approached from a broader perspective on well-being and take into account metrics derived from self-reports of living conditions. To this end, we evaluate the efficacy of the 2014 social pension reform in South Korea using various measures of subjective well-being. The South Korean government introduced a basic old-age pension in 2008 and doubled its monthly benefits in 2014. The reform in 2014 represents one of the largest social welfare expansions in South Korean history, with an aim to improve seniors’ quality of life. Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, we estimate a matched difference-in-differences model that isolates the causal effects of the benefit increase attributable to the reform. Results show that the reform was associated with an average of 4.8–5.7% increase in financial satisfaction among beneficiaries, and that this correlation was more pronounced for retirees, seniors above age 70, and those at the bottom of wealth distribution. However, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that satisfaction with health status, parent-child relationship, and overall quality of life has improved in response. Our findings are in contrast to the past evidence on objective welfare gains associated with pension expansion. Taken together this study calls for the use of self-reported well-being data in policy evaluation.     

Is religion a health resource for the poor?

This paper uses data from the 2004 General Social Survey to examine the relationship between religious belief and practice (religiosity), spirituality, social support, and health status. Health status is conceptualized first in terms of a subjective assessment and, second, as two objective indicators of physical problems. These relationships were examined first within the total GSS sample, and then separately for respondents who reported below or above the median annual income. Results indicate that spirituality is a positive predictor of respondents’ subjective assessment of their health in the overall sample, but not in either separate income group. Social support does not predict positive subjective or objective health outcomes in the entire sample or for any income group. However, religiosity is a positive predictor of physical health, but only for the most severe of the physical health problems measured, and only for respondents whose annual income is below the national median. Thus, it appears that religiosity is a health resource for those below average income.     

Is the Case for Social Science Laws Strengthening?

The effectiveness of Kincaid's (1996) and McIntyre's (1996) cases for the possibility and actual existence of laws in social science is evaluated. The ways in which Kincaid and McIntyre argue against the confounding effects of four long-recognised barriers to the existence of social science laws are assessed. A brief review is presented first of definitions of causal (rather than regularity) laws. The four obstacles undermining causal laws are the non natural or social kind nature of the entities with which social science deals, the nature of mechanisms in social explanation, domain restrictions applying to causal explanation in social science, and the openness of the human systems encompassing socio-economic behaviour. Against the arguments of Kincaid and McIntyre, these four issues constitute fundamental a priori problems that continue to undermine the development of laws in social science, beyond those that can be derived by common sense, and that are potentially effective for policy-making.     

Is the Disposition of Constrained Maximization Chosen Rationally?

One of the most important issues in moral philosophy is whether morality can be justified by rationality. The purpose of this study is to examine Gauthier’s moral theory, focusing on the disposition of constrained maximization, which is the main thrust of his project to justify morality rationally. First of all, I shall investigate Gauthier’s assumption and condition for the rationality of the disposition of constrained maximization so as to disclose that the disposition of constrained maximization is not necessarily chosen by rational agents. Then I shall explore his other arguments including ones for the reinterpretation of rationality and the self-critical reflection of rational beings, which can be considered as his further efforts to make the disposition of constrained maximization a rational choice. By exploring them, I shall attempt to indicate that those arguments are not valid so long as he clings to the maximizing conception of rationality and thereby this conception of rationality itself is not enough to provide morality with a basis.     

How do policy levers shape the quality of a national health system?

Poor quality of care may have a detrimental effect on access and take-up and can become a serious barrier to the universality of health services. This consideration is of particular interest in view of the fact that health systems in many countries must address a growing public-sector deficit and respond to increasing pressures due to COVID-19 and aging population, among other factors. In line with a rapidly emerging literature, we focus on patient satisfaction as a proxy for quality of health care. Drawing on rich longitudinal and cross-sectional data for Spain and multilevel estimation techniques, we show that in addition to individual level differences, policy levers (such as public health spending and the patient-doctor ratio, in particular) exert a considerable influence on the quality of a health care system. Our results suggest that policymakers seeking to enhance the quality of care should be cautious when compromising the level of health resources, and in particular, health personnel, as a response to economic downturns in a sector that traditionally had insufficient human resources in many countries, which have become even more evident in the light of the current health crisis. Additionally, we provide evidence that the increasing reliance on the private health sector may be indicative of inefficiencies in the public system and/or the existence of features of private insurance which are deemed important by patients.     

Who cares about consent requirements for sourcing human embryonic stem cells? Are errors in the past really errors of the past?

Through an Access to Information Act request, we have obtained the consent forms used by the providers of every human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line approved for use by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and examined them to verify whether or not they meet the consent requirements established by Canadian law and regulations. Our findings show that at least seven out of ten consent forms studied did not satisfy these minimum requirements. We then outline various options for responding to this situation in terms of: (i) remedial measures for dealing with executive problems with regulatory oversight procedures; and (ii) remedial measures for dealing with the impugned lines.     

Work,social protection and the middle classes: What future in the digital age?

The digitalization of the economy can be interpreted as an industrial revolution, a series of technological innovations associated with new practices and new business models. As for previous industrial revolutions, a phase involving the destruction of existing systems and structures is driving a profound transformation of the world of work and the development of new sectors of activity and new jobs, including changes in the labour market and in the types of jobs created. This puts into question the position of the middle classes, and presents new challenges for social protection. This article seeks to understand the impacts of digital technology on the economy and employment, including the phenomena of labour market polarization. It describes the new forms of employment and work and analyses the social risks and the likely ramifications for the middle classes in the digital age. In turn, new possibilities for social protection in the digital age are discussed. The article concludes that there is a need to re‐evaluate jobs that involve the provision of personal and care services, including to support social investment, to strengthen the future prospects of the weakened middle classes.     

Implementation challenges for seafarers’ social security protection: The case of the European Union

In a world of competing flag States and short-term employment, enjoying the benefits provided by a social security system is a difficult, if not impossible, task for many seafarers. The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, has abandoned the flag State principle in favour of the residence principle for that reason. This article addresses the implementation challenges of this approach by examining the European Union case, and highlights the advantages of the residence principle in terms of administrative efficiency and effectiveness, enhanced coordination between social security contributions and personal income tax in cross-border situations, and better use of State aid measures.     

Legal families and environmental protection: Is there a causal relationship?

In this paper we build on the analysis of La Porta et al. [La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., Shleifer, A., & Vishny, R. W. (1998). Law and finance. Journal of Political Economy, 106(6), 1113–1155], to investigate the importance of legal families in explaining the dissimilar levels of environmental quality indicators among countries with different legal systems. The main intuition behind our analysis is that the nations in which the rights of shareholders are more protected promote real and financial investment; this increases the speed at which the per capita income corresponding to the declining branch of the Environmental Kutznets Curve (EKC) is achieved. In econometrics different regressions analyses were performed, using as dependent variables three different kinds of pollutants (CO₂, fine suspended particulates and waste), and including as an explanation some financial variables never before considered in this kind of study.     

Is it time to revise the definition of research misconduct?

U.S. federal policy defines research misconduct as fabrication of data, falsification of data, or plagiarism (FFP). In recent years, some have argued or suggested that the definition of research misconduct should also include sexual harassment, sabotage, deceptive use of statistics, and failure to disclose a significant conflict of interest (COI). While the arguments for revising the definition of misconduct used by federal agencies to include misbehaviors other than FFP are not convincing at this point in time, the arguments for revising definitions used by other organizations, such as professional societies, universities, or journals, may be. Since these other organizations play an important role in promoting integrity in science and deterring unethical behavior, they may consider adopting definitions of misconduct that extend beyond FFP. Debates about the definition of research misconduct are a normal and healthy part of broader discussions about integrity in science and how best to promote it. These debates should continue even if the federal definition of misconduct remains unchanged.     

Is the Person-Affecting Intuition Paradoxical?

This article critically examines some of the inconsistency objections that have been put forward by John Broome, Larry Temkin and others against the so-called "person-affecting," or "person-based," restriction in normative ethics, including "extra people" problems and a version of the nonidentity problem from Kavka and Parfit. Certain Pareto principles and a version of the "mere addition paradox" are discussed along the way. The inconsistencies at issue can be avoided, it is argued, by situating the person-affecting intuition within a non-additive form of maximizing consequentialism – a theory which then competes with such additive, or aggregative, forms of maximizing consequentialism as "totalism" and "averagism."