Endangered Children: Experiencing and Surviving the State as Failed Parent and Grandparent

The state removes children from ‘failed’ parentsto give them a better experience of parenting. This articleexamines the role that the state plays as parent to young mothersin care and grandparent to their children, drawing on a small-scalestudy undertaken in western Canada using grounded theory methodology.The findings were bleak: the state as parent and grandparentalso fails these children. We consider why this is the caseand make suggestions for ways forward by critiquing the ideologyof familialism that underpins the state’s punitive approachto these young mothers and their children. We also call forpolicies and a practice that enable practitioners to addressstructural inequalities such as poverty and racism alongsidethe capacity to respond to the personal needs of the young womenand their children as young people with dignity and rights.     

The Implications of State Governance for Effective Global Governance

Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18^th Central Committee of the CPC put forward the goal of modernizing the state governance system and state governance capacity, research on state governance theory and practice has taken off in the Chinese academic community. However, very little research has been undertaken on the relationship between state governance and global governance. In an interdependent world where domestic and international boundaries are becoming ever more blurred, state and global governance are not just mutually connected and consistent; they also influence and constrain each other. This paper looks into the influence of state governance on global governance in terms of the differences and internal linkages between state and global governance, arguing that enhancing governance capacity is an effective way for China to participate in global governance, promote the transformation of global governance system, wield its influence as a major power, and boost its right of discourse.     

The Interplay between Global and State Governance: Theoretical Origins and Practical Reflections

Global governance largely grows out of the externalities in state governance. At present, global governance and state governance are integrated into a kind of “holistic governance” based on their interaction and interpenetration. Our understanding of their interplay can be traced back to ideas that developed from ancient Greek and Roman times to the early 20^th century. More recently, from the second half of the 20^th century, theories of the interaction between global and state governance essentially revolved around the externalities in state governance and efforts to overcome those externalities by designing an ideal world. Today, the interaction between global and state governance is of great practical significance, serving to inspire the establishment of a global order based on sharing, integration and symbiotic harmony. However, we should also be aware that this interaction may be converted by great powers to the service of their own interests. At present, China can help reshape the global governance order of the 21^st century by strengthening its own development, promoting benign interaction between global and state governance, actively harnessing the potential of its state governance capacity and sharing its experience and ideas.     

Infants who stay in foster care: child characteristics and permanency outcomes of legally free children first placed as infants

Despite growing concern in the United States about the number of children who are entering child welfare care as infants, little empirical attention has been given to the sizable group of these children who are not reunified with their biological families and who then remain in care for long periods. This study examined length of stay and permanency outcomes for 458 legally free children who initially entered out-of-home care as infants. Using a Cox proportional-hazards event history model, the study also explored the effects of race/ethnicity and gender on the likelihood of these children achieving a permanent placement (legalized adoption or guardianship) within a reasonable period of time. African–American children and boys were found to be significantly less likely to achieve permanence than Caucasian children or girls. Across all groups of children in the sample, however, long stays in care were the norm. These findings suggest the need for flexible approaches to permanency, for efforts to better differentiate among infants in care, and for attention to children's long-term developmental needs as well as to strategies that better assure placement stability.     

中国国家起源研究中的几个问题(英文)

所谓酋邦分布的绝对普遍性问题并不是当代国际学术界的公论，明确这点对于我们准确把握酋邦概念和理论的本来意义有积极价值。通过对古希腊等个案的分析而开展的关于酋邦形态在欧洲和世界更多地区分布情况的进一步研究，并不会改变关于中国个案适用酋邦模式的基本认识，也不会对中国国家起源的研究产生新的重大难题。在对中国国家起源问题的理论研究中，对国外学者成果的借鉴无疑非常重要。而这需要研究者对有关国外资料做切实深入的了解，从而准确理解和概括有关成果的真实意义。目前国内有些研究虽然提出对于国外研究成果的某种概括，但实际上并没有经过对有关原始资料本身的认真研究，所谓的概括性意见是不准确的。这是在当前研究中需要注意的一个问题。     

论矿难的国家赔偿责任

自2004年末以来,我国重特大煤矿安全事故频发,引起了社会各界对矿难的广泛关注。其中矿难赔偿系焦点问题之一,但综观相关研讨,大都仅限于煤矿企业的赔偿,国家赔偿则几无涉及。而矿难国家赔偿责任的确立,无论在理论上还是实践中均有其积极之意义。基于国家赔偿责任在本质上是一种特殊的民事责任,故在认定和实现的过程中不能仅仅依据《国家赔偿法》,亦理应遵循相关的民事法律规定。     

State Governance,Global Governance and the Construction of World Order

State governance and global governance are two intertwining aspects in the construction of world order. A peaceful, prosperous and equitable world order encompasses internal order of sovereign states and international order of the international systems. Effective state governance nurtures internal order of sovereign states, eschews internal disorder, and prevents the spillover of negative externality into the international systems. In this sense, state governance is the cornerstone for constructing world order. In the meantime, effective global governance constructs world order and assists sovereign states in constructing internal order. In the construction of world order, different actors in the international systems represented by sovereign states inter alia must cooperate with a view to dissolving conflicts of interests and policies among states, managing global public domain, responding to common challenges and sharing responsibilities in assisting internally disordered states to govern effectively. Since the reform and opening up, China has contributed its distinctive part to the construction of world order by means of responsible state governance and global partnership governance.     

The Ties that Bind: Support from Birth Families and Substitute Families for Young People Leaving Care

This paper draws on findings from a study of outcomes for youngpeople leaving care funded by the Department for Education andSkills. It explores the informal support networks availableto a sample of 106 young people over a period of 12–15months after leaving care. It examines patterns of contact withbirth families and caregivers, the support that emanated fromthese links and the strategies of leaving care professionalsto strengthen these connections. It also considers the new familiescreated by many young people through relationships with partnersand the onset of parenthood and discusses the continuing supportneeds of young parents. The paper situates the needs and experiencesof care leavers in a wider youth transitions framework and highlightsthe need for continuing professional attention to be given tostrengthening family links as one strategy for helping careleavers to negotiate the transition to adulthood.     

Global Governance and State Governance: Two Strategic Considerations in Contemporary China

Governance is a kind of holistic governance and the notion of governing holistically should be established. The holisticity of governance is reflected in the unity and coordination between value rationality and instrumental rationality, normative appeal and practical appeal as well as global governance and state governance. Global and state governances are two strategic considerations in contemporary China. Actively participating in global governance and rationally promoting state governance is the rational choice of contemporary China, which plays a unique and significant role in realizing the social transformation and national rejuvenation and modernization of contemporary China. Deepening state governance with the help of global governance and promoting global governance with the support of state governance is the basic idea and dimension of understanding and grasping the interaction, coordination and overall planning between the two. The restrictions and effects of global governance on state governance are mainly reflected in such considerations as objects, mechanisms, concepts and interests of governance, and modernization of state governance system and improvement of governance capacity can promote and deepen global governance in a more effective way.     

Is cash allowance a way to ease child care burden? Views of carers in Hong Kong

Caring for the carers is not only a policy challenge for the government but also a global concern to achieve gender equality by restructuring welfare for care. Paying informal carers is one of the measures that address their needs, which is being practiced in Western countries for more than 10 years now. Financial support for care does not only value the contribution of carers but also compensate for the loss of carers caused by unpaid care duties. However, cash for care is a complex issue because it is located within a number of different policy domains that may be considered controversial. This study discusses the views of carers on cash allowance and identifies issues affecting the support provided to the informal care system in Hong Kong. The discussion is based on the findings from the focus group interviews with 11 groups of carers with different socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Beyond the Nation State: Social Policy in an Age of Globalization

The paper proceeds from the assumption that globalization has placed significant constraints on the autonomy of nation states in the making of social policy. It argues that the post-World War II welfare state represented a social system highly successful in combining economic efficiency and dynamism with equity and solidarity. This historic achievement at the nation-state level is being undermined by economic globalization. It is both necessary and feasible to recreate and institutionalize this mixed system globally. The paper argues that the concept of social rights, which has served as the basic underpinning of the welfare state, has many weaknesses—logical as well as empirical. While the principles of civil and political rights are being consolidated and extended worldwide the principle of social rights is in decay. The paper presents the case for replacing social rights by social standards as the major concept for buttressing systems of social protection. To be applicable globally a social standard must be conceptualized as a level of social development which corresponds to an appropriate level of economic development. Finally, the paper considers the problems and prospects of developing social standards transnationally. It reviews, briefly, the nature and extent of transnational social policy-making by inter-governmental organizations and concludes that despite difficulties of global action advances towards global social standards remain possible.     

Nonfamilial kinship carers—Who are they and what support do they need to nurture children?

There is a growing body of literature about kinship care in the Western world; however, much of it focuses on grandparent care. A lesser known aspect of kinship care is the care of children by nonrelatives known to the child or their family. What little research exists about this group suggests that such placements are less stable than familial kinship care. This article reports a research study in Victoria, Australia, that explored nonfamilial kinship care through analysis of administrative data, interviews with young people and carers, and focus groups with kinship care support workers. It emerged that current administrative databases are not yet able to reliably identify the carer relationship, and thus the extent of such care arrangements cannot accurately be determined. Interviews and focus groups revealed that nonfamilial kinship care is diverse and qualitatively different from familial kinship care, bearing some similarities to foster care yet managed very differently. It is suggested that policymakers need to pay more attention to conceptualizing nonfamilial kinship care within kinship care policy frameworks and that greater attention is needed to the individual support needs of children in such placements and their carers.     

Health care insurance in Japan: Beyond a binary vision of State and family

Despite significant regional diversity in household structures and the existence of community solidarity in Japan, caring for elderly dependent persons has traditionally been considered an exclusively family, and female, responsibility. However, as a result of socio-demographic changes during the second half of the twentieth century, a public system of health care insurance was introduced in 2000. The objective of this development was to "socialize" family and female care activities. This article presents a critical analysis of Japan's health care insurance system and the context that gave rise to its introduction. An important issue is whether the system meets the needs of the elderly and their carers (family and non-family). A further issue is whether the system can take account of regional diversity, diversity in household situations (above and beyond financial concerns), and societal values and beliefs. The article concludes by arguing that demographic ageing presents a societal requirement for the ongoing adjustment of behaviour patterns and living arrangements.     

The Influence of Global Governance upon State Governance*

The constant deepening of globalization is bringing all countries into the same global village, and intensified the coordination, interaction and mutual checks of global and state governance. Global governance advocates the whole of the interdependent destiny and common interests of mankind, and the extension of shared national responsibilities, challenges and risks to the whole globe instead of restricting them to certain regions or countries. Global governance is increasingly exerting a profound influence upon state governance in many respects, among them values, concepts, mechanisms, structures and actors, and is giving an external impetus to the modernization of state governance.     

机制碎片化及其对全球治理的影响

全球治理体系结构中存在着广泛的机制碎片化,构成了国际关系领域新的制度现象及结构特征。为此,需要对机制碎片化这一治理新情况给予重视,探讨治理机制碎片化的成因与后果,并就如何进行有效管理提出相应的对策。在当前新的世界政治经济环境背景下,面对全球治理机制碎片化的新挑战,中国作为全球治理体系的建设者,必须对日益显现的机制碎片化及其复杂性状况加强研究、有所应对,发挥中国自身应有的作用,并创造性参与,提升全球治理机制的有效性与合法性。     

No place like home: lessons learned and lessons forgotten –the Children Act 1948

The Children Act 1948 emphasizes foster care as the alternative provision for children who cannot be cared for by their own families; it also underlines the responsibility of the state to provide good alternative homes where necessary. The Act reflects contemporary developments in psychological thinking about the importance of attachment relationships, and a recognition, derived in part from the experiences of evacuation, of the harmful effects on children of separation from their families. However, greater awareness, from the 1970s on, of the deficiencies of the state as parent and the complexity of relationships between children, their birth parents and foster families led to the promulgation of 'inclusive' and 'task-centred' models of foster care, reflected in the shift of nomenclature from foster 'parenting' to foster 'caring'. These approaches may, however, be in danger of minimizing both the attachment needs of many children and young people within the foster placement and the parenting role which is appropriate in many placements. A model of foster care, derived directly from the first Children Act, which stresses these core relationships, should be developed alongside that which emphasizes task-centred, time-limited provision.     

Kinship Foster Care and Its Impact on Grandmother Caregivers

Summary

Kinship foster care programs are designed to address the needs of relatives, usually grandparents, who have taken in children who have been removed from their homes voluntarily, or following a substantiated report of neglect and/or abuse. The author reviews the history of kinship foster care nationally and examines related research. Reported are findings on a survey of kinship foster care programs nationwide and from qualitative interviews with nine grandmothers from New York City who were kinship foster care providers. Particular attention was paid in these surveys to the impact of kinship foster care on families caring for children with disabilities.     

Developing a Palliative Radiation Oncology Service Line: The Integration of Advance Care Planning in Subspecialty Oncologic Care

Within radiation oncology, there is often minimal attention on radiotherapy with palliative benefits due to the overlying focus on curative treatments. Historically at the University of Pennsylvania, advanced-stage patients are cared for by cancer site-specific teams rather than a more rapid treatment service model that focuses on patients’ symptom needs and larger clinical issues within a palliative framework. Thus, the University of Pennsylvania created a designated palliative radiation oncology team to focus on the complex medical and relational issues of metastatic cancer patients. Social workers play a critical role in patient and family conversations about advance directives, care needs, and end-of-life goals and fears as treatment regimens and outcomes continue to unfold. The palliative radiation oncology social worker developed and instituted a new, formalized assessment tool called the “palliative radiation oncology psychosocial care plan” in the electronic medical record. A retrospective analysis of 26 palliative radiation oncology patients under treatment between February and August 2016 was conducted. Of these patients treated with palliative radiation, 19% completed an advance directive after the social work intervention. This model highlights advance care planning as a best practice and encourages end-of-life discussions as a routine part of the oncology workflow.     

Women and the Family in the British Welfare State: The Thatcher/Major Legacy

This paper reviews the moral agenda of Thatcherism, in terms of maintaining traditional family structures, family roles and family responsibilities for economic support and personal care of family members. It asks to what extent and in what ways this agenda was promoted during the eighteen years of Conservative rule; to what extent contradictory forces within Thatcherism and elsewhere undermined this agenda; and what have been the consequences for women in family and public life. The marketization of life, pursued under Thatcherism, contributed to undermining the family form which has traditionally underpinned the market. Deregulated labour markets and spreading owner-occupation in an unstable housing market have been important contributions to family breakdown, insecurity and women's access to—and need for—jobs. The idea of family responsibility was promulgated, but in practice family members have become less able to support each other.
Nevertheless, one consequence of these changes has been a stronger position for women as women by the end of this Conservative era. Access to paid work makes women less dependent within families and improves their access to public politics. Social policies geared to the Beveridge-type family had become increasingly threadbare and some changes—such as policies enabling lone mothers to do paid work—had been forced by the increasing mismatch between family realities and the Beveridge model. Many changes owed more to the women's movement than to Thatcherism, but Thatcherite policies played a (largely unintentional) part.     

Getting behind the closed door of care leavers: understanding the role of emotional support for young people leaving care

There have been significant changes in the legislative frameworks and guidance that surround social work practice with young people leaving the care system over the recent years. However, care leavers continue to face a range of challenges, achieve poor outcomes and research has consistently highlighted the insufficient attention paid to sources of emotional support. This paper provides empirical data from a small number of care leavers reflecting on their experiences of transitioning to independence. The findings provide further evidence of the lack of attention paid to emotional support by professionals and highlight the impact that this had on the young people's experiences. The young people identify their changing perceptions and needs as their experiences post‐care change, the complex reasons for why they may have rejected offers of support and make key recommendations for practice. This paper provides valuable insight into the process of leaving the care system from the perspective of care leavers themselves and raises key questions that challenge the structure of the current support systems, the nature of the professional relationship with young people in care and the priorities of current policy initiatives.