Programme Effectiveness in Activating Welfare Recipients to Work: The Case of Hong Kong

Some theories and research based on data in the West have implied the effectiveness of measures using the work-first approach, human capital development, community work experience, and financial incentives to promote welfare recipients’ transition from welfare to work. Nevertheless, the generality of the implication does not hold without examining the effectiveness in a non-Western setting. The present study thus employs survey data from 1,240 welfare recipients in Hong Kong to investigate the effectiveness of various measures for raising the recipients’ work motivation and diminishing their welfare dependency. The measures examined include the Intensive Employment Assistance Project (IEAP), Community Work (CW) Programme and Disregarded Earnings (DE) arrangements. Findings reveal the effectiveness of these three measures. Particularly, help received from various services of the IEAP was the principal factor in the effectiveness of the IEAP and the IEAP was effective for welfare recipients who were older or less skilled. The findings thus offer support to the generality of the claim about the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programmes.     

Risk and its Management in Post-Financial Crisis Hong Kong

In the 1970s and up until the financial crisis occurred in the late 1990s, Hong Kong prospered in a relatively stable social, economic and political context. Since the financial crisis, however, its population has been increasingly exposed to risk: there has been job uncertainty and decreasing capacity for self‐reliance, leading to a growing reliance on public welfare and on families at a time when both are under pressure. The old welfare policies, unable to cope with the new risks, have been replaced by neo‐liberal reforms, redistributing the roles and responsibilities of the individual and the state, with a greater burden falling on the former. Individuals are required to be prudent to manage risk. While these reforms have relieved some of the burden on the state, both new social risk groups and ‘net taxpayers’ considered themselves to have borne disproportional costs. Society is facing serious problems resulting from ineffective old welfare policies, new social risks due to new policies, and the political upheavals arising from increased social conflicts and weakened social cohesion and solidarity. A further complication is that there is no acceptable platform or agent to negotiate a compromise between the polarized groups. This article argues that reliance on publicly funded risk coping strategies or on neo‐liberal risk prevention and mitigation strategies is not a desirable and sustainable policy. A commonly accepted political platform is required to negotiate a compromise which emphasizes shared and balanced roles and responsibilities, and a well‐conceived combination of risk prevention, mitigation and coping strategies.     

Welfare attitudes and social class: the case of Hong Kong in comparative perspective

Based on a survey of Hong Kong residents, this article explores the attitudes towards the welfare state and whether or not there are significant differences between different social classes with regard to their approval of the welfare state. The findings were then compared with those for Sweden and the USA. The study shows that Hong Kong residents strongly approve of the welfare state. The strength of their support is similar to that in Sweden and is far stronger than in the USA. In Hong Kong, the influence of social class on attitudes towards the welfare state is negligible. In some cases, the privileged classes expressed greater approval for the welfare state than the underprivileged classes. This is in striking contrast to the experiences in Sweden and the USA where the underprivileged classes are more supportive of the welfare state than are the privileged classes.     

Social welfare services for single parent families in Hong Kong: a paradox

This paper argues that researchers and social workers, whose work aims at empowering single parent families, have inadvertently participated in a social construction process that reinforces a pathological perspective on these families. The process has paradoxically caused single parent families to be disempowered through a welfare service system that pinpoints their difficulties and vulnerabilities. To address the paradox, the author recommends a ‘both–and’ perspective that takes into account both the needs and difficulties, and the strengths and successes, of these families.     

自助团体在香港发展的普遍性与价值性

作为一种重要的社会力量和满足人们需求的资源,自助团体的发展为香港的社会服务带来了新的活力。自助团体提供的服务在某些方面比专业领域提供的服务有效和廉价得多。除了对个人有所帮助外,它还能影响一些社会福利及医疗政策,使团体成员在宏观层面上获益。     

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.     

Parenting stress and anger: the Hong Kong experience

This paper examines the relationship between parenting stress and anger. A study was done on parenting stress and anger and its form of expression among Hong Kong Chinese parents. Three measures were used in the study: Abidin's Parental Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF; 1990), the Maternal Social Support Index (Pascoe et al. 1981) and Spielberger's State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; 1991). A total of 475 parents of children in a primary school participated in the study. The Chinese PSI/SF and the STAXI showed good inter-item reliability. The study helped to provide a profile of the parenting stress and the style of anger expression of Hong Kong Chinese parents. Stress was not found to be related to the year of the children in school or the general socio-economic conditions of the family. But stress correlated positively with anger expression. Multiple regression showed that anger expression was most strongly related to Trait Anger, the Difficult Child scores and the social support available to respondents. Rather than blaming the parent or the child, it is suggested more services should be provided to enhance the anger management, problem-solving skills and social support of the parents.     

Leading Article: Welfare Development in the Midst of Political Uncertainty

On 1st July 1997 Hong Kong will be transformed from a British colony into a Special Administration Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. Although the Basic Law, a mini-constitution for the future SAR government, states that “Hong Kong's capitalist system and lifestyle will remain unchanged for 50 years after the establishment of the SAR”, changes are perceived to be inevitable, not least in respect of the welfare policies to be implemented by the future SAR government. Indeed, since the signing of the Joint Declaration in 1984 between the British and Chinese Governments on the future of Hong Kong, the existing Colonial Government has been enlarging its role in the social services and making relevant policies more responsive to the needs of the people. These reforms have largely been carried out in line with the democratization process which Hong Kong has been undergoing in recent years. To what extent will these changes in welfare policies continue after 1997? It is argued here that with the enlargement of democracy, and especially the establishment of political parties claiming to represent the interests of the people, it would no longer be possible for Hong Kong to return to residual-type welfare programmes. While it would be unlikely for Hong Kong to develop into a “welfare state”, the future development of social services in Hong Kong would probably command widest acceptance if policies keep in line with the prevalent welfare ideology which stresses, on the one hand, the self-reliance of the people and, on the other, the responsibility of government to look after weaker members.     

The Retrenchment of the Welfare State in Latin America: The Case of Argentina

According to the conventional approving account of the transformations which have been taking place in public policy and in markets in Latin America, Argentina constitutes one of the most successful examples of wide-ranging and rapid change. Certainly the experience of Argentina offers an excellent case-study of what in the literature is termed " the retrenchment of the welfare states"; that is those institutional transformations associated with the "neoconservative revolutions" of recent years. In this paper I analyse the characteristics of Argentinian welfare state retrenchment, distinguishing between two fields of analysis: (1) "systemic retrenchment" which is linked to changes in the "referential environment" of social policy institutions, especially changes in the economic, fiscal, labour market and politico-institutional contexts: (2) "programmatic retrenchment" which refers to changes in the institutional ordering of specific social policies. Finally I draw conclusions in respect of the strategies adopted for the retrenchment of the welfare state in Argentina and discuss probable prospects for the future.     

社会福利社会化视角下的社会福利社区化

随着经济发展和社会结构的变迁,社会福利社会化成为我国社会福利体制改革的必然趋势。在这一发展趋势中,作为社会成员生活中心的社区就成为我国社会福利社会化的最佳载体。社会福利社区化的实现是我国社会福利社会化的重要体现。     

East Asian Welfare Regimes: Testing the Hypothesis of the Developmental Welfare State

Following the three welfare regimes constructed by Esping‐Andersen, many scholars have addressed the question of whether there may be a further type of regime, differing from the categories of liberal, conservative and social democratic, pertaining to other parts of the world. Discussion has centred largely on East Asia and, in particular, on the notion of the developmental/productivist welfare regime. Yet these discussions have been based more on conceptual classification than empirical analysis. This article attempts to fill in the gap, with reference to the developmental characteristics of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. A set of 15 indicators is developed for the factor and cluster analysis of 20 countries, based on data from the 1980s and 1990s. The results indicate the existence of a new group, consisting of Taiwan and South Korea, which is distinct from Esping‐Andersen's three regimes – unlike Japan, which remains a composite of various regime types. Regime characteristics peculiar to the cases of Taiwan and South Korea include: low/medium social security expenditure, high social investment, more extensive gender discrimination in salary, medium/high welfare stratification, a high non‐coverage rate for pensions, high individual welfare loading, and high family welfare responsibility. When compared with Esping‐Andersen's three regimes, the East Asian developmental regime shows similarity with his conservative model, in respect of welfare stratification, while the non‐coverage of welfare entitlements is similar to his liberal model. There is virtually no evidence of any similarity between the developmental welfare regime and Esping‐Andersen's social democratic regime type.     

院舍照顾视角下的香港养老服务

在香港,"照顾长者"已成为政府的策略性政策目标之一。社区支援服务和院舍照顾服务成为香港安老服务体系的重要支柱。如今,香港院舍照顾服务已形成了规范化、标准化和专业化的特点,拥有较为成熟的运作机制。与其他学者对香港养老服务的探讨不同,本文从院舍照顾视角出发,将院舍照顾作为一个单独的子系统进行分析,对香港院舍照顾服务的发展、运营及管理等方面进行深入分析,并提出对内地机构养老服务发展的借鉴意义。     

内地灾害救助的发展及与港、澳的比较思考

内地的灾害救助从灾害管理到灾害的统计、核定、评估,应急预案和响应,从生活救助到恢复重建,从资金物资储备到捐赠,已经形成了较具规模的主体框架,并在救灾实践中得到不断的完善和发展,当然也存在着一些局限。香港、澳门的灾害救助有着各自的特色,香港基金式管理方式和澳门部门联动与灾民中心,为内地灾害救助体系的发展提供了很多思考。     

Barriers Militating Against the Social Inclusion of Low-Income Pakistani Minority Groups in Hong Kong

Research findings from an ethnographic study into low-income Pakistani families in Hong Kong indicate the existence of significant barriers in society militating against social inclusion. Racial discrimination contributes to marginalization, reducing life opportunities. Identified problems include educational, linguistic, and employment issues. These factors lead to social exclusion and weakened social capital.     

The role of perceived social reality in the adoption of postmaterial values: The case of Hong Kong

While much research in the past four decades has demonstrated a turn toward postmaterial values in many developed countries in the world, there are continual debates regarding the factors behind such cultural changes. This study examines the role of certain cognitive factors in the adoption of postmaterial value orientations. Analysis of three surveys conducted between 2012 and 2016 in Hong Kong illustrate that postmaterial values are, at the individual level, tied to criticisms against social inequality and immobility. The relationship is stronger among better educated people and people with higher levels of news exposure. The analysis contributes to the broader literature on cultural change in modern societies by suggesting that social affluence is not a sufficient condition for the rise of postmaterial values. Instead, specific combinations of social conditions and a process of cognitive mobilization could initiate a postmaterial turn.     

Hybridization instead of Clustering: Transformation Processes of Welfare Policies in Central and Eastern Europe

Welfare state theories tend to use concepts of clustering for defining the affiliation of national social security systems to overarching worlds of welfare. A closer look at the transformation processes of welfare policies in Central and Eastern Europe shows a great variability among those countries in approximating their welfare states to Western European standards. In the design of their pension systems, their health care provision and their unemployment protection, Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) follow different reform paths. Welfare clusters in Western Europe are used as reference models, but no single example applies to all sectors of social security. Thus, a generalizing picture of welfare provision cannot be drawn for Central and Eastern Europe. Instead of constituting a new individual type of welfare arrangement, a hybridization process is observable.     

Ambivalences and Dilemmas in Handling Family Violence Cases among Youth Workers in Hong Kong

This qualitative study investigates practice problems experienced by youth workers as they handled family violence cases. The findings show that practice problems experienced by youth workers in handling family violence cases might include: (at the individual level) role confusion, lack of sufficient knowledge and skills, and ethical tensions; (at the messo level) problems of multi-agency coordination; and (at the structural level) high risks associated with the impoverished community where they worked. It is recommended that the competence of youth workers in dealing with family violence cases could be enhanced through better training and multi-agency collaboration.     

福利企业在残疾人就业中的作用分析

残疾人是一个需要社会各界帮助的弱势群体,残疾人就业是一个非常值得关注的问题,但在我国整体就业形势不乐观的时代背景下,对残疾人就业的关注甚少。福利企业对残疾人就业具有重要作用,本文研究了我国残疾人就业的现状与问题,并探讨了福利企业对残疾人就业的特殊意义。     

港台社会工作发展路径的比较分析

虽然港台社会工作的发展进程较为一致,但由于二者在历史背景、渊源及社会发展情况等方面存在差异,导致二者在发展路径上存在着“自上而下”与“自下而上”的分殊。大陆应注意两种路径的结合,发挥政府与社会工作界的各自优势,共同推进中国社会工作的进程。     

Mental health of parents with young children in Hong Kong: the roles of parenting stress and parenting self-efficacy

This study aimed to explore the sources of parenting stress and the mental health of parents with kindergarten and primary school children in Hong Kong. It also examined the intervening effects of parenting self-efficacy on mental health of parents. Results indicated that parents who perceived their children as more demanding, less acceptable and less reinforcing had more parenting stress. Those who found their parental roles to be more restrictive also had more parenting stress. Lastly, parenting self-efficacy moderated the effects of parenting stress on the mental health of parents. Cultural and social factors were put forward to explain these findings and suggestions were made towards reducing the parenting stress experienced by parents with younger children in Hong Kong.