Contingent on Context? Social Work and the State in Australia, Britain, and the USA

Correspondence to John Harris, School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: j.harris{at}warwick.ac.uk Summary The notion that social work is an international profession,operating with generally similar goals, methodologies, and commonvalues is considered critically. Examining the political andsocial contexts of three countries with liberal democratic governments—Australia,Britain and the United States—the role of social workwithin the welfare processes of each country is compared. Whilesocial work as an identifiable professional activity sharessome features, it is argued that the idea of its having a coreessence needs to be tempered with a realistic assessment ofthe importance of contextually created difference. Recent andrapid developments in the institutional context, such as thoseexperienced in these three countries, further underscore thelimited utility of the notion of a common professional project.     

Sea Power in the Past,Present and Future

Sea power represents a civilization thatis naturally opposed to the Confucian cul-ture of China. A comparison between the twomakes this clear. Confucian civilization isethics-oriented, maintaining that "you should     

Face, Violence and the Absence of the State: in Household Quarrels in Chencun Village, Southern Hubei

Chencun is a traditional agricultural natural village situated in southern Hubei Province. Domestic contradictions in this village are of the following main types: in extended families, contradictions caused by household division, support payments for parents and disputes surrounding marriage issues; in nuclear families, daily quarrels between husband and wife.     

Changes in the Class and StratificationStructure and Interest Distributionin the New Epoch

SincethereformandopeningupinChinatherehavebeenmajorchangesintheclassandstratificationstructureandinterestdistribution.Suchchangeshaveraisedmanyquestions.IsthesocietyPolarized?Isthereanewbourgeoisclass?Doesamiddleclassalreadyexist?Howshoulda"well-offmass"b…     

Development Strategy,Urbanization and the Urban-Rural Income Gap in China＊

本文从政府发展战略的视角,研究中国城市化滞后、城乡收入差距持续扩大的原因。结果发现,旨在鼓励资本密集型部门优先发展的政府战略,造成城市部门就业需求的相对下降,进而延缓城市化进程,农村居民不能有效地向城市转移,城乡收入差距扩大。以技术选择指数作为政府对资本密集性部门政策倾斜程度的度量指标,利用1978-2008年中国省级面板数据,对理论假说进行了实证检验。研究还发现,中国城乡收入差距在经济发展过程中呈现出先下降、后上升的u型规律。     

China’s Role and Influence in the Incidents in Po-land and Hungary in 1956

在苏联处理波匈事件的初期,中国因情况不明未及参与。而在苏联决定从布达佩斯撤军和再次武装占领匈牙利的问题上,中国的意见起了主导作用。这就是说,在危机处理的后期,苏联听从了中国的建议和主张,其结果是毛泽东既批判了苏联的大国主义,又保证了社会主义阵营的团结。波匈事件标志着中共在国际共产主义运动中的地位和声望已经迈上了一个新台阶。     

On the Politics and Participation in the Development of Urban Communities in China

本文对２０世纪９０年代以来中国城市普遍开展的社区建设的性质进行了分析,指出城市社区建设在社会组织方式和社会管理模式转换中的作用,认为城市社区建设是一个复杂的经济、政治和社会过程。文章分析了经济因素对社区建设的重要意义,认为社区建设需要经济的支持,但社区服务所产生的经济收益并不能有效地支持社区建设的开展,政府和企业应该对之给予更多投入。社区建设有丰富的政治内涵。政府力图通过社区建设实现社会管理体制的转变,同时又要保持社会的稳定。由于中国的市民社会发育缓慢,因此,社区建设的政治目标的实现面临着挑战。文章认为社区建设的重要目的是形成新的社会团结,而广泛的社区参与是不可忽略的环节。     

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.     

Considerations on the Moral Approach to Problems about Agriculture, the Countryside and Farmers in China

Empirical studies on social sciences arebound to proceed from preconceived values.By the moral approach to problems aboutthe agriculture, countryside and farmers inChina we mean here the ineffaceable per-ception of values dominating relevant discus-sions in the political and academic circles thatthe economic, social and cultural problemsin the countryside are rooted, in the finalanalysis, in the morality, ideology or, insweeping terms, “quality” of some socialgroups. Therefore, the keys to t…     

Emancipation of Women and the Equality of Obligations for Men and Women in China in the 1950s

Interviews with 80 old married people in the area of Beijing show that the emancipation of urban women in China in the 1950s was multi-layered and limited. In the wake of national liberation the broad masses of laboring women achieved, to some extent, class emancipation and cast off, in part, the domination of the authority of the husband and the yoke of traditional gender-based roles. They were inspired by a sense of being masters of the country and marched a step further along the road of individual freedom and development. However, like the women's liberation movement in modern times the emancipation of urban women in     

Sustainable Development of the Population,the Economy and the Environment

TheconceptofsustainabledevelopmentwasofficiallyproposedattheWorldEnvironmentConferenceinStockholmin1972.Inl987,itwasdefinedbytheWorldEnvironmentandDevelopmentCommitteeinOurCommonFutureas"developmentthatbothsatisfiestheneedsofthemodernmananddoesnotconstitu…     

Land Enfeoffment and the Emergence of Feudalism in India in the Early Middle Ages

Fromaworldhistoricalperspective,whenproductiondevelopedtoacertainlevelundertheslavesystem,contradictionsemerged,andstrugglesbetweensocialproductiveforcesandtherelationsofproduction,andbetweentheeconomicbasisandthesuperstructure,ensued.Asaresult,theslavesystemwasbroughttoanendandfeudaIismaroseinitsplaceindifferentcountriesandregions.FeudalismhaditsownsPecificformsandfolloweddifferentpathsoftransitionfromslavery.Thisessaywillexaminethequestionofhowfeudalismgraduallyformedthroughenfeoffmentinvar…     

Changes in the Divorce Rate and Age Distribution in China Since the 1980s

ThedivorcerateinChinaduringthe1980swasmuchhigherthanbeforeforanumberofreasons.Inordertounderstandthisphenomenon,theauthorswillmakeacomparisonbetweenthedivorcerates,andtheageanddurationofthemarriageatthetimeofdivorceintheearlyl98osandinthelatel98Osandearly…     

Crime,correction, education and welfare in the U.S. – What role does the government play?

As federal, state and local governments continue to allocate a significant share of their resources to law enforcement and correctional spending, concerns have risen that spending in education and welfare is declining. With fiscal pressure in the United States mounting, it is important to determine the effectiveness of public spending in deterring crime. This paper compares the effectiveness of the impact of government spending on welfare and education with that of law enforcement and correction on crime. Using panel data from 50 U.S. states over a time period of 1994–2014, results of linear regression with panel corrected standard errors as well as GMM estimation reveals that public welfare and education spending can potentially lower violent and property crime rates but law enforcement spending can only deter property crime. However, correctional spending can exacerbate both types of crimes. There is little to no evidence of the presence of crowding out of one category of spending by another. This results in the policy implication that more resources be allocated towards welfare and education programs.     

Men in Nonagricultural Occupations and Women on the Land" and the Development of Women

In1985,China'sruralreformenteredanewPeriodofdeagriculturalization,i.e.,thenationalorregionaldevelopmentofnonagriculturalindustriesandthetransferoffarmlaborerstononagriculturalsectors.Theupsurgeoftownshipandvillageenterpriseshaschangedtheindustrialstructureinruralareasandprovidedemploymentopportunitiesforsurplusrurallabor.By1993,thenumberofpeopleworkingintheseenterpriseshadrisento112million,thatis,theyemployedoneofeveryfourable-bodiedpeopleinthecountryside.ThenumberofPeoplewhotransferredtothen…     

Balancing informality and need – policy responses to informal East-West migration in Austria,the Netherlands and Sweden

The article provides an analysis of policy responses to mobile EU citizens without legal residence in the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden. A comparative case study design uses qualitative survey and interview data to identify national and local policy responses to the implications of EU citizens from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) living without legal residence in the aforementioned countries. The theoretical framework specifies how the institutional logic of welfare regimes is likely to generate policy responses that address need, sanction informality or do both. The choice indicates the priority given to redistributive outcomes, administrative procedures, or both. The results reveal similar responses to those implications relating to the labour market, but slightly different approaches to the implications in the social domain. Policy responses to labour market implications have predominantly focused on sanctioning informality. Swedish and Austrian policy responses in the social domain have focused on addressing need. Dutch policy responses to social issues instead focused on sanctioning informality, prioritizing procedure. The results indicate that local and national policy responses to implications of informal intra-EU migration may be fruitfully understood through the prism of welfare regimes and related approaches to need and informality.