Financing low-income housing in South Africa: Borrower experiences and perceptions of banks

South Africa is facing a low-income housing crisis, with the current backlog estimated at over three million units. An obstacle in the provision of low-income housing is the difficulty encountered by commercial banks to extend loans in this market despite supporting initiatives by Government. A lack of knowledge on the borrowing behaviour, preferences and experiences of low-income households in accessing housing finance from the commercial banking sector in South Africa hampers an understanding of the reasons for these problems. This paper's contribution is to provide information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income borrowers in the housing market of South Africa, specifically in their dealings with commercial banks. Results from a survey of 653 households across five provinces of the country are provided. In the survey, a structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income households about their access to credit and housing finance, their experience of banks, the successes in credit approval, their judgements on the suitability of banks’ home-loan products, as well as preferences with regard to prices and interest rates.     

Sustainable housing applications and policies for low-income self-build and housing rehab

Recent years have seen an increased focus on the role of house construction and retrofitting within the broader agenda of sustainable development and climate change. To date this focus has largely targeted middle- and upper-income residential neighborhoods in urban areas. However, in the United States, and in middle developing countries such as Brazil and Mexico, there is growing recognition that urban sustainability will only gain traction if widespread applications are also incorporated into self-help and do-it-yourself housing construction and home improvements, especially those that address lower-income housing markets. Here we explore some of the potential ways in which contemporary sustainable housing applications may be integrated into the existing housing stock in low-income and informal settlements in the United States and in Latin America. We document the range of sustainable housing applications that are increasingly available in the U.S. as a baseline for discussion and evaluation of the potential application to lower-income segments of the housing market in both developed and developing countries. A heuristic model is presented to assess the extent to which policy makers, NGOs and low-income owner households may realistically participate in sustainable home building. Beyond physical development applications we close by emphasizing that sustainable housing agendas must adopt a holistic approach: one that embraces community and social organizational development, as well as fiscal and juridical policy dimensions.     

Sustainable urban development? Low-cost housing challenges in South Africa

Low-cost housing provision has been a major focus of government in post-apartheid urban South Africa. While successes can be noted, there is growing concern regarding the social and environmental sustainability of housing programs and the impacts upon both the surrounding environment and human health. Utilizing key informant interviews, survey research, Census data and documentary review, this essay identifies the major impediments to a sustainable low-cost housing provision in urban South Africa. The essay also points to hopeful signs in new policy directions, particularly attention to health issues and informal settlement upgrade programs. However, the major obstacles to a sustainable low-cost housing process, including macro-economic conditions, enduring historical legacies of race and class, the scale and rapidity of urban growth and institutional challenges show little indication of abating.     

Social skills training and parent education programs for aggressive preschoolers and their parents in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate social skills training and parent education programs for aggressive young children and their parents in South Korea. Participants consisted of intervention group I, which included six children and their mothers in the social skills training and parent education programs; intervention group II, which included seven children and their mothers in the social skills training; and control group, which consisted of six children and their mothers. Pre-test-post-test control group design was used. Participants in both intervention groups reported a significant decrease in aggression and on improvement in pro-social behavior, emotional regulation, and social skills, while the control group reported an increase in aggressive behavior. Mothers in the intervention group I also reported an increase in warmth/acceptance. The findings indicate that both programs are highly effective in reducing aggressive behavior among young children and in fostering positive parenting behaviors.     

Political discontent in South Korea

This paper examines the nature and sources of political discontent in South Korea, one of the most successful third-wave democracies in East Asia. The analysis of a recent national sample survey indicates that ordinary people are able to distinguish among regime principles, regime performance, and regime institutions, which constitute separate targets of political discontent. The analysis also indicates that sources of political discontent vary depending on its targets. Noteworthy is that official corruption is most consistently related to disbelief in democratic principles, democratic dissatisfaction, and institutional distrust. Furthermore, less free and fair elections are related to more democratic dissatisfaction and institutional distrust. The results suggest that the democracy in Korea confronts not only critical citizens but also disloyal citizens suspicious of democracy. The fact that institutional trust declined, democratic satisfaction ceased to grow, the view of democracy as a universal value weakened while desire for democracy remained high suggests that the new democracy in Korea faces considerable difficulty, if not a crisis.     

韩国残疾人社会服务现状及进展

韩国残疾人总数约为251万,他们既享有普惠性社会保障政策,也享有残疾人特惠性社会保障政策。特惠性社会保障政策由经济支持、医疗支持、教育支持、就业支持和社会服务提供等政策构成。残疾人社会服务宏观层面主要考察服务制度,包括住宅机构、社区康复机构、职业康复机构、凭单制度等,虽然服务制度从20世纪的保护模式中心漸变为自立生活与残疾人为中心模式,但保护模式、社区培训模式和以残疾人为中心模式共存。     

Explaining the Third Sector in South Korea

The paper presents the main characteristics and the distinctive nature of the South Korean third sector compared to most Western countries. Differences are explained in terms of cultural embededdness and political embededdness—in particular with respect to the import of Confucianism (or neo-Confucianism) and of human rights abuse in articulation with a strong ideology of anticommunism that has been developed by a succession of dictatorial regimes since the end of the Japanese colonization of Korea. The paper concludes by highlighting positive factors for the future development of the third sector in Korea.     

韩国青少年校园暴力情况及相关政策

近年来,韩国校园暴力问题凸显,在家庭、学校及社会诸多方面因素的影响下,校园暴力事件呈现出逐年上升的趋势,对青少年身心健康及社会和谐发展造成了极其恶劣的影响。目前,韩国校园暴力的产生呈现出受害青少年心理创伤问题严重、小学高年级校园暴力的发生率极高及校园暴力类型多样化三大特点。为了预防及根治校园暴力,韩国历届政府相继制订并颁布了专项法律条例及各类应对举措。2014年,朴槿惠政府宣布实施"以学校现场为中心"校园暴力应对政策,主要内容包括在校园内开展丰富多样的校园暴力预防活动,根据暴力类型、发生地域以及学生年级的不同而推行有针对性的应对策略等。     

Child maltreatment in South Korea: An ecological systems analysis

This article reviews risk factors associated with child maltreatment in South Korea within the context of the ecological system theory. Although child maltreatment is a serious concern in South Korea, understanding of this phenomenon is limited because most of the empirical studies address individual characteristics and few consider broader ecological contexts. This review integrates empirical findings on the risk and protective factors associated with child maltreatment in South Korea within the context of micro- (parent-child relationship, intergenerational transmission of abuse, and domestic violence), meso- (interactions between child-teacher and child-parent), exo- (mothers' employment and parents' socio-economic status), macro- (drinking culture and corporal punishment), and chrono-system (Asian economic crisis) levels.     

Pension policy in China, Singapore, and South Korea: An assessment of the potential value of the notional defined contribution model

The rate of population aging is increasing in the developing world and the trend is particularly dramatic in East Asia. One consequence is sharp increases in old-age dependency ratios which have major implications for the sustainability of current public pension schemes. These trends are pushing pension policy experts in many of these countries to search for new pension models that are more suited to the increased demographic pressures they will be facing in the decades ahead. In this article we discuss five alternative public pension models with a focus on the newest of these models, the notional defined contribution (NDC) approach. We consider three countries with very different pension systems in place, two from East Asia (China and South Korea) and one from South East Asia (Singapore). The central question we address is which (if any) of the limitations in these existing models might more adequately be addressed using a variant of the NDC model. We conclude that the NDC model has the most to offer China and the least to offer Singapore.     

Living Arrangements of Single Parents and Their Children in South Korea

As the divorce rate in South Korea increases, an increasing proportion of children are growing up in single-parent families. Given the limited public support and disadvantages for women in the labor market, it is expected that single parents in Korea, single mothers in particular, are more likely to use family ties to mitigate economic and social difficulties, including the option to live with their parents. We assessed the living arrangements of single parents and their children with respect to co-residence with the grandparents of the children using samples from the 2010 Korean Census and the Program for International Student Assessment conducted in 2009. We found that a fairly small proportion of single mothers live with their parents and that the prevalence of co-residence with parents among both single mothers and single fathers was relatively low in Korea compared with Japan and Taiwan. We also found that single parents with a higher level of education are more likely to live with their parents than those with less education, which contrasts with the pattern found in the United States. We discuss the implications of our findings in contemporary Korea, which has traditionally been regarded as a country with strong family ties.     

Risk communication in South Korea: Social acceptance of nuclear power plants (NPPs)

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceived efficacy, perceived risk, communication quality, and trust on social acceptance of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in South Korea. The results of this study indicated that perceived efficacy was most strongly related to social acceptance of NPPs. In addition, communication quality and trust mediated relationships among perceived efficacy, perceived risk, and social acceptance of NPPs. These results also provided practical implications for managing risk communication in South Korea.     

Framing the Purchase of Human Goods: Cosmetic Surgery Consumption in Capitalist South Korea

Sociological and cultural research on market participation has been preoccupied with creative markets and traditional labor markets, overlooking alternate types of markets, particularly those of human goods which have proliferated in Asia. This article analyzes South Korea's cosmetic surgery market to examine how and why consumers participate in markets of human goods on the microlevel vis-à-vis macrolevel social structures in an advanced capitalist economy. This article theorizes two cognitive frames (normative conformity and competitive edge) that rationalize and motivate surgical modifications as an alternative vehicle for financial and marital stability in response to macrolevel economic challenges from the nation's developmental trajectory and cultural anxieties from its Confucian traditions about marriage.     

Managing politics and storytelling: Meeting the challenge of upgrading informal housing in South Africa

Many in situ upgrade projects in developing countries fail. I tell the story of how one in South Africa (Oukasie) succeeded, both in the eyes of residents as well as the wider development community. I noticed that the residents of Oukasie managed to accomplish far more than other similar upgrades within the same timespan. Within just three years, from being ‘illegal’ and on the bucket sewage system, all households had their own water connection and toilet as well as access to a range of community facilities. The leadership of the community were getting job offers from the private-sector, and the former ‘whites-only’ town of Brits was beginning to play an integral part in Oukasie's development. I wanted to understand how this was all possible. My paper addresses this question and shows how, through using politics (e.g. political tactics and links to politicians) and storytelling, the community built a much more successful project than otherwise would have been the case. Throughout this paper I use Oukasie as a ‘model’ to demonstrate that successful in-situ upgrading is both feasible and desirable in the South African context, given the scarcity of government resources relative to the housing backlog. Oukasie, thus, becomes a vehicle for discussing a broader range of issues which are relevant to development projects in general and in situ upgrade projects in particular.     

Including Spirituality in the Social Work Curriculum: Perspectives from South Asia

This article is based on a study of 1,084 social work educators from six South Asian countries on their perspectives on including spirituality in the social work curriculum. Findings revealed that all educators across countries felt that a course on spirituality was desirable. They differed however in aspects such as level of course introduction (undergraduate or postgraduate), the nature of the course (optional or compulsory) and the curriculum content (evidence based or experiential). Further educators construed varied meanings of spirituality (transcendence, mind-soul discourse, relational) and spiritually sensitive practice (actively using spirituality and mindfulness as methods of practice for intervention and drawing upon the spiritual strength and potential of the clientele/group/community to plan intervention). Four log regression models also determined predictors of educators' perceptions on spirituality for micro practice, macro practice, level of course introduction and curriculum content. Country, educators' religious background, years of service and scores on Spirituality Assessment Scale emerged as key predictors. Based on educators' responses, this article provides a suggestive frame for the curriculum. With spirituality and its plausible settings of applications, a case is also made for giving credence to indigenising and decolonising approaches in social work education in South Asia.     

Framing Free Trade Agreements: The Politics of Nationalism in the Anti-Neoliberal Globalization Movement in South Korea

This paper offers a critical analysis of the current political trajectory of the anti-neoliberal globalization movement (ANGM) in South Korea. Drawing on framing theory, it analyzes the ways in which the Korean ANGM interpreted a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. This article postulates that national sovereignty was the master frame of the Korean ANGM and that the movement has projected the nation-state as the ethical guardian of ‘national interests’ without specifying an alternative trading or economic model that can better serve the interests of the people. Thus, through pointing out the shortcomings of a nationalist framing that ignores the class relations and conflicting interests that ultimately shape the contents of any trade or economic development model, this article seeks to bring attention to the limitations of the ANGM as well as the need to develop alternatives to the existing global trading system.

Este artículo ofrece una visión crítica de la trayectoria política del movimiento de globalización antineoliberal (ANGM, por sus siglas en inglés) en Corea del Sur. Extrayendo de una teoría enmarcada, el artículo analiza las maneras como el movimiento de globalización antineoliberal enmarcó un tratado de libre comercio (FTA, por sus siglas en inglés) con los Estados Unidos y luego discute las limitaciones y las deficiencias de la enmarcación del movimiento del tratado de libre comercio. Sostiene que la soberanía nacional fue la enmarcación principal del movimiento coreano y que la enmarcación nacionalista del tratado de libre comercio, no era fundamentalmente diferente del discurso hegemónico de la elite coreana, sobre el tratado de libre comercio. También asume que dado que los principales prognósticos de los marcos del movimiento se enfocaron al proteccionismo selectivo y capitalismo de bienestar, tendieron a limitar el rango de alternativas a la globalización neoliberal.

     

Evaluating the engagement of universities in capacity building for sustainable development in local communities

Universities have the potential to play a leading role in enabling communities to develop more sustainable ways of living and working however, sustainable communities may only emerge with facilitation, community learning and continual efforts to build their capacities. Elements of programme planning and evaluation on the one hand, and capacity building on the other, are needed. The latter entails approaches and processes that may contribute to community empowerment; universities may either lead such approaches, or be key partners in an endeavour to empower communities to address the challenges posed by the need for sustainable development. Although capacity building and the promotion of sustainable development locally, are on the agenda for universities who take seriously regional engagement, very little is published that illustrates or describes the various forms of activities that take place. Further, there is a paucity of studies that have evaluated the work performed by universities in building capacity for sustainable development at the local level. This paper is an attempt to address this need, and entails an empirical study based on a sample of universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Brazil. The paper examines the extent to which capacity building for sustainable development is being undertaken, suggests the forms that this might take and evaluates some of the benefits for local communities. The paper concludes by reinforcing that universities have a critical role to play in community development; that role has to prioritise the sustainability agenda.     

Socioeconomic inequality and adjustments in children’s perceptions of their agency as they age in South Korea

This paper explores how children's perceptions of their agency, as something that is closely associated with its exercise, appear in relation to social structural factors, especially their socioeconomic positions, as they age. Using data from 862 10–18 years old in South Korea, we examine how children's expressed optimism about their ability to achieve their occupational choices can conceal the impact of structural factors on their ‘choices’ and dispositions for (non‐)action over time. Based on the findings, we argue for a more careful interpretation of children's sense of agency that recognises its propensity to continuously adjust in contexts of structural inequality.     

Changes in the association between social housing tenure and child outcomes across cohorts: comparing the millennium and British cohort studies

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, social housing in the UK has increasingly become the preserve of the poorest in society. This paper is the first to investigate how the child outcome penalties associated with social housing tenure have changed over time across UK cohorts. I compare the differences in the cognitive, mental health, and physical health outcomes of children in social housing with children in non-social housing and evaluate whether these tenure differences have changed between the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS) and the 2000 Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). I find that in both cohorts, children in social housing exhibit worse outcomes across all three dimensions (cognitive, mental health, and physical health) than children in non-social housing. For cognitive and physical health outcomes, however, the tenure difference has narrowed between the two cohorts, while for mental health outcomes, the tenure difference has widened. These results suggest that children have experienced a relative worsening in their mental health outcomes across cohorts, but also a relative improvement in both their cognitive and physical health outcomes. The findings suggest that policies aimed at reducing tenure inequalities in child outcomes should focus on mental health development in the early years.