Social workers' views on community involvement in child protection work in Italy

Involvement of the community is a topic that is gaining increasing importance in the debate on child protection social work. However, the empirical findings that help to understand the factors which enable social workers to involve community actors successfully are still scarce. The article presents the results of an empirical pilot study carried out on a sample of 24 child protection social workers employed in four public agencies in Italy. The results of the research highlight the complexity of the factors that influence the ability of social workers to involve the community in schemes involving children and their families and the importance of constructing a community‐based approach that directly involves local‐level institutions and policy programmes.     

Mobility,migration and rights in the European Union: critical reflections on policy and practice

This article assesses developments in European Union (EU) migration policy and practice and their implications for rights regulation in the Union, as revealed in this special issue and the wider literature. It identifies how rights are constituted in the complex and multivalent policy-making field of the EU. The article views rights as constituted in the process of migration governance. This governance analysis puts centre stage an assessment of the links between policy, policy-making and policy's social and political ordering effects. The article argues that the significance of the Union needs to be analysed against different aspects of rights regulation. The article adopts an analytical framework which discriminates between the discursive framing of migrants' rights, the specification of such rights in Union and member state policy, and the shaping of rights by actors in context at the local level. The article concludes that, first, the Union has begun to play a significant role in regulating mobility rights across its territory in ways which can undermine the substantive or normative rights accessible to migrants in practice. Second, its policy and legal role are politically significant as it asserts the role of the EU as a source of regulatory authority over the distribution of rights for citizens and non-citizens within its territory.     

Social governance: Corporate governance in institutions of social security, welfare and healthcare

Corporate governance is a concept that attracted the attention of jurists and economists in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. It has become widespread in Belgian company law since the 1990s. Lately, corporate governance elements have popped up in other fields as well. When applied to social institutions, this model is referred to by the term "social governance". The corporate governance concept can be very valuable in the social area. After all, the debate on corporate governance is much more fundamental than the debate on the relationship between shareholders and management and between minority and majority shareholders. The essence of corporate governance can be found in the pursuit of a situation of "checks and balances", which gives the stakeholders the possibility of complementing and controlling each other. We analyse the existing social governance elements in social security and welfare law. We conclude that the implementation of a social governance model should have a positive influence on the policy and practice of social institutions.     

中美日印对中南半岛国家影响力的测度与分析

制衡中国在中南半岛国家的影响力是美国、日本、印度等域外大国介入中南半岛国家事务的主要战略目标.科学合理地测度中国和域外大国在中南半岛国家影响力的变化,既是对中国崛起所处地缘环境准确认识的需要,也是中国周边地缘关系研究的重要议题.本文基于国家间实力比例关系和不对称依赖关系,构建了国家对外影响力模型,定量测度了2000~2018年中美日印四国对中南半岛国家影响力.研究结果表明:第一,中国对中南半岛国家影响力呈持续上升趋势,美国和日本总体上呈下降趋势,印度相对稳定;第二,中国对老挝和缅甸的影响力在2012年和2016年均出现了下降,同时期的美国、日本和印度对老挝和缅甸的影响力并没有提升,表明中国与美日印对中南半岛国家影响力变化并不存在“我降—你升”的逻辑关系;第三,美日印三国在体系和战略层面给中国对外影响力带来了一些压力,在中南半岛国家层面上对中国影响力提升的影响有限;第四,国家间实力地位高低是决定国家对外影响力大小的主导因素,不对称依赖中获得的影响力大小是决定国家对外影响力大小的制约因素.     

‘It’s who we are’: eco-nationalism and place in contesting deep-sea oil in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Given near consensus among the scientific community about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there is pressing concern about how to mobilise enough people to care and demand wider socio-political change. In this article we explore this urgent issue, drawing on recent conflicts over deep-sea oil exploration and drilling in Aotearoa New Zealand. We explore how some activist groups are attempting to mobilise care and concern around deep-sea oil drilling and climate change through the use of narratives that entwine aspects of national identity with the non-human world. We suggest that these activist groups are not concerned about a retreat of the state, but rather, are in direct conflict with the state, and state interventionism, over fossil fuel development trajectories in Aotearoa New Zealand. In drawing upon eco-nationalism, and particularly a way of life related to place, activists have called into question the common sense of business as usual and thereby sought to expand space for ‘ordinary’ Aotearoa New Zealanders to care about climate change.     

The role of Spain and the Spanish in the creation of Europe's transnational democratic political culture, 1840–70

During the mid-nineteenth century European radicals developed contacts, relationships and networks. They organized activities and plans and propagated discourses and projects that transcended national borders. This article explores this transnational dimension of European democracy by analysing the case of Spain from around 1840, when the first Spanish self-proclaimed democrats began to organize, to the 1870s, when a certain national withdrawal took place among European democratic activists. It examines the journeys and contacts made by Spanish democrats as well as the extensive coverage of leading European activists that was published in Spanish newspapers, and considers how these connections were perceived by Spanish democratic activists. It is argued that contacts and networks contributed to configure a European democratic transnational political culture characterized by interrelations, exchanges and processes of cross-fertilization, through which the feeling of belonging to a national democratic community co-existed with a strong link to a wider European democratic family. The speeches, manifestos and projects of activists of various origins affected and greatly influenced each other, as well as shaping their socio-political views and strategic options.     

Explaining Italian “exceptionalism” and its end: Minimum income from neglect to hyper-politicization

Traditionally at the margins of the political debate, minimum income protection has recently become a key issue in Italian politics. After decades of social and political “neglect” letting Italy the only European country (with Greece) still lacking an anti-poverty minimum income safety net in the 2010s, finally a national programme called Inclusion Income was introduced in 2018, then replaced by a more robustly financed scheme, the Citizenship Income in 2019. The introduction of these new programmes was the object of an intense political debate, which raises two main puzzles. Why a policy field characterized by the low political resources of would be beneficiaries and low incidence on the overall welfare budget has become so important in the political debate? How did it occur in Italy, where minimum income protection had been absent in political discourses for at least five decades after World War II? To answer these questions, this article first elaborates a novel theoretical framework which combines the main properties of socio-political demand and political supply in order to explain the scope and direction of minimum income reforms. Second, it provides an analytically oriented reconstruction of MIS policy trajectory in Italy in the three different phases: the phase of MIS “neglect” (1948–1992) characterized by inertia; the period of political “contentiousness” (1993–2012), marked by attempts of path departure followed by policy reversals; the more recent phase leading to the introduction and institutionalization of a MIS. Third, the article provides a theoretically framed interpretation of the overall MIS trajectory in Italy.     

Institutions as dispositions: Searle,Smith and the metaphysics of blind chess

This paper addresses the question what the fundamental nature and mode of being of institutional reality is. Besides the recent debate with Tony Lawson, Barry Smith is also one of the relatively few authors to have explicitly challenged John Searle's social ontology on this metaphysical question, with Smith's realism requirement for institutions conflicting with Searle's requirement of a one‐world naturalism. This paper proposes that an account of institutions as powers or dispositions is not only congenial to Searle's general account, but can also satisfy both the realism and the one world requirements. Searle's worry that such a dispositional account is unable to account for the deontic nature of institutions is countered by an appeal to higher‐order powers as well as Searle's notion of the gap and desire‐independent reasons for action.     

Abortion costs, sexual behavior, and pregnancy rates

This paper empirically examines the question: Do the direct (price) and indirect (restrictive abortion laws) costs of obtaining an abortion have an impact on the likelihood of women becoming pregnant? Using the economic model of fertility control, the empirical results find that increases in the real price of obtaining an abortion cause a statistically and numerically significant decrease in the pregnancy rate of all women of childbearing age (15–44 years) and teens (ages 15–19). A state parental involvement law is also found to decrease the pregnancy rate of all women of childbearing age and an even numerically larger decrease for teens. A state Medicaid funding restriction of abortion, waiting period law, and mandatory counseling law do not have a statistically significant impact on the pregnancy rate of either group. Taken together the empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that women's sexual behavior is influenced by the direct and indirect cost of obtaining an abortion.     

A social stakeholder model

Corporate governance is a concept that attracted the attention of jurists and economists in the US in the 1970s and 1980s. The concept then became widespread on the European continent in the 1990s. More recently, corporate governance elements have turned up in other fields as well. When applied to social institutions, this model is referred to as 'social governance'. The (corporate) governance concept can be valuable in the social area. The debate on corporate governance is much more fundamental than the debate on the relationship between shareholders and management or between minority and majority shareholders. The essence of corporate governance can be found in the pursuit of a situation of 'checks and balances', which gives the stakeholders the possibility to complement and control each other. This article analyses the different stakeholders in the social area, their legitimisation as stakeholders and the practicability of a social stakeholder model.     

The Intersection of Race and Gender: An Examination of Black Feminist Consciousness,Race Consciousness,and Policy Attitudes*

Objective. In this article, we investigate black feminist consciousness, its relationship to race consciousness, and its impact on policy attitudes. Unlike scholars and activists who argue that black feminist consciousness detracts from race consciousness, we argue that the two go hand in hand. Methods. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we examine public opinion survey data from the 1993 National Black Politics Study. Results. We find that both black women and men have fairly high levels of support for black feminist ideals. Also, we provide evidence that black feminist consciousness is positively related to the components of race consciousness and demonstrate the influence of black feminist consciousness on support for abortion rights. Conclusions. Our research is important because it uses a measure of black feminist consciousness true to its theoretical origins.     

Feminism and Male Scholarship: The Treatment of Women and Gender in Social Policy Texts

This paper reports the results of a study of sixty selected British and Australian academic texts on social policy and the welfare state. The purpose of the study was to investigate changes over the last fifteen years in the ways in which the position of women and gender-related issues are dealt with by feminist and non-feminist writers in the social policy field. Differences in the levels of feminist awareness in the various texts are found to be associated with the sex of the author, the type of book, the date of publication, the country of publication, and the socio-political and intellectual context in which the various texts were produced.     

Digging their Own Graves: Unexpected Consequences of Institutional Design and Welfare State Changes

This article proposes a theoretical mechanism for explaining why various components of a welfare state may develop differently, given similar economic, political and ideological contexts. Evaluating welfare state plans as products of political processes, the article looks at the role of political actors and their mistakes, considering how these mistakes shape future social policy-making. The article identifies 'unexpected consequences' of institutional design: situations where the decisions of powerful actors lead to the empowerment of their rivals, which in turn may change policies to their advantage. Drawing on a case study from the Israeli welfare state, namely, the introduction and then abolishment of income testing in the Children's Insurance Plan, the article demonstrates how this mechanism may have allowed certain political actors to protect welfare state plans in the face of neo-liberal pressures. It discusses how other political actors can take advantage of similar situations and notes the conditions needed for success.     

Direct democracy and minority rights: same-sex marriage bans in the U.S

Objectives. A common critique of direct democracy posits that minority rights are endangered by citizen legislative institutions. By allowing citizens to directly create public policy, these institutions avoid the filtering mechanisms of representative democracy that provide a check on the power of the majority. Empirical research, however, has produced conflicting results that leave the question of direct democracy's effect on minority rights open to debate. This article seeks to empirically test this critique using a comparative, dynamic approach.Methods. I examine the diffusion of same-sex marriage bans in the United States using event-history analysis, comparing direct-democracy states to non-direct-democracy states.Results. The results show that direct-democracy states are significantly more likely than other states to adopt same-sex marriage bans.Conclusion. The findings support the majoritarian critique of direct democracy, suggesting that the rights of minority groups are at relatively higher risk under systems with direct democracy.     

The Rights and Responsibilities of Gay and Lesbian Parents: Legal Developments, Psychological Research, and Policy Implications

With the growing number of same-sex unions, the legal system must determine the rights and responsibilities of gay parents who decide to end a relationship. In 2005, the California Supreme Court found that a child's lesbian caregiver was a legal "parent" despite having no biological or adoptive relationship, while the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 2004 concluded the opposite. Psychologists can inform this debate by presenting research demonstrating that (a) children benefit from contact with two parents, and (b) children's well-being is unaffected by their parents' sexual orientation. Psychologists can further assist the legal system by conducting future research. In order for psychologists to impact laws and policies, legal actors must utilize this expertise .     

Injured but not Entitled to Legal Insurance Compensation – Ornamental Institutions and Migrant Workers’ Informal Channels in China

Due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization of China, an estimated 252 million farmers have migrated from impoverished rural areas to prosperous urban regions, seeking off‐farm employment. In China, these are referred to as migrant workers. Workers’ compensation insurance law represents one of the most vital formal institutions for Chinese migrant workers. Through in‐depth interviews with migrant workers and employers, the authors find that instead of making a formal claim based on workers’ compensation insurance law, most injured migrant workers adopt informal channels (e.g. bargaining, negotiation, threats, violence) to receive compensation from employers. Even when migrant workers are insured in accordance with the law, they may be denied legal insurance compensation and thus turn to informal private settlement. Generally, the amount of compensation acquired by means of informal private settlement is significantly smaller than that awarded in the case of legal insurance compensation. This practice reveals that, like some other formal institutions in China, workers’ compensation insurance law is merely a symbolic ornament, window‐dressing for the public, which are referred to as ‘ornamental institutions'. In the way they are designed, set up and funded, these ornamental institutions can easily prove illusory since they conceal an anarchic world wherein diverse informal channels of social actors emerge, which reflect the reality of Chinese society. Therefore, only through deep empirical research, like this study, can one see beyond the facade of modernity in contemporary China, observe the reality of social actors, and reflect upon the functioning of ornamental institutions.     

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW: THE LIMITS OF LEGAL AID AND THE COST OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

The High Court decision in the Dietrich case highlighted the perilous state of legal aid in Australia when it instructed judges to refuse to hear criminal trials when a person has no legal counsel due to inability to pay and has been denied legal aid. The decision of the High Court places pressure on the Federal Government to resolve the situation by legislating a guaranteed right of legal representation. This article discusses the inadequacies of the legal system by examining the implications of the Dietrich case. It is argued that recent government reports only provide a piecemeal approach to improving access to justice and what is needed is wider systemic change in the form of universal legal insurance. Only in this way can citizenship rights he reasserted to ensure social justice.     

美国女性主义法学的法律观及其局限性

女性主义法学作为后批判法学的一个分支,在美国的理论界和司法领域都产生了一定的影响。女性主义法学在批判传统法律理论和现行法律制度的时候,运用了意识觉醒、女性主义实际推理和询问妇女问题的方法。这种法律观(包括其法律实体观和法学方法论)存在着一定程度的缺陷,因此无法与传统的理论相抗衡——这也决定了女性主义法学无法实现其解构传统法律文化的初衷。     

The Brazilian public pension system: Policy changes, political effects

This article discusses the reciprocal relationship between public pension policy and age-based politics in Brazil, a nation with a public pension system that has the potential for influencing policy developments in other developing nations faced with the problem of how to extend social security coverage to the entire population. Our goal is to extend a line of analysis used in previous studies of industrial nations to the case of Brazil. Pension policy changes made during the 1960s and 1970s had a number of unintended consequences. One was the role these policy changes played with respect to the emergence of rural unions and age-based interest groups: both are becoming increasingly important actors with respect to pension policy. We discuss the implications of the Brazilian case for policy options and outcomes in other newly democratic nations, particularly those in Latin America.