Building a partnership for social service delivery in Indonesia: state and faith‐based organisations

Contrary to the secularisation processes in modernisation theory, religions and faith‐based organisations (FBOs) are thriving in contemporary Indonesia. Strongly supported by community members, religious organisations have begun to extend their services beyond the traditional areas of education and health to operate in disaster relief and poverty alleviation programmes. These FBOs have been offering assistance to the disadvantaged whose needs have not been adequately met by the state. Social programmes run by the FBOs are an important safety net at the grass‐roots level in Indonesia; how to effectively coordinate and offer such services are important social policy issues. This paper will show that the Indonesian Government is keen to remain the key provider of social services and often perceives the services of FBOs as a threat. Some recent state policies to regulate the funding sources of Islamic organisations have posed a significant logistical challenge for their future operation. In addition, theological differences across various religious groups have made it difficult to form inclusive and extensive partnerships among the FBOs, who tend to compete with each another resulting in rivalry. These socio‐political contexts have limited the formation of effective partnerships for offering coordinated social services.     

The influence of faith‐based organisations on Australian social policy

This historical overview explores the crucial and changing relationships between faith‐based organisations and governments, not only in the implementation of social services but also in the formation of social policy. Historically Australian governments have left large areas of social provision to the non‐government sector. For example, income support for the unemployed was not taken up by governments until World War II and income support for sole parents remained largely a responsibility for non‐government organisations (NGOs) until the 1970s. Prior to governments taking responsibility for income support, most of these NGOs were religious organisations surviving on donations, philanthropic support and limited government funding. It is argued that the dominant, semi‐public role of religious organisations in service delivery and social policy formation is an important but largely overlooked aspect of the Australian historical experience.     

Reinforcing substantive religious inequality: a critical analysis of submissions to the Review of Freedom of Religion and Belief in Australia Inquiry

The parties contributing to the Freedom of Religion and Belief in Australia Inquiry had a strong interest in the role of religion in society. Those making submissions were parochial about the status and importance of their own faith, less positive about religious diversity, more likely to be culturally supremacist, and more likely to independently express anti‐Islamic sentiment than the general population. A large proportion of submissions (40 per cent) included the religio‐centric assertion that Australia is a Christian nation. Alternative voices – that Australia is a multi‐faith country or those that saw Australia as secular – were much less ‘present’ in the submissions. Most submissions argued for the retention of religious exemptions from anti‐discrimination laws and against anti‐religious‐vilification legislation that would protect religious minorities. Christian‐centric voices purposefully undermined movement towards more inclusive social policy and protection of rights. The Christian majority insisted that their position of dominance be affirmed in Australia. The failure of the inquiry to advocate for policy and legislative change to expand religious freedoms (especially to minorities) was a performance of professed ‘state neutrality’ that reproduced substantive inequality. The public submission process was an effective mechanism for reinforcing a privileged relation between the state and Christian organisations, and fails the tests of both fairness and more substantively equality.     

Children and global social policy: Exploring the impact of international governmental organisations

Axford N. Children and global social policy: exploring the impact of international governmental organisations International governmental organisations (IGOs) seek to influence child welfare policy and practice in individual sovereign states. But do they succeed and, if so, in what way? This article outlines the nature of selected IGOs' work, explores the nature of their impact and seeks to explain the pattern that emerges. It also notes areas for further research.     

Partnership and participation: contradictions and tensions in the social policy space

Partnerships and participation seem to be the order of the day. Yet, for many community organisations, this way of ordering the social policy space is contradictory, creating practice tensions that increase the complexity of local service systems. Such changes impact community organisations in a politics that needs to be made visible if they are to be able to act in the interests of their members and service users. We therefore outline the social policy space currently constituted by four major discourses: neo‐liberalism, managerialism, new paternalism and network governance as they intersect and interact chaotically, reshaping participation and partnerships between government, community service organisations and local communities. We then examine how policy as a technology or set of mechanisms is discursively creating contradictions and practice tensions within which community organisations engage for social justice.     

Reorganizing Social Policies through Social Partnerships: Greece in European Perspective

In postwar Western Europe social policies in the wider sense relied in many countries on neo‐corporatist policies of implementation. Since the 1980s such policies have ceased to be as dominant as they used to be, being associated with what has been called “policy communities” and “policy networks”. As far as the reforms pursued by many countries in order to readjust their economies and labour markets are concerned, significant shifts of such a kind were observed. Illustrations of these trends are presented in a comparative section. We attempt to demonstrate the dual structures of social policy formation and implementation, i.e. neo‐corporatist and network/policy community policies, and to discuss the “how” of such policies, i.e. their “raison d’être” and their “real world” enforcement. Against a background of various semi‐corporatisms and adversarial trade union politics, Greece is trying at the moment to adopt this pattern in several social policy areas, though this is not yet quite visible. Neo‐corporatism is also enhanced. We attempt to show where neo‐corporatism is tried (e.g. certain “social dialogue” structures) and where policy communities are encouraged (e.g. public health, local social policies, etc.). Sometimes the boundaries between the two systems are blurred, with some social dialogue committees appearing as quasi‐policy communities. Finally we endeavour to examine the outcomes of such policies and to see their inner logic against the theoretical background. The concept of multilevel governance as a wider policy instrument which incorporates both the above systems is of special interest here.     

Social capital and community building through an electronic network

This paper describes a social policy experiment that explores current and potential links between trends in Australian public policy. The central example is provided by the implementation of a wired community set up in a low‐income public housing estate by an entrepreneurial not‐for‐profit internet service provider, InfoXchange. ‘Reach for the Clouds’, the wired community being established at Atherton Gardens in Fitzroy, Melbourne, is attractive to policy‐makers and funding bodies, combining community‐building, public‐private partnerships, self‐help and place‐based management. However, although the project is promoted as an exercise in community‐building through technology, many of the key assumptions are untested. It seems self‐evident that low‐income people who are socially and economically excluded would benefit from greater ‘connectedness’ with one another. However, it is not clear that such exchanges, online or off‐line, will build ‘community’. The paper attempts to establish some distinctions between online communities of interest and place based communities, untangling the relationship between social connectedness and models of social capital.     

Social assistance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: Does faith-based approach matters?

This paper aimed to examine the role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the distribution of social assistance (SA) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. The paper adopts a qualitative case-study approach to explore the best practices in the distribution of SA by five (5) organizations including FBOs, governmental organizations (GOs), Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), political groups, and private voluntary groups. In this study, 14 beneficiaries of SA were selected by stratified proportionate random sampling method, and five (5) key personnel were selected purposively based on their experiences in the management of SA distribution. The study found that “no-move, no touch” approach followed by FBOs is more likely to establish human rights and social justice and reduce the transmission of diseases. In contrast to the modern idea, which undermines the faith-based charity, the study proved that faith-based charity is gaining attraction as an effective approach combating global pandemic. The findings of this paper will be useful for policymakers, voluntary service workers, GO, and NGO workers to ensure the distribution of SA in a more productive and disciplined way during and after an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic.     

The Uncertain Convergence of Disability Policies in Western Europe

In the last decades disability has emerged as a key area for European social policy. So far there have been few indications of a general trend towards greater similarity in the disability policies of member states. This paper argues that attempts to promote common approaches and patterns of effort between member states are more likely to succeed in “vacant” sub‐areas of disability policy than in more “crowded” ones. Existing redistributive provisions within income maintenance, employment and independent living are examples of crowded sub‐areas. By contrast, the emerging anti‐discrimination legislation and other forms of market regulation recently introduced by the EU may point towards more vacant policy areas within member states.     

“Moving from transactional government to enablement” in Indigenous service delivery: The era of New Public Management,service innovation and urban Aboriginal community development

Over the last 40 years, Aboriginal Community Based Organisations have played a distinctive role in society in relation to urban Aboriginal peoples and their rights to self‐determination and community development in the Australian city of Newcastle. They have proven essential to advocacy, the maintenance of community development, and the creation of new Aboriginal social infrastructure (community organisations, facilities, services, and supporting infrastructure). Autonomy has been empowering for local Aboriginal people. Major reforms to the delivery of government social services, particularly government enablement of a new social service market based on New Public Management principles, threaten this success. This interpretive, qualitative case study illustrates the effects of social service market enablement. It draws on a case study of the effects of social service market enablement on urban Aboriginal Community Based Organisations in Newcastle, showing the antagonistic relationship between social service market enablement and Aboriginal community enablement and development. It ends with a discussion of how Aboriginal community development in this city could be re‐enabled in light of the Prime Minister's arguments in his 2017 Annual Parliamentary Closing the Gap speech providing particular value in the context of policy discussions about moving from transactional government to enablement in Indigenous affairs.     

Kosovo's social policy during self‐management,UNMIK and independence: Persisting high inequality and social exclusion

This study examined: (i) Kosovo's social policy's poverty and inequality outcomes in recent history, namely during Yugoslav self‐management socialism (1952–1989), the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (1999–2008) and independence (2008 onwards), and (ii) the impact of local politics in the more recent trajectory of social policy. The study shows that the poverty rate after the war (1999) is significantly lower than it was during socialism, but that there is persistent high and deepening Gini inequality and social exclusion. Transfers and taxes of the residual‐liberal policy have reduced more pretransfer–pretax inequality, and especially poverty, compared with self‐management's insurance‐dominated socialism, but their effectiveness is declining due to the policy's underlying long‐term, pro‐market logic and its increasing particularism with respect to short‐term transfers. The article argues that the main local political cleavages have originated from self‐management socialism's extensive stratification. These cleavages matter in distributive conflicts, and they mattered also during the UNMIK period by easing the pathway for the unprecedented influence international organisations have had on policy formation.     

Children and safety in Australian policy: Implications for organisations and practitioners

Child safety is now a national policy priority in Australia. Extensive enquiries and reviews have escalated legislative and policy responses focused on developing, maintaining and monitoring “child safe” organisations. The recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse point to the importance of cultural conditions within organisations in supporting child safety and the need for responsive change in some organisations. Drawing on a recent policy analysis, undertaken as part of a larger Australian Research Council Discovery Project, this article examines how children and safety are constructed, within and across relevant state and federal government policies in Australia, and the implications of this. Distinctions are drawn between conceptualisations of children within the broader education policy context and two specific policy contexts in which children are considered particularly vulnerable to abuse – out‐of‐home care and disability. The findings indicate that policy discourses of “child safe” potentially foster different emphases and approaches in organisations. These have implications for the way children are positioned in relation to their safety, how their rights are recognised and implemented, and what is required to foster cultural conditions within organisations to best support children’s safety and wellbeing.     

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment policy and Welfare to Work: The Community Development Programme and the need for new narratives,new alliances and new institutions

The way Australian federal governments have approached Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment and welfare policy over the last two decades has been a paradigmatic example of what not to do in policymaking. In the absence of effective engagement or consultation, a series of decisions under Coalition and Australian Labor Party governments have had a range of negative consequences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These changes – centred around the closure of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme and implementation of the Community Development Programme (CDP) – have resulted in increased unemployment, inadequate support for job creation, a dramatic over‐application of income penalties to social security recipients and reduced capacity in many community organisations. This article argues that these outcomes constitute policy failure, especially given that genuine engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could have prevented many of these consequences. It then turns to an exploration of three ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are responding to such policy failure: through promotion of new narratives, new alliances, and new institutions. The study concludes that while we should avoid “specious hope”, there is room for optimism in a renewed push for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty.     

Policy transfer,social pedagogy and children's residential care in England

Much concern has been expressed about the quality of care and poor outcomes for looked‐after children (‘children in care’) in England, especially regarding residential homes. This paper builds on a recent evaluation of the piloting of the continental European model of social pedagogy (SP) in English residential care. It does three things: it considers the theoretical social policy literature on policy transfer and its implications; discusses European residential care for children and the discipline of SP; and reflects on these debates and the situation of children's residential care in England. The paper concludes that there are some major hurdles to a widespread implementation of SP in England. This particularly concerns the differing social, professional and political context of children's residential services across neighbouring countries.     

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP — FALSE PREMISES AND DANGEROUS FOREBODINGS

As a reaction against neo‐liberalism, Social Entrepreneurship has been promoted as the solution to welfare problems brought about by social change and persistent unemployment. The Social Entrepreneurship Movement (SEM) proposes the reconstruction of welfare by building social partnerships between the public, social and business sectors. Major aspects of this agenda include non‐profit organisations undertaking entrepreneurial ventures and the pooling of government welfare funding under the control of local communities. In this paper we argue that the SEM literature is based on two false premises: the failure to understand the true causes of mass unemployment, and the assumption that the government faces financial constraints in the provision of welfare services. We also argue that implementation of the SEM proposals would erode the rights‐based eligibility to universal welfare services based on the principle of social justice. We also conclude that the SEM is indistinguishable from neo‐liberalism and as such does not represent a viable solution to unemployment and the welfare needs that accompany it.     

Social work in a conflict context: Challenges facing social workers with indigenous inhabitants of unrecognised villages in Israel

This qualitative study presents the experiences of social workers whose clients are the inhabitants of unrecognised Bedouin Arab villages in Israel. It used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 25 participants, recruited by the snowball method. These social workers reported that they are caught between their personal and professional values, on the one hand, and employer regulations, government policy and government law, on the other – which greatly limits their ability to fulfil their professional role. The social workers also comment that they are working in a ‘grey area’ in which the government’s policy is unclear. This adds another layer of complexity to their work and reveals the differential implementation of critical social work principles by social workers with different cultural identities.     

Integrated care and the ‘agentification’ of the English National Health Service

Integrated care is a global reform principle for improving patient access and outcomes by ensuring that healthcare organisations deliver services in a joined‐up, person‐centred way. Following reforms designed to infuse agency within English National Health Service (NHS) organisations, the agenda for integration must come to grips with the different approaches to joint working that these organisations mobilise, and the compatibility of their different agentic orientations. We build a matrix for identifying the extent to which different forms of agency orient nine NHS organisational types. Interrogating the Strategic and Operational Plans of these organisations for the period 2015–2018 based on questions derived from the matrix, we associate each organisation with one of eight generalised models. Assuming that there is greater potential for integration where organisations mobilise similar forms of agency, we discuss the incentives and potential governance changes that policy makers might consider to enhance integrative potential.     

Empirical Analysis of Fiscal Soundness and Public Social Expenditure: A Lesson for the Future Direction of the Korean Welfare State

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relations between fiscal soundness and public social expenditure in advanced welfare states so as to reconsider the conventional wisdom that welfare expenditure aggravates national finances. Through this, I propose the clues of building the sustainable Korean welfare state. I focus on the interdependent relationship between fiscal soundness and public social expenditure based on fiscal sociology. Considering this interaction, I form two sets of simultaneous equations models and employ a special statistical method, three‐stage least squares (3SLS). The results regarding the causal relationship between fiscal soundness and public social spending indicate that, if public welfare spending is increased, fiscal health is damaged. However, as many comparative social policy researchers have pointed out, outcomes of welfare states differ from country to country according to the composition of public welfare spending. Specifically, some welfare states with priority given to social services such as vocational training or childcare services have maintained the stability of public finance. By extension, we can say that public social expenditures have a positive influence on fiscal soundness based on the composition of social expenditures. Finally, it is possible to create financially sustainable welfare states.