Debate Pollution rituals in Sweden: the pursuit of a drug-free society

The logic of Sweden's restrictive drug policy has led its advocates to promote increasingly extreme measures. Making the consumption of drugs not only a criminal offence but an imprisonable one has enabled the authorities to subject suspected drug users to urine and blood tests. This extreme policy can be understood as a response by a society so obsessed by health, cleanliness and order that drug use has taken on symbolic significance. In its determination to rid the social body of drugs, the Swedish authorities have shown that they will seek our pollution by whatever measures available. In doing so they are in danger of becoming repressive and intolerant.     

Parental substance misuse and child care social work: findings from the first stage of a study of 100 families

Parental misuse of drugs or alcohol is known to be a common issue for child care social workers, yet there has been surprisingly little British research on the topic. The study reported here attempts to address this gap. All files going for long‐term allocation in four London boroughs over on average 1 year were examined (290 files). Parental substance misuse (PSM) emerged as a major feature of social work caseloads. Of the 290 cases, 100 (34%) involved concerns about parental substance misuse. The families involving substance misuse were more vulnerable on a variety of measures: the children were younger, the parents had more individual problems and the families lived in more difficult social situations. PSM cases tended to be ‘heavy end’ at the point of allocation: they accounted for 62% of all children subject to care proceedings and 40% of those placed on the child protection register. There was a fairly even spread between alcohol and drug misuse, and a number of cases involved both. Substance misuse specialists were rarely involved in working with families, primarily because parents said that they did not think that they had a problem. Suggestions for ways in which policy and practice with PSM might be improved are made in light of these findings.     

Social Policy in a Cold Climate: Health and Social Welfare in Russia

The Russian Federation faces multiple challenges for its health and welfare systems and for the development of social policy responses. This article provides a review of some of the key challenges for social policy in Russia and assesses the adequacy of the responses to date. The author surveys recent developments in health and social welfare and makes recommendations on priorities for Russia's policy‐makers and international funders. A range of public health challenges including drug and alcohol misuse, health in prisons and mental health is discussed; HIV/AIDS is singled out for particular attention. While Russia is increasingly attracting the attention of social scientists in the West, there is uncertainty about models and concepts suitable for the analysis of this complex society. Although empirical trends are largely discussed in this article, it is argued that theoretical development is required and some suggestions are made about concepts of the ‘middle range’ to assist in future analyses. Intermediate theories, such as those relating to the management of personal welfare, and development of resilience in a formerly collectivized context, are identified as having explanatory potential for this task.     

The Swiss social insurance system: Social security and grass‐roots democracy

The foundations of Switzerland's social insurance system can be traced to 1890 when a public referendum voted the inclusion of an article into the Federal Constitution that gave the executive the task of creating a sickness and accident insurance scheme. Currently, as in other European countries, the Swiss social insurance system is facing challenges as a result of rising health costs and demographic shifts, which are placing a growing burden on both public finances and private households. To reach policy decisions to address these challenges, the Swiss system is distinguishable from those of its European neighbours because of a continuing tradition of political decision‐making based on grass‐roots democracy: through referenda, the Swiss people remain directly responsible for the development of the national social insurance system. Importantly, not only might this unique feature of Swiss democracy lead the Swiss people more readily to accept and identify with their social insurance system but it may offer a sound democratic base upon which to build a consensual approach to address the policy challenges that lie ahead.     

关于我国发展城市公共卫生事业的若干思考

健康不仅是城市人与社会发挥功能的前提条件,也是城市人与社会全面、协调、可持续发展的一种社会财富。要大力发展城市公共卫生事业就必须加强对城市公共卫生事业发展的经济支持和社会政策支持,同时还要积极推进社区卫生服务体系,进而通过发展公共卫生事业来促进城市社会公平。     

Integration and Inclusion: Illusion or Progress in Services for Disabled People?

This paper analyses the meanings of "integration" and "inclusion" in the context of disability services to determine the extent to which the latter signals a change in perspective rather than simply a change in terminology. It is argued that integration implies that disabled people need to be integrated into "mainstream" society and that it is they rather than society which is required to change. The policy response which results from this approach may thus be a technical one which focuses on physical integration alone. In contrast, inclusion takes as its starting-point the fact that a just state of affairs is one in which disabled people are included in society and hence the required policy response is a broad one which includes comprehensive civil rights legislation, an analysis of the effects of present and future policy on disabled people and the participation of disabled people in the democratic decision-making process. However, as disabled people are currently excluded from many aspects of society, the potential for an inclusive approach to be dismissed as being too idealistic is noted, and a number of possible barriers to its realization are discussed. It is concluded that whilst such barriers exist they should not, in themselves, provide a reason for inaction as an understanding of the implications of inclusion for policy and practice can provide a useful starting-point from which to bring about change.     

风险社会与国家治理现代化

我国目前正处于重大的社会转型期即风险社会之中。中国进入风险社会有四个主要标志：政府作为社会治理或公共治理的中心,其公信力在不断下降;中国出现了公共机构有组织的不负责任现象;＂理论的不在状态＂和＂现实的不在场＂;主体意识或个体意识的崛起。中国进入风险社会表现为四个基本的、深层次的社会结构性紧张：利益结构的紧张、制度结构的紧张、文化结构的紧张、价值结构的紧张。风险社会只是一个表象,根本原因是四大深层次的社会结构性矛盾没有解决。中国学术创新的关键就是要研究社会的结构性矛盾或结构性紧张,找出其形成的规律,从根本上消除阻碍社会主义发展和国家治理现代化的深层次根源。     

论家本位观念对中国社会公益事业的制约

中国传统的家本位观念至今仍在影响着中国人,中国社会公益事业要想取得更好发展,需要提高国人的社会观念。然而家庭在中国社会所扮演的角色以及所承担的责任与任务决定了中国人有着很强的家庭观念——家本位观念,而家本位观念是不利于中国社会公益事业的发展的,家本位观念是制约中国社会公益事业发展的瓶颈。发展中国社会公益事业需要政府、企业和个人共同努力,需要发展中国的经济,同时还需要注重中国社会的和谐发展与进步,要将现有资源进行合理有效分配,防止社会问题出现和扩大化,注重社会的科学发展,尽最大可能减少社会问题,使社会和谐健康发展。     

重构超越“道德人”和“经济人”的政府人范式

关于政府人的人性预设经历了三个阶段、两次转向.第一次转向是由"道德人"转向"经济人",第二次转向是由"经济人"转向"公共人".作为对"道德人"和"经济人"超越的政府人预设,要既能发挥对政府人积极的激励作用,又能起到约束作用,使激励和约束相得益彰,因而"公共人"并不是对政府人的真实揭示.正义一方面和道德相联系,另一方面又和社会制度、政治体制和政府组织的正当性相关,因而对政府人的正义要求恰好既能发挥激励作用,又能发挥约束作用.可见,政府人的基本角色是"正义人".     

Extending social security in developing countries: a review of three main strategies

The article discusses strategies to extend social security cover-age in developing and newly industrialised countries. The three major options are to extend social insurance coverage , to rely on mutuals or micro-insurance or to bring in social assistance in one form or another. Social insurance usually covers small population segments. Insiders are seldom willing to extend coverage to poorer groups, as poorer groups are usually higher-risk groups. Micro-insurance and mutual societies work pri-marily among people with similar risk profiles. Discretionary social assistance targets poorer groups, but is open to patronage and misuse. However, some social assistance designs are less open to misuse than others. Demogrants, i.e. benefits given to people in vulnerable social categories, are easy to administer and difficult to misuse. Whether or not a developing country provides such benefits can be considered an indicator of the willingness of the ruling elite to alleviate hardship among 'unproductive' population groups.     

论知识休闲的必然性

社会进步赋予公众更多的休闲时间,也赋予休闲更多的知识内涵,进步的社会观念推动公众选择高雅的休闲,因此,休闲活动的知识化是社会进步的必然要求。随着科学技术的发展,教育与其他知识活动都趋向休闲化,提供知识服务的公共场所,也越来越休闲化,而且必定在科技高度发达的未来社会里能够做到真正休闲化,因此,知识活动的休闲化是科技发展的必然结果。人类文明的发展方向是全社会成员都享有高度的自由,都能全面发展,并处于高度和谐的社会关系中,这需要通过知识休闲去实现。知识休闲必将成为全社会都享有的生活形态,知识休闲的社会化是人类文明发展的必然方向。     

Reply to Bengt Westerberg: the pursuit of a drug-free society

Bengt Westerberg missed the point in his critique of "Pollution rituals in Sweden: pursuit of a drug-free society". The effectiveness of Sweden's restrictive line was not the issue. Moreover, Westerberg's defence of Swedish policy was highly selective in its use of statistics. Other statistics cast some doubt on his case. His reply also failed to mention that the opposition to some aspects of the restrictive line had included his own party and other political parties. The main point of my original article was ignored – the argument that it is unjust and illiberal to sentence an individual to prison for self-harm. It is also illiberal to argue that the end of a drug-free society is justified by means that encroach on basic human rights.     

和谐社会与公共政策的利益协调机制

和谐社会是一个社会利益关系协调的社会。社会利益主体多元化、社会利益结构失衡、强弱群体分化明显,使政府面临的协调社会利益关系的任务非常艰巨。公共政策是政府用来协调社会利益关系的重要手段。要有效地发挥公共政策在协调社会利益关系中的作用,必须完善公共政策的利益协调机制。     

A Joined-up Approach to User Participation in Public Services: Strengthening the "Participation Chain"

Participation has emerged as a key theme for social policy and administration in the UK. Public service providers are often keen to consult users, and users themselves want to make their voices heard. Despite this, however, there is a perennial problem in getting people to participate, and participation is often better supported in principle than in practice. The motivations of key actors are crucial, but are often poorly understood. This article attempts to build a more detailed understanding of the motivations to participate of one key group: service users. Using Mutual Incentives Theory, it shows the extent to which users are motivated by individualistic or collectivistic concerns. These “demand side” factors are then combined with others on the “supply side” in a model we call the “participation chain”. This model provides a systematic framework for understanding what makes public service users participate, and seeks to demonstrate that, while the question of participation requires a combination of answers, it is a combination that can be predicted, planned for and acted upon.     

"A Salary is not Important Here": The Professionalization of Social Work in Contemporary Russia

Helping professions address the growing number of social problems which have emerged, along with contextual changes in Russian society, culture and state social policy. Social work only emerged in Russia in 1991 and it still lacks recognition by public opinion and by other caring professions. This paper addresses the current development of the social work profession in Russia, considers its context and reviews the main issues affecting processes within social work practice and education. Many social work agencies are in search of new forms of organization and are trying to develop new philosophies of service, in order to build positive relations with communities. However, given the 70 years of the Soviet era when social protection was highly centralized and bureaucratized, the organizational cultures of the new social services sometimes reproduce old patterns of bureaucracy, especially where employees lack professional education. The reflective practitioner type of professionalism is here argued to be more appropriate for social workers in today's Russia. The paper includes an analysis of interviews with social workers and administrators in a large Russian city and considers the results of an ethnographic study of social services in the same city.     

Forced to work and liberated from work

The work-welfare nexus is essential in all social policy regimes. The question is in what situations individuals should be entitled to social welfare benefits and in which situations they should be obliged to work. Social welfare law and administrative practices define mechanisms that separate the deserving poor from people able to work. This article analyses the functions and character of these "separation mechanisms" in Sweden during three periods in history: a) in rural society in the late 19th century; b) in industrial society during the successful years of the Swedish model from World War II until the late 1970s; and c) the present, including the period of welfare retrenchment and reconsideration since the early 1980s. The conclusion is that Swedish social policy has always been strongly work-oriented, but the specific form and content of the work ethic has varied under the influence of different ideologies and handled in different social policy institutions. Under specific conditions the work line has been either generous or restrictive and it has been based on structural attempts to improve the opportunities to work as well as on attempts to strongly pressure the individual to work. The work line of today is seen as an interesting attempt to combine an effort to create good work through improved work conditions and an effort to reinforce elements of work enforcement in the social insurance system.     

Learning to play chess: How to make sense of a politics of representation with people in poverty

Despite the growing involvement of people in poverty in social policy, their participation does not necessarily take place on a par with policymakers, as the latter often do not really embrace their demands for social justice. It is, therefore, argued that social work has a role to play in the process of merging knowledge of people in poverty with that of policymakers and other stakeholders by representing their perspectives in public debate. By drawing on an in‐depth qualitative research of five “Associations where People in Poverty Raise their Voice” (Belgium), the complexity of the direct participation of people in poverty in such a politics of representation is analyzed, as well as the different roles social work practitioners can take on in dealing with this complexity. Here, two roles are distinguished: “a guardian of collective and transformative elements”; and “a strategical chess player.” We conclude that practitioners need to reflect critically on participatory premises and practices and consider whether these strategies actually contribute to societal change. However, the ideal of parity of participation entails that such strategic considerations should always be collaboratively discussed with people in poverty.     

社会管理的范围、价值与地位

虽然社会管理的任务已经从＂加强和改进＂上升到＂加强和创新＂,但是社会管理研究的基础性工作仍然是要认真探索社会管理的领域对象、核心价值和战略地位。弄清楚这一问题乃是发展社会管理理论和实践的基本前提。现代社会管理的领域是由民生社会、民间社会和公共事务社会所构成的,是一个处在发育中的人们生活的特定领域;当前社会管理的对象主要是民生社会、公民社会和公共事务社会中存在的问题、行为和利益。现代社会管理虽然与维持人类生活共同体的稳定和秩序密切相关,但是社会管理的核心价值取向应当是通过协调社会利益、规范社会行为、解决社会问题,以实现社会的公平和正义。在中国特殊的国情条件下,社会建设和社会管理已成为新的工作重心,已成为与经济建设同样重要的第一要务。     

Australia's retirement income revolution: a Finnish system "down-under"

Most advanced industrial societies are confronting serious economic recession, and governments are seeking ways to stimulate economic growth and reduce government expenditure. For many countries these problems are compounded by aging populations and demographic changes. There are fewer people in the workforce, and more people in older age groups live longer and have increased expectations for retirement lifestyles. The result has been that many governments are radically transforming their systems of retirement income provision, often causing political, economic and social upheaval and widespread public anxiety. Australia is one country in which there have been huge changes in the retirement income system in the past 5 years. The system has been substantially privatized, and future retirement income will come from statutorily enforced earnings-related individual savings accumulated in decentralized private funds. Australia's new retirement income regime bears extraordinary similarities to the Finnish system of employment-related pensions, yet there was no reference to the Finnish system in the evolution of the new Australian system. There are lessons for Australia and for other countries in the long and successful operation of the Finnish pension system. This article first examines Australia's retirement income system, recent government policy changes and likely implications of these retirement policy changes for the future of Australia's traditional welfare state. Cross-national comparisons of the retirement income regimes in Finland and Australia, identifying international best practice in each country, comprise the second half of the article. Such comparisons will be of interest to policy-makers seeking new policy directions.     

From parental engagement to the engagement of social work services: discussing reductionist and democratic forms of partnership with families

Social work has moved from a child protection discourse towards a child welfare discourse that views the relationship between social workers and families as a partnership. Partnership with families in the field of child protection and child welfare, however, mirrors diverse ideological motives of social policy, civil society and practice. We engage in a theoretical discussion of different interpretations of partnership. We draw a primary distinction between reductionist and democratic forms of partnership with families. In a reductionist approach, social workers activate parents in order to realize the goals set by social work. A democratic approach to partnership refers to a shared responsibility between social workers, parents and children. In this approach, effective partnership is not something to be realized as an outcome, but a point of departure that implies a joint search for meaning and an experiment with which social workers engage. This engagement presents ‘non‐participation’ not as problematic but as an essential element of participation. The focus then shifts from a methodical approach to partnership – how to activate people to participate in the care process – to the question of how the engagement of social workers can be constructed together with families.