Inklusion in die Moderne – Zum systemischen Verständnis des ‚Sozialen‘ in der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft

Social inclusion is the market’s blind spot: the number of members of a society that are included in a society through the economy and under what conditions is irrelevant to the logic and functionality of an economic system. It is not, however, possible to lead a reasonably meaningful life—a requisite in our modern age—without any material basis. Accordingly, political measures should be called for when people’s autonomous way of life is threatened by a lack of inclusion in the market and society. Such a political, normative-based, inclusion-seeking solution has already been laid out in the initial concept of the social market economy. This paper aims at showing how the fundamental concern of the social market economy with social issues can be brought up to date within the idea of built-in inclusion thanks to a modern approach to the theory of justice.     

Older People's “Voices”—On Paper: Obstacles to Influence in Welfare States—A Case Study of Sweden

The official rhetoric of welfare states unconditionally pays tribute to older people's right to express dissatisfaction. In practice, users of older services in welfare states may be deprived of their “exit” options and face considerable constraints when it comes to raising their “voices.” For example, when older people in nursing homes would like to lodge a complaint, they may well be referred to the very staff members they depend on in their everyday lives. This article analyzes a national case study in which these contradictory tendencies are especially explicit: formal influence channels for older people in Sweden. Using data from structured interviews with 100 representatives of Swedish municipalities and drawing on Hirschman's (1970) Hirschman, A. 1970. Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organisations, and states, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  [Google Scholar] theory on exit and voice, the article analyzes obstacles to older service users' influence in Sweden and develops explanations for these obstacles in terms of social contexts.     

“Now It's Not School,It's For Real!”: Negotiated Participation in Media Vocational Training

By taking up the strand in Lave and Wenger's writing on situated learning that directs attention to social dynamics and issues of power and positioning, the present article argues for the fruitfulness of including the concept of negotiated participation in approaches to teaching and learning. Based on a fieldwork in vocational media production projects, this study demonstrates the tensions and contradictions that came out of the hybrid nature of these vocational practices in high school. Establishing the professionally relevant modes of participation in the projects was fraught with struggles in which the project members had to bracket institutionalized school routines as well as handle and negotiate particular work life conditions (including cooperation with old timers in the target professions). It is argued that the way institutional contradictions are manifested and negotiated in everyday teaching and interaction can inform our understanding of the premises for multifunctional educational praxis.     

Local Sensemaking of Policy Paradoxes – Implementing Local Crime Prevention in Sweden

This paper analyses the policy implementation of local crime prevention and community safety programmes in Sweden. It focuses on the clash between the transnational idea-complex and the national context, i.e. the unavoidable policy paradoxes of a transnational idea diffusion, and how they are made sense of when handled at local level. In particular, it emphasizes how actors in socioeconomically different local contexts within the same urban area have partly different reasons and motives for implementation. By using a sensemaking approach, this article contributes to the understanding of how convergence at national level is followed by divergence at local level.     

Family councils in nursing facilities: strategies for effective participation

This article provides an overview of the role of family councils. The contributions of the three groups that play a significant role in the development and support of family councils, relatives and friends of the facility's residents, facility administration and staff, and local advocacy organizations, are discussed. The role of the staff advisor, generally the facility social worker, is a major key to a successful council. Barriers that impede family council success are identified, and strategies that improve effectiveness are presented. Family councils play an important part in improving the quality of lives of long-term care residents.     

Die Bedeutung von Steuern in der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung: Eine international vergleichende empirische Analyse

Due to tax competition, high levels of national debt and promulgated tax avoidance strategies of large corporations, there is a growing interest of multiple stakeholders in taxation putting taxes on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. This study empirically examines the relevance of taxes in sustainability reports of 90 corporations listed on the Dow Jones 30, DAX 30 and FTSE 100. The findings show that 54,4?% of these corporations disclose tax information in their reports. The quality of disclosure is examined using a scoring model based on the tax-related performance indicators of theGlobal Reporting Initiative Guidelines and two standards for voluntary disclosure of tax information. In most cases, disclosure practices are of low quality. However, there are a few corporations providing high disclosure quality, especially in the UK. By analyzing the determinants of disclosure, this study demonstrates that extractive companies and companies that have been object of negative tax-related media coverage tend to disclose more information. Furthermore, corporations with higher profitability and high performance in CSR rankings rather disclose tax information.     

An electrophysiological approach to investigations of sensory dysfunction in schizophrenia

Sensory dysfunction has been shown to be a part of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Nowadays we have an objective, non-invasive tool with which to measure neural manifestations of sensory dysfunction. Defined as time-locked changes to external stimuli in the EEG, event-related potentials (ERPs) provide an objective index of information processing in the human brain. Importantly, ERPs may be analyzed through a variety of approaches such as conventional ERP analysis, analysis in the time-frequency domain, microstate segmentation and topographical analysis, as well as source localisation analysis. Each of the methods gives distinct information; they also supplement each other. Here, an attempt is made to verify the validity of combining different approaches to study sensory dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders. For example, the data from a schizophrenic patient and an age- and sex-matched healthy subject generate a picture of the events which emerges after visual, proprioceptive and simultaneous presentation of stimuli in both modalities. This approach, though time-consuming, allows the visualisation of changes appearing in the malfunctioning brain as compared to the healthy brain. These methods could ultimately lead to a better establishment of one or more endophenotypes for the schizophrenic disorders. They might also serve as a way to track changes in response to various medications and therapies.     

Traditional kinship foster care in northern Ghana: the experiences and views of children, carers and adults in Tamale

Surveys were employed to explore the experiences of children in care and their carers about traditional fostering. They also examined the perspectives of randomly selected adults in the community about the practice of traditional foster care in the Tamale area of northern Ghana. The 74 participants responded to closed- and open-ended interview questions about traditional foster care. Frequencies and thematic grouping of qualitative responses showed that the need to keep family ties alive was the key reason for placement of children with family and kin. Majority of the children expressed satisfaction with living in foster care, even though they had experienced physical and emotional abuse and intimidation. Although most carers were not formally employed and had little personal income, they were positive about having the care role, but faced challenges in providing for many children in a difficult economic situation. The report highlights the role of reciprocity, altruistic and socio-cultural factors in quality of care, and the potential for the traditional kinship foster care to provide suitable avenues of placement for children as recommended by the Ghana child rights law. It also identifies the need for education for carers around children's needs and Ghana's child rights law.     

Use and Usability of Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly: An Observation Study in Gothenburg Sweden

To meet the demographic development, measures were initiated by the Swedish government entailing changed conditions for municipal eldercare, such as assisted living. Participant observation is used to study the daily use of common spaces in 14 assisted living units in Gothenburg. The results show examples where the current use diverges from the intended use and suggest diverging objectives and conflicts of use. The observations indicate that the degree of usability is determined by the physical environment itself in some cases, by the users and by changes in use in other cases, and by a combination of both in some cases.