‘Leave no one behind’ and the challenge of intersectionality: Christian Aid's experience of working with single and Dalit women in India

The principle of ‘leaving no one behind’ is strongly emerging as a defining aspect of the new development framework under negotiation in 2015. This stems from an acknowledgement of the failure of the Millennium Development Goals in securing benefits for the most marginalised groups, those suffering from economic deprivation and discrimination as a result of intersecting inequalities. As the new development framework takes shape, national-level experiences of tackling intersecting inequalities can provide lessons on the shifts required in policy and practice to address the specific needs of women experiencing deprivation, violence, and discrimination because of their gender and other identities. This case study illustrates lessons learnt from Christian Aid's programmatic experience in several states of India in support of Dalit women and single women as they individually and collectively struggle to gain dignity and realise their rights.     

Disability, social exclusion and the consequential experience of justiciable problems

In this article, we examine the situation of disabled people in England and Wales with regard to one specific aspect of social exclusion—experience of justiciable problems, and the potential effects such problems can have on their lives. Having defined 'disability', we examine how this fits within the wider dialogue on social exclusion issues. By analysing the results of the Legal Services Research Centre's (LSRC) periodic survey of justiciable problems, we find that disabled respondents were not only more likely to experience a problem, they also experienced more problems. Increased likelihood of a problem was observed in the majority of problem categories and particularly those relating to issues of social exclusion, such as housing and welfare benefits. This propensity to experience multiple problems can lead to a negative impact on the lives of long-term ill and disabled people.     

Corporate political power and US foreign policy, 1981–2002: the role of the policy-planning network

Theory and Society - Recent empirical work has offered strong support for ‘biased pluralism’ and ‘economic elite’ accounts of political power in the United States, according...     

Growing the Volunteer Pool: Identifying Non-Volunteers Most Likely to Volunteer

There are ongoing management and societal challenges affecting volunteering participation. These place a premium on organizations identifying individuals that currently do not volunteer but have the willingness and capacity to do so, the “Potentials”. Supplementing the limited non-volunteer literature, we seek to quantify this potential volunteer pool using constructs aligned to the willingness, capability and availability dimensions from Meijs et al.’s (Volunt Action 8:36–54, 2006) volunteerability framework. Using binary logistic regression testing with a nationally representative sample of Australian volunteers and non-volunteers, we found partial support for the framework’s willingness and capability dimensions determining volunteer status. We then applied a predictive equation to the non-volunteer sample to calculate their percentage likelihood of volunteering, to identify a cohort of “Potential” volunteers. Further testing revealed statistically significant differences between this cohort compared to other non-volunteers based on various interventions for promoting volunteering. The implications of our novel study and an associated research agenda are discussed.

     

A First Look: Disparities in COVID-19 Mortality Among US-Born and Foreign-Born Minnesota Residents

Population Research and Policy Review - This research brief provides one of the first examinations of the impact of COVID-19 mortality on immigrant communities in the United States. In the absence...     

Religion and the Rainbow Struggle: Does Religion Factor Into Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and Same-Sex Civil Unions in Brazil?

The provision of civil liberties to LGBT persons has become part of a global movement in societies across the world. In Brazil, a recent judicial ruling for the first time established the right for homosexual couples to enter into civil unions, despite the presence of widespread disapproval of homosexuality among the population and opposition from prominent religious groups. Picking up on this issue, the following study examines whether religion may factor into the attitudes Brazilians hold toward homosexuality and same-sex civil unions. Using data from the Brazilian Social Research Survey, we find that the most restrictive views toward homosexuality and the strongest opposition to same-sex civil unions are most prevalent among devoted followers of historical Protestant, Pentecostal, and Catholic faith traditions, whereas adherents of Afro-Brazilian and spiritist religions, as well as those with no religious commitment, are inclined to assume a more tolerant moral posture toward such issues. The findings point to religion as a potential influence in future public policy initiatives and social movements involving LGBT issues in Brazil.     

Eliciting decision weights by adapting de Finetti’s betting-odds method to prospect theory

This paper extends de Finetti’s betting-odds method for assessing subjective beliefs to ambiguous events. Thus, a tractable manner for measuring decision weights under ambiguity is obtained. De Finetti’s method is so transparent that decision makers can evaluate the relevant tradeoffs in complex situations. The resulting data can easily be analyzed, using nonparametric techniques. Our extension is implemented in an experiment on predicting next-day’s performance of the Dow Jones and Nikkei stock indexes, where we test the existence and nature of rank dependence, finding usual patterns. We also find violations of rank dependence.