“When the money's low”: Economic participation among disadvantaged young Australians

As a generational group, children and young people are rarely independent financial actors but are nonetheless active consumers of goods and services related to their social identities and enduring orientations to learning, work and community. Many young Australians, however, do not have adequate access to the financial resources that permit their engagement with youth cultures constructed around commodity consumption nor with services and activities that support their future workforce and civic participation. Furthermore, they negotiate this lack of provision in an overarching political climate that individualises responsibility for disadvantage and its outcomes. This paper draws on stories from over 70 young Australians (11-17) to illustrate how they experience and manage the economic demands of family, schooling and peer cultures. Their accounts add to the growing literature that demonstrates how young people mobilise material and discursive resources but also points to the need for social policy that addresses the multiple material, social, discursive and institutional barriers to their full social inclusion.     

Long-term employment and earnings among low-income families with children

Self-support through employment has become much more important for low-income mothers and welfare recipients as a result of welfare reform and decline of welfare caseloads. This study used the 2004 longitudinal panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine longitudinal patterns and trajectories of employment and earnings and to identify factors associated with long-term employment and earnings success among low-income mothers. The results indicate that despite the high proportion of low-income mothers employed, a substantial number were unable to sustain employment and had low earnings. Only 37% of low-income mothers experienced earnings success. Moreover, nearly half of the sample who had successful employment trajectories experienced stagnant or decreasing earnings. Results highlight the importance of considering the level, trend, and stability of employment and earnings in categorizing employment and earnings success. The factors associated with both long-term employment and earnings success included education, work disability, earnings of other adults in the family, homeownership, and state unemployment rates. Results also revealed some differences in factors that determined these two outcomes. The findings point to the importance of advocating for social policies that provide additional income and employment supports for low-income families with children.     

How parents decide to participate and save in their children's asset-building accounts: Implications for practice, policy, and theory

Asset-based social welfare programs focus on helping low to moderate income citizens accumulate wealth in the form of home ownership, savings, small businesses, and higher education. Individual development accounts, savings accounts in which account holders' deposits are matched, are a vehicle often used in these programs. In a national demonstration of children's savings accounts (individual development accounts for children) parents participated in focus groups to discuss how they decided to enroll in this asset-building program, how they decided to open accounts for their children, and how they saved in these accounts. Findings from this study have implications for assetbuilding policy and practice, and institutional theories of saving.     

“区块链+”小农户生产扶贫:模式与机制

小农户生产扶贫是产业扶贫的重要补充,对贫困小农户的资源和能力禀赋要求低,对解决深度贫困问题、抵御疫情等自然或社会风险、稳定脱贫成效有重要意义。只有建立将小农生产消费关系嵌入社会关系的巢状市场,小农户生产扶贫才能持续。在小农户生产扶贫实践中,存在着无法建立巢状市场的现实困境。通过在线下对接贫困村庄与城市社区,在线上利用小农电商专用平台对接贫困小农户与城市消费者,运用区块链技术,可以建构小农户生产扶贫新模式,形成线上线下融合且安全可靠的巢状市场。推行“区块链+”小农户生产扶贫新模式,可以保障贫困小农户与城市消费者无障碍直接对接、有效有限筛选认同小农价值的城市消费者和扩大贫困地区小农生产规模提升流通便利性,从根本上解决小农户生产扶贫无法建立巢状市场的难题。为此,需要政府采取措施,搭建“区块链+”小农户生产扶贫的综合平台、优化运营环境和完善基础设施。     

Political Science Perspectives on Poverty

ABSTRACT

The social science discipline of political science focuses on the study of political systems and political behavior. While political science has not developed a comprehensive theory of poverty, this article reviews political science perspectives related to the causes of poverty (culture of poverty and neo-Marxist theories of class), the role of government in addressing poverty (theories of distributive justice and public support for antipoverty policies), and political participation. The article concludes with recommendations for future research and implications for Human Behavior and the Social Environment curriculum.     

Age Differences in Perceptions of Rich and Poor People: Is It Skill or Luck?

To gain new perspective on the development of understandings and perceptions of income inequality, this study compared the reactions of six, eight, and 10‐year‐olds to a rich man and a poor man and the winners and losers of a contest of skill and a game of chance. Age differences in attributions for outcomes reflected a strengthening with age of the skill–luck distinction and of equity thinking about wealth. Although men with good outcomes were generally perceived more positively than men with bad outcomes, and likeability was affected only by outcome, 10‐year‐olds differentiated most sharply among different types of ‘winners’ or ‘losers’, viewing the rich and poor men as more like the winner and loser of a contest of skill than like the winner and loser of a game of chance. Overall, the findings suggest that differential evaluation of rich and poor people may begin as affective tagging based on good or bad life outcomes and later be associated with justifications grounded in an equity perspective on income inequality that emphasizes the role of personal qualities such as ability in wealth accumulation.     

Net effects of poverty on welfare use and dependency among children by family immigration and citizenship statuses

The fact that immigrant families used welfare at a disproportionately high level called for national welfare and immigration reforms in the mid-1990s. This study examined the net effects of poverty on welfare use and dependency among U.S.-born children by family immigration and citizenship statuses in pre- and post-welfare reform years. The analyses found that children in poor immigrant families were less likely to use welfare than children in poor native-born families in 1995, 2000, and 2005. In 2010, however, children in poor immigrant families and poor native-born families had similar likelihoods of welfare use. Children in poor noncitizen families were in general less likely to be dependent on welfare than children in poor naturalized families. Although children in poor naturalized families had a lower likelihood of welfare dependency in a pre-welfare reform year, they had similar or higher likelihoods of dependency in post-reform years, compared to children in native-born families.     

Poverty, Social Exclusion and Social Policy in the Czech Republic

This article analyses the pattern of poverty and social exclusion in the Czech Republic and the impact of social policy on this pattern. The analysis is mostly based on data from the Czech Survey on Social Conditions of Households (2001; 27,000 respondents); Eurostat data provide a benchmark for making international comparisons. The poverty rate in the Czech Republic is among the lowest in Europe. On the other hand, material deprivation, as well as concentration of poverty within specific population groups, is high, with the unemployed facing the highest risk of poverty. Social policy measures in effect reinforce this pattern: while the benefit system is highly redistributive and effectively eliminates income poverty among households of employed persons and among pensioners, incomes of persons outside paid employment are protected less effectively. Labour market policy measures are insufficient in scope and inadequate in targeting groups which are facing the highest risk of labour market exclusion and poverty. We argue that although this practice is effective at present, it is not sustainable in the long term.     

关于巩固我国农村地区扶贫成果的若干思考

“九五”期间我国农村地区扶贫开发工作取得了历史性的伟大成就。但应看到 ,从脱贫到实现小康和更为富裕的目标 ,仍有相当长的奋斗历程 ,薄弱的经济基础、脆弱的生态环境、不良的人口状况是影响巩固扶贫成果的主要因素。为此 ,必须认定优化人口状况、持续经济增长和实现可持续发展是巩固扶贫成果的基本途径     

关于新疆生态移民的意义和形式的初步探索

本文分析以生态移民对消除贫困、保护生态环境、促进城市化趋势、发展旅游业事业的推进作用,对生态移 民安置的途径、方式方法进行了初步的探索,最后针对加快生态移民进程提出了一些建议。