Western European welfare states in the 20th century: convergences and divergences in a long-run perspective

The study investigates the welfare systems in Western Europe in the course of the so-called 'short 20th century' (1918–1990) from a long-term comparative perspective and focusing on the convergent versus divergent features of development. Various indicators examined show that in terms of relative level of welfare expenditures, features of welfare institutions and social rights, there were significant differences between Western European countries in the first half of the 20th century, but diversity significantly decreased by the 1950s, and the tendency of convergence continued steadily in the next two decades. Subsequently, changes in variation between countries from the 1970s onwards displayed a somewhat less clear-cut pattern, but in several areas the convergence continued. As a result, in 1990 the differences between the Western European countries can be regarded as less significant in that respect than in the middle and especially at the beginning of the 20th century.     

‘Can I come home?’ The experiences of young runaways contacting the Message Home helpline

This paper reports the findings of a 3‐month survey of young people calling the Message Home helpline. Message Home is a national freephone helpline available to people who have run away or left home which allows them to send a message to their family or carer, to seek confidential help and advice and, if necessary, to be helped to a place of safety. The paper explores the characteristics, circumstances and motivations of the young people contacting the helpline. It also considers who the young people contacted through the helpline and the kinds of messages that were relayed to parents, social services and others. This study differs from most preceding studies of runaways in recording the views of young people while they are missing. The immediacy palpable in their accounts highlights the distress and isolation experienced by many of these young people who have run away or been forced to leave home.     

Educational success for children in public care: advice from a group of high achievers

ABSTRACT Research over the past 20 years has consistently shown that children in public care fall behind at school, seldom achieve good qualifications, and are much less likely than their peers to go on to further or higher education. However, a small minority of looked‐after children do well academically. This paper examines the opinions of 38 high‐achieving young people who spent at least a year in residential or foster care on what they think are the best ways to enhance the educational experience of looked‐after children. An evaluation of four key questions from a semistructured interview highlighted the importance of foster carers, residential workers, social workers and teachers in providing support and encouragement for academic achievement. On the other hand, many of these individuals emphasized their dislike of being ‘singled out’ by the teacher. A third of the participants believed that negative stereotypes and low expectations of children in care among professionals and care providers were major obstacles to their educational success. Over half the sample reported that in many children’s homes basic necessities such as books, a desk and a quiet place to do homework were lacking. In addition their opportunity to engage in outside interests and hobbies was severely limited. By contrast, for these individuals foster care had provided better opportunities. On entering higher education the majority of the participants had faced severe problems. They stressed the need for continuing financial support and adequate year‐round accommodation, because, unlike most students, these care leavers usually have no parental home to return to during university vacations. A third of participants also felt a strong desire for a ‘guardian angel’ to support and encourage them during their time at university. The paper concludes that the views of these thoughtful and resilient individuals should be taken very seriously and translated into improvements in policy and practice. Official guidance now highlights the importance of education for looked‐after children, but changing attitudes and priorities at ground level presents a major challenge.     

Building state capacity for welfare governance: The pathway and development of child welfare system and social work in China

ABSTRACT

China’s dramatic socioeconomic transformation after the reform and opening up, coincided with changes in state-family relationship, has resulted in a large number of children at risk of care. In the past three decades, child welfare has been highly concerned by the government and society, and the child welfare system has substantially developed in the direction of establishing a moderately universal system. In this process, the development of child welfare and social work has shown a mutually reinforcing trend. This includes the professionalisation of child welfare services, the professional training of child welfare workers and the advancement of child welfare policies. The governance of child welfare is an essential component of national social governance. Its future development should be oriented towards a developmental and holistic approach of governance, and social work as an important institutional actor plays a critical role in promoting good governance of child welfare and beyond.     

Perspectives on determinants of social welfare: commentary

In this commentary we discuss and elaborate on a number of topics that have been raised in the articles in this issue. The first topic treated is causality. All scientists are aware of the difficulties of making causal inferences in non-experimental settings, and in many cases arguments are forwarded that support the causal interpretation of the reported relationships. Questions of bi-directional causality, nonlinear relationships and the importance of omitted variables are discussed, as is the supporting evidence that in some cases comes from experimental studies. The second topic is the level of analysis employed in the empirical analyses and the difficulty of interpreting findings at a different level of aggregation than the level applied in these analyses. In this context, the importance of applying a person-orientation is pointed out to ensure that the findings are interpretable at the level of the single individual. Even in individual-level analyses, this can be problematic if one relies on group statistics produced within a variable-oriented framework. The third topic concerns how to handle interactions and nonlinear relationships. The fourth topic concerns the importance of improving measurements so that a good correspondence is achieved between them and the theoretical conceptualisations. The fifth and last topic is concerned with the argument that different ways of investigating the generalisability of the results to different populations should be tried.     

Social and health‐care priorities of local politicians in Finland: do the attitudes of politicians reflect the actual processes in municipalities?

The aim of this study was to find out whether elected politicians' attitudes influence policy-making processes in terms of social and health-care resource allocation. A preliminary hypothesis was developed on the basis of previous empirical findings on the attitudes of politicians. If health-care costs decreased during the period 1993–1999, then secondary care costs should have increased and vice versa; if the total amount of resources increased, then secondary care must have been allocated fewer resources. However, the results of this study showed that the actual resource-allocation processes did not reflect the attitudes of local politicians. Expenditure on secondary health care increased during this period, while primary health-care services were allocated fewer resources. Analysing the actual decision-making processes rather than investigating attitudes to priority setting may prove more useful in gaining a better understanding of priority-setting processes and the mechanisms used in different contexts.     

Child welfare workers who are exhausted yet satisfied with their jobs: how do they do it?

In response to a study of Canadian child welfare workers that unexpectedly found participants scoring high on a measure of emotional exhaustion (burnout) and, at the same time, high on overall job satisfaction, this paper reviews research that has investigated these constructs in the social work literature as well as in selected studies from sociology, social psychology, management and women’s studies. The review reveals that some previous studies also report the coexistence of high levels of emotional exhaustion and strong job satisfaction in child welfare and social worker samples. Several studies have suggested that individual characteristics, including finding reward in helping others, having a commitment to the mandate of child welfare and believing that one’s labour is ‘making a difference’, contribute to satisfaction with child welfare work in spite of work overload and emotional exhaustion. Attributions regarding causes of exhaustion, coping strategies and goal orientation may also attenuate the expected negative effects of emotional exhaustion. Considerable evidence supports the positive influence of variables organizational managers can control, including job autonomy, supportive supervisors, workload, promotional opportunities and perception of personal safety. The degree to which this phenomenon is associated with female socialization and the ‘ethic of care’ underlying social work is discussed. Implications for child welfare research, practice and policy are offered.     

生产力新论——大生产观初探

我国理论界具有代表性的八种生产力定义各有其特点和不足.定义生产力范畴必须坚持两个基本原则:对马克思主义生产力范畴作系统深入的研究;必须依据现代生产力发展的实际和特点重新审视生产力.基于此,生产力的新定义是:生产力是人们在生产过程中所形成并表现出来的认识、改造和建设世界的能力系统,而生产力系统是由自然生产力和社会生产力构成的一个有机整体.其中,自然生产力是其前提和基础,社会生产力是其主体和核心.在自然生产力中,自然界的自然力是其基础和要素,生物的生产力是其主体和核心;在社会生产力中,物质生产力是其基础和条件,精神生产力是其关键和先导,人才生产力是其主体和主导.而且生产力系统是一个有规律地运动发展着的统一整体;有机联系、重心转移、互动发展的生态规律是生产力系统发展的内在规律和一般法则.这种新生产力定义的提出,深化了可持续发展观的内容,深化了人与自然的统一关系,深化了科学技术是第一生产力的思想;同时对于深入阐述马克思"自然向人生成"的思想,丰富和发展马克思主义生产力理论和唯物史观都有重要的积极意义.     

Accounting for Ethical Difficulties in Social Welfare Work: Issues, Problems and Dilemmas

This paper is a preliminary exploration of social welfare practitioners’accounts of ‘ethically difficult situations’. Itdescribes variations in the ethical vocabulary and form of theseaccounts. Analysis of practitioners’ own accounts (asopposed to ‘textbook’ cases) draws attention tothe ways they construct events, actions and qualities of characteras ethically significant and highlights the qualitative distinctivenessof ethical dilemmas, where seemingly irresolvable choices leavea residue of moral loss, regret or guilt.     

生态伦理与人道主义——18世纪西方自然观的形成及其当代影响

随着生态环境的恶化、生态运动的发展,生态伦理学异军突起。它旨在从生态角度重新审视人与环境的关系,从道德伦理角度约束人的行为,值得广泛提倡。然而,部分极端的生态中心论者将生态危机的"精神基础"归罪于西方人道主义思想,则有失偏颇。回顾18世纪西方世界自然观念的演化,启蒙思想中的道德观念被资本主义自利的经济理论所抛弃,在某种意义上,生态危机并非人道主义的僭妄,恰恰相反,是人道主义精神还不够深入的结果。