From Care to Fellowship and Back: Interpretative Repertoires Used by the Social Welfare Workers when Describing their Relationship with Homeless Women

The study asks what kinds of interpretative repertoires do socialwelfare workers use and produce when describing their work,and how is the practitioner–client relationship describedin the different repertoires? Social welfare work is approachedthrough a single organization targeted for homeless women. Theresearch data consist of a free-form diary kept by the workers.The analysis shows that the workers construct six differentinterpretative repertoires: repertoire of care, repertoire ofassessment, repertoire of control, repertoire of therapy, repertoireof service provision and repertoire of fellowship. The repertoiresare not anchored to given workers or homeless women. Individualworkers adopt different repertoires, and a single homeless womanmay be encountered in several ways. The variation in the repertoiresand the movement between them make the work flexible. The quantitativelymost frequent repertoire is the repertoire of care based onthe ethics of care. As a carrying principle of the daily work,it may create a climate of trust and confidence which makesthe other repertoires possible. Due to its variation and commitmentto long-term care, the work with homeless women can be saidto challenge predominant policies that emphasize the citizen’sown responsibility and the managerialist mode of operation.     

Welfare State Developments in the Russian Federation: Oil-led Social Policy and 'The Russian Miracle'

This article investigates the main welfare state developments of the Russian Federation that have occurred since the fall of communism. It argues that the contemporary welfare expansion strictly depends on high oil and gas prices, and that this oil-led social policy makes the future of the 'Russian miracle' highly volatile. The main conclusion is that the Russian welfare state will be able to function properly and to ensure social integration and solidarity only under conditions of sustained oil-led growth. The article also identifies a variety of different, but equally important, endogenous, as well as exogenous, factors that have influenced the social policy developments in the Russian Federation since 1989. These correspond to the existence of few veto points present in the political arena, the lack of a well-structured system of interest representation, the presence of informality in the welfare state organization, but also to the presence of national economic vulnerabilities and/or strengths in the now open global economy, as well as to non-contingent decisions taken in strategic sectors of the state, such as those related to the energy or defence sectors.     

关于东亚社会保障模式的理论思考

有关东亚社会保障模式的研究已成为国际学术界的热点和前沿问题,但对东亚社会保障模式内涵的理解及是否存在这样一种社会保障模式,仍存在较大分歧。对东亚社会保障模式的研究,应基于历史比较制度分析的框架和文化发展的思路,深入到制度安排的内核并从文化发展维度展开分析,而不是仅仅将关注的重点放在各国社会保障制度的技术机制和技术参数的比较研究上。与东亚国家经济社会发展的历史过程、文化传承等直接相关,东亚社会保障模式有着独特的制度化特征,因此,东亚国家和地区应在文化自觉、文化自信、文化自强的发展过程中,扬长避短地探索东亚社会保障模式及其可持续发展道路。     

欧洲主权债务危机对我国福利制度建设的启示

欧洲是现代福利制度的起源地,也是典型的高福利地区,欧债危机的爆发让人们重新思考欧洲福利制度的利弊问题。回顾了欧洲主权债务危机的爆发过程及其影响,从分析欧债危机爆发的根源入手,借鉴欧洲国家在福利建设中的经验教训,提出了欧洲主权债务危机对我国福利制度建设的启示:国家福利不能脱离国民经济的财力基础;发挥国民收入初次分配的调节作用;引导民间力量参与福利体制;开创福利新形式。     

欧洲社会政策的积极化转型

从政治学的视角对过去二十年中大部分经合组织国家发生的积极化转型提出一些解释,可以更好地理解发生这一转型的原因。概括起来,主要有三个因素：　在经合组织经济体中劳动力市场的后工业化发展;其他途径在解决大规模失业问题上的无能为力;政党想通过创新性和现代化的劳动力市场改革来树立声名的愿望。这一观点在丹麦、英国、荷兰、瑞典、德国、法国和意大利等七个欧洲国家所经历的发展轨迹中得到展现。     

Efficient Take‐Back Legislation

Product and waste take‐back is becoming more regulated by countries to protect the environment. Such regulation puts an economic burden on firms, while creating fairness concerns and potentially even missing its primary target: environmental benefits. This research discusses the economic and environmental impacts of extended producer responsibility type of legislation and identifies efficiency conditions. It is shown that the right policy would (i) make producers responsible for their own waste to avoid fairness concerns and (ii) favor eco‐design producers to create stronger environmental benefits. Furthermore, the efficiency of take‐back systems is also driven by environmental classification of products, industry structure, and end‐user willingness to participate in take‐back programs.     

基于一般均衡理论的区域差距控制

在一般均衡分析的框架下,建立了两地区四代间的收入转移支付模型,研究了政府通过收入转移支付来推动区域间平等的政策,分析了收入转移支付对两地区劳动者数量、工资、消费、退休者收入、地区和全国总产出,以及当地家庭福利所产生的影响,并以我国东部和西部地区为实例进行了模拟,模拟了2种区域差距下经济指标的变化.     

Balancing informality and need – policy responses to informal East-West migration in Austria,the Netherlands and Sweden

The article provides an analysis of policy responses to mobile EU citizens without legal residence in the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden. A comparative case study design uses qualitative survey and interview data to identify national and local policy responses to the implications of EU citizens from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) living without legal residence in the aforementioned countries. The theoretical framework specifies how the institutional logic of welfare regimes is likely to generate policy responses that address need, sanction informality or do both. The choice indicates the priority given to redistributive outcomes, administrative procedures, or both. The results reveal similar responses to those implications relating to the labour market, but slightly different approaches to the implications in the social domain. Policy responses to labour market implications have predominantly focused on sanctioning informality. Swedish and Austrian policy responses in the social domain have focused on addressing need. Dutch policy responses to social issues instead focused on sanctioning informality, prioritizing procedure. The results indicate that local and national policy responses to implications of informal intra-EU migration may be fruitfully understood through the prism of welfare regimes and related approaches to need and informality.     

How do low-income older women experience living in congregate housing? A qualitative study of housing welfare intervention for older adults living alone in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to refine the understanding of the experiences of low-income older women living in congregate housing. Congregate housing refers to small-scale communal living arrangements for low-income older adults intended to reduce their social isolation and financial burden. Interviews with 12 older women and field notes were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: (1) these older women chose congregate housing because they had no better option; (2) they gradually grew accustomed to communal living by being alert, mindful, and considerate; (3) their range of activities and interactions with the outside decreased as they aged; and (4) they came to require further care as senility progressed. Based on these findings, the meaning of housing welfare for older adults and the importance of providing additional supportive services are discussed. It is also asserted that housing welfare intervention should include protection of older adults’ housing rights.     

Social work,poverty, and child welfare interventions

The relationship between children's material circumstances and child abuse and neglect raises a series of questions for policy, practice, and practitioners. Children and families in poverty are significantly more likely to be the subject of state intervention. This article, based on a unique mixed‐methods study of social work interventions and the influence of poverty, highlights a narrative from practitioners that argues that, as many poor families do not harm their children, it is stigmatizing to discuss a link between poverty and child abuse and neglect. The data reveal that poverty has become invisible in practice, in part justified by avoiding stigma but also because of a lack of up‐to‐date research knowledge and investment by some social workers in an “underclass” discourse. We argue, in light of the evidence that poverty is a contributory factor in the risk of harm, that it is vital that social work engages with the evidence and in critical reflection about intervening in the context of poverty. We identify the need for fresh approaches to the harms children and families face in order to support practices that engage confidently with the consequences of poverty and deprivation.