Responsibilisation,social work and inclusive social security in Finland

ABSTRACT

In this article responsibilisation in social work is studied by analysing two Finnish state-level policy documents (called final report and research report) which concern a current activation initiative called inclusive social security (ISS). It is asked how social workers and clients are constructed as responsible subjects in these documents. Responsibilisation refers to the advanced liberal mode of governmentality, which aims to strengthen citizens’ abilities to self-governance through various techniques that include the intertwined elements of surveillance and empowerment. It is demonstrated that the policy documents construct the social workers’ and the clients’ responsibilities partly in different ways. The final report leads activation to be based on shared responsibility and social work to be more community-based, whereas the research report strengthens more individual-based responsibility of clients and social workers. For the clients, the interpretation of ISS based on shared responsibility would probably be less stigmatising and paternalistic than the one based on individual responsibilities, i.e. approaching long-term unemployed citizens as being personally ‘at risk’ and thus a justified target group of individualised techniques for activation. For social workers and clients, future activation appears to be a wide mix of different techniques, moral expectations and possible ways of being a responsible subject.     

Does a universal non-contributory social pension make sense for rural China?

China’s pension reform during the past three decades has allowed a majority of China’s population to be covered by a pension scheme. Of particular note has been the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS), a voluntary programme introduced starting in 2009. One goal of our analysis is to assess that pension scheme, using a variety of sources of information including data drawn from recent (2013 and 2015) nationwide China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Surveys (CHARLS). Our analysis involves an exploration of differences between the generosity and structure of the NRPS and other pension schemes currently in place. We also explore the feasibility of reforming the current “quasi-social pension” component of the NRPS by substituting a universal non-contributory social pension pillar. In connection with our assessment of the NRPS, we note the unusually low benefit levels for rural China.     

Who Should Pay for Interdependent Risk? Policy Implications for Security Interdependence Among Airports

We study interdependent risks in security, and shed light on the economic and policy implications of increasing security interdependence in presence of reactive attackers. We investigate the impact of potential public policy arrangements on the security of a group of interdependent organizations, namely, airports. Focusing on security expenditures and costs to society, as assessed by a social planner, to individual airports and to attackers, we first develop a game-theoretic framework, and derive explicit Nash equilibrium and socially optimal solutions in the airports network. We then conduct numerical experiments mirroring real-world cyber scenarios, to assess how a change in interdependence impact the airports' security expenditures, the overall expected costs to society, and the fairness of security financing. Our study provides insights on the economic and policy implications for the United States, Europe, and Asia.     

Security Investment in Contagious Networks

Security of the systems is normally interdependent in such a way that security risks of one part affect other parts and threats spread through the vulnerable links in the network. So, the risks of the systems can be mitigated through investments in the security of interconnecting links. This article takes an innovative look at the problem of security investment of nodes on their vulnerable links in a given contagious network as a game‐theoretic model that can be applied to a variety of applications including information systems. In the proposed game model, each node computes its corresponding risk based on the value of its assets, vulnerabilities, and threats to determine the optimum level of security investments on its external links respecting its limited budget. Furthermore, direct and indirect nonlinear influences of a node's security investment on the risks of other nodes are considered. The existence and uniqueness of the game's Nash equilibrium in the proposed game are also proved. Further analysis of the model in a practical case revealed that taking advantage of the investment effects of other players, perfectly rational players (i.e., those who use the utility function of the proposed game model) make more cost‐effective decisions than selfish nonrational or semirational players.     

Urban cultivation in Accra: an examination of the nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications

The literature on urban farming in Sub-Saharan African cities reveals that most studies have been conducted in Eastern, Southern and Central African cities. A few have focused on West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Cameroon. In Ghana there is a paucity of information on urban farming. The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of urban cultivation in Accra, Ghana's capital, reviewing existing research, and to present new empirical findings on urban cultivation emphasizing on its history, nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications.     

新疆与中亚跨国民族问题对我国安全的影响

近年来,随着中亚国家的独立,以及由此而引发的各民族政治、经济生活地位的起伏和民族关系的变化,使新疆与中亚跨国民族问题表现得异常突出,其表现形式主要有三:一是民族意识增长;二是以哈萨克族为主的跨国民族向境外移民问题;三是民族分立主义倾向.它对我国的军事安全、政治安全和文化安全构成了程度不同的威胁.     

西部大开发新观念初探

要使西部大开发卓有成效 ,观念的转变是基本前提。当前需要树立的新观念是 :区域经济新观念、经济发展新观念、政策措施新观念 ,要根据新形势下出现的新问题 ,善于从多角度去研究和探讨解决问题的新方法     

试析中东国家的非传统安全挑战

目前，非传统安全问题越来越成为国际政治研究的热点问题之一。对中东地区来说，由于宗教、历史、民族等方面的原因，中东国家的内外矛盾和冲突一直十分复杂，面对的非传统安全挑战也就显得越发突出和激烈。21世纪，中东国家的安全战略必须兼顾传统和非传统两类安全挑战，特别应从战略高度增加投入，积极应对迅速增大的非传统安全挑战。     

以人为本的科技管理模式与构建

运用人本管理理论,在分析目前高校科技管理存在问题基础上,探析了知识经济时代以人为本的科技管理的内容与模式,包括中心型、激励型、机制型、多赢型的人本管理模式,并据此提出了一系列构建措施。     

市场经济条件下环境保护的措施

环境保护是我国的基本国策。国家对环境保护越来越重视。而要做好环境保护的具体工作,就必须遵循市场经济的运行规律。那就是要充分利用价值规律,要发挥竞争规律的作用,要支持资源的优化配置。