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.     

2004年国际石油价格高涨解析

2004年以来,国际石油价格持续高涨,给世界经济增长带来了影响,也给中国的经济和社会发展带来了深远影响。本文以实证研究的方法,描述了国际石油价格高涨的过程,分析了国际石油价格高涨带来的影响,挖掘了国际石油价格高涨的根本原因。     

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。     

西方社会保障制度对我国的启示

西方国家社会保障制度建设和改革的实践,大体经历了四个阶段。从20世纪70年代开始至今进行了一系列的调整改革。我国社会保障制度建设和发展中仍存在一些问题,为完善我国社会保障制度,必须采取如下的措施:社会保障水平要与生产力发展水平相一致;开征社会保障税;加快社会保障法制建设;建立统一协调的社会化管理的社会保障管理体制;拓宽筹资渠道;建立多层次的社会保障体系;加强社会保障的监督工作。     

浅谈发展中国家的经济安全

对影响发展中国家经济安全的因素进行了系统地分析 ,认为 :发展中国家参与经济全球化的起始条件是决定其经济安全的内在因素 ;发达国家推行经济全球化的战略意图和政策举措是影响发展中国家经济安全的深层次因素 ;经济全球化是影响发展中国家经济安全的环境因素。文章在此基础上对发展中国家经济安全的内涵进行了较为深入地探讨