W(h)ither social work? Social work,social policy and law at an interface: Confronting the challenges and realising the potential in work with people needing care or services

Conclusion Social work asks of us all awkward questions, particularly since we are all members of the systems about which we are developing a critical knowledge base. This paper argues that social work, on the basis of a policy and political literacy, must engage in influencing higher levels of context. That is, it must engage with managers and policy makers about the objectives of welfare policy and the means by which they are to be realised — about issues of relevance to service users and to practice. This paper also suggests that other professional groups face the same awkward questions and must similarly engage in debates about the meaning of welfare, justice and rights. If social work in particular, and professional groups with which it interacts, lose the ability or willingness to question, they risk losing the empathy, values and practice skills which seek to counter the inequalities, internalised oppressions, alienation, and exclusion characteristic of contemporary social life. They risk identifying with the aggressor rather than using their position to promote an empowering difference.     

Mental Health Problems among Prison Inmates: the Effect of Welfare Deficiencies,Drug Use and Self‐Efficacy

In this paper, we investigate the differential contribution of accumulated welfare deficiencies, drug use, and self‐efficacy on inmates' current symptoms of mental health problems. Few studies so far have investigated inmates' mental health based on empirical data covering both social and psychological predictors. Our analyses are aimed at the following research questions: (a) what is the relationship between welfare deficiencies, drug use, and symptom reporting among prison inmates? (b) is this relationship influenced by inmates' perceived self‐efficacy? and (c) how might this information be used to inform the discussion of challenges in prisoner re‐entry? Findings are based on a national survey among prison inmates in Norway, focusing on living conditions generally, as well as mental distress, drug use, and self‐efficacy. The findings indicate serious accumulation of disadvantage, and more welfare deficiencies among drug users and those suffering from mental distress. When it comes to prediction of mental distress, accumulation of welfare deficiencies and self‐efficacy both turned out as significant contributors. The findings are discussed both in terms of practical implications, and in terms of how they illustrate some of the shortcomings inherent in a traditional welfare research perspective.     

Predatory Innovation: A Step Beyond? (Understanding Competition in High-technology Markets)

The idea of a direct relationship between innovation and progress must be reconsidered. Innovation, in other periods of History merely pursued for the sake of Mankind, eventually turned into an grail for companies willing to see their sales increased. The last decades had witnessed another turn of the screw in that identification: innovation may be used as a weapon to destroy rivals and take over a market, regardless of any considerations of progress. Competition law is not foreign to these new circumstances. The inclusion of innovation as a variable in the context of an exclusionary strategy entails not only an important aggression to free competition, but to social welfare. Due to the novelty of these practices, competition law is still adapting itself to the new scenario. This paper explains the underlying complexity of the study of predatory innovation, establishing the foundations for its proper understanding and subsequent approach of the conclusions to market operators, legislators, judges and to society itself.     

社会福利保障的宪法路径选择

世界各国宪法保障社会福利有两种模式,一种是在宪法中列举各种社会权利的"社会权"保障模式,另一种是仅在宪法中明确建设社会国家的原则或者类似条款的"社会国"保障模式。从我国《宪法》的现有规定及其变迁、宪法的解释与学界的解读看,我国属于"社会权"模式。"社会权"保障模式的缺陷是随着民众追求平等意识的成长、市场机制的扩展和公民权利意识的增强,社会福利可能借助宪法无序、无限地扩张。通过淡化社会福利的权利性质、转变社会权的合宪性审查的方向、扩展反射利益推进社会福利以及贯彻宪法设立的可承受性、适度性原则,可以推进我国社会福利宪法保障模式由"社会权"模式向"社会国"模式转换。     

联合创新的经济分析及反垄断法规制

联合创新已经成为当今各国广泛运用的技术创新模式。在高科技领域,这种广泛联合的背后具有其经济合理性。联合创新可以提高研发投资的效率、产生较高的社会福利,尽管联合创新也会提高合同执行成本、监督成本并导致信息不对称。同时,从竞争法角度看,联合创新可能限制竞争,但它带来的经济利益可能超过限制竞争的影响。因此,许多国家和地区对联合创新采取宽容甚至激励的态度。我国的高科技企业规模偏小、技术创新能力偏弱,立法应当借鉴其他国家和地区的经验,对联合研发实行广泛的豁免,从而给联合创新提供一个宽松的法律环境。     

卡多佐的实用主义真理观——读《司法过程的性质》

对于卡多佐,学界基本上认同他是一个实用论者.但是,如果单从社会效用论的实用观出发,我们很难理解在卡多佐的司法观念中对法官精英化意识和遵循先例的强调,两者与社会效用至上的实用观存有一定的冲突.通过对《司法过程的性质》进行分析,并结合符合论和融贯论的基本理论,指出卡多佐的实用主义或实用论的真理观并非是绝对的社会效用至上理论,而是对符合论和融贯论之优点的综合借鉴,所以社会效用与法官精英化意识和遵循先例观念并存.     

社会福利事业的发展与我国和谐社会建设

随着国家经济、社会的发展,逐渐加大社会福利事业的总支出,逐渐提高国民收入分配中的再分配比率,是当今世界发展的普遍规律.中国建设和谐社会,既要重视在初次分配领域深化分配制度改革,规范分配秩序和在再分配领域健全社会保障体系,又要充分发展社会福利事业."十一五"期间中国社会福利事业应当有一个"中等水平"的发展,增加社会福利的项目,增加财政资金的投入.     

Power rather than path dependency? The dynamics of institutional change under health care federalism

Proposals for government decentralization rank high on the political reform agenda of health systems worldwide. Their impact on welfare state performance and change, however, is still under theoretical scrutiny. This article examines the impact of devolution on the construction of the Spanish National Health Service (NHS) in an attempt to shed some light on this debate. Against widespread claims of path dependency, we argue that the specific nature of the devolution model developed in Spain, given the more egalitarian sociopolitical structure that resulted from democratization, fostered policy innovation and institutional change. Consolidation of an NHS system was compatible with some regional diversity and apparently prevented the rise of significant territorial inequalities. The Spanish case also suggests that policy change depends more on the distribution of social power than on institutions. It underlines the key role of financial and knowledge transfers vis-à-vis institutional reforms in effecting social change as well as the potential for state intervention in supporting the development of collective action resources by social groups.     

New families,new governance and old habits

In December 2011, the UK Government formally launched its ‘troubled families’ initiative. This is a focused programme of interventions, coordinated at local level and paid for by results. It has been described by the Prime Minister as a part of the ‘social recovery’ that has to be set alongside the economic recovery that is his government's priority. It is illustrative of a decisive shift in the nature of the welfare state as it reflects the neo-liberal political project. It also reflects a purposed shift in social attitudes towards troubled and troublesome families, driven to a considerable degree by a vicious popular press. It is indicative of a marked shift in the pendulum from ‘rehabilitation’ to ‘rescue’ as the focus of welfare practice with children and families. Recent developments in the promotion of adoption of children in the UK should be viewed in this light. This paper considers how those families with tense or divergent relationships with the state are to be governed in the context of a state and a set of social attitudes that represents a decisive break with the post-war welfare consensus.     

公共利益与社会治理

本文提出落实科学的发展观,建设小康社会,实现社会和谐,需要对公共利益进行深入的研究,认为公共利益由公共财富和公共福利两个部分构成;公共利益和个人利益之间应该建立良性互动关系;社会治理要格外重视处理公共利益中的社会公共福利与个人福利的关系;实现公共利益和个人利益共同发展,需要加强社会建设和管理,推进社会管理体制的创新。     

生态公益林效益补偿法律制度与政策机制的建构创新——结合广东省相关实践考量

森林生态效益补偿制度是实现森林生态价值、发挥森林作为生态环境建设主体作用的基本保障。我国生态公益林补偿历经由政策个别调整到立法普遍调整的渐进过程，且部分地方（如广东省）立法及政策试点实践已获得某些示范性经验。然而，相关政策法律机制还存在亟待解决的矛盾问题，特别是生态公益林补偿的投入与利益保障机制需要合理构建，这是全面推进生态公益林建设的关键。分析生态公益林补偿政策与立法现状，结合广东省等相关实践考量，重在探索我国生态公益林补偿制度规范及实施机制的创新思路。     

Social stratification: Individual importance and social welfare

A method to estimate a household's social status in a stratified society is described. We do not leave it up to the respondents what is to be understood by status, as most methods do, but define it as the weight of the household with respect to social welfare. In order to operationalize this individual relative importance concept we measure and utilize the individual welfare evaluations. Our empirical results for a data set collected in the Boston area in 1983 show the dependency of social status and social stratification on individual characteristics. A comparison made with some other methods shows the feasibility of our approach.     

Support seeking,system avoidance,and citizenship: Social safety net usage after incarceration

Scholars have long described the American penal state and welfare state as joined by a common logic of social marginalization. But researchers have only recently begun to explore how the individuals who pass through the carceral system also interact with welfare state programs. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, in this article, I explore how formerly incarcerated individuals make claims on the welfare state and how participation varies across social programs and states, as well as by race, drawing on theories of social welfare rights-claiming and system avoidance. In so doing, I provide the first nationwide estimates of the extent to which previously incarcerated adults use social safety net resources. I find that participation in welfare programs varies with incarceration history, program structure, and race. Rather than finding patterns consistent with system avoidance, I find that previously incarcerated White Americans seem to engage in active rights claiming, participating in public assistance programs more than similarly eligible never-incarcerated counterparts. All formerly incarcerated individuals, however, have limited access to more generous social insurance programs, and the shift to an increasingly employment-based social safety net seems likely to further limit access to the welfare state for the growing population of Americans leaving prison.     

Unravelling the Embedded Liberal Bargain: Labour and Social Welfare Law in the Context of EU Market Integration

European economic integration with a minimalist social policy at EU level was in part made possible by strong domestic labour market and social welfare institutions. The main contention of this paper is that EU market liberalisation was embedded within institutions of social citizenship at domestic level, which served to counter the liberalisation of the internal market. But this settlement has been put under strain. In addition to the challenges posed to the sustainability of European welfare states by the global economic crisis, the internal market jurisprudence of the Court of Justice casts doubt on the sustainability of the ‘embedded liberal bargain’. This paper focuses on the role of the Court, in particular in its jurisprudence on the interaction between (EU) market freedoms and (national) labour law, which undermines the ability of states to retain their regulatory autonomy over labour or social welfare law and, arguably, speeds up the unravelling of the ‘embedded liberal bargain’.     

Players’ rights to game mods: Towards a more balanced copyright regime

In the context of video game, there is a notable convergence between the users and producers of content. There is also a tension between control over created content and innovative uses of that content, which arises from the gap existed between copyright law and the emerging practices of online communities. This paper examines a distinct form of player-contributed content, namely game Mods, through the perspective of social welfare rather than that of content creators. It argues that law is not the only factor affecting copyright owners’ decision-making behavior; social and economic factors also play an essential role. These factors explain why game developers may tolerate or even encourage minor alterations to their works but prohibit total conversion of the Mods. Given that the existing law and terms of service cannot serve as “effective cure” for regulating game Mods, this paper explores the social and economic factors that impact how game corporations address modding, framing these factors in a four-quadrant model according to the relative benefits and harm of Mods to game developers and users/modders. The inconsistency between the letter of the law and its practical application in the modding context suggests a need for law reform. Based on the findings of the above examinations, this paper proposes a two-pronged solution to the modding problem. The first prong concerns the social benefit of game Mods, aiming at changing the copyright regime from being exclusive to non-exclusive, which confers on gamers the legal right to modify video games without permission but obliges them to remunerate the original developers for commercial use of those Mods. The second prong concerns the potential social harm of game Mods and proposes a community-based approach, under which game operators are imposed a common law duty to monitor infringement and to ensure the fair implementation of game developers’ terms of service.     

论西方福利法治国的成因

福利法治国在西方的产生与发展,既有深刻的历史根源、社会背景和经济动因,又是各种社会思潮、政治经济学说的兴起与争鸣所致;既有战争及偶然性因素的推动,又是市场经济发展到一定阶段的必然结果;既受国际关系和世界格局变化的影响,又经各国具体情况、文化传统等个性因素的塑造。其中,不容忽视的是,市场失灵是福利国产生的社会背景,建构论理性主义是福利国产生的知识困境,而民主的悖论则是其发生的制度原因。上述综合因素长期发酵、整合的结果导致了现代福利国家如牛负重、危机四伏。     

论司法鉴定机构的公益性建设

从属性上分析。司法鉴定应当是政府着力提供的一种公共服务,具有公益属性,作为司法鉴定依托的司法鉴定机构应该以公益性建设为主导的价值方向。为侦查服务的侦查机关内设鉴定机构具有天然的公益性,但实践中出现的一系列问题也使其公益性出现偏位．从而引起人们对其公益性的质疑。在全国人大常委会《关于司法鉴定管理问题的决定》指引下的司法鉴定机构建设过程中,应该避免社会司法鉴定机构走向市场化的竞争域,从而保障鉴定意见这一法定证据的公正性、客观性和中立性。从现行鉴定体制出发,以建设国立司法鉴定机构为向导,使司法鉴定机构走向公益性的良性发展道路．是所要探讨的一个核心问题。国家级司法鉴定机构的公布,标志着我国司法鉴定机构公益性建设的开端．以此为契机,应认真思考公益性建设的进路。     

社会管理创新背景下涉检信访工作的应然期待与实然过程

深入推进"社会管理创新"是当前检察机关三项重点工作之一。涉检信访工作在法律至上、权力制衡、以人为本等价值理念上与社会管理创新的契合,使其成为检察机关推进社会管理创新的集中体现和重要载体。在此背景下,只有努力实现涉检信访工作法治化才能回应社会管理创新的期待;只有提升涉检信访的工作理念、健全涉检信访风险评估预警机制、完善涉检信访工作协商机制、强化涉检信访工作的监督制约职能才能真正落实法治化的要求,提高法治化的水平。     

Social web knowledge sharing and innovation performance in knowledge-intensive manufacturing SMEs

This paper develops an integrative research model to assess the effect of different factors on social web knowledge sharing and its effect on innovation performance in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, this study analyzes whether social web knowledge sharing may be a mediator in the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and innovation performance. The proposed research model and its associated hypotheses were tested by using partial least squares structural equation modeling on a dataset of manufacturing SMEs. This study contributes to research seeking to understand the factors affecting social web knowledge sharing by demonstrating that technological and organizational factors have greater impact than environmental factors on social web knowledge sharing. It also contributes to research by exploring the indirect effects of the social influence of HR practices on organizational innovation performance by offering evidence on the mediating effect of social web knowledge sharing in the relationship between HR practices and organizational innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs.