It Takes a Village: Using a Community-Defined Practice Approach to Develop a Tribal In-Home Services Model for Alaska Native Families

The current evidence base for in-home services in child welfare is limited, with insufficient research on the use of in-home services among ethnically diverse populations. This article describes a case study examining the use of a community-defined practice and evidence approach to develop tribally based in-home service models with Alaska Native communities. The models were co-created by tribal elders, community members, and service providers, with technical assistance provided by the Western and Pacific Child Welfare Implementation Center (WPIC). Research findings suggest that this is an effective approach to developing culturally appropriate child welfare practices while also building local support and ownership.     

Large‐scale solidarity? Effects of welfare state institutions on the admission of forced migrants

The variation among countries when it comes to the admittance of forced migrants – refugees and asylum seekers – is substantial. This article explains part of this variation by developing and testing an institutional explanation to the admission of forced migrants; more precisely, it investigates the impact of domestic welfare state institutions on admission. Building on comparative welfare state research, it is hypothesised that comprehensive welfare state institutions will have a positive effect on the admission of forced migrants to a country. There are three features of comprehensive welfare state institutions that could steer policies towards forced migrants in a more open direction. First, these institutions have been shown to impact on the boundaries of social solidarity. Second, they enhance generalised trust. And third, they can impact on the citizens’ view of what the state should and can do in terms of protecting individuals. The argument is tested using a broad comparative dataset of patterns of forced migration, covering 17 OECD countries between 1980 and 2003. This analysis shows that comprehensive welfare state institutions have a significant positive effect on the admission of forced migrants, under control for a number of factors often highlighted in migration research.     

What a girl's gotta do: the labor of the biopolitical celebrity in austerity Britain

This article debunks the widespread view that young female celebrities, especially those who rise to fame through reality shows and other forms of media-orchestrated self-exposure, dodge “real” work out of laziness, fatalism, and a misguided sense of entitlement. Instead, the authors argue that becoming a celebrity in a neoliberal economy such as that of the United Kingdom, where austerity measures disproportionately disadvantage the young, women, and the poor, is not as irregular or exceptional a choice as previously thought, especially since the precariousness of celebrity earning power adheres to the current demands of the neoliberal economy on its workforce. What is more, becoming a celebrity involves different forms of labor that are best described as biopolitical, since such labor fully involves and consumes the human body and its capacities as a living organism. Weight gain and weight loss, pregnancy, physical transformation through plastic surgery, physical symptoms of emotional distress, and even illness and death are all photographically documented and supplemented by extended textual commentary, usually with direct input from the celebrity, reinforcing and expanding on the visual content. As well as casting celebrity work as labor, the authors also maintain that the workings of celebrity should always be examined in the context of wider cultural, social and real economies.     

中国儿童社会福利需求探析

从某种意义上讲,我国目前儿童福利在政策、机制、社会意识等方面的需求已经超过了单纯物质上的需要,成为制约儿童福利发展的重要因素.构建现代中国儿童社会福利整体框架要从有中国特色的儿童福利理论建设、政策法规制定、专业队伍训练、发展社会性服务团体等多方面着手,将儿童社会福利纳入社会发展建设的总体布局中.     

Is there a Common Path that could have Conditioned the Degree of Welfare State Development in Latin America and the Caribbean?

The purpose of this paper is to re‐examine from a multidimensional perspective the possible existence of a single path that could have conditioned the degree of welfare state development (WSD) in Latin America. Economic/industrial development, trade‐openness, democracy and the strength of leftist parties‐labour movement are used as explanatory variables in the qualitative comparative analysis. In contrast to previous findings, this paper shows that there is no evidence of a common path followed by countries with a relatively high/medium WSD. Nevertheless, countries that experienced a low economic/industrial development combined with a low democratic experience were conditioned to have low WSD.     

法治思维下的福利与反腐

随着中央反腐力度不断加大,逢节送礼的不正之风受到极大遏制。与此同时,一些传统的职工节日福利也被取消,这引发了广泛的争议:有人认为不该借反腐之名拿掉职工福利,也有人认为"反腐不反职工福利"是特权思想在作怪,是打着民意的旗号为腐败行为辩护。应当确立福利的合理范畴,区分福利腐败与正常福利的界限,使薪酬和福利设计摆脱暧昧、灰色的性质,改变福利随意发放和定位不清的现状。福利腐败的治理必须运用法治思维依法进行,必须坚持公开、公平、公正原则,必须注意区别对象、合情合理。通过具体的规章制度管理好福利,是治标;最终实现福利的法治化、正规化、制度化,则是治本。     

Recalibrating social protection: Electoral competition and the new partisan politics of the welfare state

This article investigates the new party politics of welfare states with a particular focus on electoral competition. The argument is that welfare state politics are no longer just about more or less, but involve trade-offs among ‘new’ versus ‘old’ social rights, and hence social investment versus social consumption. However, party priorities on these issues are highly dependent upon their electoral situation. As electoral competition becomes more intense, parties focus more on vote maximisation than on their traditional policy goals. For left parties, this means focusing more on social investment, which appeals to their growing constituency of progressive sociocultural professionals, and less on defending the traditional income maintenance programmes favoured by their core blue-collar voters. Centre-right parties, on the other hand, should hesitate to retrench old social rights when electoral competition intensifies because they need to prioritise their appeal to culturally conservative working-class voters over their traditional fiscally conservative policy profiles. Using a new dataset and a recently published measure of electoral competitiveness, the article shows that as electoral competition intensifies, left governments are willing to prioritise social investment by reducing pension rights generosity in order to expand programmes for new social risks, while centre-right governments by contrast avoid retrenchment of pension rights and pension expenditures. The findings demonstrate that this relationship is moderated by the presence of a credible radical right challenger, which increases the electoral risk of welfare state recalibration.     

“Those Are Our People and That's Our Family”: Wabanaki Perspectives on Child Welfare Practice in Their Communities

In collaboration with the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission Convening Group, this study explored perspectives of Wabanaki community members and tribal child welfare staff on state child welfare involvement in Wabanaki communities. Qualitative analysis of three focus groups found that participants perceived fundamental differences between what guides the work of tribal child welfare staff and state child welfare staff, as well as differences in understanding the profound impact of removing a child from the community. These findings are suggested to be elements of a Wabanaki counter-narrative that contrasts with the historical dominant narrative about Native families and children.     

福利的本质与公共福利的多元循义供给——兼论需求溢出理论的福利观及永续福利国家

在世界范围内,福利及社会福利的概念都存在多重内涵。需求溢出理论认为,作为不同福利概念内涵的最大公约数,福利的本质即需求保障;而属于公共事务范畴的公共福利的公共性则有实质公共性和形式公共性之分;公共福利的供给主体包括作为元主体的个人和作为衍生主体的四类广义社会组织,公共福利的供给呈现出多元路径或多元机制的嵌入式混合并用。需求溢出理论的福利观主张,我国应建立多元循义供给的永续福利国家,通过公共福利定向供给的退出机制使有劳者的福利总水平(私人福利+公共福利)始终高于不劳者的福利总水平,从而在为民众提供高品质的公共福利的同时,避免落入西方传统福利国家的养懒人陷阱。     

论中国传统孝文化的合理内核及其在农村养老中的价值

孝文化是中国传统文化的基础和核心,在我国传统家庭养老中发挥了十分重要的作用,较好地解决了中国历史上养老难题。但是,在当前农村养老中我国传统孝文化的积极作用正在逐渐地被弱化。要解决中国农村养老问题,传统孝文化仍具有强大的生命力。