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The Welfare State and the Democratic Citizen: How Social Policies Shape Political Equality (Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology)
by Jennifer ShoreThis book examines the ways in which the welfare state impacts levels and distributions of political participation and democratic support in Western democracies. Going beyond the traditional contextual accounts of political behaviour, which primarily focus on political institutions or the socio-economic climate, this book looks specifically at the impact of public policy on a variety of political behaviours and attitudes. Drawing on the theoretical insights from the policy feedback approach, the author argues and empirically demonstrates that generous social policy offerings can not only foster democratic citizenship by promoting a more inclusive political culture, but are most beneficial to citizens who are otherwise excluded from political life in many other societies. This book will appeal most to scholars in the fields of political science and sociology who are especially interested in the welfare state, public policy, political sociology, and inequality.
Welfare State and Welfare Society: Illusion and Reality (Routledge Library Editions: Welfare and the State #17)
by William Alexander RobsonOriginally published in 1976, Welfare State and Welfare Society breaks away from the prevailing notion that the welfare state is mainly concerned with the well-being of the entire nation. The book distinguishes the welfare state from the welfare society, and shows that there is often a yawning gulf between public policy and how people feel, think and behave. The book examines critically, the policies which have been adopted or advocated as relevant to a welfare state, and inquires how far the hopes and expectations centred on it have been realised.
Welfare State at Risk
by Dieter Eißel Ewa Rokicka Jeremy LeamanThis book investigates the causes of inequalities that have developed in the European Union, analyzes their social and economic consequences, and assesses the political measures taken to address these issues - also on the basis of public survey results. The detailed analyses presented focus on structures of inequality to be found in the areas education, culture, labor market, Internet access, families and children, gender, and the regions of the EU. The book also critically examines both the legal framework conditions and financial / taxation policy as instruments that can be used to either produce or combat inequality.
Welfare State Capitalst Society
by Ramesh MishraFirst published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society
by Jon Hendricks Jason L. PowellIn recent years, major social forces such as: ageing populations, social trends, migration patterns, and the globalization of economies, have reshaped social welfare policies and practices across the globe. Multinational corporations, NGOs, and other international organizations have begun to influence social policy at a national and local level. Among the many ramifications of these changes is that globalizing influences may hinder the ability of individual nation-states to effect policies that are beneficial to them on a local level. With contributions from thirteen countries worldwide, this collected work represents the first major comparative analysis on the effect of globalization on the international welfare state. The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society is divided into two major sections: the first draws from a number of leading social welfare researchers from diverse countries who point to the nation-state as case studies; highlighting how it goes about establishing and revising social welfare provisions. The second portion of the volume then moves to a more global perspective in its analysis and questioning of the impact of globalization on citizenship, ageing and marketization. The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society seeks to encourage debate about the implications of the most pressing social welfare issues in nation-states, and integrate analyses of policy and practice in particular countries struggling to provide social welfare support for their needy populations.
The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy
by Christopher HowardThe Welfare State Nobody Knows challenges a number of myths and half-truths about U.S. social policy. The American welfare state is supposed to be a pale imitation of "true" welfare states in Europe and Canada. Christopher Howard argues that the American welfare state is in fact larger, more popular, and more dynamic than commonly believed. Nevertheless, poverty and inequality remain high, and this book helps explain why so much effort accomplishes so little. One important reason is that the United States is adept at creating social programs that benefit the middle and upper-middle classes, but less successful in creating programs for those who need the most help. This book is unusually broad in scope, analyzing the politics of social programs that are well known (such as Social Security and welfare) and less well known but still important (such as workers' compensation, home mortgage interest deduction, and the Americans with Disabilities Act). Although it emphasizes developments in recent decades, the book ranges across the entire twentieth century to identify patterns of policymaking. Methodologically, it weaves together quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to answer fundamental questions about the politics of U.S. social policy. Ambitious and timely, The Welfare State Nobody Knows asks us to rethink the influence of political parties, interest groups, public opinion, federalism, policy design, and race on the American welfare state.
The Welfare State Revisited (Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia: Challenges in Development and Globalization)
by Joseph E. Stiglitz José Antonio OcampoThe welfare state has been under attack for decades, but now more than ever there is a need for strong social protection systems—the best tools we have to combat inequality, support social justice, and even improve economic performance. In this book, José Antonio Ocampo and Joseph E. Stiglitz bring together distinguished contributors to examine the global variations of social programs and make the case for a redesigned twenty-first-century welfare state.The Welfare State Revisited takes on major debates about social well-being, considering the merits of universal versus targeted policies; responses to market failures; integrating welfare and economic development; and how welfare states around the world have changed since the neoliberal turn. Contributors offer prescriptions for how to respond to the demands generated by demographic changes, the changing role of the family, new features of labor markets, the challenges of aging societies, and technological change. They consider how strengthening or weakening social protection programs affects inequality, suggesting ways to facilitate the spread of effective welfare states throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Presenting new insights into the functions the welfare state can fulfill and how to design a more efficient and more equitable system, The Welfare State Revisited is essential reading on the most discussed issues in social welfare today.
Welfare State Transformation in the Yugoslav Successor States: From Social to Unequal (Social Welfare Around the World)
by Marija StambolievaWelfare states are the product of economic, political and social interactions, and undergo changes as these interactions transform. Existing welfare state theories mainly tend to explain the emergence and development of the welfare state in the western, industrialized and capitalist world. While the states of Central and Eastern Europe have recently been integrated in the academic discourse, the countries of the former Yugoslavia have been predominantly excluded from comparative analysis. Issues of nationalism and ethnic polarization have been prevalent there while socio-economic issues have been put on the back burner. This book explores what happened to the strong social states and relatively equal societies which existed in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia, and looks into what accounts for these diverse outcomes. By investigating the applicability of the theories on welfare state development and typologization, it fills in the gap in the welfare state literature. It offers an original typology of social citizenship that takes into account the diversity of welfare policy formations across the region. The aim of this typology is not to compete with existing ones, but rather to offer a framework for better understanding of states that do not necessarily fit into known explanatory categories. In a global context of changing economic circumstances and contending political responses, macroeconomic policy and welfare state reform become order of the day. By featuring the ways that states adjust to new pressures, this book’s arguments may come in handy to those trying to make sense of the crisis and the powers that drive the policy solutions.
Welfare State Transformations and Inequality in OECD Countries (Transformations of the State)
by Melike Wulfgramm, Tonia Bieber and Stephan LeibfriedThis book analyzes how recent welfare state transformations across advanced democracies have shaped social and economic disparities. The authors observe a trend from a compensatory paradigm towards supply oriented social policy, and investigate how this phenomenon is linked to distributional outcomes. How – and how much – have changes in core social policy fields alleviated or strengthened different dimensions of inequality? The authors argue that while the market has been the major cause of increasing net inequalities, the trend towards supply orientation in most social policy fields has further contributed to social inequality. The authors work from sociological and political science perspectives, examining all of the main branches of the welfare state, from health, education and tax policy, to labour market, pension and migration policy.
Welfare State Transformations and Inequality in OECD Countries
by Melike Wulfgramm Tonia Bieber Stephan LeibfriedThis book analyzes how recent welfare state transformations across advanced democracies have shaped social and economic disparities. The authors observe a trend from a compensatory paradigm towards supply oriented social policy, and investigate how this phenomenon is linked to distributional outcomes. How - and how much - have changes in core social policy fields alleviated or strengthened different dimensions of inequality? The authors argue that while the market has been the major cause of increasing net inequalities, the trend towards supply orientation in most social policy fields has further contributed to social inequality. The authors work from sociological and political science perspectives, examining all of the main branches of the welfare state, from health, education and tax policy, to labour market, pension and migration policy.
Welfare That Works for Women?: Mothers’ Experiences of the Conditionality within Universal Credit
by Kate AndersenFor generations, women have experienced disadvantage in the social security system. This book analyses fresh empirical evidence which demonstrates the gendered impacts of the new conditionality regime within Universal Credit. It shows how the regime affects women's unpaid caring roles, their position in the paid labour market and their agency regarding engagement in unpaid care and paid work. Ultimately, it highlights the impacts on the position of low-income women in the UK’s social security system and society. Drawing on in-depth interviews with mothers, this book offers a compelling narrative and crucial policy recommendations to improve the gendered impact of Universal Credit and make the social citizenship framework in the UK more inclusive of women.
Welfare through Work: Conservative Ideas, Partisan Dynamics, and Social Protection in Japan
by Mari MiuraHigh economic growth and relatively equitable distribution were among the most conspicuous characteristics of the postwar Japanese political economy. The lure of the Japanese model, however, has faded since the 1990s. Growth is in short supply and equality a thing of the past. In Welfare through Work, Mari Miura looks in depth at Japan's social protection system as a factor in the contemporary malaise of the Japanese political economy.The Japanese social protection system should be understood as a system of "welfare through work," Miura suggests, because employment protection has functionally substituted for income maintenance. A gendered dual system in the labor market allowed a high degree of labor market flexibility, which enabled Japan to achieve high employment rates as well as strong legal protections for regular workers. In recent years, conservatives gradually replaced the productivism and cooperatism that had resulted from earlier party politics with neoliberalism, which, in turn, hampered the effectiveness of the welfare through work system.In Miura's view, the dynamics of partisan competition fostered ideational renewal, just as the political visions and ideologies of the governing party strongly affected the design of the social protection system. In the scenario Miura describes, the partisan dynamics since the 1990s resulted in the policy change that further undermined the social protection system, and the ensuing disruption has been felt throughout Japan.
Welfare to Work in Practice: Social Security and Participation in Economic and Social Life (International Studies on Social Security (FISS) #Vol. 10)
by Peter SaundersWelfare to Work in Practice brings together some of the leading international social security experts to discuss the rationale for welfare to work policies, their limitations and problems encountered in practice. Contributors include Jane Millar, Neil Gilbert, Martin Werding, Jonathan Bradshaw and Einar Overbye, who address topics ranging from the linkages between social security and the labour market to how the welfare to work agenda is responding to the needs of special groups such as lone parents, the long-term unemployed and those with a disability. The book puts the arguments and ideas that underlie the new welfare reform agenda under the microscope and explains how it is being implemented in an international context. Several new data sets are analyzed in a collection that covers developments in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Norway, the UK and the US, as well as several comparative studies. In doing so, this volume helps to bridge the gap between research and policy and demonstrates how policy can respond to the challenges it faces.
The Welfare Trait: How State Benefits Affect Personality
by Adam PerkinsThe welfare state has a problem: each generation living under its protection has lower work motivation than the previous one. In order to fix this problem we need to understand its causes, lest the welfare state ends up undermining its own economic and social foundations. In The Welfare Trait, award-winning personality researcher Dr Adam Perkins argues that welfare-induced personality mis-development is a significant part of the problem. In support of his theory, Dr Perkins presents data showing that the welfare state can boost the number of children born into disadvantaged households, and that childhood disadvantage promotes the development of an employment-resistant personality profile, characterised by aggressive, antisocial and rule-breaking tendencies. The book concludes by recommending that policy should be altered so that the welfare state no longer increases the number of children born into disadvantaged households. It suggests that, without this change, the welfare state will erode the nation's work ethic by increasing the proportion of individuals in the population who possess an employment-resistant personality profile, due to exposure to the environmental influence of disadvantage in childhood.
Welfare Work with Immigrants and Refugees in a Social Democratic Welfare State
by Trine ØlandWelfare Work with Immigrants and Refugees in a Social Democratic Welfare State provides an ambiguous yet disturbing portrait of the inner workings of the Danish welfare state and its implications in a context of globalisation and migration. Through a sociological interview-study with welfare workers, this book describes how processes of othering are undercurrents of welfare work. The processes construct immigrants and refugees as a kind of people who are not only culturally different but also behind, deficient and weak, and thus assigned the potential to benefit from welfare work. These processes are designated to advance a racial welfare dynamic of remedial circularity which keeps the immigrant and refugee on the threshold of modern living and democracy. It is thus depicted how welfare work is intertwined not with a biological framework but with a cultural framework naturalising and ontologising cultural differences. The book examines how welfare work tends to appreciate immigrants and refugees as dislocated people with a cultural lack and how it abides by the dictums of civilising expansions and humanitarian imperialism within the modern state. This book will be useful for every scholar who wants to reconsider and think differently about how the welfare state is going to proceed in a global society.
Well-Being: Foundations of Hedonic Psychology
by Daniel Kahneman Edward Diener Norbert SchwarzThe nature of well-being is one of the most enduring and elusive subjects of human inquiry. Well-Being draws upon the latest scientific research to transform our understanding of this ancient question. With contributions from leading authorities in psychology, social psychology, and neuroscience, this volume presents the definitive account of current scientific efforts to understand human pleasure and pain, contentment and despair. The distinguished contributors to this volume combine a rigorous analysis of human sensations, emotions, and moods with a broad assessment of the many factors, from heredity to nationality, that bear on our well-being. Using the tools of experimental science, the contributors confront the puzzles of human likes and dislikes. Why do we grow accustomed and desensitized to changes in our lives, both good and bad? Does our happiness reflect the circumstances of our lives or is it determined by our temperament and personality? Why do humans acquire tastes for sensations that are initially painful or unpleasant? By examining the roots of our everyday likes and dislikes, the book also sheds light on some of the more extreme examples of attraction and aversion, such as addiction and depression. Among its wide ranging inquiries, Well-Being examines systematic differences in moods and behaviors between genders, explaining why women suffer higher rates of depression and anxiety than men, but are also more inclined to express positive emotions. The book also makes international comparisons, finding that some countries' populations report higher levels of happiness than others. The contributors deploy an array of methods, from the surveys and questionnaires of social science to psychological and physiological experiments, to develop a comprehensive new approach to the study of well-being. They show how the sensory pleasures of the body can tells us something about the higher pleasures of the mind and even how the effectiveness of our immune system can depend upon the health of our social relationships.
Well-Being and Cultures
by Hans Henrik Knoop Antonella Delle FaveThis anthology focuses on empirical studies comparing cultures in relation to central positive psychological topics. The book starts out with an introductory chapter that brings together the main ideas and findings within an integrative perspective, based on a broad theoretical framework encompassing interdisciplinary and methodological issues. It gives special emphasis to some open issues in the theory and assessment of culture-related dimensions, and to the potential of positive psychology in addressing them. The introductory chapter is followed by two chapters that examine theoretical approaches and instruments developed to assess happiness and well-being across cultures. Following that examination, five chapters are devoted to the relationship between well-being, cultures and values. The second half of the book prominently investigates well-being across cultures in the light of socio-economic factors. This book shows that positive psychology, now officially well into its second decade, is providing still finer-grained perspectives on the diversity of cultures along with insights about our shared human nature, uniting us for better or worse.
Well-Being and Extended Working Life: A Gender Perspective (Gender and Well-Being)
by Tindara Addabbo Patricia Carney Áine Ní Léime Jeroen Spijker Siniša ZrinščakMost European countries have experienced labour market reforms at varying times leading to extended working life and a postponement of retirement age. This book provides a gender perspective on the impact of extended working life on the different dimensions of well-being, the factors which can limit extended working life, and the working conditions of older workers.Over the course of 11 chapters the book explores factors that can limit access to paid work or affect working conditions for older workers, including care for dependent individuals, negative stereotypes surrounding aged workers and poor health. It also investigates differences in working conditions for older workers by gender compared to other groups of workers and across European countries including case-studies from Austria, France, Spain, Poland, Croatia, Albania and Turkey. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social policy, sociology, gender studies and labour studies more broadly.
Well-being and Performance at Work: The role of context
by Marc Van Veldhoven Riccardo PecceiPsychology has been interested in the well-being and performance of people at work for over a century, but our knowledge about both issues, and how they relate to each other, is still evolving. This important new collection provides new understandings on what it means to work productively while also feeling happy, socially related and healthy. Including contributions from a range of international experts, the book begins with a conceptual framework for understanding both concepts, before showing how a variety of different contexts, both organizational and personal, impact upon well-being and performance. The book includes chapters on specific job roles, from creative work to service positions, as well as the importance of HR policies and how the individual worker can determine their own well-being and performance. Also featuring a chapter on researching this fascinating area, Well-being and Performance at Work will be essential reading for all students and researchers of organizational or occupational psychology, HRM and business and management. It is also hugely relevant for any professionals interested in the productivity and well-being of their organizations.
Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Schools
by Thomas FalkenbergBy its very nature, school education is concerned with student well-being. Written by Canadian education scholars from a Manitoba-based research group, Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Schools aims to develop the notion that what we wish for our children is their well-being and well-becoming as they live their lives. This collection brings education scholars together to focus on a timely topic that has been of rapidly increasing interest to the research and education communities: student well-being and flourishing schools. Contributors address a broad range of issues that arise from this position to create a rich and integrated understanding of the topic. Chapters focus on foundational issues, conceptual issues, socio-cultural and organizational issues, and pedagogical and curricular issues. Ultimately, Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Schools weaves together substantial ideas to create an integrative framework that will not only serve as a guide for further research, but also for school educational leaders and educators to implement the idea of making school education primarily about student well-being.
Well-being and Wellness: Psychosocial Risk Management
by Tony Boyle Fiona CharltonWell-being and Wellness: Psychosocial Risk Management is a companion to Health and Safety: Risk Management that describes the techniques and background knowledge for preventing injury and ill health in the workplace. The new book instead describes the techniques and background knowledge for preventing impairment of worker well-being and wellness.These techniques differ from those required for the prevention of injury and ill health because of the need to take into account individual differences in susceptibility to psychosocial risk sources, and the fact that psychosocial risk sources can provide opportunities as well as threats. The book is divided into two parts: Part I describes the required background knowledge, including the nature of psychosocial harms to individuals, what can trigger these harms, and what can be done to mitigate these harms, and also deals with the necessary psychological background and the role of individual differences in reactions to psychosocial risk sources. Part II describes an outline psychosocial management system based on the ISO 45001 specification and the guidance in ISO 45002 and ISO 45003. However, the nature of the psychosocial risk sources being dealt with means that the ISO 45001 requirements must be extended in a number of ways, for example, by having threat and opportunity assessment, rather than risk assessment.Written primarily for OH&S professionals who wish to extend the scope of their management system to include well-being and wellness issues, the book is also directly beneficial to human resources (HR) professionals who have the responsibility for managing psychosocial hazards such as bullying and harassment. Additionally, it can be understood and applied by managers in all sectors who want to improve the well-being and wellness of their team, and it will be a relevant reading for students on OH&S, HR, or management courses.
Well-being at School: A Social Problem (ISTE Consignment)
by Claude Martin Kevin DiterIn recent decades, children’s well-being, particularly at school, has become a major political and academic issue that has gained importance both in public policy and in the social sciences. Well-being at School uncovers and discusses the different ways in which school well-being has been defined and evaluated, by outlining the international and interdisciplinary state of the art. It presents recent and diversified empirical evidence in different European and non-European countries, which bring together perspectives that have often been arbitrarily and artificially opposed in the literature: objective well-being versus subjective well-being; adult-centered perspective versus child-centered perspective; and analysis of family determinants versus analysis of school determinants of child well-being. This book’s originality lies in simultaneously considering the multiple dimensions of children’s well-being at school and understanding how these different determinants interact and combine, depending on the (geographical, social and family) contexts in which the children live.
Well-being During the Pandemic: Comparative Perspectives from the Global North and South (Social Indicators Research Series #90)
by Christian Suter Jenny Chesters Sandra FachelliThis open access book focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on well-being, happiness and quality of life, taking into account the mediating effects of social inequalities. The volume brings together and into dialogue the different experiences and perspectives of countries and researchers from the Global North and South. Expert scholars from across the world have analyzed empirical data to reveal how the restrictions associated with the pandemic interrupted lives and livelihoods, and how different socio-economic groups and classes have been differently affected by the crisis. The chapters coalesce around four themes: the impact of COVID-19 on subjective well-being, life satisfaction and happiness in a comparative and longitudinal perspective; the impact of COVID-19 on employment and workers’ well-being; sociability, civic participation and solidarity during COVID-19; and the impact of COVID-19 on children’s and youths’ well-being. Engaging with contemporary theoretical debates on well-being, happiness and quality of life, this volume is of interest to scholars working on well-being, happiness and quality of life, global and cross-national studies, the social impact of COVID-19, and on social and economic change.
Well-Being: Insights from Practitioners, Researchers, and Innovators from Around the Globe (Culture of Health)
by Alonzo L. PloughThis book summarizes the experiences and insights of practitioners, researchers and innovators from around the world, gathered together by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore how a well-being approach might further spread in the United States. Centered in the commitment to balance economic growth―the traditional dashboard of progress―with well-being, this book is a combination of scientific papers, case studies from the field, and excerpts from a lively, multidisciplinary discussion which intentionally connects issues of measurement to the imperative for action. <p><p> Rich with insights on policy and practice, narratives and culture, equity and shifts in power, alignment with other movements, and cross-sector collaboration, it is intended to inspire governmental leaders, policymakers, economists, measurement scientists, reporters, and others who crave a more integrated and balanced pursuit of progress.
Well-being in Belgium: Beyond Happiness and Income (Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being)
by Bart Capéau Laurens Cherchye Koen Decancq André Decoster Bram De Rock François Maniquet Annemie Nys Guillaume Périlleux Eve Ramaekers Zoé Rongé Erik Schokkaert Frederic VermeulenWhat constitutes a good life? For most people, well-being involves more than a high income or material prosperity alone. Many non-material aspects, such as health, family life, living environment, job quality and the meaningful use of time are at least as important. Together, these factors also influence the degree to which people are satisfied with their lives, and help to determine how happy they feel. This book argues that happiness and life satisfaction do not form a good basis for measuring well-being, and proposes an alternative method that not only considers the various aspects of well-being, but also the fact that people have their own views on what is important in life. Not limited just to theory, the book also presents a large-scale, representative survey involving more than 3000 adults from over 2000 Belgian families, which charted the various aspects of the individual well-being of Belgians. Focusing on the unequal distribution of these various aspects of well-being within families, the survey showed that some Belgians are more likely to suffer from cumulative deprivation in multiple dimensions. Based on this innovative study, the book describes which people in society are worst off – and these are not necessarily only people on low incomes or those who feel unhappy – and proposes that policymakers prioritise these individuals.