Social Policy Landscape Research Articles

Adoption of nomadic childcare practices by urban Kazakh families: A sociological analysis

Relevance. Kazakhstan�s modern social policy landscape has created challenges for urban families in managing childcare and household duties. This study examines the revival of nomadic cultural practices, specifically the employment of �female assistants�, as a response to these challenges. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to investigate the experiences of urban Kazakh middle-class couples who adopt or revive the practice of employing �female assistants� for childcare and household management, exploring the underlying reasons for this trend. Methodology. The research utilizes data from 11 individual semi-structured interviews with female assistants, conducted between 2014 and 2017. A qualitative analysis approach was employed to examine the complexities of this social phenomenon. Results. The study reveals a complex interplay of familial obligations, gender roles, and economic necessities in the employment of �female assistants�. These arrangements often result in the exploitation of the assistants, who lose autonomy over their time and labour. The host families, while benefiting from the support, experience conflicting emotions about the fairness of the situation, often attempting to compensate through material means. Additionally, the study uncovers a significant invisibility of �female assistants� in symbolic representations and family hierarchies, contributing to the undervaluation of their work and social status. Conclusions. The research illuminates how urban Kazakh families navigate the challenges of contemporary social policies by reviving and adapting nomadic cultural practices. It underscores the complex power dynamics, emotional labour, and symbolic representations associated with the role of �female assistants� in modern Kazakh households, pointing to the need for further diversification of social policies regarding motherhood and childcare. Keywords: social policy; neo-traditionalism; Kazakh families; �female assistants�

Futureproofing Social Support Policies for Population Health.

Policy Points In America, wages appear to be growing relative to purchasing power over time. However, while the ability to purchase consumer goods has indeed improved, the cost of basic survival needs such as health care and education has increased faster than wages have grown. America's weakening social policy landscape has led to a massive socioeconomic rupture in which the middle class is disappearing, such that most Americans now cannot afford basic survival needs, such as education and health insurance. Social policies strive to rebalance societal resources from socioeconomically advantaged groups to those in need. Education and health insurance benefits have been experimentally proven to also improve health and longevity. The biological pathways through which they work are also understood.

The social sciences are increasingly ill-equipped to design system-level reforms.

Our social policy landscape is characterized by incrementalism, while public calls for more radical reform get louder. But the social sciences cannot be relied upon to generate a steady stream of radical, system-level policies. Long-standing trends in social science - in particular, increasing specialization, an increasing emphasis on causal inference, and the growing replication crisis - are barriers to system-level policy development.

Delineating non-consensual sexual image offending: Towards an empirical approach

The topic of non-consensual sexual images has become an increasingly important issue within the social policy landscape. Social and legal scholars have advocated for these behaviours to be designated sexual offences due to the mode of perpetration of these behaviours, but are explicit in their rejection of a sexual element being important in the motivations underpinning such behaviours. However, this rejection is inconsistent with the core theoretical models related to sexual offending. In this article, we outline some of the potential psychological concepts that may help us to understand how and why people engage in a range of non-consensual sexual image offences, such as revenge pornography, upskirting, deepfake media production, and cyber-flashing. In doing so, we aim to begin to bridge the gap between legal scholars and psychological scientists, and develop a more comprehensive and theoretically coherent approach to studying this important social topic.

The Contemporary U.S. Child Welfare System(s): Overview and Key Challenges

This volume of The ANNALS aims to increase awareness among scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners of the size, scope, and functions of child welfare services in the United States. We aim to promote a wider understanding of the broad impacts of child welfare policies and point to ways in which child welfare services can be better incorporated into cross-cutting social policy debates. The articles in this volume offer concrete recommendations for policies and practices that can reduce child maltreatment, and for systemic approaches—both within the purview of child welfare services and across the broader community and social policy landscape—that can better identify and respond to the needs of children and families in which maltreatment has already occurred or where there is a risk of abuse and neglect. This introduction sets a foundation for understanding the contents of the volume: we provide an overview of child welfare services in the United States and highlight current challenges that the U.S. child welfare systems face.

Teach first: what is it doing?

ABSTRACT Teach First is a fast-track route to teacher qualification in England and Wales. The initial aim of the programme was to place high-calibre graduates as classroom teachers in schools with challenging social intakes. The programme has grown incrementally since it began in 2002. In 2017, Teach First trained 5 per cent of the total number of postgraduate trainee teachers. Research into Teach First is a growing field but is generally focused on the impact of the programme or the identity of its participants. The aim of this think-piece is not to discuss, or indeed to challenge, the effectiveness of the Teach First programme. Drawing on the theoretical work of Michel Foucault, and in particular his thought on bio-politics, the aim of this article is to open up avenues for critical reflection on the possible effects of Teach First on the wider education and social policy landscape.

Governance and Social Protection: A Case of the Constitution Kenya 2010 as an Instrument for Social Protection

Governance and Social Protection: A Case of the Constitution Kenya 2010 as an Instrument for Social Protection Edward Ontita, PhD Abstract Has the Constitution of Kenya 2010 expanded opportunities for social protection in Kenya? This question hinges on the fact that struggles for a new constitution was vicious and protracted all in the name of the welfare of Kenyans. This paper examines the new constitutional structures by interrogating their significance for social protection. The new structures examined include the bill of rights, devolution, ombudsman and competitive party politics. The new structures deliver opportunities for delivering a variety of social protection schemes not possible in a different setting. Several social protection policies and programs have sprung from constitutional provisions and changed the social policy landscape in the country. It is concluded that the new constitution holds the best promise yet for Kenya?s governance transformation resulting in enhanced social protection and social justice. However, for this promise to be fully realized civil society and the citizenry should work harder to hold all government arms and levels to account for their respective roles in enhancing social service delivery to Kenyans. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ppar.v6n2a3

COLLABORATIVE POLICY-MAKING, LAW STUDENTS, AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE: THE REWARDS OF DESTABILIZING INSTITUTIONAL PATTERNS

Heightened concerns and dialogue about access to justice have infused the law school setting in Saskatchewan and, to varying degrees, across the country. If there ever were a time to approach social justice reform differently – to upset traditional parameters around decision making and step around older hierarchies for input and design – it would be now. This article describes the Dean’s Forum on Dispute Resolution and Access to Justice (colloquially known as the Dean’s Forum) as a platform for genuine student engagement in the development of public policy in this important area. We offer our combined reflections, gathered inside our “teaching team,” about the unique pedagogical features of our experiment and its challenges. As we continue to grow with the project, we offer this Saskatchewan story as one example of institutional collaboration in a quickly evolving educational and social policy landscape.

More Education, Better Jobs? A Critical Review of CCTs and Brazil's Bolsa Família Programme for Long-Term Poverty Reduction

Conditional cash transfers have come to play a prominent role in the social policy landscape in Latin America and especially in Brazil in recent years. Evaluations of their impacts, however, have focused on limited short-term outcomes, particularly consumption and school enrolment and attendance rates. Long-term outcomes have received comparatively little attention. This article reviews the existing evidence on the long-term impacts of CCTs, focusing on the underlying assumptions in the CCT model for intergenerational poverty reduction. In doing so, it questions the notion that CCTs can indeed interrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty through human capital investments that are thought to lead to expanded opportunities in the labour market. Moreover, it highlights the need for more research on the social processes that may influence young beneficiaries’ life trajectories and experiences in poverty.

Parenting Support in England: The Bedding Down of a New Policy

This article enquires into how parenting support, as concept, policy and provision, has penetrated the English social policy landscape, and critically considers why it has proved so popular with policy makers. It first outlines the existing policy configuration. The second section identifies some key factors precipitating the roll-out of parenting support and the third section takes an overview of the significance of the developments from a social and family policy perspective. The argument advanced is that the growth and expansion of parenting support is explained by a coming together of a set of political exigencies around ‘risk’ and the healthy child, and a set of policy ‘solutions’ which are seen to have high promise. In particular, parenting support has the advantage of being relatively easily generalisable (especially in the form of programmes) and aligns with several current developments of the welfare state, towards activation, provision of support through services and an interest in localism.

Social Policy in Canada – Looking Back, Looking Ahead

This paper discusses recent policy trends, the changing role of the various actors in the system, international comparisons and a range of other social policy topics. The immediate purpose of the paper is to examine the reasons why social policy analysts need to look into the future, and to explore ways of managing the inevitably large risks associated with such future-looking exercises. The underlying purpose, however, is simply to introduce a range of important Canadian social policy topic to students and others who are interested in social policy, but without much previous background in the area ii . The first part of the paper was taken directly from a 1994 presentation i that was intended to provide outside social policy experts (from Latin America in this case) with an overview of the Canadian social policy landscape, particularly of recent trends and possible future directions, mainly from a federal government perspective. At that time, major reform of social security policies was being discussed and I tried to give our visitors some flavour of the background to that reform, with particular emphasis on the

Serving the public or delivering public services? Religion and social welfare in the new British social policy landscape

Religion appears as a dormant actor in British social policy, yet since the early 1990s its role in public service provision has become more prominent. What can a religious perspective bring to our understanding of human wellbeing – especially as the idea of the Big Society opens up new normative landscapes? In response, this article outlines some policy and practice issues, namely that religious welfare provision: is key to a more historically accurate account of British social policy; challenges utilitarian notions of wellbeing; is a potentially good example of the Big Society; and is able to reconcile its secular public service provision role with its religious identity and mission to serve the public.

Review: Politics in North America

POLITICS IN NORTH AMERICA Redefining Continental Relations Edited by Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Radha Jhappan, and Francois Rocher Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2008. 502pp. $46.95 (ISBN 978-1-55111-642-6)The various authors of this volume of readings attempt to describe North American politics and economics within a regional focus. It is one of a number of recent efforts to fashion a new arena of study based on the member countries of the North American free trade agreement and it is clearly the best attempt to date. The readings provide an overview of many aspects of the three countries, including their historical origins, political cultures, their institutional similarities and differences, and their experience in a number of areas of social policy. The defining context is that of NAFTA and how it constrains and shapes the politics and economics of the three countries.In broad terms, the readings focus on five aspects of democratic experience. The first is the role of the state and how it has evolved in the three countries. Second is the impact of forces associated with globalization and their impact on the sovereignty of NAFTA countries, especially Mexico and Canada. Third, the authors discuss the state of democracy and the legitimacy of existing institutional structures in the member states. Fourth, the authors discuss recent developments in the emergence of a sense of community (or lack thereof) among the member states of NAFTA. Fifth, the readings focus on the evolving state of respect for human rights among the member countries. It is in this last area of analysis that this book makes its greatest contribution. In particular, the emphasis on the differing experiences of the indigenous peoples of the three countries without sacrificing attention to most of the usual areas of comparison is welcome.The contributions to this edited volume are generally of good quality, especially those in the first two parts. The overall view of NAFTA and its role in North American politics as presented by the various authors is largely negative. NAFTA is seen to be a force undermining national sovereignty, limiting the rights of minorities, and reinforcing the constraints imposed by neoliberal free market orthodoxy on the social policy landscape of all three countries. The greater emphasis on the consequences for minorities based on gender, colour, income, and sexual orientation, as well as for the indigenous peoples - all of whom are potential beneficiaries of an activist state leads to a political perspective on the NAFTA trade regime that is largely pessimistic. …

How do welfare states change? Institutions and their impact on the politics of welfare state reform in Western Europe

In the 1980s and 1990s West European welfare states were exposed to strong pressures to ‘renovate’, to retrench. However, the European social policy landscape today looks as varied as it did at any time during the 20th century. ‘New institutionalism’ seems particularly helpful to account for the divergent outcomes observed, and it explains the resistance of different structures to change through past commitments, the political weight of welfare constituencies and the inertia of institutional arrangements – in short, through ‘path dependency’. Welfare state institutions play a special role in framing the politics of social reform and can explain trajectories and forms of policy change. The institutional shape of the existing social policy landscape poses a significant constraint on the degree and the direction of change. This approach is applied to welfare state developments in the UK and France, comparing reforms of unemployment compensation, old-age pensions and health care. Both countries have developed welfare states, although with extremely different institutional features. Two institutional effects in particular emerge: schemes that mainly redistribute horizontally and protect the middle classes well are likely to be more resistant against cuts. Their support base is larger and more influential compared with schemes that are targeted on the poor or are so parsimonious as to be insignificant for most of the electorate. The contrast between the overall resistance of French social insurance against cuts and the withering away of its British counterpart is telling. In addition, the involvement of the social partners, and particularly of the labour movement in managing the schemes, seems to provide an obstacle for government sponsored retrenchment exercises.