Emerald
ESCI-ISI SCOPUS (1981-2023)
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Cơ quản chủ quản: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
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During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic lockdowns, stay at home or work from home, many have argued that the westernised non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) do not provide remedial in low-income countries like Nigeria, where informal job seekers, street traders, informal labourers and artisans depend mainly on the informal economy. By applying social solidarity (SS) and community-based approach (CBA), the authors evaluate individual acts (trust, altruism and reciprocity) during the lockdown and how these practices evolve from individual approaches to collective actions.
This study reflects on pragmatism research paradigm that enables researchers to maintain both subjectivity in their reflections and objectivity in data collection and analysis. The authors adopt a qualitative method through purposeful and convenience sampling procedure. Data were analysed thematically to identify elements of SS, individual acts, collective or community actions and perceptions.
The findings reveal that COVID-19 had a disproportionate impact (lack of food and a fall in daily income) on workers, informal job seekers, informal businesses operators and the poor households. As such, the study developed a reflective model of solidarity exhibited by individual acts and collective acts (practices of resource pooling, information sharing, women empowerment, distribution of palliatives and donations) within trusted circles that helped people cope with the lockdown experiences.
Solidarity represents beliefs, practices of values and norms. The SS exhibited by people through NPI would have implications on planning and monitoring the effectiveness of public health programmes during a pandemic in the future.
The findings of citizens and community actions have implications related to the process of building communities – coming together – and solidarity that enhances social development with implications on community health policy agenda during disasters, emergencies and health pandemic.
This is one of the first studies to analyse the relationship between trust, altruism, reciprocity, SS and CBA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, it seems reasonable to clarify the concept of SS given the lack of clarity about the definitions from previous studies.
Despite the inclusion of financial literacy in retirement studies, there are limited studies that look into retirement concerns and how financial literacy plays a role in managing retirement concerns. Understanding retirement concerns prior to retirement is important given how it affects retirement satisfaction. Therefore, this paper aims at assessing the retirement concerns in Brunei and the role of financial literacy in managing those concerns.
700 government employees, divided into three groups, were interviewed: Defined Contribution Plan (DCP) employees retiring in the next 10–15 years, DCP employees retiring in 20–30 years' time and Defined Benefit Plan (DBP) employees retiring in the next 10 years. Pearson's chi-square tests and logistic regressions were used to ascertain significant relationships.
The results indicate the relatively younger DCP group is more likely to be financially literate compared to senior groups however, these respondents are more inclined to focus on private home ownership at this juncture. The findings also indicate the importance of knowing how much to save for retirement towards determining those with an additional retirement plan, and consequently reducing their retirement concerns. The value of financial advice is also significant in determining the amount to save for retirement and in possessing an additional retirement plan.
Results cannot be generalised to the population, as purposive sampling was utilised due to the absence of a population frame.
The implications of the paper may provide value to policymakers to consider approaches to enhance the quality of financial advice and provide sound knowledge in computing the amount needed for retirement. Understanding the role of financial literacy vis-à-vis retirement concerns may also be useful for neighbouring countries with similar socio-cultural aspects such as Malaysia.
Given the limited research on retirement concerns and financial literacy, this paper is one of the few to emphasise on the importance of knowing how much is needed to save for retirement, in relation to retirement concerns. This may also be useful in other countries/communities with similar retirement context such as those with relatively low retirement planning or with similar retirement schemes. Further, with the 1993 pension reform, there is no known publication on retirement concerns and expectations in Brunei. Left unchecked, it may lead to poverty in old age and/or dependency on welfare institutions and family support.
Considers the consequences of population growth in relation to space, resources and conflict. Covers environmental issues such as water and pollution. Uses India in the year 2000 as a case study, looking at areas such as housing, agriculture, transport, water, food and environment. Discusses the plans of the country and concludes that an integrated plan for population with development is needed to optimize the use of natural resources. Cites four phases of human development: primitive, active, uncontrolled and aware.
Most contemporary British social policies have developed within an institutional and intellectual framework which is commonly referred to as the welfare state, and which first became firmly established in Britain after the second world war at the beginning of a period of historically high rates of economic growth. The embodiment of social policies within a particular set of public institutions required, and received, an increasing flow of resources to pursue the objectives set for them. For more than a quarter‐century economic prosperity underwrote the expansion and consolidation of the modern welfare state. But since the mid‐1970s the deteriorating fiscal environment has affected nearly all public programmes and the welfare state has not escaped its share of the cuts. As a result there has been a growing feeling that a ‘crisis of the welfare state’ is emerging.
The economic reforms which turned the centrally planned economy to a market economy have profoundly changed the tripartite relationship between the state, work unit, and citizen in urban China and brought significant changes to the institutional care provision for young children. The aim of this paper is to investigate the changes to the institutional care since 1980, with particular emphasis on the most recent years from mid‐1990s, and explore how the institutional care has changed over the recent decades without a clear institutional basis.
The analysis draws on second‐hand materials from published literature, a range of longitudinal national and local statistics and policy documents, and also on first‐hand information which was collected in Beijing from in‐depth interviews with key informants and case studies of different kinds of kindergartens.
The paper finds that the previous work‐unit based public care system has changed to a much more complicated care mix in which the roles of the state, employer, community, market and the informal sector of the family in terms of provision and funding have all changed significantly.
The findings of this paper may help to inform appropriate policy responses in Chinese child care provision. The study suggests that formal care provision should be expanded towards universal access regardless of people's income and employment status in China.
The paper questions and complicates the “state withdrawal” representation of social welfare change and argues that it is not “the state” but “the work unit and community organization” retreat from public care provision. It also argues that the change in the role of the state has been multifaceted, and not a simple one‐directional movement of marketization in which the state retreated from welfare provision in entirety.
Spotlights India and that by 2045 it may become a more populous country than China. Deplores the lack of social and economic development in India and looks at the reasons for these. Tries to explain why the population has shot up from 1971 and two‐thirds of the growth in India has taken place since then. Uses tables to aid in explanation of birth rates, literacy and literacy among females particularly. Concludes that the economic development and urbanization is to be commended but not the only key factor regarding fertility rates of single states.
This paper describes the problems and difficulties encountered in a current research project which is attempting to engage practitioners in the collection of data using standardized outcome measures. The aim of the research is to meet the demand for greater clarity about the services and, particularly, the therapeutic interventions delivered by family support practitioners, whilst maintaining a sensitivity to the family support services’ client group. The client group consists of children in need and vulnerable families who might often be described as “in crisis”. The paper explains the family support context and refers to the difficulties encountered by other researchers in this field. The methods and process of engaging practitioners in this research have not been widely used and are, perhaps without precedent. They are described in detail, as are both the reported and perceived problems which have become a research finding in their own right.
The purpose of this article is to examine the governance of activation in relation to the decentralization and centralization of activation for social assistance recipients in Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK.
This paper outlines broad trends in the governance of activation policies in Europe, focusing on processes of decentralization and centralization in Sweden (characterized by a context of shifting national and local level governance of policies, cultivated within a strong tradition of active labour market policies); The Netherlands (where there has been a deliberate shift in governance towards the local level); and the UK (typified by highly centralized decision making in policy design but local variation in delivery).
The comparison identified different paths of decentralization and examines how these processes interact and overlap with modes of centralization/coordination of policies. Finally, the paper demonstrates the interface between the modes of decentralization and centralization.
The investigation of vertical changes in the governance of activation in three country case studies provides an original in‐depth analysis of types and paths of decentralization and centralization.