Minimum Income Schemes in Europe


Book Description

This book investigates the paradox of rich countries of Western Europe, who have high levels of poverty whilst proclaiming its eradication as one of the primary social and economic goals. It looks at how policies often do not achieve their goals, why countries need mechanisms to reduce wage inequality and why they choose to provide universal benefits instead of systems of selective benefits targeted at the poor. Along with cross-countries comparisons, the volume also presents analysis of the minimum income in France, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Ireland, Belgium, and Greece.




Social Assistance Dynamics in Europe


Book Description

Describing social assistance 'careers' in different national and urban contexts, this innovative book documents the strong interplay between personal biographies and policy patterns - a particularly useful perspective which complements the more structural, top-down approach of much international work in social policy.




The Future of European Welfare


Book Description

European welfare states are currently under stress and the 'social contracts' that underpin them are being challenged. First, welfare spending has arguably 'grown to limits' in a number of countries while expanding everywhere in the 1990s in line with higher unemployment. Second, demographic change and the emergence of new patterns of family and working life are transforming the nature of 'needs'. Third, the economic context and the policy autonomy of nation states has been transformed by 'globalization'. This book considers the implications of these challenges for European welfare states at the end of the twentieth century with interdisciplinary contributions from first-rate political scientists, economists and sociologists including Paul Ormerod.




Concepts and Strategies for Combating Social Exclusion


Book Description

Millions of human beings the world over survive in conditions of poverty and social exclusion, and this is unlikely to change in the years to come. This grave situation affects the whole of humanity, which cannot and must not shut its eyes to it. Social exclusion is spreading so much that it is becoming one of the keys to understanding the economic and social situation of the world today. This book attempts to deciper the concept of social exclusion. It aims to identify, analyse and measure exclusion and make it more visible. It also aims to provide a detailed overview of those involved and their initiatives.





Book Description




Welfare Regimes and the Experience of Unemployment in Europe


Book Description

The book is the first major study to examine the implications of differences in welfare regimes for the experience of unemployment in Europe. It is concerned with three central questions about the way such regimes affect the experience of unemployment. The first is how far they protect the quality of life of unemployed people with respect to living standards and the experience of financial hardship. The second is their role in mediating the impact of unemployment on the individual's longer-term position in the labour market, addressing the issue of how far they help to prevent progressive marginalization from the employment structure as a result of motivational change, skill loss or the growth of discriminatory barriers. The third is how far such regimes mediate the impact of unemployment on social integration in the community, for instance with respect to the maintenance (or rupture) of social networks and the degree of psychological distress experienced by the unemployed. The book is the product of a major cross-cultural research programme, funded by the European Union (TSER), bringing together teams from eight countries. The emphasis has been on rigorous comparison rather than the all-too-frequent separate country analyses, which usually provide data which differs in format from one country to another. In addition to a systematic comparison of national data sources, it has been able to make use of a new important data source (the European Community Household Panel) produced by Eurostat which provides directly comparable information for all EU countries. The study shows that institutional and cultural differences have vital implications for the experience of unemployment. While welfare policies affect in an important way the pervasiveness of poverty, it is above all the patterns of family structure and the culture of sociability in a society that affect vulnerability to social isolation. The book concludes by developing a new perspective for understanding the risk of social exclusion.




Droits des Personnes Agées et Droits des Personnes Handicapées


Book Description

Cette publication est certainement la toute premiere grande syntese tematique et critique sur la condition des personnes socialement vulnérables (PSV) en Afrique. Une excellente brochette de 40 experts et Institutions de differents oavs du continent t deploie un effort d'intelligibilite de ce phenomene devenu oreoccuoant. a travers un Inventaire analvtique complexe. retrospectt. Tactuel. actuel, chittre. ponctuel prospectif et relativement exnaustit. Les differentes contributions sont assorties des recommandations fortes qui interpellent, pour leur application les détenteurs d'enjeu dans une démarche de co-construction pour une citovennete de transtormation active C'est un document de plaidoyer/réquisitoire et de lobbying en faveur de l'aménagement, de la protection et de l'amélioration des conditions sociales des personnes âgées et des personnes handicapées en Afrique autant en matière de santé, d'alimentation, de logement. denvironnement, de protection sociale. que de maintien de revenu. d emplo et denseignement. eu egard a raugmentation croissante de leurs effectts en valeu relative et absolue. a question des personnes socialement vulnerables est ainsi mist en avant-garde des préoccunations politico-sociales et scientifiques importantes voir permanentes. tlle tait robiet d'investigations et de réflexions récurrentes au sein d mecanisme soecia de Union Africaine au est le groupe de raval sur les personnes agee! et les personnes handicapées de la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples. L'assignation matinale et originaire étant de construire des véhicules juridiques psychologiques, socio-antropologiques et portiques afin a amorcer un changement positit et une protection durable des oS. ainsi que des protocoles coutumiers pour leu valorisation dans les cultures et traditions atricaines This publication is certainly the first major thematic and critical synthesis on the condition of socially vulnerable persons (PSV) in Africa. An excellent line-up of 40 experts and institutions from different countries of the continent is making an effort to understand this phenomenon, which has become worrying, through a complex, retrospective, factual, current, quantified, punctual, prospective and relatively exhaustive analytical inventory. The various contributions are accompanied by strong recommendations that challenge the holders of issues for their application in a process of co-construction for an active citizenship of transformation. It is a document of advocacy/indictment and lobbying in favor of the development, protection and improvement of the social conditions of the elderly and persons with disabilities in Africa in terms of health, food, housing, environment, social protection, income maintenance, employment and education, given their increasing numbers in relative and absolute terms. The issue of socially vulnerable people is thus brought to the forefront of important, if not permanent, political-social and scientific concerns. It is the subject of recurrent investigations and reflections within the special mechanism of the African Union, the Working Group on Elderly Persons and Persons with Disabilities of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The initial assignment is to build legal, psychological, socio-anthropological and political vehicles in order to initiate positive change and sustainable protection of VHPs, as well as customary protocols for their valorization in African cultures and traditions.




New International Poverty Reduction Strategies


Book Description

Originally published in French and updated here for the first time in English, the book emphasises three main innovations brought about by the fight against poverty by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.




Approche de la Sécurité Par la Cohésion Sociale : Propositions Pour Une Nouvelle Gouvernance Socio-économique


Book Description

Dans la recherche de cohésion sociale, les auteurs préconisent l'action à long terme recherchant la synergie entre acteurs locaux, population et institutions afin d'encourager la responsabilité mutuelle et les valeurs de solidarité.




Texts Adopted


Book Description