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The COVID-19 outbreak highlighted how exposure to vulnerabilities are often systemically reinforced by inequities in policies that fails to accommodate those already at the margins of multiple disadvantages and unjust differences in distribution of and access to resources. In context of India, the existence of caste as a form of systemic structural inequality has aggravated historic inequities among disadvantaged groups in access to basic services such as healthcare or education, equitable opportunity, and even human dignity. Moreover, the failure to recognise underlying operative dimensions of social marginality as a result of India’s social structure renders multiple governance deficiencies. It is here that the idea of social protection becomes a relevant commitment for a responsive state apparatus. The present work explores the relevance of Intergenerational Equity in context of social protection architecture in India and how the ideology of caste poses a challenge in this effort. It is premised on the moral conviction that if an intergenerationality perspective of caste is ignored in social policy, the next generation will continue to inherit the invisible costs and burdens of an archaic social order.
This contribution seeks to develop East Asian social policy analysis in a critical direction by showing the continued importance of welfare policies in reproducing hierarchies and oppression. Utilising a cultural political economy approach, the chapter examines the regulation of inequitable economic practices through Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF). CPF is a core cultural vehicle of state hegemony, through which the semiosis of ‘anti-welfarism’ is mediated, naturalised and embedded into everyday Singaporean life. CPF depoliticises what are in reality hierarchical social forms to realise and reproduce particular dominant subjectivities in the governance of economic life. We seek to map the welfare imaginary through two construals: economic self-reliance and family values to critique the assertions of eligibilities and exclusions of social policy.
We argue that these construals highlight the way class inequality is organised and legitimised, where inequality perpetuated by welfare comes to be seen as natural. As such, we position CPF as a highly political and moral social policy project to organise social relations in ways which legitimates forms of domination and inequality.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated contexts of uncertainty and offered fresh opportunity to explore the potential for the contributions of Faith Based Organisations (FBOs). This paper argues that FBOs should be redefined in terms fit for interdisciplinary contexts of uncertainty, which enable mapping of social and material nuances of spaces of uncertainty and coproduction of responses to uncertainties in social policy and practice. Through this paper, the Curating Spaces of Hope paradigm and consultative methodology of FBOs are introduced and their potential for mapping and responding to uncertainties is explored. Through social movement and networking, hopeful expressions of community action, and pedagogical innovation, I show how Curating Spaces of Hope overcomes the definitional issues within the FBO literatures and offers different and creative potential for responding to uncertainties. Some of this potential is briefly introduced through pilot data from UK contexts. The paper concludes with opportunities to open up the different and creative potential on offer further both in UK and international contexts. These opportunities include: continued interdisciplinary engagement by FBOs in social policy; the exploration of capital theory through the lens of Curating Spaces of Hope; recognition and exploration of new policy agendas catalysed by global causes of uncertainty after COVID-19 for example, climate change; and tackling the perennial question of whether FBOs are an asset to be harnessed or a problem to be solved in social policy and practice.
Experts review the leading social policy scholarship from the past year in this comprehensive volume.
Published in collaboration with the Social Policy Association, the latest volume in this long-running series addresses current social issues and critical debates throughout the international social policy field, with a particular focus on intergenerational solidarity. Contributors also explore key social policy and research developments, including the impact of COVID-19 on elderly care, local social services in Italy; third sector-government partnership; homelessness in the US; social protection in Singapore; social policies for Autistic adults in England and Wales – and much more.
This annual review is an essential reading for students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.
The US and parts of Europe introduced special policies to prevent COVID-19 infections among people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. Congregate shelters were closed or de-densified, residents were relocated to hotels and other individualised housing units, and eviction moratoria and emergency rental assistance were instituted. There were mixed approaches to encampments, with some conducting outreach or shelter in place policies, while other places pursued policies of sweeps and criminalisation. While the crisis enabled progressive reforms to break through the path-dependent status quo, the enduring legacy of the pandemic on Housing First, eviction prevention, rental subsidies and other emergency policies remains an open question.
Residential care for the elderly has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Several studies have highlighted the higher incidence of infections and mortality occurred among elderly people living in residential care facilities. The same critical conditions have affected care workers employed in this sector. However, important variations across countries have also emerged.
Against this background, this chapter investigates the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the residential care sector during the first wave of the pandemic in seven European countries, in the light of pre-existing structural (that is main characteristics of employment in the residential care sector) and institutional conditions (that is embeddedness of the residential sector within the general structure of care regimes) predominant in each country.
Research results show how the intersection between the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the two analytical dimensions considered are complex and make difficult to identify a unique configuration of factors linking in a common manner the variations of the pandemic impact in the residential care sector with differentiated pre-existing structural and institutional conditions consolidated in each national context.
Glasgow historically has a problem with alcohol and drug use, this causes disproportionate health impacts on those from more deprived areas. Recently, drug use and the subsequent mortality trends from this have worsened. According to Scotland’s most recent report from the National Record of Scotland, Scotland has the highest drug related deaths recorded in Europe. Those whose parents who undertake substance use, are more likely to have experienced chaotic or traumatic lifestyles and are more likely to contribute to the figures on problematic substance use themselves. Further exploration of which circumstances and factors were different between ‘adult children of alcoholics’ or ‘adult children of problem drinkers’ in Glasgow it is necessary to understand how childhood experiences impact adult behaviour, outcomes and health inequalities, in particular substance misuse. This chapter will include information on the current circumstances surrounding problem substance use in Glasgow, how the theory of locus of control might be used to better understand the intergenerational transmission of substance use and relevant quotations from narrative interviews to highlight this transmission.
This study applies a feminist institutionalist lens to explore the impact on equalities groups of a statutory sub-state third sector-government partnership. The analytical framework synthesises equalities theories of intersectionality and hierarchy of (in)equalities with voluntary sector studies understandings of interorganisational relations in governance settings.
This research used semi-structured, elite interviews with a purposive sample of 41 policy actors from Welsh Government and third sector organisations and the data were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis.
<PI>The analysis reveals different notions of competition coexisting and influencing interorganisational relations. It shows that ‘race’ equality organisations face structural disadvantage both in informal institutional discourses and through the informal institutional policy-influencing norms, exposing a form of political intersectionality hitherto neglected by intersectionality scholars.
This chapter analyses, from the perspective of social innovation, the Agenzia per il Lavoro Innovativo (ALI – ‘Agency for Innovative Work’) project, an experimental social policy project implemented in Pisa (Italy). The project, which lasted from October 2020 to June 2022, allowed participants (207 in all) to access a series of personalised services aimed at social inclusion and job placement. ALI presents two aspects of social innovation. The first relates to its audience: following the recent literature on the new social risks, ALI tackles the various aspects that determine social vulnerability and offers a series of services to empower the participants. The second relates to its governance: ALI represents an attempt by the public social service to renew its working methods and offer cutting-edge services through the involvement of the third sector organisations present in the territory. The chapter is based on two focus groups and eight interviews involving 22 people involved in the implementation of ALI.
This chapter discusses intergenerational relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic which impacted older and younger people differently. It draws on empirical research carried out in July 2020, which explored older and younger people’s perspectives on generational differences generated by the pandemic and the policy responses to it. The potential conflict between protecting older people, deemed more at risk of the virus, or ensuring an economic future for younger people, deemed more at risk from the economic impacts of lockdowns, contributes to existing discourses of generational grievance and inequity. The study findings suggest cross-generational understandings of the social, economic and political issues that face all generations. The findings are discussed in relation to the ‘generational wars’ discourses and the implications of ‘age ideology’ to define social, economic and political issues which may inform policymaking in the post-pandemic recovery.
