A Global Political Economy of Care

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Yeates

Care is an important analytical concept in social policy because of what its social organisation reveals about social formations and the nature of welfare states. To date, social policy analyses of care have focused on the social (re)organisation of care within nation states, which are largely treated as ‘sealed’ entities. Consequently these analyses neglect to examine the impact of transnational processes on the socio-organisational shifts observed. This article outlines the contours of a global political economy (GPE) of care with a view to elucidating the transnational dimensions to care restructuring. It focuses in particular on domestic care labour because of the extensive internationalisation of domestic services and its significance for the social relations of production and the division of labour. The discussion reflects on analytical issues for the academic study of social policy and care raised by a GPE approach.

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-352
Author(s):  
David Garland

This article argues that to explain American penal exceptionalism, we have to consider America’s exceptional levels of punishment together with America’s exceptional levels of violence and disorder, while understanding both of these as outcomes of America’s distinctive political economy. After specifying the multiple respects in which American penality is a comparative outlier, the article develops a new theorization of modes of penal action that reveals the extent to which the US has come to rely on penal controls rather than other kinds of punishment. This over-reliance on penal controls is viewed as an adaptation to the weakness of non-penal social controls in American communities. These social control deficits are, in turn, attributed to America’s ultra-liberal political economy, which is seen as having detrimental effects for the functioning of families and communities, tending to reduce the effectiveness of informal social controls and to generate high levels of neighborhood disorganization and violence. The same political economy limits the capacity of government to respond to these structurally generated problems using the social policy interventions characteristic of more fully developed welfare states. The result is a marked bias toward the use of penal controls.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-272
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Preslava Dimitrova

The social policy of a country is a set of specific activities aimed at regulating the social relations between different in their social status subjects. This approach to clarifying social policy is also called functional and essentially addresses social policy as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality in society. It provides an opportunity to look for inequalities in the economic positions of individuals in relation to ownership, labor and working conditions, distribution of income and consumption, social security and health, to look for the sources of these inequalities and their social justification or undue application.The modern state takes on social functions that seek to regulate imbalances, to protect weak social positions and prevent the disintegration of the social system. It regulates the processes in society by harmonizing interests and opposing marginalization. Every modern country develops social activities that reflect the specifics of a particular society, correspond to its economic, political and cultural status. They are the result of political decisions aimed at directing and regulating the process of adaptation of the national society to the transformations of the market environment. Social policy is at the heart of the development and governance of each country. Despite the fact that too many factors and problems affect it, it largely determines the physical and mental state of the population as well as the relationships and interrelationships between people. On the other hand, social policy allows for a more global study and solving of vital social problems of civil society. On the basis of the programs and actions of political parties and state bodies, the guidelines for the development of society are outlined. Social policy should be seen as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality between different individuals and social groups in society. Its importance is determined by the possibility of establishing on the basis of the complex approach: the economic positions of the different social groups and individuals, by determining the differences between them in terms of income, consumption, working conditions, health, etc .; to explain the causes of inequality; to look for concrete and specific measures to overcome the emerging social disparities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
Józef Młyński

In an ageing society, over-60s’ problems take an important place in the social policy. The State should be prepared for various implications, both positive and negative, of the ageing of the population, and should treat the potential problems of citizens as a challenge and an opportunity for the development of social policy, and within its framework, the policy aimed at the senior citizens. The senior citizens, by all means, constitute an important age group. This type of policy should be focused on both early and late old age people, addressing their different needs and expectations. This article attempts to show the challenges and the role of social policy addressed to the seniors, both at the early and late old age, especially at the local community level. The impact of the article is analysed in the three dimensions described, i.e. a brief outline of the ageing of the population from a demographic perspective, social policy towards seniors at the early and late old age, the challenge the 60 and over pose to the local policy versus their resources.


Author(s):  
Huck-ju Kwon

One of the biggest challenges for developing a new more productivist social policy approach has been the apparent absence of a new, post-neoliberal, economic model even after the global financial crisis. This chapter explores the social policy implications of the official ‘pragmatism’ of the new economic model with its ‘institutionalist’ emphases on nation states finding what works best in their own contexts rather than looking to the one size fits all approach of recent decades.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 2145-2155
Author(s):  
Endin Mujahidin ◽  
Bahagia Bahagia ◽  
Fachruddin Majeri Mangunjaya ◽  
Rimun Wibowo

This study aims to find the social impact, morals, and strategies for dealing with COVID-19 among students. Another goal is to find out the social, religious and psychological impact of COVID-19 on students at Ibn Khaldun University, Bogor. The research method approach uses a descriptive qualitative approach. Data were collected by in-depth interviews with the head of the student class. The sample was selected through a purposive technique. The results were carefully examined through triangulation. The results showed that students could not establish social relations between students and did not participate in campus social organizations. Another finding, the Covid-19 outbreak has an impact on student morals because online meetings are more difficult to foster student morals because teachers do not meet students. In addition, students experience various stresses due to piling tasks and online learning does not face various obstacles such as difficulty communicating with lecturers and not understanding the material. Students take various ways to overcome stress such as listening to favourite music, watching YouTube, playing games, getting enough rest, eating favourite foods such as eating meatballs, straightening intentions, and also strengthening worship and getting closer to God.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Bayu Kharisma

One of the most issues debated in the social capital literature is the unconditional cash transfer effect on social capital, especially regarding the potential of unmeasured targeted mechanisms at the community level about social relations. This article aims to identify the determinant of social capital in the form of household participation in social activities and the impact of unconditional cash transfers (BLT) on participation in social activities in Indonesia by using differences-differences approach (DID). The results showed that the most influential factor on household participation in social activities is the education level of the head of the household and the members of the productive age group. Meanwhile, unconditional cash transfers policy has a positive effect on the rotating saving and credit association. Thus, participation in social activities undertaken by the community undoubtedly has an important element in the success of government programs.DOI: 10.15408/sjie.v7i2.7365


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-207
Author(s):  
Roukanas Spyros

Abstract The aim of this article is to measure economic development and the impact of economic globalisation under the prism of global political economy. Global political economy is a field of study that has its roots in international relations. The growth of world economic transactions after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s created the need for a new field of study, in order to explain the interdependence between politics and economics on the international level. Global political economy is the field of study that also examines the implications of economic globalisation for national economies and for the global economy. The concept of economic development is broader than economic growth, which is related to GDP growth. The concept of economic globalisation has changed the prospects of economic development for certain developed and developing economies. The main changes of economic globalisation are closely related to the following aspects of national economies: trade, finance, and production. The analysis of this article will reveal the effects of economic globalisation on different aspects of economic development. These aspects are studied under the prism of indexes such as Financial Development Index, openness to trade, Human Development Index, the GINI Index and other inequality indexes. The aftermath of the global economic crisis of 2007-2008 placed at the epicentre the interdependence of national economies and the issue of economic inequalities. The study of the aforementioned indexes will highlight the alterations that have occurred from the manifestation of the global economic crisis until today. The article is focusing on the following countries: China, Germany, Greece, and the United States for the last decade (2009-2019), on the basis of the available data.


Author(s):  
Aishik Saha

In this paper, I shall attempt to respond to the charge that the digital labour theory, as developed by Christian Fuchs, doesn’t faithfully stick to the Marxist schema of the Labour Theory of Value by arguing that Marx’s critique of capitalism was based on the social and material cost of exploitation and the impact of capitalist exploitation of the working class. Engels’s analysis of The Condition of The Working Class in England links the various forms of violence faced by the working class to the bourgeois rule that props their exploitation. I shall argue, within the framework of Critical Social Media Studies, that the rapid advance of fascist and authoritarian regimes represents a similar development of violence and dispossession, with digital capitalism being a major factor catalysing the rifts within societies. It shall be further argued that much like the exploitative nature of labour degrades social linkages and creates conditions of that exaggerates social contradictions, the “labour” performed by social media users degenerates social relations and promotes a hyper-violent spectacle that aids and abets fascist and authoritarian regimes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHERINE E. SMITH ◽  
ELLEN STEWART

AbstractOf all the social sciences, social policy is one of the most obviously policy-orientated. One might, therefore, expect a research and funding agenda which prioritises and rewards policy relevance to garner an enthusiastic response among social policy scholars. Yet, the social policy response to the way in which major funders and the Research Excellence Framework (REF) are now prioritising ‘impact’ has been remarkably muted. Elsewhere in the social sciences, ‘research impact’ is being widely debated and a wealth of concerns about the way in which this agenda is being pursued are being articulated. Here, we argue there is an urgent need for social policy academics to join this debate. First, we employ interviews with academics involved in health inequalities research, undertaken between 2004 and 2015, to explore perceptions, and experiences, of the ‘impact agenda’ (an analysis which is informed by a review of guidelines for assessing ‘impact’ and relevant academic literature). Next, we analyse high- and low-scoring REF2014 impact case studies to assess whether these concerns appear justified. We conclude by outlining how social policy expertise might usefully contribute to efforts to encourage, measure and reward research ‘impact’.


2021 ◽  
pp. 900-920
Author(s):  
Ian Gough

This final chapter concentrates on global environmental challenges to rich-country welfare states: climate breakdown and associated ecological disasters. These common threats add two new raison d’êtres for welfare states: first, that the security and equity they seek should be sustainable through time; second, that their scope is broadened to take account of global equity and well-being. With a few notable exceptions, these fundamental questions have been ignored in the social policy community. I argue here that we need to transform our understanding of social policy in four ways, each more difficult than the previous one. First, we need to develop novel eco-social programmes to tap synergies between well-being and sustainability via transformative investment programmes such as a Green New Deal. Second, we need to recompose consumption in rich countries in two ways: to realize the best principles of the welfare state by extending the range of universal basic services and to work towards a private ‘consumption corridor’ to end waste, meet basic needs, and reduce inequality. Third, we must develop strategies of ‘reduce and redistribute’ to adapt welfare systems for a future of slower, if not negative, economic growth. And finally, we need to develop a global equity framework to meet climatic and ecological threats in a globally just way that recognizes current international inequalities.


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