US protests will see some police reform locally

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Federal Support ◽  
Policing Strategy

Significance The killing of African Americans by police is a major political issue; the death rate is three times higher for blacks than whites. Yet this masks huge geographic variation: killings are concentrated in Southern, Western and Midwestern states, and determined more by policing strategy and neighbourhood demographics than overall crime levels. Impacts Any police reforms made will vary across municipalities, cities and states. Police unions will push back against police reform attempts they consider unjustified or excessive. In some areas, money will be diverted from police funding to other priorities, such as social work and education. Other areas may decide to increase police funding to support law and order. Trump will offer further federal support to states seeing rioting, and money to support damaged businesses.

Financial capabilities development: essential discourse in social work

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (10) ◽  
pp. 1234-1246
Author(s):  
Lambert K. Engelbrecht ◽  
Abigail Ornellas
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Vulnerable Households ◽  
Definition Of

Purpose Within a neoliberal environment, financial vulnerability of households has become an increasing challenge and there is a requirement of financial literacy education, a necessary activity to facilitate sustainable development and well-being. However, this is seldom a mainstream discourse in social work deliberations. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach First, introducing the neoliberal impact on financial well-being and capability for vulnerable households, the authors’ postulation is substantiated on a seven-point argument. The contexts of financially vulnerable households are sketched. Second, a conceptualisation of financial literacy is offered, and third, perspectives on and approaches to financial literacy as a fundamental capability are presented. This is followed by a theoretical foundation of community education as a practice model in social work to develop financial capabilities. In the fifth place, prevailing practices of Financial Capabilities Development (FCD) programmes are offered. Subsequently, the implications of a neoliberal environment for social work practice are examined. Findings The revised global definition of social work encourages the profession to understand and address the structural causes of social problems through collective interventions. As a response, it is argued that community education towards FCD of vulnerable households within a neoliberal environment should be an essential discourse in social development. Originality/value The authors reflect on the significance of FCD, highlighting its contribution towards human security and sustainable development. Although this paper draws on Southern African contexts, the discourse finds resonance in other contexts across the world.

Gap between France’s Macron and Le Pen is narrowing

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
Fiscal Rules ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Investment Agreement ◽  
State Investment ◽  
The Eu

Significance Nevertheless, Le Pen remains the most serious threat to President Emmanuel Macron's hopes for re-election in 2022. She stands above him in some national polls, reflecting her success in broadening RN’s appeal, widespread anti-establishment sentiment and Macron’s unpopularity and mixed record on COVID-19. Impacts To revive the economy, Macron will likely campaign for reform of EU fiscal rules to enable greater levels of state investment. Further terrorist attacks or assaults on police would increase the salience of immigration and law and order ahead of the 2022 election. Ahead of the election, Macron will be reluctant to show public support for the EU-China investment agreement.

Tornadoes, poverty and race in the USA: A five-decade analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Russ D. Kashian ◽  
Tracy Buchman ◽  
Robert Drago
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Study Finding ◽  
Median Income ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Usa

PurposeThe study aims to analyze the roles of poverty and African American status in terms of vulnerability to tornado damages and barriers to recovery afterward.Design/methodology/approachUsing five decades of county-level data on tornadoes, the authors test whether economic damages from tornadoes are correlated with vulnerability (proxied by poverty and African American status) and wealth (proxied by median income and educational attainment), controlling for tornado risk. A multinomial logistic difference-in-difference (DID) estimator is used to analyze long-run effects of tornadoes in terms of displacement (reduced proportions of the poor and African Americans), abandonment (increased proportions of those groups) and neither or both.FindingsControlling for tornado risk, poverty and African American status are linked to greater tornado damages, as is wealth. Absent tornadoes, displacement and abandonment are both more likely to occur in urban settings and communities with high levels of vulnerability, while abandonment is more likely to occur in wealthy communities, consistent with on-going forces of segregation. Tornado damages significantly increase abandonment in vulnerable communities, thereby increasing the prevalence of poor African Americans in those communities. Therefore, the authors conclude that tornadoes contribute to on-going processes generating inequality by poverty/race.Originality/valueThe current paper is the first study connecting tornado damages to race and poverty. It is also the first study finding that tornadoes contribute to long-term processes of segregation and inequality.

The impact of the institutional environment and experience on social entrepreneurship: a multi-group analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezlika M. Ghazali ◽  
Dilip S. Mutum ◽  
Haleh Hakim Javadi
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study presents a framework for integrating distinct perspectives on social entrepreneurship by combining institutional theory with the social entrepreneurship intention model. The framework assesses the relationships between social support and the perceived feasibility and desirability of social entrepreneurship, the relationships between social support and the institutional environments of social workers, and the moderating role of prior experience of social work and volunteering.Design/methodology/approachThe model was tested using 266 validated responses from an online and paper-based survey distributed among social workers. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data, and multi-group analysis was conducted to examine the moderation effects.FindingsThe findings indicate that experience moderates the relationships between the regulatory and cognitive environments, cognitive environments and social support, and social support and perceived feasibility. Experience negatively moderates the relationship between the normative environment and social support.Practical implicationsActive government involvement in the form of incentives and financial support would encourage the creation of social ventures.Social implicationsEducational programmes are also necessary to help raise awareness and increase the familiarity and knowledge of potential social entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThe study analyses the effects of institutional environmental components, recognised as highly influential on the development of social entrepreneurship, as well as the impact of perceived social support on the antecedents of the perceived desirability and feasibility of social entrepreneurship. It also addresses how social work experience modifies these relationships. Contrary to previous studies, the findings suggest that increasing social work experience isolates entrepreneurs from their environment.

Future proofing child protection social work

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 202-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Shemmings
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Compassion Fatigue ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Secondary Trauma ◽  
Working Alliances ◽  
Helping Relationships ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Personal Skills ◽  
Lasting Change

Purpose How might the profession of child protection social work be “future proofed”, i.e. remain intact and of value beyond its present existence? The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This is a discussion/“think piece” paper, in which the author argues that foregrounding the art and science of helping relationships is a way forward. Recognising and promoting the centrality of helping relationships is the direction in which the author believes (or is it hopes?) social work should head, because “more of the same” is not, in the author’s view, possible to sustain for much longer. Treading the well-worn but pot-holed path of box-ticking, endless risk assessment and perfunctory statutory visiting is likely to lead to continuing problems retaining social workers and, for those who do stay, increased burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary trauma, each of which interrupts or delays the development of working alliances with family members. Findings Growing reliance on thresholds and checklists to assess risk has served to increase referrals. As a result, social workers spend much of their time on triaging and filtering rather than working with the children and families that most need help and protection. Further, it is not what is in the practitioner’s toolkit that matters: rather, it is a defined set of personal skills and qualities that tips the balance to achieve lasting change. Thus, in order to “future proof” social work, we would do well to deepen our understanding of how helping relationships can lead to lasting change. Supporting social workers in this work is not just the responsibility of individual practitioners and their professional bodies, action also needs to be taken at governmental and managerial levels. Originality/value This is a discussion/“think piece”.

Benchmarking performance of governance quality in Indian states using MCDM techniques

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 2850-2874
Author(s):  
Alok Raj ◽  
Rupika Khanna
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
State Level ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Promethee Ii ◽  
Social Service Delivery ◽  
Governance Quality ◽  
Key Indicators

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to benchmarking the governance performance of Indian states. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a framework to measure governance performance at the state level. Using the data on 28 key indicators, the authors evaluate Indian states on seven broad dimensions of governance quality covering several aspects of public service delivery, regulatory quality and law and order. The empirical methodology involves the application of multi-criteria decision making techniques in two steps. The authors, first develop suitable weights of the identified dimensions and criteria under each dimension by applying the inputs of an expert-based decision-panel in a best-worst framework. Next, using these weights, the authors evaluate ranking of each state using TOPSIS and PROMETHEE-II methods. Findings The results indicate wide disparities in the governance performance of Indian states. Based on different indicators, the paper evaluates the rank of all the major Indian states. Results reveal that “Social Service Delivery(S)” is the most influencing dimension for the development of a state. Overall, the authors find Andra Pradesh, NCT of Delhi and Goa to be the leading states in terms of governance quality. Research limitations/implications The paper provides policy makers with easy to use operational indicators to analyse the governance performance of Indian states. These would help in better monitoring of these states through competitive goal-setting for continuous improvement. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first formal assessment of governance quality in the Indian states in a multi-criteria framework. To this end, the paper addresses the issue of wide regional disparities in the country. The findings of the paper provide powerful insights to policy makers in setting up appropriate strategies to eliminate these disparities.

Access to justice as a human right, organizational entitlement and precursor to diversity and inclusion

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 787-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quinetta Roberson
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Brutality ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Policies ◽  
Corporate Leaders ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Policies And Practices

PurposeIn the wake of the death of George Floyd in the United States, many corporate leaders have released statements condemning racism and police brutality and committed their organizations to focus on diversity and inclusion. While such statements, intentions, and goals are laudable, they evade the phenomenon at the crux of the current social movement: access to justice.Design/methodology/approachThis essay draws upon theory and research across a variety of disciplines to examine the accessibility of justice for African Americans in society and in work organizations.FindingsAs corporate leaders have made statements decrying racism and police brutality and offered their support to civil rights groups and organizations fighting for racial justice, there is a need for that same level of scrutiny and support within their own organizations. As a precursor to diversity and inclusion initiatives, corporate leaders need to take actions to ensure the fairness of outcomes, policies and practices, and treatment by others for African Americans within their organizations.Practical implicationsStrategies for reviewing and revising organizational policies and practices to preserve fairness in the work experiences of African Americans and for creating and maintaining cultures of fairness are offered.Originality/valueThe author integrates historical documents, research, opinion, and literary devices to understand the meaning and practice of justice in society and organizations.

scholarly journals Fiscal federalism and accountability in Nigeria: an ARDL approach

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olabanji Olukayode Ewetan ◽  
Romanus Osabohien ◽  
Oluwatoyin Augustina Matthew ◽  
Abiola Ayopo Babajide ◽  
Ese Urhie
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Fiscal Federalism ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Auto Regressive

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between fiscal federalism and accountability in Nigeria. Corruption is a global plague and is endemic in nature. Several policies have been adopted by the Nigerian Government to institutionalize accountability and combat the scourge of corruption that have hindered socio-economic progress but to no avail. Design/methodology/approach Thus, this study examined fiscal federalism and accountability issues in Nigeria using secondary data and used the auto-regressive distributed lag econometric technique to analyse the data. Findings The results from this study reveal that fiscal federalism fails to mitigate corruption in the long run in Nigeria because of poor bureaucratic quality (BQ) and ineffective law and order (LOR). Social implications Fiscal decentralization must be accompanied by legislations that will strengthen BQ of fiscal institutions at subnational levels and promote effective LOR. Originality/value This study recommends that for fiscal federalism to mitigate corruption in the long run, government must adopt appropriate policies to improve BQ and further strengthen LOR in Nigeria. The finding also suggests that to promote public sector accountability in Nigeria, government should ensure the simultaneous decentralization of expenditure and revenue to lower tiers of government. This study provides detailed empirical evidence that fiscal decentralization without accountability will accentuate public sector corruption, and in the long run, weaken local economic development initiative to boost growth and development.

Fidesz’s rift with EU centre-right will cost Hungary

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Council ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Eu

Significance This increases the likelihood of conflicts between Budapest and Brussels, as Fidesz is expected to ally itself with radical parties internationally. The Hungarian government’s Euroscepticism will probably increase, but given the public’s pro-EU orientation, it will advocate reform of the EU rather than exiting the bloc . Impacts Leaving the EPP will narrow the Hungarian government’s room for manoeuvre. Orban's use of Hungary's veto is likely to obstruct business in the European Council. The EU will become a political issue in Hungary.

Weak security forces threaten South African stability

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Security Force ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Content Type ◽  
State Security ◽  
Intelligence Agencies

Significance These have long been matters of serious concern. President Cyril Ramaphosa on August 5 responded with a cabinet reshuffle that replaced the minister of defence, closed down the ministry of state security and moved intelligence agencies into the presidency. Impacts Planned cuts to security force budgets will be politically unsustainable. Ramaphosa’s decision to retain Minister of Police Bheki Cele in post casts doubt on the prospects of much-needed police reform. Incorporating intelligence functions into the presidency may speed reforms but also poses long-term dangers of more abuses.

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