Ageing, poverty and neoliberalism in urban south India

Author(s):  
Suresh Veeraraghavan ◽  
Marlia Hussain ◽  
Joe Henry ◽  
Arul George ◽  
Barbara Harriss-White

This chapter sets out a four-year, multi-disciplinary and mixed methods study of older people’s paid and unpaid work, their contributions to their households, family networks and the economy. It situates older people’s work and poverty in the cleft between widespread low-paid and insecure work, inadequate public services and India’s ambitions in the global economy, which leaves older people bolstering household and family incomes, releasing women into the labour force and providing low cost services to workers and low cost inputs to businesses. The chapter describes the team’s innovative impact strategy to generate a public discussion of older people’s rights as workers and to a pension and to secure raised social pensions.

Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 887
Author(s):  
Chunhua Feng ◽  
Buwen Cui ◽  
Haidong Ge ◽  
Yihong Huang ◽  
Wenyan Zhang ◽  
...  

Recycled aggregate is aggregate prepared from construction waste. With the development of a global economy and people’s attention to sustainable development, recycled aggregate has shown advantages in replacing natural aggregate in the production of concrete due to its environmental friendliness, low energy consumption, and low cost. Recycled aggregate exhibits high water absorption and a multi-interface transition zone, which limits its application scope. Researchers have used various methods to improve the properties of recycled aggregate, such as microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) technology. In this paper, the results of recent studies on the reinforcement of recycled aggregate by MICP technology are synthesized, and the factors affecting the strengthening effect of recycled aggregate are reviewed. Moreover, the strengthening mechanism, advantages and disadvantages of MICP technology are summarized. After the modified treatment, the aggregate performance is significantly improved. Regardless of whether the aggregate was used in mortar or concrete, the mechanical properties of the specimens were clearly improved. However, there are some issues regarding the application of MICP technology, such as the use of an expensive culture medium, a long modification cycle, and untargeted mineralization deposition. These difficulties need to be overcome in the future for the industrialization of regenerated aggregate materials via MICP technology.


Author(s):  
Patrick Alexander Wachholz ◽  
Deborah Cristina De Oliveira ◽  
Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith ◽  
Reena Devi ◽  
Paulo José Fortes Villas Boas ◽  
...  

This scoping review aimed to explore the characteristics, strengths, and gaps in research conducted in Brazilian long-term care facilities (LTCFs) for older adults. Electronic searches investigating the residents (≥60 years old), their families, and the LTCF workforce in Brazil were conducted in Medline, EMBASE, LILACS, and Google Scholar, within the timescale of 1999 to 2018, limited to English, Portuguese, or Spanish. The reference lists were hand searched for additional papers. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used for critical appraisal of evidence. Data were reported descriptively considering the study design, using content analysis: 327 studies were included (n = 159 quantitative non-randomized, n = 82 quantitative descriptive, n = 67 qualitative, n = 11 mixed methods, n = 6 randomized controlled trials, and n = 2 translation of assessment tools). Regardless of the study design, most were conducted in a single LTCF (45.8%), in urban locations (84.3%), and in non-profit settings (38.7%). The randomized trials and descriptive studies presented the lowest methodological quality based on the MMAT. This is the first review to provide an overview of research on LTCFs for older people in Brazil. It illustrates an excess of small-scale, predominantly qualitative papers, many of which are reported in ways that do not allow the quality of the work to be assured.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
JOERGEN OERSTROEM MOELLER

Over the last 25 years, Asia’s economic rise has been extraordinary. Its share of global gross domestic product (GDP) has risen from 5.8% to 22.9%. 1 The first phase of high economic growth — up to 1995 — saw Asia enter the global supply chain primarily with labor-intensive/low-cost manufacturing. Domestic consumption was a fairly low share of GDP; Asia was manufacturing mainly for consumption in the US and Europe. As such, it was primarily a rule-taker. In the second phase — from 1995 to 2020 — it gradually turned into an economic force joining the US and Europe in shaping the global economy, exercising significant influence upon the value chain, the cycles of the global economy, transport and logistics, the global capital markets and consumption patterns (consumer preferences and tastes). While not yet among the leading rule-makers, it had become difficult for policymakers (public and private) to make decisions without Asia’s consent. To form an opinion of today’s emerging third phase — post 2020 — the intriguing question is whether the Asian countries have adopted what may be termed Anglo-American economic thinking (basically, the primacy of the market). Or whether behind the curtain, the Asian economy works in its own way diverging from the American and British economic schools. Since demographics and sheer economic scale mean that Asia will dominate the global economy in the years to come, the nature of the Asian economy will be of crucial importance for the future global economy. The conclusion of this paper is that “Asia” in many respects differs — and fundamentally so — from market economy principles. How this prospect should be interpreted is also evolving, as circumstances change. Certainly, the repercussions of COVID-19 have not been the same in the US, Europe, East Asia and South Asia — and this may suggest that socio-political structures have a stronger impact on economic outcomes than economic theory teaches, thus calling into question the global validity of market economy principles.


2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
FIONA CARMICHAEL ◽  
MARCO G. ERCOLANI

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the relationship between age and training in the 15 European Union countries (EU-15) that were member states prior to the 2004 enlargement. The analysis is carried out using European Union Labour Force Survey data. We report cross-country comparisons of the training undertaken by older people (aged 50–64) and younger people (aged 20–49). We extend previous research by adding an analysis of the training undertaken by non-workers as well as that of workers. We also consider whether training is work-related, whether it is undertaken during normal work-hours and the time spent in training. Our results show that across the EU-15 not only are older people less likely to participate in training in general but, more importantly, they are less likely to participate in work-related training. Our evidence suggests that there is considerable scope for raising the training rates of older people and particularly older people who are out of work.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 1528-1551 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAIRE PRESTON ◽  
STEPHEN MOORE

ABSTRACTThe drive to deliver services addressing loneliness in older people by telephone and online makes it increasingly relevant to consider how the mode of communication affects the way people interact with services and the capacity of services to meet their needs. This paper is based on the qualitative strand of a larger mixed-methods study of a national phoneline tackling loneliness in older people in the United Kingdom. The research comprised thematic analysis of four focus groups with staff and 42 semi-structured interviews with callers. It explored the associations between telephone-delivery, how individuals used the services and how the services were able to respond. To understand these associations, it was useful to identify some constituent characteristics of telephone communication in this context: namely its availability, reach and non-visual nature. This enabled various insights and comparison with other communication media. For example, the availability of the services attracted people seeking frequent emotional support but this presented challenges to staff. More positively, the ability of the services to connect disparate individuals enabled them to form different kinds of satisfying relationships. The evolution of mixed communication forms, such as internet-based voice communication and smartphone-based visual communication, makes analysis at the level of a technology's characteristics useful. Such a cross-cutting perspective can inform both the design of interventions and assessment of their suitability for different manifestations of loneliness.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0247455
Author(s):  
Gill Combes ◽  
Gareth Owen ◽  
Sarah Damery ◽  
Sarah Flanagan ◽  
Celia Brown ◽  
...  

Objectives This paper reports a mixed methods evaluation of a new pathway to improve clinical outcomes for older people with fractures treated at a hospital Trust in the West Midlands, UK. The paper focuses specifically on the context surrounding the translation of the new pathway into practice and the way that external and internal factors influenced its adaptation and implementation. Methods Quantitative analysis used a controlled Interrupted Time Series (ITS) to estimate the effect of the new pathway on patient complication rate, median length of hospital stay and 30-day mortality by comparing the pre- and post-intervention periods. ITS data were extracted from the UK Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) database and a patient-level control group identified using propensity score matching. Parallel qualitative analysis aimed to examine the context surrounding the new pathway and how external and internal factors might influence its adaption and implementation into clinical practice. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews (n = 16) undertaken with staff and clinical stakeholders within the Trust and were analysed using the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation) model of behaviour. Results No statistically significant effects were found for any of the patient outcomes studied in the controlled ITS analysis. Qualitative data suggest that the lack of effectiveness of the new initiative can be explained with reference to the capability, opportunity and motivation of internal Trust stakeholders to engage with the pathway, which created a non-receptive environment within the Trust. Conclusions Successfully implementing new care pathways in environments that may be non-receptive to change requires efforts to be put into winning ‘hearts and minds’ within the organisation to ensure engagement from key stakeholders during intervention development. Evidence must be provided internally of the way that a given intervention will alleviate the problematic issues being experienced within the organisation, and external dissemination of results should be avoided until there is evidence of a positive effect within the organisation where the new care pathway is first implemented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Camille Coyle ◽  
Sarah Buggy ◽  
Olivia Cagney ◽  
Louise Farragher ◽  
Caitriona Lee ◽  
...  

Background: The implementation of housing with support is rapidly expanding, particularly as life expectancy is increasing throughout the world. This expansion is likely to intensify in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has revealed the risks of relying primarily on nursing homes. This mixed-methods systematic review aims to: 1) explore older people’s perceptions and experiences of housing with support and 2) examine the impact of providing housing with support for older people on their quality of life. Methods: The databases Ovid Medline, Ovid Social Policy & Practice, EBSCO CINAHL, and EBSCO SOCIndex will be searched, and grey literature will also be identified. Quality assessment will be carried out using Joanna Briggs Institute’s Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research as well as a tool from the National Institutes of Health for observational cohort studies. This review will employ convergent parallel design; as such, qualitative and quantitative findings will be synthesised separately in the initial stage of analysis. The results from the qualitative and quantitative syntheses will then be integrated in the final stage of the analysis. Conclusion: This systematic review will synthesise the evidence regarding older people’s perceptions and experiences of housing with support and the impact of providing housing with support for older people on their quality of life.


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