Health, Social Inequality and Taxation: How Ireland's Schizmogenic Social Model Undermines the Well-Being of the European Body Politic

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-40
Author(s):  
Carmen Kuhling ◽  
Kieran Keohane
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tiered System ◽  
The Eu

Before the recent economic recession Ireland had become one of the most affluent societies in the world, and the so-called Irish social model of low taxes and low public services provision was seen as one to be emulated, particularly amongst the accession states to the EU. However, Ireland has also become one of the most unequal societies in the OECD, and one of the unhealthiest, measured by all of the standard morbidity and epidemiological indicators, and the social gradient of health corresponds closely with social inequality. Ireland's healthcare system, always relatively underdeveloped in comparison to most European countries, reflects social inequality; it is a two-tiered system wherein a minority with private health insurance enjoy access to good care and facilities, while the rest make do with an underdeveloped, under-resourced and overstretched public health system and subsidise the private services. The Irish social model is schizmogenic, generating and amplifying social inequalities. This is clearly visible in the domain of health, which has become a crucible of public de-legitimation and political foment. Ireland's problems are problems for the health and well-being of the European body politic, insofar as other members emulate the Irish model, cutting corporate taxes and reducing public services in a race to the bottom away from the Rhinish and Nordic social models.

Confinement risks and social inequality in Latin America: Evidence from Argentina

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212199001
Author(s):  
Fiorella Mancini
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Health And Well Being

Social distancing and isolation measures in response to COVID-19 have confined individuals to their homes and produced unexpected side-effects and secondary risks. In Latin America, the measures taken by individual governments to mitigate these new daily and experiential risks have varied significantly as have the responses to social isolation in each country. Given these new social circumstances, the purpose of this article is to investigate, from the sociological approach of risk-taking, the relationship between confinement, secondary risks and social inequality. The author argues that secondary risks, despite their broad scope, are deeply structured by social inequalities in contemporary societies, especially in developing countries. To corroborate this hypothesis, a quantitative comparative analysis is performed for the Argentine case. Using data from a web-survey and correspondence analysis (CA), there are three major findings: (1) there are some widespread experiences similarly distributed across all social strata, especially those related to emotional and subjective matters; (2) other risks follow socio-structural inequalities, especially those corresponding to material and cultural aspects of consumption; (3) for specific vulnerable groups, compulsory confinement causes great dilemmas of decision-making between health and well-being.

Social Inequalities

2019 ◽  
pp. 646-652
Author(s):  
Raj Kollmorgen
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

Social inequality means the existence of social status groups and, therefore, a normatively embedded structure of social stratification. This chapter deals with social inequalities and their dynamics as conditional and causal factors and as results of processes of radical change. Concerning the first aspect, the chapter discusses social class inequalities and dynamics of (absolute) impoverishment, relative deprivation, and rising expectations among certain social groups that may determine ‘transformative’ pressure or even revolutionary situations. Regarding the impact of social transformations on social inequalities, the chapter suggests that the more radical and complex the social transformations, the greater are their effects on social structures and regimes of social inequality. This thesis is underpinned by providing empirical findings on social mobility and income inequality in different historical waves and (sub-)types of transformation. Finally, the chapter identifies seven crucial bundles of factors determining the extent of income inequality as an outcome of current societal transformations and their characteristics.

“Presidents of Color,” Globalization, and Social Inequality

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Germain
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Reverse Discrimination ◽  
Racially Diverse ◽  
Underrepresented Groups ◽  
Presidential Appointments ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Shapes

In this era of globalization, social inequality based on racial attributes is increasingly perceived as anachronistic. Moreover, citizens of racially diverse countries have gained a new consciousness, which occasionally translates into electing a president from a racially underrepresented group. However, although members of these racially underrepresented groups have obtained presidential appointments, racism and social inequality persist. This article sheds light on the trans-national discourses of reverse discrimination that result from the election of “presidents of color.” It suggests that while these discourses take different shapes and forms, they aim to minimize the continuities of racialized relations, thereby painting utopian pictures of modern societies. The article also reveals the extent to which these leaders can reduce the social inequalities and racism plaguing their countries. By examining the legacy of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and the presidency of Bolivia’s Evo Morales, this article argues that to accomplish these intertwined goals, Barack Obama and other presidents from racially underrepresented groups must enact local policies that contradict the logics of globalization, which is based on the free movement of labor and capital.

scholarly journals Welfare state: Convergence: Downward versus upward

2010 ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Kosta Josifidis ◽  
Novica Supic
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Beta Convergence ◽  
The Eu

The aim of this paper is to contribute, in the theoretical and empirical sense, to better understanding the challenges of the EU welfare regimes and how particular regimes react on them. Despite significant differences among the EU welfare regimes, it is real to expect that they will converge because of the common challenges confronting them. In this paper, using the model of sigma and beta convergence, we are trying to predict the possible direction of convergence in the sense that Europe will go toward to more or less generosity or in other words it will converge downward or upward. The downward convergence means the strengthen competition among existing welfare regimes, in order to maintain and/or attract capital, that could reduce the social spending generosity. On the other hand, the upward convergence above involves the strengthening of coordination among existing welfare regimes according to the values of solidarity and social justice, which characterise not only the most developed EU countries but also the supranational European social model. .

scholarly journals The Psychological Mediators of Social Inequalities in Health: Self-efficacy in Europe and Russia

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina L. Rusinova ◽  
Viacheslav V. Safronov
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Psychological Resources ◽  
Social State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Social Structuring

This study is devoted to psychologically mediating the social structuring of health. According to theoretical views, which have not yet received a convincing justification, the decline in the social status of an individual is accompanied by the loss of the psychological resources necessary to overcome the difficulties of life and the stresses caused by them, which leads to deteriorating health in the lower social strata. The verification of this assumption was carried out using data from the European Social Survey — representative surveys of the population of 27 countries conducted in 2012–2013. Studying indirect psychological effects has demonstrated that in many of these countries such a psychological characteristic as self-efficacy is indeed a mediator of the social structuring of health, especially prominent in many post-communist societies, but not in the most developed western countries where mediating effects turned out to be weak or completely absent. A two-level analysis of psychological mediation, depending on the factors of the economic well-being of countries, the development of a social state and cultural identity, does not support the assumption of the importance of an individualistic culture for the manifestation of mediation, and convincingly demonstrates that indirect effects are related to the social and economic context. In countries with a strong economy and social state, the distribution of psychological resources is barely related to the social structure — the relative well-being of the lower social strata, due to the developed system of state social guarantees, allows for many of them to maintain self-respect and optimism. Psychological resources, the distribution of which does not reflect social stratification, lose the role of a mediator. In the less developed part of Europe, where the lower strata cannot rely on comprehensive government assistance, the hardships of life and the stresses they generate lead to a loss of faith in themselves and in the possibility of changes for the better among people with low status, resulting in psychological resources acting as a mediator of health social structuring.

scholarly journals Social Inequality in Every Day Laughing Discourse of Modern Russia

2012 ◽  
pp. 186-194
Author(s):  
N. N. Zarubina
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday

This article deals with the everyday discourse of the social inequality. The author analyses the ways in which humor is used to interpritate the social inequalities and the emergence of new privileged strata.

Social mainstreaming through the European pillar of social rights: Shielding ‘the social’ from ‘the economic’ in EU policymaking

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ane Aranguiz
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Article 9 ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Market ◽  
The Eu

Implementing fiscal consolidation measures without first considering social stabilisers has led to turn what originally was an economic recession into a social crisis too. The economic and social divergences in Europe have increased to a point where the future of the social dimension of the EU has been put into question. There is however, a provision in the Treaties that obliges the EU to take into account social issues in all its policies and activities, namely, the so-called horizontal social clause enshrined in Article 9 TFEU. The potential of this clause to mainstream the social dimension of the EU and foster balance between social and economic policies has, however, not yet been untapped. The recently launched European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), which aims at achieving a highly competitive social market economy, brings to the table a number of rights-based objectives along with a number of indicators that might shed some light over the constraints faced by the horizontal social clause. This article aims at unravelling the potential of the horizontal social clause in envisioning parity between the social and the economic and providing a social pillar to the EU. This contribution provides first a legal analysis of Article 9 TFEU and it briefly discusses the problematic behind its poor implementation. Later, the potential of the horizontal social clause is discussed in the light of the current developments in the framework of economic governance. This article also suggests a number of scenarios where social mainstreaming should be duly implemented. It suggests that Article 9 TFEU may have an important role, in particular, with regard to austerity measures when envisioning it together with the EPSR.

scholarly journals Managing Health and Well-Being in SMEs through an Adviceline: A Typology of Managerial Behaviours

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110151
Author(s):  
Raffaella Valsecchi ◽  
Neil Anderson ◽  
Maria Elisavet Balta ◽  
John Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Protective Behaviour ◽  
The Social ◽  
Behavioural Types ◽  
Health And Well Being

Despite evidence supporting the application of health and well-being policies and practices in the workplace, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) still struggle to manage health at work. To address this gap, this research explores the role of a new occupational health (OH) adviceline assisting and managing health at work within SMEs. From our qualitative data we develop a typology of managerial response patterns, which can be summarised into four behavioural types: business case behaviour, social model behaviour, protective behaviour, and avoidant behaviour. The study posits that both the business case and the social justice arguments need to be acknowledged while implementing and managing health and well-being initiatives in SMEs. However, the combination of these two models is very difficult to achieve, and in addition to an OH adviceline, other interventions need to be implemented to support SMEs.

scholarly journals The EU: Big on Big Things and Smaller on Smaller Things

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Bilge Filiz
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Model ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Welfare regime is composed of the social and economic policies that are adopted to protect and promote the economic and social well-being of its citizens. While neoliberal principles extend through globalization, welfare regimes have been suffering from this process since policies are developed with the emphasis on individual empowerment rather than collectively shared welfare. While spending a great deal of efforts not to lose its competitiveness, the European Union tries to create an alternative for the structure of its social policies. However, this attempt remains highly vulnerable due to the impact of capitalist economic system on development of EU social policy/model since the beginning of the EU integration process. This article analyzes the roots of underdeveloped social policy in EU history at three stages: explanation of underdevelopment of social Europe from several theoretical paradigms; examination of deep-rooted problems of European social policy within the dynamics of European integration; elaboration of EU modernization process; and clarification of this deficiency with the example of European Social Model deemed as a politically constructed project.

scholarly journals Los proyectos de intervención sociolaboral como mecanismos de inserción laboral. Análisis del caso del “Vallet”

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Yolanda Cano Cabrera ◽  
Rosana Matos-Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Personal Development ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Calidad De Vida ◽  
European Social Fund ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Fund ◽  
Personal A ◽  
The Unemployed

El barrio del “Vallet” es un barrio obrero fruto de la industrialización del municipio de Puçol, en los años 60, concretamente surge de las viviendas construidas para los trabajadores de la fábrica italiana de calentadores Cointra y que comenzó su declive durante la crisis económica española del año 2008 hasta cerrar sus puertas en el 2012. En la actualidad, en el barrio existen altas tasas de desempleo que provocan un aumento del nivel de pobreza, además, durante estos años ha habido un considerable aumento de la población inmigrante. Todo ello, ha influido en la decisión de Ajuntament de Puçol de implementar un proyecto denominado “Vallet, un barri responsable i solidari”, cofinanciado por el Fondo Social Europeo y la Consellería d´Igualtat i Polítiques Inclusives de la Generalitat Valenciana. La finalidad del proyecto es aumentar la inserción sociolaboral de la población desempleada del barrio, a través de la implementación de itinerarios sociolaborales con el objetivo de mejorar el bienestar social y la calidad de vida de la comunidad, realizar acciones de concienciación en materia de inmigración, contribuir al desarrollo personal, a través de la participación social e intentar disminuir las desigualdades sociales. En este estudio, a través de un trabajo etnográfico, analizamos el proyecto de intervención implementado en el año 2019 y 2020 durante la pandemia provocada por la COVID-19, cuando las personas en situación de vulnerabilidad han sido las más afectadas. The “Vallet” neighborhood is a working-class neighborhood as a result of the industrialization of the municipality of Puçol, in the 60s, specifically it arises from the houses built for the workers of the Italian heater factory Cointra and that began its decline during the Spanish economic crisis from 2008 until closing its doors in 2012. Currently, in the neighborhood there are high unemployment rates that cause an increase in the level of poverty, in addition, during these years there has been a considerable increase in the immigrant population. All of this has influenced the decision of the Puçol Town Council to implement a project called "Vallet, a responsible and supportive neighborhood", co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Consellería d'Igualtat i Polítiques Inclusives of the Generalitat Valenciana. The purpose of the project is to increase the socio-labor insertion of the unemployed population of the neighborhood, through the implementation of socio-labor itineraries with the aim of improving the social well-being and quality of life of the community, carry out awareness actions on immigration matters, contribute to personal development, through social participation and try to reduce social inequalities. In this study, through an ethnographic work, we analyze the intervention project implemented in 2019 and 2020, during the pandemic caused by COVID-19, where vulnerable people have been the most affected.

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