Impact of state of economic dependence and employment status on the self-perceived health of Indian elderly people across expenditure quintiles of households

Self-perceived health, a subjective assessment of health status, is influenced by state of economic independence and employment status after controlling for other demographic, social and health-related factors, particularly for elderly people as they tend to face discrimination in intra-household resource allocation. Being economically independent and employed increase the likelihood of elderly people rating their health as good/excellent compared to others and employment status came out as even more impactful. This study provides new insights by observing that across the expenditure quintile groups of the households, the importance of these variables varies as the bias in intra-household resource allocation against elderly people is supposed to increase with declining economic resources of the households. Economic independence improves the likelihood of rating one's health as good/excellent in the lowest expenditure quintile much more compared to those in the uppermost expenditure quintile. For employed too, the positive influence of employment status on self-perceived health of elderly people has been strictly increasing as we move down the expenditure quintiles of households.

Altruism and efficient allocations in three-generation households

In this paper we test the efficiency of family resource allocation in three-generation households. Understanding how the so-called “squeezed middle” generation allocates resources towards the children and grandparents in the household will be increasingly important as populations age, and more elderly people become dependent upon their relations for financial support. Despite a large literature on household resource allocation in two-generation households (parents and children), to the best of our knowledge ours is the first study that includes the third generation. We present a theoretical model and conduct a discrete choice experiment in the context of reductions in the lifetime risk of developing coronary artery disease to verify the efficient resource allocation hypothesis. The data is obtained from a large sample of the Polish population. The sample consists of the middle generation members of three-generation households and hence WTP represents household value from the perspective of the “squeezed middle” parent. The results imply that household resource allocation is efficient. This has implications for understanding the likely response to government financial support aimed at supporting elderly people and their families.

Processes of consumer socialization: study of single-father households

Purpose Despite years of research into consumer socialization, little research examines men’s roles in consumer socialization processes. The purpose of this paper is to attend to this gap and to investigate consumer socialization processes in single-father households. Design/methodology/approach To study consumer socialization processes, this paper develops its insights using grounded theory, deploying qualitative data to develop theory. The data include long interviews with both fathers and their children used to understand the processes of consumer socialization. Findings This paper finds six socialization processes: entrustment, entrainment, education, emprise, estrangement and elevation. These processes emerge based on different types of household resource gaps or aspects of men’s gender identity. Research limitations/implications The main implications are to study the roles played by cultural context and family type in socialization processes. Studies could examine whether the processes uncovered here occur in other family settings, as well as whether they vary based on children’s age and gender. Practical implications Household brands, products and services could target resource-scarce households using appeals that portray offerings as a means to develop children’s responsibilities, independence and involvement in household management. Marketers could also use advertising appeals that depict playful product usage and learning situations or more broadly position brands as identity brands making them more appealing to men who are striving to be better fathers. Originality/value This paper uniquely identifies a number of previously uncovered consumer socialization processes, as well as factors that influence them.

Livelihood development through aquaculture for women-headed households in Noakhali char, Bangladesh.

Since 2003, the Greater Noakhali Aquaculture Extension Project (GNAEP) has started to switch its attention towards the hardcore poor, leading to a major concentration on the char lands (land newly emerged from rivers) of southern Noakhali, Bangladesh. Here at least 16% of households in the char area settlement villages are headed by women. GNAEP has identified a range of activities/options to support these households and has initiated a pilot programme called MOWHILA (Making Opportunities for Women-headed Households for Improving their Livelihood through Aquaculture), the main activities of which centre on household resource mobilization. The entire programme has been implemented through a participatory approach, involving consultation with different stakeholders based on the needs of the target beneficiaries. Early results of the pilot intervention in livelihood development through small-scale aquaculture suggest that such an approach can be effective in addressing the issues that confront poor women.

A Digital Nexus

Humans beings in the 21st century face significant social and global change. Ever-evolving digital technologies are increasingly embedded in the material, economic, and socio-cultural milieu; while global crises in climate change present challenges to human and global security and resilience. Social science and human-computer interaction research has investigated how digital systems might help to understand current environmental changes and intervene in the problematic human relationships to scarce resources of the natural world. This chapter reviews research contributions of sustainable human-computer interaction (HCI) and the social sciences on human consumption of resources most crucial to human life: water, energy, and food (WEF). Briefly outlining the current and ongoing evolution of digital technologies particularly concerned with embedded urban digital infrastructures in “smart” and automated technologies and the Internet of Things, it then touches on the scope and scale of the simultaneous environmental challenges posed by population growth and urbanization. It introduces sustainable HCI as one approach that directly addresses both trends. The chapter then outlines the most significant approaches that have informed the development of “sustainable HCI,” and reviews important empirical contributions underpinning the developing interdisciplinary research in the field. It outlines the current understanding of household resource use and considers how developing digital technologies might support domestic resource conservation and mitigate intensive domestically based resource consumption. The chapter closes with observations on the shifting relationships (and sustainable HCI research into them) that might constitute future ways of being in a sustainable digital age.