Comparison of the socio-economic value and welfare of working donkeys in rural and urban Ethiopia

Donkeys (Equus asinus) are widely used throughout Ethiopia and play essential roles in a variety of everyday and income-generating tasks for the people that use them. The challenges faced by people and their working equids vary across communities and geographic locations. This may have implications for how donkeys are perceived by the people they work for, the roles they fulfil and ultimately their welfare. Two complementary methodological approaches were used in this study to explore the socio-economic value of donkeys for their owners and the welfare of the donkeys in rural and urban Ethiopia. Using a questionnaire, donkey owners were asked about their donkeys, their attitudes and beliefs related to donkey use and ownership, and the role donkeys played in their lives. Animal-based welfare assessments were also conducted on a sample of donkeys from different locations, with the overarching aim of the study to investigate differences in use, beliefs, and donkey welfare between rural and urban locations. In both rural and urban locations, working donkeys are critical for their owners' income-generating activity and therefore their livelihoods. The work they undertake differs substantially between locations, as does their welfare. Work in each setting presents its own challenges and these are reflected in the behaviour and physical health of the donkeys. Rural donkeys showed more apathetic behaviour, a higher ectoparasite burden and greater evidence of tethering/hobbling. Urban donkeys were more alert and had a wider range of body condition scores. The findings highlight marked differences in the role and welfare of donkeys between different areas within the same country, demonstrating the importance of understanding the context, both from the perspective of humans and working equids, prior to staging interventions intended to benefit either party.

Welfare, Relief, Political Power

The chapter shows how different political and social circumstances shaped Zionist opportunities for influence in local communities. Relief work constituted the main battleground between the various parties and determined how Zionists worked to gain respect and credibility through their engagement. Welfare and relief were not only essential to reduce the suffering of the Jewish population but also became the primary field of activism for all Jewish political movements. Using local examples from German-occupied Poland and Ober Ost, from Galicia, Vienna, and Prague, the chapter investigates struggles for control over relief funds and the building of welfare institutions, as well as their connection with Zionist political ideas. It analyses welfare work for refugees in Vienna, soup kitchens in Białystok, and attempts to find work for unemployed Jews in Warsaw. Within months after the outbreak of the war, relief work became the only area in which activists were engaged. The ramifications of these efforts were often contradictory. Whereas in the Ober Ost region, for example, Zionists were integrated into the German administration and applied top-down, authoritarian policies towards local communities, in the Generalgouvernement Warschau, they remained outside the administration and had to rely on grassroots activities and on the energetic efforts of their members. The chapter also analyses relief efforts for refugees in Vienna and Prague, and shows how Zionist activists in Galicia acquired positions as leading figures in communities, taking over communal responsibilities after the Austrian order had disintegrated.

Bahnhofsmission in Deutschland. Im Kontext der Epochen der Wohlfahrtspflege

The ›Bahnhofsmissionen‹ developed in the context of the tradition of Christian non-profit welfare work in Germany. Through their supporting organisations, they belong to the associations of the Protestant Diakonie and the Catholic Caritas, which have held a dominant position in social work in German society for many decades. The ›Bahnhofsmissionen‹ are highly respected by the public but nontheless work under permanently precarious financial conditions. Without the large number of volunteers, the persistence of their work would not be safeguarded. This makes their 125-year history all the more astonishing, interrupted only by bans during the National Socialist era (between 1939-1945) and the German Democratic Republic (between 1956 and 1990).

Montage and the illumination of developmental thinking in welfare work

This article illuminates and interrupts the existence of progress as an imperative haunting welfare work. The article argues that there are forces and structures of welfare work that the dominating ways of approaching history leave unexamined and that this insight calls for a more complex relationship with history. Based on Walter Benjamin’s philosophy of history, the article explores how the montage as an analytical performance can illuminate the hauntings of modern welfare work, which makes us see the depth and persistence of progress. The article concludes by making it possible for welfare workers to think differently; to listen to and let the ghosts of development and progress pass, and to get along with the unreason and irrationality of the other. The actual montage of the article is composed with reference to a study of welfare work with foster children in Denmark.

Neighborly Networks and Welfare Work under Vichy

This chapter describes the 11th arrondissement that emerged as a sustained official target of rafles or Jewish roundups in consideration of the massive settlement of foreign Jews during the German Occupation of Paris. It discusses the German authorities that collaborated with Paris police forces in orchestrating two especially large rafles from August 20 and 21, 1941, one of which was centered on the onzième. It also mentions the Comité Amelot or the Groupe Amelot as France's first Jewish resistance organization that was founded in June 1940 and pursued social assistance during the war. The chapter explores the activities of the Groupe Amelot and its social workers, which were embedded within larger rescue networks throughout France that involved Jewish and non-Jewish assistantes sociales. It shows the continuities between interwar welfarist activity and wartime resistance work undertaken by female social workers.