Pensions and the Extending Working Lives Agenda in the UK: The Impact on Women

Extending working lives (EWLs) has been a key policy response to the challenges presented by an ageing population in the United Kingdom (UK). This includes the use of pension policies to encourage working longer. However, opportunities and experiences of EWLs are not equal. While much has been written about EWLs more broadly, limited attention has been paid to connecting those EWLs policies associated with pensions and their potentially unequal impact on women. This article aims to address this gap, taking a feminist political-economy perspective to explore the structural constraints that shape EWLs and pensions. Initially it briefly introduces the EWLs agenda, before focussing on pension developments and their implications for EWLs, considering the gendered nature of these policies. Finally, it touches upon potential policy measures to mitigate the impact of these developments on women. It demonstrates how women’s existing labour market and pension disadvantages have been largely overlooked in the development of EWLs policy, perpetuating or expanded many women’s financial inequalities in later life. It highlights the need for a greater focus on gendered pension differences in developing EWLs policy to ensure women’s circumstances are not adversely impacted on.

Global Adversities, the Media, and Mental Health

Global communities are currently confronted with a number of complex problems and threats, the reality of which is amplified by the media. These environmental and socio-political stressors have been accompanied by the spread of problematic psychological and behavioural tendencies, such as the growing polarisation of opinions and values, online radicalisation and extremism, deepening xenophobia and nationalism, the proliferation of irrational beliefs and conspiracy theories, and resistance to rational public policy measures. Here we argue that although they fall outside the scope of psychopathology, they nevertheless currently constitute a major challenge for psychiatry as a research domain and a clinical practise. To substantiate this claim, we outline the mechanisms by which media-transmitted stressors impact mental well-being and possibly psychopathology. The common denominator of these global problems and the media's construction of reality is the increase in uncertainty, unpredictability, and uncontrollability, which prompts defensive responding and, in predisposed individuals, functions as a potent source of chronic stress. These contribute to cognitive inflexibility, a strong predisposing factor for the development of rigid beliefs and attitudes, which to varying degrees underlie the adverse psychological and behavioural tendencies mentioned above. We suggest that the tightening of beliefs and ideas that is the result of cognitive rigidity may correspond to the clinical characteristics of induced delusional disorder. This can be seen as a (ultimately maladaptive) defensive strategy for coping with a high degree of uncertainty and unpredictability. We conclude by briefly outlining the possible ways in which psychiatry can face this challenge.

The Effects of Commercial Orientation on (Agro) Pastoralists’ Household Food Security: Evidence from (Agro) Pastoral Communities of Afar, Northeastern Ethiopia

Commercialization has been increasingly promoted for (agro) pastoral communities as an intervention to improve incomes and food access. Using households from rural Afar, this study examines the food security effects of the livestock commercial orientations of (agro) pastoralists by employing propensity score matching (PSM) procedures. The results show that, despite the fact that the market production of (agro) pastoralists is stressed by a broad range of factors, identified as cultural, infrastructural, and production risks, participation in livestock sales significantly decreased the severity of food insecurity in both the household food insecurity access score (HFIAS), and the reduced coping strategy index (rCSI) measures. However, the results failed to find consistently significant effects via the per capita consumption expenditure measure, in which case, the ‘subsistence’ and ‘commercially’ oriented groups are alike. Yet, given the factors depressing market production, properly addressed with policy measures, the income generated from livestock sales improved the welfare of (agro) pastoralists, at least by some (the HFIAS and rCSI) of the livelihood indicators. This highlights the importance of combining market infrastructure investments with culturally sensitive policy measures in order to sustain the traditional livestock husbandry of (agro) pastoralists. Therefore, in order to sustainably improve the food security situations in (agro) pastoral areas, the promotion of market production through the broadening of market access for both sales and purchases is important.

Potential factors in determining cross-border price spillovers in the pork sector: Evidence from net pork-importing countries

Although food self-sufficiency is regarded as a potent strategy to secure food supply in the policy circle, the efficacy of policy measures, especially in terms of their quantitative effects, is still not fully understood. We analysed the relationships between international and local prices of pork between January 2001 and December 2018 for 10 net pork-importing countries. The primary outcome obtained in our research is that high self-sufficiency and a small trade volume of pig meat commodities could impair price volatility transmission from the global market. This result does not suggest that a protectionist regime should be established to stabilise the national food supply. It presents useful information to balance the benefit from highly efficient resource allocation and the market steadiness gained from higher self-sufficiency in food, considering the maximisation of the expected utility of economic agents.

Global migration governance from below in times of COVID-19 and “Zoomification”: civil society in „invited “ and „invented “ spaces

The global pandemic has resulted in ad hoc unilateral policies on migration, mobility and border management while at the same time emphasizing the need for global cooperation. For global governance in this field to be effective, it needs to include stakeholders beyond states and international institutions. The Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular Migration (GCM) highlights the role of those groups directly affected by global policies, i.e. migrants and their organisations. The goal of this paper is to analyse the role of civil society in global migration governance in times of COVID-19. It employs a comparative approach between “invented” and “invited” spaces. “Invited spaces” in this context refer to spaces created by international organisations such as the United Nations Network on Migration’s “Stakeholder Listening Sessions” on COVID-19 and the resulting statements. “Invented Spaces” refer to self-organized spaces by civil society actors. The paper will compare these spaces regarding their openness, the central issues and calls for specific policy measures, the stakeholders involved and the strategies they employ. I argue that the pandemic has strengthened the “input” dimension for migrant civil society in global governance. This relates to the structure/format as well as to the content of the participation. “Zoomification” has opened up access to “invited” spaces while pushing forward the creation and scope of “invented” spaces”. There are indicators that the pandemic has also influenced parts of the output dimension, although it is too early to assess whether this will have a lasting effect on policies on the ground.

An Assessment of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of Energy Efficient Retrofits to Existing Residential Buildings

Quantifying the wider benefits of energy efficient building retrofits is crucial to incentivise householder retrofit investments. This research recognises the value of key performance indicators (KPIs) for assessing and demonstrating retrofitting benefits and provides an assessment of KPIs for evaluating retrofits. An integrated framework for evaluating retrofits using a set of economic, social, and environmental KPIs is proposed. This KPI framework is then applied in a pre- and post-retrofit assessment of five case study dwellings located in Ireland, revealing its usefulness in demonstrating the wider benefits of retrofitting to householders, with a view to driving retrofit investment. Three of these case study dwellings had state-of-the-art retrofit technologies installed as part of the works, including heat pumps and solar PV systems. In addition to demonstrating the wider benefits of retrofitting, the framework allowed for the identification of potential causes for differences in performance of these technologies across households, as well as patterns of underperformance. Such insights are useful for the future design of these technologies and retrofit packages, as well as policy measures, which support householders in the adoption and use of these measures. The results demonstrate that householders experience various benefits from retrofitting. Showcasing the different benefits that householders receive from retrofitting, and their satisfaction with the retrofit works, can serve to de-risk retrofit investments, and inspire others to seek similar benefits through retrofitting. Applying the developed framework to a larger, comparable sample size, can distinguish the retrofit packages, which perform best across the KPIs and various household profiles. Furthermore, the application of the developed framework can serve as an evidence base for retrofit designers, contractors, and policy makers in the design of retrofit packages and policy measures that will maximise the benefit for householders.

Resilience of the Hotel Industry in COVID-19

COVID-19 has resulted in restrictions on travelling and public get-togethers. Amid the pandemic, one of the industries to be the most severely affected is the hotel industry. In the post-covid period, the industry is struggling for its subsistence due to mounting debts, change in behavior and perception of consumers, and lack of cash flows. This has resulted in loss of employment and has also negatively impacted allied industries. However, hotel entrepreneurs have shown resilience amid the crisis and have begun to explore novel opportunities. Hotels have adopted innovative technological and digital ways to satisfy the needs of the consumers for a contactless experience. The objective of this chapter is to explore the responses of the Indian hotel industry to the pandemic and risks associated with it. It explores the new paradigm and challenges for the industry and explains the resultant new trends in the hotel industry. The emphasis is on the exploration of long-term recovery and resilience of the hotel industry in India along with the policy measures and implications for the hotel industry.