Social Policy & Development

El Índice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH) permite revisitar la debacle de Venezuela desde varias dimensiones, como la de la caída económico-social o las relacionadas con los endebles argumentos que atribuyen el colapso a la crisis de precios petroleros o a las sanciones internacionales. El IDH resulta –en ese sentido- un relevante y útil referente para analizar las tendencias del anti-desarrollo venezolano en el siglo XXI.

School Food Politics: The Complex Ecology of Hunger and Feeding in Schools Around the World (P. Lang, 2011) compares struggles over what at first glance appears to be benign programming to feed children. The essays in School Food Politics explore the intersections of food and politics on all six of the inhabited continents of the world. Including electoral fights over universally free school meals in Korea, nutritional reforms to school dinners in England and canteens in Australia, teachers’ and doctors’ work on school feeding in Argentina, and more, the volume provides key illustrations of the many contexts that have witnessed intense struggles defining which children will eat; why; what and how they are served; and who will pay for and prepare the food. Contributors include reformers writing from their own perspectives, from the farm-to-school program in Burlington, Vermont, to efforts to apply principles of critical pedagogy in cooking programs for urban teens, to animal rights curriculum. Later chapters shift their focus to possibilities and hope for a different future for school food, one that is friendlier to students, 'lunch ladies,' society, other creatures, and the planet.

School Food Politics won the 2012 Critics’ Choice Book Award of the American Educational Studies Association for making an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the Social Foundations of Education. See reviews in Teachers College Record and Food, Culture, & Society in the Papers section.

“แนวคิดและทฤษฎีการศึกษานโยบายทางสังคม (Concepts and Theories for Social Policy Studies)” เล่มนี้ ผู้เขียนได้เรียบเรียงเนื้อหาที่จะเป็นประโยชน์ต่อการศึกษาทำความเข้าใจวิชานโยบายทางสังคมสำหรับนักศึกษาในสาขาวิชาที่เกี่ยวข้อง โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งสาขารัฐศาสตร์ รัฐประศาสนศาสตร์ สังคมสงเคราะห์ และการบริหารการพัฒนา ซึ่งหนังสือเล่มนี้ ประกอบด้วยเนื้อหาทั้งหมด 5 บท ในบทที่ 1 เป็นแนวคิดพื้นฐานที่นักศึกษาจำเป็นต้องเรียนรู้เกี่ยวกับการศึกษานโยบายทางสังคมในมิติต่าง ๆ ส่วน บทที่ 2 เป็นเรื่องของแนวคิดหลักที่นำไปใช้ในการศึกษา อธิบาย หรือวิเคราะห์นโยบายทางสังคมด้านต่าง ๆ สำหรับบทที่ 3 เป็นเรื่องของกลไกเชิงสถาบันในระบบการจัดสวัสดิการทางสังคม บทที่ 4 เกี่ยวข้องกับสวัสดิการของรัฐด้านต่าง ๆ รวมถึงการจัดทำนโยบายสาธารณะ สินค้าสาธารณะ บริการสาธารณะ และการประเมินนโยบายทางสังคมของรัฐด้วย และบทที่ 5 เกี่ยวข้องกับกรอบแนวคิดในการศึกษาและวิเคราะห์รัฐสวัสดิการ รวมถึงลักษณะสำคัญของตัวแบบรัฐสวัสดิการประเภทต่าง ๆ ด้วย สนใจติดต่อสั่งซื้อได้ที่ศูนย์หนังสือ ม.เกษตรศาสตร์ และศูนย์หนังสือจุฬา ฯ (CU Book Store) ทุกสาขาทั่วประเทศ หรือ สั่งซื้อผ่านเว็บไซต์ www.chulabook.com

Using regional and zonal indicators provide knowledge of areas, information tools useful in identifying means of measuring regional quality of life. Maximizing the opportunities of the regional economic development is a necessary aspect with the factors that have semnificative contributions in the development of the economic sectors, competitive advantage over other regions, measuring hot spots and identifying the linkages and interdependencies in terms of factors that support the regional development.

This succinct review returns to the debate on political-culture and Singaporean social policy nexus that has been abandoned since 2000. They put the spotlight on the social policy through the Confucian lens, examining to what extent Confucianism teaching was conditioned in formal welfare provisions. Yet, they are too focused on the common idea of Confucianism while overlooking the original idea of Singaporean value promoted by Lee Kuan Yew. Hence, this article raises the discussion of the links of Singaporean values and the Central Provident Found (CPF) which have barely been highlighted in the literature. Singaporean values are hybrid between Confucianism and Western values. This article argues that although the CPF has expanded in terms of features and benefits, it has not crossed the line that separates Singapore from Western models. Because of its Singaporean values, the country does not follow the typical European model, which is being adopted by other East Asian countries. This article concludes the CPF not only reflects its centrality to Singaporean values but also as a value stabilizer that has long history in contributing to Singaporean nation-building.

The Neighborhood Organizer's Handbook is a good nuts and bolts book on community organizing. It is based on the premise that an effective neighborhood organizer should have an understanding of the different types and functions of neighborhoods. This book takes the reader through the process of analysis, figuring out how different neighborhoods make use of information and how they link (or do not link up with) larger communities and social structures. It also contains a fine chapter on how to get started in unfamiliar settings. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in the practical aspect of organizing. It is also useful for the non-practitioner who just wants to learn how to think about and analyze neighborhoods.

The experiences of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Zimbabwe find expression in the maxim that says 'Where two elephants fight, the grass suffers the most'. Orphans and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe have been the casualties of disharmony between traditional and contemporary leadership philosophies for more than three decades. Using a phenomenological approach, the study involved 20 key informants, who included community leaders and OVC caregivers. Underpinned by the traditional leadership perspectives, the study examined the role of traditional leaders in supporting OVC for the purposes of integrating its relevant compatible elements with modern OVC care and support systems. The study showed that there is lack of synchronicity between traditional and contemporary OVC care and support systems, which ultimately compromises the effectiveness of the social care professions in rural communities in Zimbabwe. The study recommends the establishment of an integrated contextually-based OVC care and support model to enhance the relationship between traditional and contemporary leadership in Zimbabwe.

Il mondo politico e la società si sono dovuti spesso confrontare con gruppi o collettivi non istituzionali, più o meno omogenei, che hanno agito e operano nelle città in cui viviamo.  Le tesi e le proposte da questi avanzate, ritenute talvolta provocatorie, ideologiche e utopiche, dalla maggioranza degli esponenti delle nostre istituzioni, sono state generalmente terreno di polemiche e scontri. È comunque nell’ultimo ventennio che si concretizzano alcune idee dei movimenti della sinistra extraistituzionale sull’autogestione di spazi urbani dismessi o in degrado, attraverso l’occupazione di strutture metropolitane che divengono contenitori di dissenso verso il sistema capitalistico. In molte delle principali città italiane si sono autorganizzate, a partire dalla fine degli anni ’70, forze di pressione politica che con il tempo hanno ritagliato spazi d’azione sempre più ampi. Interpreti del malcontento di una parte della nostra società prenderanno il nome di centri sociali e si costituiranno all’interno di strutture pubbliche come  scuole, asili, cinema, teatri, fabbriche ed edifici in stato di abbandono, dando vita a pratiche di riuso urbano e riqualificazione di spazi pubblici con finalità politiche e mediante metodiche almeno in parte illegali.

Social work can help to restore a balance towards humanity. We are and always have been critical thinking innovators with a comprehensive grasp of issues, a thorough knowledge of human situations and environments. We also possess the ability to craft policy that is meaningful while at the same time realize a moral obligation towards ourselves and to the populations we serve.

Poverty in India is a serious problem for which many poverty eradication programs have been run by the government time to time. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMSGY) is one of them which are defined in term of ‘road connectivity’ for rural poor remedies by policy makers. A successful steps has been made to lessen the poverty by connecting the rural area through PMSGY. The objective of this study is to understand the realism of PMSGY in rural development. Under this study, an attempt has been made to get how much this program has been supportive in increasing the income and employment opportunities for non-agricultural labourers. The result of this study shows that PMGSY have a significant impact on increasing the employment and income opportunities of the people. This study will contribute the role of
the road connectivity in the rural employment and income opportunities.

Edited with Francis Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis and Herbert Obinger, The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty newly-written chapters, a broad range of the world's leading scholars offer a comprehensive account of everything one needs to know about the modern welfare state. The book is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state’s history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, running to some thirty-five chapters in all, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state of knowledge across the whole range of issues that the welfare state embraces. The first of these sections looks at inputs and actors (including the roles of parties, unions, and employers), the impact of gender and religion, patterns of migration and a changing public opinion, the role of international organisations and the impact of globalisation. The next two sections cover policy inputs (in areas such as pensions, health care, disability, care of the elderly, unemployment, and labour market activation) and their outcomes (in terms of inequality and poverty, macroeconomic performance, and retrenchment). The seventh section consists of seven chapters which survey welfare state experience around the globe (and not just within the OECD). Two final chapters consider questions about the global future of the welfare state.

In most Western liberal democracies, state economic responses to COVID-19 have done little to protect the incomes of self-employed individuals. The COVID-19 global pandemic has helped provide renewed focus upon the social need, for a minimum income guarantee indemnified by the state. The UK Government's response highlights how large corporations and the financial institutions were prioritised first, followed by established profitable businesses with three years accounts. Self-employed people working in the gig economy, alongside others managing zero hour contracts, finding themselves at the back of the queue. Such people have been largely abandoned by the state, being left to their own devices, having to fend for themselves. Employed people who qualified for 'furlough' schemes found they had little bargaining power, having to take what they were given. Employment Tribunals were largely unable to sit. COVID-19 has provided an impetus for changing solidarity and collective action, providing a foothold for multidisciplinary worker cooperatives movements. COVID-19 will herald fundamental changes in the employment and welfare landscape of many countries globally. Large employers will no longer accept responsibility to provide for as many salaried workers as present. The state's pivotal role of being the guarantor of last resort has become ever more critical.

In January 2018, Ghana celebrated 25 years of parliamentary democratic governance: the most enduring of all the Republican parliamentary democracies in the country’s history. While the last 25 years of multiparty parliamentary democracy in Ghana has been stable, it has had its own governance problems. For instance, since 1993, Ghana has almost become a two-party state, with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) dominating and alternating power on a two four-year terms basis. This dominance by the two main political parties, coupled with some lapses in our 1992 constitution and Parliament’s apparent acquiescence to the Executive, appears to have compromised the oversight functions of the Ghanaian Parliament.

In Ghana, bills, loans and infrastructural agreements mostly emanate from the President/Executive and must be approved by Parliament through a five-stage process of debate and committee assessments.

This is one of the crucial functions of Parliament in terms of overseeing the activities of the Executive. Due to weaknesses in the oversight, representative and legislative roles of the Parliament of Ghana, Parliament it has come under scrutiny in recent times by civil society organisations, marginalized groups and other interest groups, including Odekro.

The report begins with a focus on Speaker Oquaye’s agenda to transform Parliament. The Speaker, in his inaugural address following a unanimous approval by Parliament, mentioned a 9-point ambitious agenda he aims to achieve during this tenure. Odekro assesses the Speaker’s progress in this regard.

Also, the report looks at the volume and speed of passage of Bills and policy priorities of Akufo-Addo’s government along specific sectors. It also evaluates the extent to which parliamentary committees engaged relevant publics in the consideration of important Bills. This is followed by gender related matters in Parliament and the dynamics of MP-Constituent relations.

The final part of the report evaluates the absenteeism patterns of MPs and attempts an explanation for inability of Speakers to enforce Article 97(1)(c).

Economic growth is one of the major concerns of all the countries worldwide. However, it does not just happen on its own. Rather there are certain policy measures which should be put in place by the countries concerned if it is to be achieved. This is very true to China which has recorded astounding economic growth rates. For example, in 2005, economic growth was at 9.1 per cent (World Bank, 2005: 5). This did not just happen on its own but was due to the policy measures that the government put in place. This article, therefore, attempts to give an account of the policy measures behind economic growth in China and subsequently draws policy lessons on what Zambia should do if she is to achieve and/or enhance her economic growth.

What is the nature and extent of historical awareness in the development discourse? Does the development discourse learn from history, including its own? Set in the contexts of aging development institutions and a changing geopolitical climate, this paper provides one account through a historiographical survey of 136 journal articles across 10 leading development journals. It uncovers a substantial body of works, which offer descriptive histories, derivative lessons, and historiographical critiques. Altogether, they evidence two modes in which the development discourse attempts to learn from history. The first lies in the proactive use of external histories as empirical evidence for a variety of development issues. This is the predominant mode exhibited in the survey. A second mode lies in the use of internal histories of the development discourse, itself. Here, the survey finds a number of noteworthy but largely disparate efforts. This suggests a relative dearth in historiographical self-consciousness for a narrow but influential segment of the development discourse. A number of consequences are considered, ultimately responding to the legitimacy, efficacy, and sustainability of development action. In sum, our survey finds that the mainstream development journal discourse is adept at learning from external histories, but not necessarily from its own. Evidence, however, suggests that it can. A case is made for why it must.

Freedom and liberty are interchangeable synonyms. In this text, we use these two words similarly. The history of the beginning of the concept of individual freedom goes back about two thousand years. However, some writers say that this time period goes back to forty thousand years. In socio-cultural evolution, Homo Sapiens were pushing ending to the negative liberty and developed the positive liberty (Schmidtz, & Pavel, 2018).

This article examines United States immigration policy in three states: Arizona,
Alabama, and Indiana. All three states have varying rates of Latino immigration and
a complex set of socioeconomic and cultural factors; yet nonetheless, all have
participated in the criminalization of undocumented immigrants through state-level
legislative action. First, this article explores Latino migration to the United States
and its relationship to the forces of globalization. Second, we discuss the
consequences and impacts of racialized and decentralized immigration policy. Third,
we detail the history and background of each state law and its economic and social
costs. Lastly, we conclude with implications of these policies on the lives of
undocumented immigrants, social welfare policy, social work and transnational
practice, and social work education.

Abstract
This study is spurred by the high level of poverty and the need for human capacity building to serve as a yardstick to
poverty reduction or eradication in Nigeria. Despite the increase in trade share, particularly in petroleum price index
and its huge revenue, Nigeria remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Millions of her population live in abject
poverty. However, according toUnited Nation Conference on Trade and Development report in 2006, the only way to
reduce poverty or perhaps eliminate it in the third world nations is through human capacity building and concomitant
expansion of productive employment opportunities within them. Hence, this paper argued along this line. It opined that
human capacity building is a key to extinct poverty in Nigeria. The paper identified training and development,
education, mentoring, finance/sponsorship, infrastructure, employment and incentives, and youth entrepreneurship as
vital issues that can help reduce or eliminate poverty in Nigeria. Thus, Nigerian government, organizations and wealthy
individuals in Nigeria should embrace and encourage human capacity building in its dimensions and operations,
because one of the strategies for reducing or eliminating poverty hinges on it

In terms of poverty in Sri Lanka, the gemstone mining community in the country, is considered to be living in poverty experiencing chronic or transient poverty in most parts of their lifespan. This was an explanatory research which has tried to build up a profile of gemstone mining laborers including their current social, economic and educational statuses. Two villages situated in Pelmadulla area, Jayanthipura and Kattange villages were the research field of this research and 20 gemstone mining laborers were selected under the purposive sampling as respondents. Questionnaires and unstructured interviews were used to collect data and in data analysis same weight was given to both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The specificity of this research is marked with the use of Experimental Livelihood Security Index (ELSI) which is a logical and scientific framework that is used to measure the poverty and vulnerability degrees of specific communities formulating a mathematical line distinguishing vulnerable households and better-off households. The findings of the research are as follows. In the contemporary context, main source of income of most gemstone mining households is mining and most of the households are Samurdhi recipients. It was evident that the youngsters of the gemstone mining households are less likely to be involved in mining. Most gemstone mining laborers are middle-aged men and they are lacking adequate education. Most of them have learned up to O/L. It was evident that if alternative jobs are available most of gem mining workers are more likely to quit the mining and find out less risky and less laborious formal or informal jobs as the mining is not satisfactory job in terms of income as the mine workers get only 2% of the total income of the mine.

Keywords: Poverty; Vulnerability; Culture of Poverty; Culture of Dependency; Culture of Deprivation; Gemstone Mining Laborer

Compared to the few public higher education institutions in the prewar era, postwar Somalia boasts a large number of academic institutions at the tertiary level, mainly as privately owned universities. Although these community-initiated academic establishments are making tremendous contributions to the higher education sector, particularly in the absence of an effective national government, one can argue that much still remains at stake in terms of evaluation and quality assurance, key elements necessary for institutional accreditation and acceptance of credentials by other educational establishments issuing the same level of certificates. In this essay we aim to provide an overview discussion of the trends of higher education in Somalia and the way forward for newly emerged institutions, which have taken the bold initiative of changing the landscape of Somalia’s higher education.

This Malayalam article attempts to make visible the phenomenon of housework, which has remained invisible in much of social life, social science discourse and policymaking. The secondary status accorded to housework and its implications for individuals, society and women as a group are analysed here. The significance of this at a national-international level, the necessity of including housework in national income accounting and the relevance of further studies in this area are touched upon.

"The recent global financial crisis has increased the scope of poverty and inequality. The gap between the richest and poorest nations has become wider. National income inequality has also been on the rise. The prospect of a shift in designing and implementing development and welfare policies is strong in this new environment. The neoliberal policies of the Washington Consensus are giving way to development models which look to a more active government role in both economic and social policies. Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of welfare policy a fundamental realignment is already taking place. Faced with the current economic and social challenges, policy communities have turned to a variety of instruments to ensure that growth and social inclusion go together.

This book offers a systematic analysis of the growing convergence on these matters in the development and welfare state literatures, utilizing the experiences of a myriad of jurisdictions around the world. Drawing upon the expertise of leading international policymakers, practitioners, and academics in the field, this book critiques the theoretical underpinning of growth and development, examine welfare state perspectives on inclusive growth and social/economic development, and present lessons learned and best/worst practices from the experiences of developing and developed nations."

This is a book review of Virginia LoCastro’s book "Pragmatics for Language Educators: A Sociolinguistic Perspective". The book is one of 40 titles in the ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series published by Routledge. Her sociolinguistic
perspective is not entirely new in language education.She highlights how
social context and social interactions at home, school,
and the community are instrumental in the development of language and literacy skills in children (Peregoy & Boyle 2001; Wells 2009; and Cook
& Cook 2009). However, the term pragmatics has been
largely left out of the discourse in the training of
elementary pre-service teachers. This omission is what
makes LoCastro’s book a valuable contribution to the
education of teachers about language and literacy
development

"Η ελληνική μετάφραση της πέμπτης έκδοσης του βιβλίου Μακροοικονομική του διάσημου καθηγητή του Massachusetts Institute of Technology Olivier Blanchard, όπου συμπυκνώνει την εικοσαετή και πλέον διδακτική του εμπειρία, αποδίδοντας και αναλύοντας ιδιαίτερα πολύπλοκες έννοιες με τρόπο εύληπτο και φιλικό προς τον αναγνώστη.
Πέραν του προσωπικού τρόπου γραφής που στην περίπτωση του Blanchard είναι πράγματι συναρπαστικός, η διάταξη και τα περιεχόμενα της ύλης αποτελούν ένα σημαντικό συγκριτικό πλεονέκτημα για το βιβλίο αυτό. Αναλύονται με σαφήνεια οι κλασσικές μακροοικονομικές έννοιες, όπως επίσης  η  διάκριση ανάμεσα στη βραχυχρόνια και μακροχρόνια περίοδο, οι θεωρίες ανάπτυξης, η κάλυψη του Κεϋνσιανού υποδείγματος. Έμφαση  δίνονται επίσης στις σχολές μακρο-οικονομικής σκέψης.
Επιπλέον, η νέα αναθεωρημένη έκδοση περιλαμβάνει ένα κεφάλαιο με κείμενα για τη διεθνή και την ελληνική κρίση, όπου καταδεικνύονται οι τρόποι με τους οποίους τα εργαλεία που παρουσιάζονται στο βιβλίο μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν για να εξηγηθεί το τι συνέβη. Ουσιαστικά, όλα τα κεφάλαια έχουν επικαιροποιηθεί με βάση τις τελευταίες οικονομικές εξελίξεις.
Όπως χαρακτηριστικά αναφέρει ο Χρήστος Νίκας στην εισαγωγή της ελληνικής έκδοσης, «ο Blanchard σε καμία περίπτωση δεν μπορεί να θεωρηθεί ριζοσπάστης οικονομολόγος. Είναι όμως από τα πιο προοδευτικά μυαλά της οικονομικής ορθοδοξίας. Εκλεκτικός, αυστηρός ως σαρκαστικά κριτικός αλλά ταυτόχρονα δίκαιος απέναντι σε όλες τις σχολές οικονομικής σκέψης».
Αντί επιλόγου, η ελληνική έκδοση περιλαμβάνει τις απόψεις του συγγραφέα για την ελληνική κρίση όπως αυτές διατυπώθηκαν τον Μάρτιο του 2012.

Ο Olivier Blanchard είναι καθηγητής στο Μ.Ι.Τ. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) και επικεφαλής οικονομολόγος του Δ.Ν.Τ..
Ο Χρήστος Νίκας είναι Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής στο Τμήμα Βαλκανικών Σπουδών του Πανεπιστήμιου Δυτικής Μακεδονίας."

The language of ‘gender equality’ and ‘women’s empowerment’ was mobilised by feminists in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of getting women’s rights onto the international development agenda. Their efforts can be declared a resounding success. The international development industry has fully embraced these terms. From international NGOs to donor governments to multilateral agencies the language of gender equality and women’s empowerment is a pervasive presence and takes pride of place among their major development priorities. And yet, this article argues, the fact that these terms have been eviscerated of conceptual and political bite compromises their use as the primary frame through which to demand rights and justice. Critically examining the trajectories of these terms in development, the article suggests that if the promise of the post-2015 agenda is to deliver on gender justice, new frames are needed, which can connect with and contribute to a broader movement for global justice.

The feminist literature on social policy argues that feminist movements have had a
substantial impact on social policy outcomes (Brown,2010).They have contributed
important new thinking to paid and professional care work (Miller, 2003), and to the study
of poverty (Glendinning and Millar, 1989). They have rewritten the textbooks, with Social
Policy: A Critical Introduction (Payne, 1991) and Welfare and the State, and provided
distinctively feminist accounts of social policy. These actions have in a way influenced
social policy through legislature and practice

This article examines the influence of Victorian free-trade ideology upon American foreign relations. Victorian free-trade ideology—also known as Cobdenism—gained ground among a small but powerful group of predominantly New England intellectuals. These American Cobdenites became members of the Cobden Club of England, a club that sought to spread free trade throughout the world and was thus seen as a threat to American protectionism. Many of these American Cobdenite members also exerted previously unrecognized influence at both the governmental and nongovernmental level upon Republican and Democratic politics. Cobdenism is nearly absent from American foreign relations historiography. Yet Anglophobic economic nationalists at the time viewed such influence as a transatlantic free-trade conspiracy. By investigating this controversy, I argue that Cobdenism greatly affected Gilded-Age foreign and domestic policies, particularly regarding American attempts at instituting freer trade, maintaining the gold standard, anti-imperialism, and developing more amicable Anglo-American relations.

This article examines the devolution of social welfare services in the Philippines, focusing on its ideological underpinnings and implications for social welfare. It argues that the devolution resulted in a policy environment that allows for varying levels of social support across municipalities and, consequently, the fragmentation of Filipino citizenship.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

Early girl-child marriage is a barbaric act, man's inhumanity to man, is a common practice in most developing countries. Every minute a girl-child is married off against her will, education attainment terminated and dreams aborted by this reoccurring act. This has called for a clarion call and a serious concern to the international community at large. The research seeks to look inwardly into variables that invigorate the common practice, how it affects the Nigerian society and the way forward. Secondary and primary source were applied in retrieving data for the study, 296 self-administered questionnaires were completed by female respondent between the ages of 10-45years. The location of the study was kastina state, the Northern part of Nigeria where early girl-child marriage is predominantly high. Two research hypotheses were tested using Chi-square and the result shows that early girl-child marriage has a negative effect on Nigeria. The study recommended feasible and applicable way forward to abolish and manage the victims of early girl-child marriage.

This paper examines the incidence and consequences
of financialization in the industrialized countries of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD). Using the latest panel data from the OECD and the
ILO, the paper first documents the extent of financialization in
OECD countries and then analyzes the relationships between
financialization and three other variables: inequality, growth and
unemployment. There is strong empirical evidence for
considerable financialization across the OECD, with significant
and negative impacts on all three variables.

Dalits being a marginalized and the stigma of lower caste attached to them have faced many problems in the society. As a caste group Dalits (Scheduled Castes) are not the homogeneous community there are many castes within, which perpetuate inequality and differences in them. There are vast literature available on the study of Dalits, their marginalization and struggle against the caste system. But this literature is largely focus on the Dalits movements, their history and struggles dominated by Mahars. There are very few academic literature which deals with the study on Mahar, Mang and Chambhar together which could talked of their socio-political and economic relations with each other and their role in forming the common identity in contemporary Maharashtra. Therefore, this study “Intercaste Relations among Dalits” become so important, which have been chosen to study and analyze the complexities and differences between Mahar, Mang and Chambhar perpetuate by the traditional caste system and divergent ideological orientation in them. This study is also important not merely to see the differences in them but also to explore some commonness they share in their social, political and economic relations with each other after the 67 years of independence in contemporary Maharashtra.

Key words: Dalit, Caste, Intercaste, Maharashtra, Differences, Commonness, Struggle.

Economics has become a reductive science that postulates a utility-maximizing individual abstracted from any and all social and cultural contexts. Today, both the friends and the enemies of this science agree in projecting this reductionism onto the history of mainstream economics. The present essay rescues the history of political economy from such standard reductionist histories. It does so by pointing out some of the profound and substantial roles played by ideas of culture within the writings of two acknowledged giants of the history of economics, Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall. The first part of the paper makes use of some recent revisionist intellectual history that situates Smith’s Wealth of Nations within his larger project of illuminating the historical, political, moral as well as economic dimensions of modern commercial society. The second part presents some of my own research on Marshall, and shows how his transformation of classical into neo-classical economics arose by way of an injection of a conception of culture into the body of classical economic theory.

Si descrive una variante metodologica della tradizionale tecnica Delphi, ideata e utilizzata dall'Autore, ai fini della realizzazione dell'indagine Roma Sport 2020, che consiste in uno studio sul ruolo dello sport in un moderno contesto urbano ai fini della produzione di benessere e
coesione sociale. Viene presentato il corredo euristico di questo particolare Delphi, gli elementi che compongono il processo di indagine e la tipologia dei risultati attesi. La tecnica Delphi si è configurata come uno strumento di ricerca particolarmente flessibile ed efficace rispetto allo scopo dell'indagine Roma Sport 2020: la costruzione di uno scenario di politiche sociali volte alla promozione dell'attività fisico-sportiva e dei valori positivi dello sport. [ISSN: 1125-1891];

Much has been written on the psychosocial support of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) around the world regarding their well-being. However, there is still a lack of information on the efficacy of the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) both as material and a psychosocial support intervention for OVCs within the rural communities of Zimbabwe. This article is a qualitative phenomenological study seeking to examine the perceptions , views and feelings of the OVC, care-givers and community leaders on their experiences with BEAM as a material and psychosocial support intervention in Zimbabwe. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 OVCs which consist of the primary and secondary school going children; 10 care-givers and 10 community leaders purposively selected in the Gutu District of Zimbabwe. The results showed that whilst the BEAM has been applauded as an OVC psychosocial support intervention, its efficacy was marred by its failure to proportionately and holistically provide all the basic needs of the school-going OVCs within the rural communities. This study therefore recommends the establishment of the OVC stakeholders integrated support model, which is deeply entrenched in a holistic approach for the provision of the material and psychosocial support needs of the OVCs in Zimbabwe.

This article discusses the phenomena of cyberbullying especially among young people. The discussion, based on an interdisciplinary study in the fields of brain studies, child development, psychology, social policy, victimization and Internet studies, probes the troubling phenomenon of cyberbullying which may result in suicide. It is argued that adolescents are more vulnerable than adults because they lack maturity with respect to capacities such as thrill seeking, impulse control, peer pressure, reward sensitivity, cognitive processing, rational decision-making and long-term planning. The article suggests remedies to counter online social ills and argues for responsible cooperation between parents, schools, governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and social networking sites.