This article explores the future of private property in land in the context of the United Nations' (UN) human rights framework. I examine the historical and current debate, and show why it is difficult to come to a definitive conclusion on a matter that has been so central to social and political philosophy. Among the questions that frame this investigation is the relevance of 18th century property-related human rights concepts in the 21st century, where the poor are increasingly residents of informal settlements in mega-cities. I critically assess the wording and adoption of Article 17 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I further examine the formal actions of the UN to demonstrate the confusion that exists about the role of private property. Then, I argue that private property is a human right, but this does not mean that it will take the form that it does in Western societies.

Despite the available evidence suggesting gender should be considered in the provision of alcohol and/or drug (AOD) treatment, programmes are frequently offered in an apparent ‘gender vacuum’. This article argues that the generalist ‘one size fits all’ approach of many AOD services is not gender neutral but should be understood as implicitly gendered in that it neglects the specificity of women's needs in relation to abuse, mental illness and parenting. The discussion presented in this article is based on a qualitative study of the experiences of adult women with histories of childhood sexual abuse and/or domestic violence in AOD treatment. By examining the ways in which AOD treatments effectively ignore or minimise gender, this article uncovers intervention practices that efface the complexities underpinning AOD use among women and suggests ways in which alternative models of service delivery can create more validating and supportive environments.

Informal settlements (often called ‘slums’) seem to defy the realisation of social rights. The UN Special Rapporteurs, in their reports, present informal dwellers mostly as the victims of human rights violations. Informal dwellers are not merely victims, however; they also produce non-state welfare through economic and social practices on the margins. Considering the human right to housing (as promise of social citizenship) and informal settlements, we discuss the ‘everyday social contract of informality’ that frames the production of non-state welfare in densely populated urban areas in the global South. Planning theorists, by introducing ‘insurgent citizenship’, examine the potential of bottom-up initiatives that claim the ‘right to the city’. Insurgent citizenship focuses on the enjoyment dimension of human rights. In this vein, we suggest that human rights cannot be implemented in informal settings without full consideration to the spatiality and sociality of non-state welfare.

This article examines the extent to which four major trends in welfare state reform – privatisation, increasing selectivity, increasing activation and increasing discipline – are supported and how this support can be explained. Using recent public opinion data of the Dutch population, it is found that there are two ideological dimensions underlying welfare reform support, the first tapping distributive reform, the latter tapping commodifying reform. While support for distributive reform in the direction of decreasing redistribution can solely be explained by economic interests and economic values, support for commodifying reform can also be explained culturally. It appears that one's cultural position and cultural ideological values are important for support for commodifying reform.

This article extends previous studies investigating economic globalisation and the welfare state by examining individual attitudes, ranging from a preference for individual responsibility (economic individualism) to public demand for government intervention (social equality), across a large number of countries. It formulates different hypotheses about the direct and moderating effects of economic openness on these attitudes. The multilevel analysis, investigating data from 99,663 citizens of 67 countries, leads to the following two conclusions. First, economic openness is associated with a stronger preference for economic individualism and less demand for government intervention. Second, groups benefiting from globalisation and right-wing voters have a stronger preference for economic individualism if the economic openness of their country is higher.

The article proceeds from the contention that rights are socially constructed; that social rights are constructed through the naming and claiming of needs; and that social citizenship provides the context for the realisation of such rights. It is argued that needs precede rights, but both are framed within two intersecting dimensions: sociality (the competing meanings that attach to social interdependency) and negotiation (the dynamics of the claiming process). From this premise, the article advances a post-Marshallian concept of citizenship that is truly social; that may be constituted in a variety of modes and at a variety of sites at the points at which competing understandings of needs and rights collide; that may transcend territorial boundaries; that may be shaped by a spectrum of means, ranging from local customs to international covenants; that may be centred on a politics of need as the process whereby needs are translated into rights.

Using rural household data from the China Household Income Project (CHIP) 2002, this article provides an analysis of different effects of household assets independent of family income on children's school enrollment and parental aspirations for education, examining both outcomes by children's gender. The study first compared the responsiveness of boys' and girls' enrollment with the improvement of household assets, measured as liquid assets and net worth, relative to family income. The multivariate regression analysis further detected the effects of household assets on both boys' and girls' school enrollment and parental aspirations for their future education. Statistical results show that, compared with family income, household assets matter more for girls' schooling than for boys'. In addition, household net worth was found to be significantly associated with parental aspirations for children's education regardless of gender. This study, albeit exploratory, sheds light on child welfare and education policies in rural China.

European countries have increased their public childcare provision for children under age 3. However, it is unclear if and how usage patterns differ across countries. This study examined the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of mothers and the use of childcare for 2-year-old children. Using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data for the years 2005–2008, we analysed the characteristics of mothers and usage patterns in Sweden, Finland and Western Germany. To single out the effect of maternal employment, working and non-working mothers were investigated separately. Our findings showed that, in Sweden, a country with strong support for dual-earner families, usage was largely independent of mothers' characteristics. However, in Western Germany, where more support is given to male breadwinner families, and in Finland, a country with pluralistic family support, highly educated mothers were found to be more likely to use childcare than were mothers with lower levels of education.

Social workers face many contemporary challenges. Alongside the difficulties of upholding human rights, social justice and active citizenship, are those of affirming environmental justice and care for planet earth in and through social work practice and addressing climate change and other disasters. I call for social workers to take action that addresses these issues as a strong, united profession that works alongside dispossessed and marginalised people who do not get their share of global resources, despite their limited ecological footprint. I suggest a new paradigm for practice rooted in environmental justice that enhances the well-being of people, the flora, fauna and the ecosystem that sustains and supports us all – green social work, for practitioners supporting life in one interdependent world.

The use of residential placements for children needing out-of-home care remains controversial. This article considers the discourse of ‘residential’ and ‘institutional’ care before describing, mainly through administrative data sources, the wide variations in group-care usage in different jurisdictions. In some countries, its use is minimal, with foster care, kinship care and in some cases, adoption being the preferred options. This is not so in other countries where a high percentage of children in care are in residential placements. There is also diversity in the type of residential services, ranging from small group homes to large institutions. The challenges inherent in making process and outcome comparisons across national boundaries are explored. The authors concur with those who argue for more systematic ways of describing and analysing the aims and characteristics of residential settings. Only then can meaningful comparisons be made between outcomes from group-care regimes in different jurisdictions.

It is only in recent times that there has been recognition of alcohol abuse in Saudi Arabia, and social, psychological and health implications are now acknowledged. This study measured craving among Saudi alcoholics and compared it with the levels of alcohol they consumed. The study used an instrument for measuring craving (Alcohol Craving Questionnaire) after identifying the subjects by means of a demographical questionnaire and testing their level of alcohol use by means of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. The study concludes that all Saudi alcoholics experience levels of craving. The overall results of both scales indicate that all patients can be considered to be alcoholics and that they experience various levels of craving for alcohol.

This study reports the findings from a national survey on gambling behaviour among Danish primary school children. A questionnaire was administered to 2,223 primary school students ranging in age from 11 to 17 years. The questionnaire contained a gambling screen (SOGS-RA) and items that measure gambling behaviour, social network and cognitive perceptions. The prevalence of problem gambling was 1.29 per cent, while 4.5 per cent were categorised as at-risk gamblers. The three most frequently reported reasons for gambling were to win money, to have fun and to socialise with family and friends. It is suggested that gambling may be linked to a masculine universe and that at-risk gambling behaviour patterns may be part of a normal adolescent life in which gambling serves recreational or leisure purposes. Implications for further research and preventive measures are discussed.

We conducted a study of changes in the availability, accessibility and enrolment of children from low-income, single-parent and ethnic minority families in early child care centres. The study was carried out in Brussels which offers unique possibilities to study accessibility in a context in which quality and costs are controlled across centres. A survey on access policies in 89 day care centres, and on 150 mothers regarding their search process, was complemented by two focus groups attended by centre directors. The results were compared with data from a similar study we conducted in 2005. The results show that while inequality in availability has remained, centre directors' awareness of social priority criteria has changed, resulting in a significant increase in the enrolment of children from single-parent and ethnic minority families, and – to a lesser extent – an increase in the enrolment of children from low-income families. The results support the hypothesis that policy measures, combined with support, can influence inequalities in enrolment rates.

Generalized social trust is correlated with increased levels of civic engagement, lower crime rates, and greater economic growth. Many scholars believe that equality provides the conditions in which social trust can flourish. Thus, welfare programs might be one way to generate social trust. However, the relationship between social spending and trust is contested: Some argue it is negative, while others argue it is positive. This study examined the effects of total social welfare expenditures on social trust in 18 OECD countries, holding constant individual characteristics, country characteristics, and country and year effects. Fixed effects analyses indicate that every additional percent of gross domestic product spent on social expenditures 5 years prior is associated with a 4.7 percent increased likelihood that respondents of that country will endorse trusting other people. Further testing for reverse causality found no significant association between trust and later social expenditures, supporting the claim that expenditures drive trust instead of the reverse.

In the current economic crisis, middle-class families often find themselves immersed in a process of downward social mobility. These are families in which both spouses work, and where many relational conflicts begin in the sphere of work–family reconciliation and the allocation of household responsibilities. This article presents the results of a research study we conducted on middle-class families in Spain. We focus specifically on the problems associated with work–family reconciliation and gender, and the mitigating role played by social support. Based on our results, we want to call the attention to a prevalent and ‘new’ conflict in family-based practice social work in Spain: the work–family conflict.

Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have long experienced social problems such as high rates of poverty and unemployment. These social problems necessitate the development of a viable, effective social welfare system. Relying on colonialism theory, this study examined the evolution of the social welfare system in the Palestinian Territories with an emphasis on the West Bank. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 16 staff officials in Palestinian ministries and through archival material and administrative records. Results indicate that the Palestinian National Authority inherited a fragmented social welfare system in 1994 that lacked an appropriate legal framework. Additionally, internal deficiencies (e.g., unclear legal mandates, duplication of services) and external restrictions (e.g., road closures) have undermined the effectiveness of Palestinian social welfare institutions. The newly adopted approach to social welfare planning (i.e., partnership) and recent national planning initiatives show promise. Implications for social welfare policy and future research are discussed.

Influenced by its historical beginnings, the production and modelling of knowledge in social work has become a small but diverse field. Ten key models exploring the nature of knowledge and its production in social work are reviewed against significant ideas from the interdisciplinary knowledge production literature beyond social work. In so doing, the place of holistic approaches to modelling the knowledge production process within social work and the human services is highlighted. It is argued that despite the number of models that attempt to describe the knowledge production process, there is scope for a more comprehensive, holistic, complex approach to modelling knowledge production in social work and the human services.

The article presents a cross-sectional study on the effects of US citizenship on wages of Asian immigrant women. The findings show that US citizenship positively moderated the relationship between sample characteristics and wages. Higher education (university and graduate school) significantly boosts the wage level of Asian immigrant women who have US citizenship. However, such positive influence does not exist for Asian immigrant women without US citizenship. This finding suggests that Asian immigrant women without US citizenship still face a glass ceiling.

This article presents an assessment of welfare reforms under a framework of programme heterogeneity and alternative measures of success. The study focused on a specific programme – Madrid's Ingreso Madrileño de Integración (Madrid Regional Government's Welfare Programme) – which comprises heterogeneous sub-programmes. We tested whether work-related sub-programmes performed better than general activities aimed at improving life skills by analysing the effects on different types of outcomes. We also tried to identify which work-related sub-programme worked best. Our results show that intensive employment activities yield remarkably better results than general work-related schemes or life-skills activities. However, increasing work participation does not automatically lift participants out of material hardship.

The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti severely undermined HIV service provision in the country. Almost 10 percent of Haitians were displaced and now live in temporary tent communities. Little is known about how HIV services are being provided to Haitians with HIV in these encampments. This study addresses this lacuna by conducting a process evaluation of the manner in which a collaboration among Haitian community-based HIV service providers, a US-based HIV service provider, and a US-based academic research team resurrected HIV services in the encampments. Efforts to set up HIV services in the encampments proceeded through three stages: (i) an initial crisis response that activated established networks and identified feasible goals; (ii) the development of services by building research capacity, conducting needs assessments, addressing logistical challenges, and establishing community-based services; and (iii) the sustaining of the initiative by targeting resources and negotiating in the political arena. Implications of the protocol for future efforts are discussed.

In this study, we investigated if there has been a displacement in the type and coverage of welfare services available for young unemployed adults in Finland, Norway and Sweden over the last two decades. This question is important because a number of studies have argued that the generous unemployment benefits and extensive labour market intervention found in the Nordic welfare states shield young people from the most severe consequences of economic inactivity. In this article, we instead show that during this period, less generous means-tested unemployment and social assistance benefits have become the most important form of income protection for young people. In evidence, earnings-related unemployment benefits now cover only 10 per cent of unemployed Swedes and Finns and 45 per cent of unemployed Norwegians aged 24 years or younger. This development marks a significant change in our understanding of unemployment protection for young people in Nordic countries.

In the last few decades, the prevalence of obesity has expanded rapidly and now constitutes a grave public health concern across the developed world. Obesity is negatively associated with, among other factors, education and healthcare quality, which are factors that governments can and do influence through welfare policies. This study investigated to what extent the change in the prevalence of obesity is lower in more generous welfare states. Based on pooled time series cross-section regressions for 15 developed countries over 25 years, we found that the more generous are transfer payments, health policy and education policy, the lower is the increase of obesity prevalence. These findings have important implications for public policy formation and the public health and welfare state literatures.

In Taiwan, centenarians are the fastest growing demographic among the 65+ population. However, the general population knows little about the country's oldest citizens. There is an urgent need for research to focus on the ‘super old’ community in order to allocate sufficient public and private resources towards their care. This study explored the living conditions of Taiwanese centenarians as well as their care and support systems through a quantitative questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the centenarians or their caregivers. The total sample size of the study was 100. Sample characteristics regarding age, gender, living arrangement, physical and mental health status, daily functioning and overall life satisfaction are presented. It was found that a much higher percentage of Taiwanese centenarians lived with family members in their own homes, while their counterparts in Western societies were institutionalised. This study also identifies the concept of symbiotic care grounded in a family network.

Effective practice in a global world requires knowledge and understanding of diverse cultures. Most social workers around the world are committed to values and policies that enhance the well-being of especially vulnerable populations and that protect their human rights. However, not all cultural practices or policies place the same value on human rights and the protection of vulnerable populations, a situation that may result in conflicts for social workers, who have an ethical obligation to advocate for human rights as well as to be sensitive to their clients' cultural contexts. Based on multidisciplinary research and contemporary examples of gender discrimination, forced marriages, child labor, and female genital mutilation, this article proposes resolutions to this conflict. It concludes by suggesting practices and policies that might help social workers to strike an effective balance between cultural diversity and the promotion of human rights.

This article reviews Nordic research, published from 1995 and onwards, on the relationship between unemployment and mental health among young adults. Cross-sectional, longitudinal and time-series studies are included. Cross-sectional studies show that the unemployed experience more mental health problems than the non-unemployed. Leaving unemployment is associated with increased well-being. Economic problems, feelings of shame and poor social support increase the likelihood of psychological distress. The longitudinal studies show that unemployment increases the risk of psychological distress and attempted suicide, after initial mental health status and confounding factors are accounted for. The relationship remains significant when time-invariant characteristics of the individuals are controlled for. The time-series studies found no relationship between unemployment and suicide, but levels of psychological distress were found to vary with changes in the labour market. This relationship remained significant after excluding the non-employed, indicating that unemployment trends have effects beyond those directly associated with unemployment.

Kim JW, Choi YJ. Feminisation of poverty in 12 welfare states: consolidating cross-regime variations?

Taking the elusive definition of social enterprise as its starting point, this study seeks to understand the impact of government policies on the development of social enterprises in the national contexts of the UK and South Korea. The social construction of target populations is utilised as a theoretical framework in order to identify which factors influence government policy. A comparison of the two countries over a 14-year period from 1997 to 2010 reveals that, despite very different contexts, governments in both countries have taken an instrumental approach to social enterprise. This tendency is more pronounced in Korea however, where government has limited the input of stakeholders and used an approval system to control access to the social enterprise name. The study concludes by recommending a more value-oriented approach to social enterprise.

Mokomane Z. Social protection as a mechanism for family protection in sub-Saharan Africa

This article argues that the concept of the East Asian welfare regime can be further developed by examining the changing role of the family in welfare provision. Beginning with a brief literature review of the East Asian welfare model, the family has been regarded as the main welfare provider among East Asian societies. Nevertheless, from a policy-centred perspective, the oversimplified picture of the East Asian welfare model does not reveal how families actually perform in welfare provision or how the dynamic change in the welfare mix for vulnerable groups under the welfare regime has been accommodated. This article presents a case study and shows that while most elderly people in Taiwan still live with their children, who are also their main means of support, a significant number of them are living alone and that much of the economic support they used to receive from nongovernmental organisation now comes from the state.

One of the aims of the study was to investigate how participants in self-help groups (SHG) for women (n = 87) who had been sexually abused in childhood rated their mental health and to what extent they were at risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A further aim was to investigate the relationship between the ratings of mental health, occurrence of PTSD, women's interpersonal relationships, reasons for participating in an SHG and characteristics of the childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The participants completed questionnaires regarding their personal relationships, reasons for joining a group, abuse characteristics, mental health (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised) and PTSD (Impact of Event Scale-Revised). The women showed poor mental health, and more than half of them were at risk of developing PTSD. Lack of social support and feelings of shame correlated with poor mental health, whereas guilt did not. Relationships with female friends had a positive association. Further research is needed to determine whether participating in an SHG could provide adequate social support and reduce feelings of shame, thereby contributing to the healing process in the aftermath of CSA.

Social work's role in creating social solidarity requires an engagement with identity politics through careful negotiation of the boundary between the private and the public spheres and hence ensuring a balance between personal freedom to define one's specific identity and the public entitlement to belong to a political community as citizens. Current political and cultural trends, reflected also in social policies, impact severely on that boundary maintenance task inasmuch as privatisation encroaches on formerly public domains while simultaneously details of private concerns receive public attention through their commercialisation by the new media. It is suggested that social work's political role be asserted more explicitly in terms of the application of the Global Agenda which needs to penetrate to the level of person-to-person interaction.

The abundant literature on welfare state policies, regimes or ‘worlds’ has been only limitedly interested in unemployment protection, and even less in youth unemployment protection. What is clearly lacking in the literature is an updated analysis of the most recent policies developed in European countries targeting youth. This mini-symposium aims to fill in this gap by presenting findings from an EU-funded research project entitled ‘Youth, Unemployment and Exclusion in Europe: A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding the Conditions and Prospects for Social and Political Integration of Young Unemployed’ (YOUNEX). The main aim of the research endeavour was to develop theory and contribute to empirical knowledge concerning the social and political exclusion of unemployed youth in Europe.

In this article we discuss the emergence of ‘youth unemployment regimes’ in Europe, that is, a set of coherent measures and policies aimed at providing state responses to the problem of unemployment and, more specifically, youth unemployment. We classify these measures and policies along two main dimensions: unemployment regulations and labour market regulations. Using original data, we show how seven European countries locate on these two dimensions as well as within the conceptual space resulting from the combination of the two dimensions. Our findings show cross-national variations that do not fit the traditional typologies of comparative welfare studies. At the same time, however, the findings allow for reflecting upon possible patterns of convergence across European countries. In particular, we show some important similarities in terms of flexible labour market regulations. In this regard, the recent years have witnessed a trend towards a flexibilisation of the labour market, regardless of the prevailing welfare regime.

Since the beginning of the millennium, the institutions of the European Union have intensified their political efforts to combat youth employment. Youth-specific policy initiatives were launched after the financial and economic crisis of 2008, and the overall subsequent rise of unemployment rates among young people. In this article, we analyse and assess these developments on the basis of an analysis of European policy documents and interviews. Our conclusions are twofold. One, we argue that the Europe 2020 Strategy and its flagship initiatives devoted to youth do not constitute a new policy field or approach, but are rather the outcome of an incrementalist logic of policy development. Two, the European youth strategy is clearly committed to activation, and it pushes policy developments towards a minimalist policy approach of precarious protection. Both developments are explained by the actor constellations and path dependencies of the European policy arena.

The comparison between France and Switzerland enables us to compare a country that has a strong interventionist tradition in the labour market and whose youth unemployment is endemically high with a more liberal country that is faced with a more recent increase in youth unemployment but which, nevertheless, remains relatively measured. Starting from different rules and values, the two youth unemployment systems resemble each other insofar as both exclude most unemployed youth from all available benefits. From this angle, French egalitarianism rejoins Swiss differentialism. In both cases, it is not the least of paradoxes that the system of unemployment insurance so little benefits those who are most vulnerable to the economic crisis and the present dearth of jobs.

Although Italy and Portugal are considered to be part of the same welfare state family – the Southern European one – analysis of a key component of the welfare state, namely, unemployment policies and regulations, reveals a different evaluation. A comparative analysis of a series of specific indicators of Italian and Portuguese unemployment regimes shows that they represent two different models. Portugal appears to be a more inclusive system, closer to continental or Northern European countries than it is to Italy, or at least representing a hybrid system that combines characteristics of continental European welfare states with characteristics that are more typical of Southern European welfare states. Italy, on the contrary, is much more clearly a Southern European welfare state.