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Scholars agree that the early childhood years are highly consequential for later educational outcomes, but we know little about the impact of early childhood socioeconomic conditions at the societal level. This study contributes to the literature by bringing to comparative sociology the proposition that variations in the social structures into which children are born have lasting impacts on their educational outcomes as they progress through secondary education. Drawing on theories of welfare regimes and social stratification, we analyze nation-level data on socioeconomic conditions from the early 2000s via the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and educational performance data from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (N = 35). In line with our hypotheses, societal inequalities and disadvantages present when children are young are associated with negative achievement outcomes 15 years later and policies that guarantee people basic securities are more consistently associated with positive achievement outcomes than are broad measures of social spending. We conclude by highlighting the value of our approach and suggesting directions for future research on cross-national variations in achievement as a product of socioeconomic conditions during early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finland was a pioneer in the democratization of Europe, granting women the right to vote on equal terms with men as early as 1906. In principle, men and women from all social classes were permitted to vote and stand for election. However, a proportion of the adult population - those who regularly received poor relief - was excluded from suffrage. Using internationally unique microdata on over 19,000 poor-relief recipients and the corresponding population registers of two provinces in Finland, we estimated the extent to which gender and age determined disenfranchisement due to poor relief during the 1911 parliamentary elections. Our results indicate that a disproportionate share of women, and especially of older people, were disenfranchised due to poor relief. The analysis provides novel evidence of the hidden discriminatory effects of an early welfare scheme. The system of poor relief not only provided support for older people in need but also disqualified many of them from political citizenship and introduced gender inequality in basic rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa and Brazil are burdened with persistent inequality and poverty two decades after democratisation. Both countries have developed ambitious social policies aimed at addressing these challenges. In this article, I seek to answer the following question: to what extent are the social policies pursued in South Africa and Brazil leading to the realisation of a new social contract? The article will compare the two countries' social policy architectures in their evolution under the governance of the African National Congress and the Partido dos Trabalhadores. This analysis should be read in a dynamic global context where cash transfers have shaped their social policies, the Social Grant in South Africa and the Bolsa Família in Brazil, culminating in a re-invigorated discussion and debate within the global social policy architecture. The article departs from the mainstream approach of social protection as an instrumental tool for reducing poverty and inequality, which, I argue, is a narrow vision of social policy. I advocate an institutional analysis to social policy, where mechanisms of production, protection and redistribution are pivotal in addressing the socio-economic challenges that face both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the reduction of income poverty through federal monetary transfers in Mexico. To do so, we compare the net market income poverty rate with the disposable income poverty rate of several social groups. The main purpose is to establish, on the one hand, the poorest social groups in terms of market income, and on the other, how much poverty is reduced after the distribution of federal monetary transfers. We present a comparison between the reduction of income poverty by social security transfers and by means tested cash transfer programs, in order to provide an evaluation of the effectiveness of the social policy in the reduction of income poverty. Likewise, we provide some public policy implications from the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I present the key findings from a project entitled “The Social Context of Indigenous Poverty”. The research involved a series of interviews with Aboriginal people in urban SE Australia on issues of poverty, social capital and social exclusion. In the article I draw together Aboriginal perspectives on the meaning of poverty to reflect on the relevance of social capital concepts for understanding Aboriginal economic disadvantage and hence, the merits of policy framed in these terms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper reviews recent socio-economic changes in the 10 new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe and the earlier and latest debates on the emergence of the post-communist welfare state regime. It asks two questions: are the new EU member states more similar to each other in their social problems encountered than to the rest of the EU world? Do they exhibit enough common socio-economic and institutional features to group them into the distinct/unified post-communist welfare regime that deviates from any well-known welfare state typology? The findings of this paper indicate that despite some slight variation within, the new EU countries exhibit lower indicators compared to the EU-15 as it comes to the minimum wage and social protection expenditure. The degree of material deprivation and the shadow economy is on average also higher if compared to the EU-15 or the EU-27. However, then it comes to at-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers or Gini index, some Eastern European outliers especially the Check Republic, but also Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary perform the same or even better than the old capitalist democracies. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, however, show many similarities in their social indicators and performances and this group of countries never perform better than the EU-15 or the EU-27 averages. Nevertheless, the literature reviews on welfare state development in the CEE region reveal a number of important institutional features in support of identifying the distinct/unified post-communist welfare regime. Most resilient of it are: an insurance-based programs that played a major part in the social protection system; high take-up of social security; relatively low social security benefits; increasing signs of liberalization of social policy; and the experience of the Soviet/Communist type of welfare state, which implies still deeply embedded signs of solidarity and universalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's poverty has long been a central concern for policy makers and policy researchers. The body of extant research conducted and the range of programmatic interventions undertaken by successive governments in this and other countries is extraordinary. Nevertheless, children remain in poverty. Clearly there are many reasons for this, not least of which is the maintenance and intensification of market capitalism with its attendant blatant inequalities. Even so, the moral, political, social and economic imperatives for developing workable responses to children's poverty remain. This paper argues that we, in Australia, should adopt an approach increasingly taken in the UK. Drawing on, among other things, the new sociology of childhood, this approach begins not with the expertise of adult researchers and policy makers, but with that of children. In doing so, the case is made for why children's perceptions and experiences of poverty are key concerns for policy. The paper outlines in theoretical terms why children's voices matter. Invoking the new sociology of childhood and the sociology of identity, a conceptual framework for understanding why policy scholars and makers should carefully attend to the voices of their subjects is sketched - in this case, the subjects are children. Finally, some methodological implications of this for undertaking policy research informed by this approach are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the record of the British Labour Party's flagship policy aimed at reducing poverty and social exclusion in one of the most unequal societies in western Europe. It seeks to show that, despite an increasingly refined official view of poverty—as a multidimensional phenomenon—and despite extensive measures involving educational and labour market reforms, new activation strategies and considerable fiscal transfers, social mobility and persistent poverty remains stubbornly resistant. The article ascribes these disappointing outcomes to the simultaneous pursuit by New Labour of macro-economic policies which promote income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several issues regarding the assessment of well-being and the impact of economic factors on overall well-being. It explores the concept of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion and how they relate with each other, and examines the context of identifying and measuring poverty and disadvantage through the use of frameworks or indicators that reflect the range of factors contributing to living standards. It also describes the Left Out and Missing Out project in Australia in which it has led to the development of indicators that have the potential to effectively contribute in the establishment of policies designed to prevent and ameliorate the different sources of social disadvantage.

The following paper has the main purpose of describing the deep process of transformations happened in the last decade in Argentina with the application of neoliberal politics; and in which way this changes affected the social cohabitation. Issues like extreme poverty, outstanding groups and the failures experiences of territorial harmonious development seems to be the principal barriers to the economic grow up for a country who is actually living advantageous economics and financial circumstances. The 1994 Constitutional Reform allowed the beginning of this changes, and in consequence of this situation, is necessary to sit up in the social and academic agenda issues like "citizen income" or "positive actions" for a modern redesign of the Welfare State institutions, and to give birth to a more equitable an solidary country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing levels of child poverty (as well as poverty in general) in a way that can be sustained over time requires not only policy measures that create opportunities and future capabilities. It also depends on having a social protection system that keeps pace with economic and social change and is appropriate across all communities, and which does not itself preclude individual risk-taking and initiative. Some conflict is inevitable between the goal of providing adequate social protection for those unable to support themselves and that of maintaining incentives to work and to save for those who have the potential to do so. Nevertheless, there are aspects of the design and evolution of cash benefits (and associated policies) that can improve the terms of the trade-off between the two goals. This paper draws on the experience of the United Kingdom's child poverty agenda over the last eight years, and on assessments of the prospects for a sustained reduction in child poverty in the future, to explore what these features might be. It also considers evidence from international comparisons of poverty and social protection systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several abstracts of studies concerning land use planning. "North American Urban History: The Everyday Politics and Spatial Logics of Metropolitan Life," by Mary Corbin Sies; "The Myth of Liberty Place: Race and Public Memory in New Orleans," by Jacob A. Wagner; "Planned Industrial Districts in Chicago: Firms, Networks, and Boundaries," by Robert Lewis.

Presents the abstracts of several studies on planning. "The Rise (and Decline) of American Regional Science: Lessons for the New Economic Geography?," by Trevor J. Barnes; "Contesting Visions: Hybridity, Liminality and Authorship of the Chandigarh Plan," by Nihal Perera; "Waiting for Geography," by Marcus A. Doel.

Introduces a series of articles about social policy and poverty and the role of culture in the reproduction of economic inequality.

The article reports on the internal revenue code to accomplish different social and economic objectives. This article proposes that social workers should advocate for changes in the internal revenue code that promise to reduce poverty, the most fundamental social problem in the United States. The new political realities reviewed in this article strongly suggest that social work should promote changes in the Internal Revenue Code that will reduce poverty through job growth and incentives that make work more rewarding for welfare recipients and low-income Americans. Entitlement programs are further burdened by the public perception that the majority of the nation's poor people live in inner cities where they take advantage of entitlement programs. Wages and salaries for American workers increased an average of 1 percent per year between 1970 and 1989. Meanwhile, the consumer price index rose at an average of 5 percent per year. Some economists argue that the economy actually made a U-turn in the 1980s and that the number of bad jobs began to outpace the number of good jobs. The growing economic squeeze on the middle class is also the result of the shift in the tax burden to the middle class. Although its significance with respect to economic philosophy may not yet be fully comprehended by the middle class, the progressively of the tax code, the cornerstone of democratic liberalism, was seriously eroded during the 1980s.

The article focuses on the role of social policy in promoting social integration among countries in the midst of liberalization and globalization process. It stresses the need for effective social integration and social inclusion strategies in the coming decades to address a widening spectrum of risks, susceptibilities, and social exclusions. It says that the problem on poverty will likely to increase inequality and, as a result, constitute a threat to the stability of states and societies. It notes that a comprehensive approach to societal development that is anchored in the recognition of the interrelationships between economic, ecological, and social dimensions of development is needed to address effectively the current and future risks and vulnerabilities.