In the wake of a rescaling of national state welfare responsibilities, urban centres, like the city of Toronto, have become new governance sightlines for managing the deleterious effects of a globalised restructuring of capitalist economies. Toronto is now trafficking its multicultural and “creative city” flare in regional and global markets to secure capital investment necessary to float its newly acquired fiscal responsibilities, including welfare and social services provisioning. And a host of local private-public partnerships have appeared as “shadow state” actors to assist in the suturing of disenfranchised communities to the operative logics of neo-liberal governance and globalised city aspirations. Social welfare and urban studies literature has not been attentive to the increasing reliance on visuality and the “aesthetic” more broadly in securing these desired social and economic outcomes. My ethnographically based dissertation picks up this analytical slack by inciting a two-fold intervention: First, I hone in on the efficacious properties of visual images produced within 3 different social policy spaces and their presumed roles in constituting the domains of social interaction and production. This analysis illustrates that different policy crafting experts understand the “aesthetic” as a remunerative technology of governance - for regulating the problematics of socio-economic and racialised difference, and for mediating rifts in the social fabric as fallout from welfare retrenchment. Second, I examine the ways in which certain normativised aesthetic sensibilities connected to neoliberal urbanism serve as both a calculative resource for re-defining certain spaces and subjects as problematic and thus controllable, and an interpellative mechanism for assembling moralized subjects around the dictates of responsibility and (self) empowerment. The dissertation argues that although these aesthetic governance strategies are resulting in a depoliticisation of communities, and a moralised segregation of compliant and non-compliant subjects played out along racialised /economic lines, there exists a level of disruption transpiring in the spaces of policy implementation. In situ attention to these disruptions, layered with a reflexive analytical restaging of these events and a critical analysis of deployed governance strategies are proposed as a grounding for social work, research and social policy praxis.

In the wake of a rescaling of national state welfare responsibilities, urban centres, like the city of Toronto, have become new governance sightlines for managing the deleterious effects of a globalised restructuring of capitalist economies. Toronto is now trafficking its multicultural and “creative city” flare in regional and global markets to secure capital investment necessary to float its newly acquired fiscal responsibilities, including welfare and social services provisioning. And a host of local private-public partnerships have appeared as “shadow state” actors to assist in the suturing of disenfranchised communities to the operative logics of neo-liberal governance and globalised city aspirations. Social welfare and urban studies literature has not been attentive to the increasing reliance on visuality and the “aesthetic” more broadly in securing these desired social and economic outcomes. My ethnographically based dissertation picks up this analytical slack by inciting a two-fold intervention: First, I hone in on the efficacious properties of visual images produced within 3 different social policy spaces and their presumed roles in constituting the domains of social interaction and production. This analysis illustrates that different policy crafting experts understand the “aesthetic” as a remunerative technology of governance - for regulating the problematics of socio-economic and racialised difference, and for mediating rifts in the social fabric as fallout from welfare retrenchment. Second, I examine the ways in which certain normativised aesthetic sensibilities connected to neoliberal urbanism serve as both a calculative resource for re-defining certain spaces and subjects as problematic and thus controllable, and an interpellative mechanism for assembling moralized subjects around the dictates of responsibility and (self) empowerment. The dissertation argues that although these aesthetic governance strategies are resulting in a depoliticisation of communities, and a moralised segregation of compliant and non-compliant subjects played out along racialised /economic lines, there exists a level of disruption transpiring in the spaces of policy implementation. In situ attention to these disruptions, layered with a reflexive analytical restaging of these events and a critical analysis of deployed governance strategies are proposed as a grounding for social work, research and social policy praxis.

Since the late 1990s, there has been a rapid expansion of welfare – including education, social security, and health care – in China. But this expansion has not been evenly distributed; some cities have expanded welfare very rapidly while other cities have lagged far behind. Why do we see this variation? To answer this question, we need to begin by exploring the reasons why an authoritarian regime would expand welfare at all; after all, the government is not responding to voters. To understand both the motivations and variations of welfare expansion, this dissertation focuses on business-government relations, particularly (1) the role of big business, (2) the effect of bureaucratic structures, using development zones as a case study, and (3) the resources municipal politicians bring with them to their positions. This dissertation makes two major contributions. First, departing from the traditional state-centered approach in the study of authoritarian governance, it offers an alternative approach that focuses on the “demand” side of welfare provision by examining the role of big business. In countries without formal democratic institutions, firms’ influence on social policy is more capability based: large firms are more influential. Second, this project examines the bureaucratic structure of development zones and finds that they have a unique administrative structure (including higher political ranking, central government support and supervision, and more professional personnel), which enables the zone government to be more responsive to the needs of business, resulting in a better welfare provision. The dissertation also offers an explanation to distinct social policy priorities (i.e. human capital vs. social security) across cities by tracing how mayors’ work experience and political connections shape their decisions on cities’ growth strategies, which in turn contributes to differences in social policy outcomes. Empirically, this dissertation employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitatively, it involved the construction of an original panel dataset with economic, political, and demographical information on all 336 Chinese cities from 2001 to 2012. Qualitatively, it offers in-depth case studies on several cities based on primary sources in Chinese language, including local gazetteers (difangzhi), yearbooks, newspapers, and published as well as unpublished internal government documents.

This thesis consists of three empirical chapters related to distributional outcomes, such as poverty and inequality, in three different contexts. Chapter 1 outlines a class of statistical procedures that permit testing of a broad range of multidimensional stochastic dominance hypotheses. We apply the procedures to data on income and leisure hours for individuals in Germany, the UK, and the USA. We find that no country first-order stochastically dominates the others in both dimensions for all years of comparison. Furthermore, while in general the USA stochastically dominates Germany and the UK with respect to income, in most periods Germany stochastically dominates with respect to leisure hours. Finally, we find evidence that bivariate poverty is lower in Germany than in either the UK or the USA. On the other hand, poverty comparisons between the UK and the USA are sensitive to the subpopulation of individuals considered. Chapter 2 provides a detailed description of the evolution of income inequality in Vietnam between 1993 and 2006. We construct consistent estimates of annual household income using five nationally representative household surveys. Our main finding is that Vietnam’s rapid growth was accompanied by a reduction in inequality between 1993 and 2002 and an unchanged level of inequality between 2002 and 2006. We find that strong growth in employment income and robust growth of cropping income played an important role in decreasing rural inequality, while the growth of wage income and the stagnation of household business income similarly contributed to the reduction in urban inequality. Chapter 3 examines the impacts of the 2001 U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement on provincial poverty level in Vietnam. My main finding is that provinces that were more exposed to the U.S. tariff cuts experienced faster decreases in poverty between 2002 and 2004. I subsequently explore three labour market channels from the trade agreement to poverty alleviation. Provinces that were more exposed to the tariff cuts experienced (1) increases in provincial wage premiums for low-skilled workers, (2) faster movement into wage and salaried jobs for low-skilled workers, and (3) more rapid job growth in formal enterprises.

This thesis consists of three empirical chapters related to distributional outcomes, such as poverty and inequality, in three different contexts. Chapter 1 outlines a class of statistical procedures that permit testing of a broad range of multidimensional stochastic dominance hypotheses. We apply the procedures to data on income and leisure hours for individuals in Germany, the UK, and the USA. We find that no country first-order stochastically dominates the others in both dimensions for all years of comparison. Furthermore, while in general the USA stochastically dominates Germany and the UK with respect to income, in most periods Germany stochastically dominates with respect to leisure hours. Finally, we find evidence that bivariate poverty is lower in Germany than in either the UK or the USA. On the other hand, poverty comparisons between the UK and the USA are sensitive to the subpopulation of individuals considered. Chapter 2 provides a detailed description of the evolution of income inequality in Vietnam between 1993 and 2006. We construct consistent estimates of annual household income using five nationally representative household surveys. Our main finding is that Vietnam’s rapid growth was accompanied by a reduction in inequality between 1993 and 2002 and an unchanged level of inequality between 2002 and 2006. We find that strong growth in employment income and robust growth of cropping income played an important role in decreasing rural inequality, while the growth of wage income and the stagnation of household business income similarly contributed to the reduction in urban inequality. Chapter 3 examines the impacts of the 2001 U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement on provincial poverty level in Vietnam. My main finding is that provinces that were more exposed to the U.S. tariff cuts experienced faster decreases in poverty between 2002 and 2004. I subsequently explore three labour market channels from the trade agreement to poverty alleviation. Provinces that were more exposed to the tariff cuts experienced (1) increases in provincial wage premiums for low-skilled workers, (2) faster movement into wage and salaried jobs for low-skilled workers, and (3) more rapid job growth in formal enterprises.

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Al-Habalah Village is located in the Asir region of southwestern Saudi Arabia. The villagers were relocated to King Faisal Model Village in late 1979. The main objectives of this study were to: (1) identify the reason for relocation; (2) assess the outcome of relocation in terms of compensation, hardships, status of activities before and after relocation, and degree of adaptation to the new location; and (3) evaluate the population's current relationship to their former village in terms of ownership, utilization of resources, and access status. The major findings of this study indicate that the main reason for relocation was the village's inaccessible routes, isolation, and complete absence of public services. Hardships associated with the relocation included adaptation to the new environment, preparing farms, and acquiring homes and furniture. Comparison of activities before and after relocation indicates some positive effects of the change. A notable exception is grazing activities which have sharply decreased. The quantity and quality of resources at the new location are variable. For example, the quantity of water is highly dependent on rainfall. Also, the quantity of firewood is limited, except for the distant mountain zone. In addition, while the quality of soils was good, the quality of grazing lands was poor as a direct result of the dominant climate and land development. A notable exception is the mountain zone. Because of the relocatees ownership of their property, such as homes and farms at the former village, they are free to go to their former village and utilize the former village's resources. The study determined that the basic needs which were missing at the former village are found at the new location and the population is satisfied with the outcome of the relocation.

<p> Municipal broadband implementations are restricted in some way by 19 states, with other states proposing restrictions. In analyzing the different state laws, there are three categories of restrictions: bans on providing services, administrative restrictions, and economic restrictions. The most common restriction is to require municipalities to create separate funds for communication services, there are 21 different economic restrictions implemented. Most states implement more than one type of restriction and do not fall into just one category. The effect of the restrictions varies depending on the market conditions and the status of the LEC (Local Exchange Carrier), and the number of municipal electric companies present within the state. The restrictions in most states passed after the first large scale municipal network was proposed. This made it difficult to measure the effect of the restrictions on either broadband adoption or fiber to the home (FTTH) rates.</p>

<p> Using a nationally representative sample of older adults, this dissertation examines the use of assistive technology devices (ATDs) designed to aid with mobility and sensory functioning and to improve one's capacity to perform activities of daily living. It measures the impact of ATDs on the participation levels and living arrangement decisions of those needing help. Although the use of these devices has been found to improve functionality, their effectiveness in relation to further outcomes has not been affirmed. The first essay considers whether an individual's ATD use has a positive impact on active participation in activities such as visiting family and friends, attending religious services, joining clubs, going out for enjoyment and volunteering. </p><p> Another advantage of improved physical functioning would be the older individual's ability to remain in his or her home, as opposed to transferring to a residential care setting. Little research has examined the determinants of living in residential care, versus in the community, and none has examined the use of ATDs in this choice. The second essay considers correlations between living arrangements and the use of ATDs. Finally, the third essay considers whether using assistive devices is associated with a lower probability of living in a residential care environment, controlling for many other health, social and economic factors.</p>

The purpose of this study is to enquire into the policies and methods of staff development followed by the Social Welfare Branch with respect to its Field Service staff. The survey involves understanding its generalized, multi-service program, the philosophy and goals of the social legislation of British Columbia, and the administrative organization which brings these social welfare services to citizens. The concurrent development of professional social work practice, and the planning of staff development opportunities as a means of obtaining qualified personnel are outlined. Related to the Agency's role in continuing the professional growth of staff on the job are standards of practice and the appropriate use of personnel. The implementation of a costly welfare program places responsibility upon the Social Welfare Branch to ensure that these services are administered by qualified personnel. In common with other professions that of social work is continuously using new knowledge to refine practice. As it is the personnel who give life to a service program research was first directed to the qualifications, professional and otherwise, of staff employed on the survey date, February 1, 1952. Because of the key position of the District Supervisor, a job analysis to show time distribution by type of work performed was completed. While not a true indication of the quality of work, it is suggestive of the availability of District Supervisors to staff. As a supplementary means of gauging the way in which District Supervisors work the survey questionnaire requested information concerning supervisory procedures. Other data concerning staff development methods was obtained from Branch files, and interviews with administrative personnel: Division Heads, Regional Administrators, Field Consultants, District Supervisors, the Training Supervisor, and the Assistant Director of Welfare. The study showed that it is the objective of the Social Welfare Branch to offer professional services,to employ qualified personnel, and to promote their professional development on the job. The findings confirmed what was already known about the excessive volume of work placed upon the Field Staff which makes it difficult to maintain satisfactory standards of practice. It is apparent the administrative function of the District Supervisor limits unduly the teaching requirements of this position. In order that a well-planned staff development program be carried out it is recommended administrative responsibility and additional personnel for function be given to the Division of Training, and a budget for this program be allocated. To raise the qualifications of Field Staff to a desirable professional standard the extension of bursaries and educational leaves with pay especially for District Supervisors, would have permanent results. Administrative reorganization to separate out the function of Personnel would facilitate better focus upon the staff development program. Several suggestions concerning the In-Service Training Plan are referred to in the text. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate