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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed 20 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Sociology and Social Policy, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 2005; thesis submitted 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed Jan. 9, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-330).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 19, 2010). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-258).

The paper studies class inequalities in health over the ageing process in a comparative perspective. It investigates if health inequalities among the elderly vary between European welfare state regimes, and if this variation is age-dependent. Previous comparative research on health inequalities have largely failed to take age and ageing into account, and have not investigated whether cross-country variation in health inequalities might differ for different age categories. Since the elderly belong to the demographic category most dependent on welfare policies, an ageing perspective is warranted. The study combines fives data rounds (2002 to 2010) from the European Social Survey. Multilevel techniques are used, and the analysis is stratified by age, comparing the 50-64 year olds with those aged 65-80 years. Health is measured by self-assessed general health and disability status. Two results stand out. First, class differences in health are strongly reduced or vanish completely for the 65-80 year olds in the Social democratic welfare states, while they remain stable or are in some cases even intensified in almost all other welfare states. Second, the cross-country variation in health inequalities is much larger for the oldest (aged 65-80 years) than is the case for the 50-64 year olds. It is concluded that welfare policies seem to influence the magnitude of health inequalities, and that the importance of welfare state context is greater for the elderly, who are more fragile and more reliant on welfare policies such as public pensions and elderly care.

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborg, 2003.

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborg, 2003.

Placing politics in time can greatly enrich our understanding of complex social dynamics. The question this thesis tries to answer is which mechanism led to the change in attitudes of the German Social Democratic Party and the British Labour Party towards the welfare state during the period from 1990 to 2010 and which effects in consequence these changes had on the existing welfare states. This thesis builds on the welfare state categorization work done by the Danish sociologist Gosta Esping-Andersen ("Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism"). However, the thesis focuses its in- depth analysis on Germany and the United Kingdom as prototypical conservative and liberal states. The heuristic text analysis, as well as the discourse analysis of party leader speeches, party manifestos and programmes, as well as the conducted expert interviews reveal that social, political, technological and economic changes during the given time period radically challenged and changed the norms and values of the welfare providers and with it the given welfare state, as well as the meaning, function and value of work. While many may argue that it was mainly the neo-liberal political and economic style that changed the attitude towards the welfare state, it was in fact just the trigger for a radical change in the interpretation of the basic social democratic values of freedom, justice and solidarity. This change made significant welfare state reforms inevitable and only with further changes can a balance and satisfaction within the welfare state system and within all welfare providing sectors (the state, the market, households and the third sector) be achieved. A new balanced social democratic approach for the 21st century is a ‘symmetrical welfare state’ that stands for mirror-image equality.

This study examines tuberculosis discourse in order to understand the ideological factors surrounding the disease. It reveals that a dominant focus on biomedical issues and HIV/AIDS has undermined existing perceptions of the social causes of tuberculosis disease. The effect is an individualising of tuberculosis and its removal from a social context. This together with a hegemonic neo-liberal paradigm of development and state spending dictates that the biomedical reductionist treatment for certain diseases – like tuberculosis – is most “cost-effective” and thus is advocated for disease control. Consequently, the state is required to merely provide health-care in a manner that ignores the social context of disease. The responsibility for the outcome of health care (i.e. health) is therefore deferred to the individual. The unintended consequence is that as private organisations (both for- and not-for-profit) take up the state’s responsibility, citizens become disempowered by their limited ability to hold the state accountable, or to engage in meaningful ways that bring about structural change. As such, an environment that further disenfranchises the poor and defeats the purposes of health care in general is perpetuated and diseases like tuberculosis continue their deadly campaign. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Sociology / unrestricted

This paper is part of broader research on social welfare, understood in its broadest sense as social security, education, and health care, which the state has taken over gradually from religions as it has established its authority and thereby the ontological and the teleological legitimacy of secularity as a pillar of modernity. The paper explores the Chinese Communist Party’s evolving attitude towards religious affairs and philanthropy. In many societies, secularity has been the response to the problems of individual freedom, inter-religious conflict, and social differentiation for the sake of efficiency and due to industrialization. In these societies, the state, and, subsequently, medical and educational establishments, gradually wrested social welfare management away from religious institutions. This process has advanced most in highly industrialized societies, and has taken different forms based on denominational differences, political alignments, and class coalitions.1 The process still faces contestation from conservative forces that would like to see religious associations take charge of a greater array of social services. This is particularly the case in the United States. In post-colonial societies,2 there has been considerable variation in the welfare state’s commitments and ideals. However, most new states have failed to match the achievements of the liberal, industrialized economies of North America, Western Europe, Oceania, and Japan. Religious institutions have remained important providers of social welfare and have even become involved in development. This reality has received increasing recognition from international organizations, and there has also been significant progress in research on this subject.3