This thesis uses cross-country panel regressions to identify the effects of fossil-fuel subsidies for both oil importers and oil exporters on GDP growth, industry growth, crowding out of government expenditures in education, health, and infrastructure, government debt, carbon dioxide emissions, inequality and poverty. Fossil-fuel subsidies are found to be associated with lower levels of growth and industry growth, less government expenditure on health and education, poorer infrastructure quality, more government debt, and higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions. No relationship is found between fossil fuel subsidies and poverty and inequality. These results confirm the arguments of those that argue that fossil-fuel subsidies should be rationalized. However, removing subsidies is politically challenging. In order to identify strategies for fossil fuel reform, the successful reform efforts of Indonesia and Turkey are examined. These cases are then used to draw lessons for governments undertaking subsidy reform. The key strategies used were to exempt some regions, groups, or fuels from reform, use funds from subsidy removal for social safety nets and other poverty alleviation programs, time the reforms strategically, and communicate clearly to the public the reason for reform and how the funds will be used. These lessons are applied to countries in the developing Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.

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[pt] Este trabalho tem por objetivo contribuir com o debate da sociologia da educação acerca dos desafios contemporâneos para a garantia do direito à educação para crianças, adolescentes e jovens no Brasil. Parte-se, assim, da premissa de que quando o acesso e a conclusão da escolarização são ameaçados pelas determinações de seus contextos sociais, territoriais, familiares ou propriamente escolares, o risco da desvinculação escolar temporária ou permanente precisa ser considerado um problema sociológico a se investigar. Tendo em vista o avanço da ampliação da escolarização formal no país, importa sobremaneira compreender os motivos que ainda permitem a existência de aproximadamente 1,5 milhões de crianças e adolescentes entre 4 e 17 anos que estão fora da escola, além daqueles que, mesmo matriculados, estão infrequentes e em risco de evasão. A análise sobre os impactos da exclusão social sobre as infâncias e juventudes brasileiras traz elementos relevantes para a construção da ideia de exclusão escolar como um fenômeno produzido pelos efeitos perversos da desigualdade social sobre as trajetórias escolares periféricas. Além disso, este trabalho se debruçou sobre um estudo de caso realizado no município do Rio de Janeiro por meio de um projeto social que atuou ao longo de três anos com a busca ativa de crianças e adolescentes em situação de desvinculação escolar em parceria com a gestão municipal. O projeto identificou 23.735 casos em toda a cidade e produziu um banco de dados detalhado sobre cada um deles por meio de uma estratégia de trabalho de campo, mediação com as políticas públicas e mobilização social. Ao se investigar as situações mapeadas pelo projeto, foi possível realizar uma análise que apontou o perfil deste público e inventariou as situações de exclusão escolar, indicando sua relação com os aspectos da exclusão social mais ampla que se manifesta pelos constrangimentos aos demais direitos humanos fundamentais, como o direito à cidade, à segurança, à moradia, ao transporte, à saúde, à assistência, à alimentação, ao trabalho, à cultura, e no limite, ao direito à própria vida e à integridade física, dentre outros. Sob uma perspectiva sistêmica, a fragilidade da relação entre famílias periféricas e os sistemas públicos educacional e assistencial demonstrou-se como um fator de exclusão que se insere no centro da questão. Destacaram-se os problemas relativos à oferta de vagas escolares adequadas às necessidades familiares, constrangimentos relacionados à circulação nos territórios da cidade, renda familiar deficitária e pobreza extrema. Com isso, o trabalho aponta questões que contribuem para o aprimoramento das políticas sociais e educacionais, além de se inserir num debate acerca da importância da integração entre as políticas públicas na direção do fortalecimento de uma rede de proteção integral das crianças e adolescentes, sob o marco legal sustentado pela Constituição Federal Brasileira (1988) e seu legado de afirmação da cidadania para todas e todos. O direito à educação, neste sentido, aparece como um eixo em torno do qual gravitam os demais direitos humanos,funcionando como um importante indicador de qualidade de vida ou de exclusão social de crianças, adolescentes e suas famílias. / [en] The object of this study is to contribute to the debate within the sociology of education surrounding contemporary challenges regarding the guarantee of the right of education to children and adolescents in Brazil. It is based on the premise that when the relationship with formal schooling is threatened by their social, geographical, family, or even educational contexts, it often leads them to temporarily or permanently leave school, which reveals a sociological agenda of investigation. Keeping in mind the significant advancements in formal education in Brazil, it is especially important to better investigate the reasons behind the fact that approximately 1.5 million children and adolescents between 4 and 17 years old are not attending school. The analysis of the impacts of social exclusion on Brazilian childhoods and youths brings relevant elements to the construction of the idea of school exclusion as a phenomenon produced by the perverse effects of social inequality on peripheral school trajectories. In addition, this work focused on a case study carried out in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro through a social project that worked over three years with the active search for children and adolescents in a situation of school disengagement in partnership with the management municipal. The project identified 23,735 cases across the city and produced a detailed database on each of them through a fieldwork strategy, mediation with public policies and social mobilization. When investigating the situations mapped by the project, it was possible to carry out an analysis that pointed out the profile of this public and inventoried the situations of school exclusion, indicating its relationship with the aspects of the broader social exclusion that is manifested by constraints to other fundamental human rights, such as the rights to the city, to security, to housing, transportation, health, assistance, food, work, culture, and ultimately, to the right to one s own life and physical integrity, among others. From a systemic perspective, the fragility of the relationship between peripheral families and the public educational and assistance systems has proved to be an exclusion factor, central in the study. The problems related to the provision of school places suitable to family needs, constraints related to circulation in the city territories, deficient family income and extreme poverty were highlighted. Thus, the work points out issues that contribute to the improvement of social and educational policies, inserting itself into a debate about the importance of integration between public policies in the direction of strengthening a comprehensive protection network for children and adolescents, under the legal framework supported by the Brazilian Federal Constitution (1988) and its legacy of affirming citizenship for all. The right to education appears as an axis around other human rights gravitate, functioning as an important indicator of life quality or social exclusion of children, adolescents and their families.

The thesis deals with the role of the state and society in their attitudes to poverty and social exclusion. The introductory part aims at characterising the phenomenon of poverty and social exclusion, and deals with the issue of how the society perceives poverty. It focuses on the concept of the culture of poverty, and attention is given to the need of solidarity, social justice and the social state. The following part of my thesis deals with the extent of poverty and social exclusion in the Czech Republic, as well as possibilities of a social safety net in the Czech Republic. It describes particular examples of the manifestation of social exclusion and poverty in the Czech society, especially in the sphere of housing, opportunities in the labour market and falling into destructive debts. It sheds light on the situation of Romanies as the worst affected population group. The current situation in the Czech Republic shows that the attitude of the society to poverty as a personal fault and failure, impedes mutual solidarity, and generates strategies connected with repression that fail to understand the causes of poverty. For this reason, they cannot be adequately efficient. The society should react to, consider and efficiently solve poverty-related problems. Inspiration may be found in Christian ethics and its concept of human dignity.

A distressing consequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and of the increasing numbers of orphans and decreasing numbers of caregivers is the emergence in ever larger numbers of child-headed households (CHHs). The complexity of issues affecting CHHs and the lack of research on this subject means that CHHs are not well understood. This sometimes prompts support agencies to provide emotionally driven recommendations suggesting that it is better for a child to be in an orphanage than to live in a CHH. This exploratory study, involving heads of 105 CHHs over a 12 month period and 142 participants in various focus group discussions (FGD) and interviews, suggests the need for a change in perspective. It addresses the question of CHH quality of life, coping strategies and household functioning and attempts to bring this into a productive dialogue with community child care activities, NGO and statutory support and child care and protection policies. Research data suggests that the key determining factor contributing towards the creation of a CHH is `pre-parental illness' family conflict. Another contributing factor is that siblings want to stay together after parental death. Quality of life assessments indicate that despite significant adversities, over 69% of CHHs reported a 'medium' to 'satisfactory' quality of life and demonstrate high levels of resilience. As regards vulnerability to abuse, it is found that while CHH members are more vulnerable to external abuse, they experience little within their household. Contrary to public perceptions about CHHs lacking moral values, CHH behaviour might actually be more responsible than non-CHH peer behaviour as their negative experiences appear to galvanize them into adopting responsible behaviour. Community care and neighbourhood support in older townships are better established compared with newer suburbs. Sufficient community care capacity enables CHHs to function, thus avoiding a situation where households disintegrate and household members end up as street children. CHH coping responses seem to be mainly influenced by individual and community factors, and by social, spiritual and material support. The interplay between these and the CHH's ability to engage in the required coping task impacts on the coping outcome at household level. National and international government and non-governmental child service providers in Southern Africa need to recognize that an adequately supported CHH is an acceptable alternative care arrangement for certain children in communities with high adult AIDS mortality and where adult HIV-prevalence exceeds 10%. / Development Studies / D. Ltt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

A distressing consequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and of the increasing numbers of orphans and decreasing numbers of caregivers is the emergence in ever larger numbers of child-headed households (CHHs). The complexity of issues affecting CHHs and the lack of research on this subject means that CHHs are not well understood. This sometimes prompts support agencies to provide emotionally driven recommendations suggesting that it is better for a child to be in an orphanage than to live in a CHH. This exploratory study, involving heads of 105 CHHs over a 12 month period and 142 participants in various focus group discussions (FGD) and interviews, suggests the need for a change in perspective. It addresses the question of CHH quality of life, coping strategies and household functioning and attempts to bring this into a productive dialogue with community child care activities, NGO and statutory support and child care and protection policies. Research data suggests that the key determining factor contributing towards the creation of a CHH is `pre-parental illness' family conflict. Another contributing factor is that siblings want to stay together after parental death. Quality of life assessments indicate that despite significant adversities, over 69% of CHHs reported a 'medium' to 'satisfactory' quality of life and demonstrate high levels of resilience. As regards vulnerability to abuse, it is found that while CHH members are more vulnerable to external abuse, they experience little within their household. Contrary to public perceptions about CHHs lacking moral values, CHH behaviour might actually be more responsible than non-CHH peer behaviour as their negative experiences appear to galvanize them into adopting responsible behaviour. Community care and neighbourhood support in older townships are better established compared with newer suburbs. Sufficient community care capacity enables CHHs to function, thus avoiding a situation where households disintegrate and household members end up as street children. CHH coping responses seem to be mainly influenced by individual and community factors, and by social, spiritual and material support. The interplay between these and the CHH's ability to engage in the required coping task impacts on the coping outcome at household level. National and international government and non-governmental child service providers in Southern Africa need to recognize that an adequately supported CHH is an acceptable alternative care arrangement for certain children in communities with high adult AIDS mortality and where adult HIV-prevalence exceeds 10%. / Development Studies / D. Ltt. et Phil. (Development Studies)