Há um consenso na literatura de que a criança que trabalha tem um rendimento escolar menor, e atingirá um nível de escolaridade final mais baixo do que o alcançado por aquelas que não trabalham. Conseqüentemente, quando adultos, terão salários menores do que os indivíduos que começaram a trabalhar mais tarde, e esse mecanismo é o que também se conhece como ciclo de perpetuação da pobreza. Partindo da hipótese de que as crianças trabalham para complementar a renda da família - ou seja, trabalham porque são pobres - as iniciativas que visam o combate ao trabalho infantil ajudam a diminuir as diferenças entre pobres e não-pobres, uma vez que atua numa de suas causas. Enfim, são ações capazes de quebrar o ciclo que mantém pobres várias gerações de uma mesma família. Os programas Bolsa Escola em geral não exigem formalmente que a criança seja afastada de atividades laborais para que o benefício lhe seja concedido. Porém, como existe a obrigatoriedade da freqüência escolar, que reduz o tempo disponível para outras atividades, e é realizada transferência em dinheiro que substituiria a renda do trabalho da criança, entende-se que a saída do mercado de trabalho é um efeito colateral ou transbordamento (spillover) de um programa cujo objetivo explícito é incentivar a demanda por educação formal e aliviar a pobreza corrente. Avaliou-se o impacto dos programas de bolsa escola sobre o trabalho infantil no Brasil, utilizando os microdados da PNAD 2001, por meio de duas estratégias complementares: i) modelo próbite em que a variável dependente é um se a criança trabalha e zero se não trabalha; e ii) regressão por mínimos quadrados ponderados, para as crianças que trabalham, em que a variável dependente é o número de horas semanais trabalhadas por mês. É possível concluir que o programa é eficiente na redução do número de horas mensais de trabalho das crianças, e que uma bolsa adicional diminui jornada das crianças que trabalham em duas horas na área urbana e três horas na área rural. No entanto, os testes realizados não foram conclusivos em relação à decisão da família de inserir suas crianças no mercado de trabalho. / There is a consensus in the literature that if a child works his/her level of schooling will decrease and consequently he/she will receive lower wages in adult life, forcing their children to work to guarantee family subsistence. Based on the hypothesis that children work to complement family income, the initiatives to eradicate child labor helps to diminish the differences between the poor and non-poor. The minimum income for school attendance programs - like bolsa escola in Brazil - in general do not request formally that the child quits his/her job to receive the benefit. However, since school attendance is mandatory, which reduces the available time for other activities, and there is a cash transfer that substitutes the child’s income from work, the decrease in the labor market participation is a spillover effect of the program, whose objectives are to stimulate the demand for formal education and to alleviate current poverty. As a way to evaluate the impact of the bolsa escola programs on the child labour in Brazil, based on microdata from PNAD 2001, a regression model was estimated by weighted least squares for the weekly hours worked by children and a probit model for the family’s decision of children’s participation in the labor force. It is possible to conclude that the program is really efficient to decrease children’s weekly hours of work, but the test for participation in the labor force was inconclusive. An additional bolsa has diminished in two hours the weekly hours worked by children in rural areas and in three hours in urban areas.

No description available.

This thesis examines the impact of social policies on child mortality. It argues that structural factors explain most of the variation in child mortality across countries and time. But that in Vietnam the state implemented effective social policies; leading to this country having low child mortality for its structural factors (income, income equality and women’s power). This thesis uses panel data econometrics to investigate the structural determinants of child mortality. Our model shows that national income and women’s power reduce, and income inequality increases, child mortality. These independent variables are significant at the 1% level and explain over 90% of the variation in child mortality when our dependent variable is under-five mortality from the World Development Indicators dataset. These results are robust to changes in the functional form, lag structure, dataset and measure of child mortality used in our model. Vietnam is an outlier in our model; it has low child mortality for its structural factors. We consider that Vietnam’s effective social policies may explain why it is an outlier. This thesis also undertakes a detailed case study of Vietnam’s social policies. We argue and provide considerable evidence that in Vietnam the government implemented effective family planning, child immunization and female education policies and that these reduced child mortality. Developing countries are currently committed through MDG4 to reducing under-five mortality by two thirds between 1990 and 2015. Our results show that developing countries are unlikely to achieve this goal because social policies have a small impact on child mortality relative to structural factors.

This study aims to understand the factors and dynamics that influenced a major social policy change. This is undertaken by unravelling the policymaking processes involved in the largest public pension scheme in Korea, the National Pension System (NPS). Changes to the NPS followed a very different direction to other expansionary welfare developments either in Korea or in similar East Asian welfare systems. This research set out to explain how and why this happened. This is examined via a case study approach with a particular focus on the role of policy actors. This provides an analysis of this single policy change across three time periods, which are characterised by different political and economic regimes: authoritarian rule; democratisation in the midst of a financial crisis; and finally a democracy in recovery from the financial crisis. Data was gained from 44 interviews with the actual policymakers and major policy actors involved, and was complemented by extensive archival data. The findings suggest that, first, although authoritarian governments in Korea may pursue social policy to harness economic development in order to legitimise their non-democratic rule, subtle yet crucial policy competition can still exist among key policy actors. Second, democratisation does not necessarily lead to a dominant view favouring welfare system expansion. Third, new major policy actors - strengthened by a democratic, centre-left government - may not always favour an expansive welfare system. The analysis suggests that, despite the emergence of an increased range and number of policy actors as the democracy matured, there was a marked continuity in policy development in the case of the NPS. Key policy actors pursued a reform in line with liberal economic policy that had been the dominant tendency during the authoritarian era. This suggests that the major mechanism contributing to this continuity was the role of a persistent and powerful epistemic policy community, members of which continued to influence policymaking throughout its development. The conclusion points to how incremental changes in the pension system led to the path dependency of the original policy ideas. We suggest that future research could apply a similar analytical approach to understanding change processes in various policy domains and to other East Asian welfare systems.

Wu, Shujun. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leave 31). / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

This paper offers a complex view on the German economic policy, from the theoretical as well as the historical point of view. It discusses the current challenges and problems of the German economy, whose common factor are the negative demographic changes. One part of the paper also covers the actions aiming on minimalizing the influence of the financial crisis. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the sustainability of the welfare state as well as the global competitiveness.

This thesis comprises three chapters; a literature review, an empirical paper, and a commentary and reflective review. The literature review critiques stress management interventions for staff working in adult intellectual disability services. There is recognition that working in intellectual disability services can be stressful for staff members. Stress management interventions tended to focus on reducing stress rather than on preventing it. Interventions were categorised as cognitive-behavioural approaches, acceptance and commitment approaches or collaborative approaches where staff members were involved in developing person-centred interventions. Considerations and implications for future stress management interventions are discussed. The empirical element of this thesis focused on investigating predictors of burnout in 86 staff working in intellectual disability services. The paper explored the role of emotional intelligence, exposure to violence and self-efficacy in burnout development. The findings from the empirical paper demonstrated that low self-efficacy and high exposure to violence predicts burnout as measured by the emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalisation (DP) components of the burnout measure. Self-efficacy was found to moderate the relationship between violence and burnout (EE and DP). Emotional intelligence was found to predict personal accomplishment (PA) which can protect against burnout development. Emotional intelligence was not found to moderate the relationship between exposure to violence and burnout. Lower levels of emotional intelligence did not predict EE or DP. The commentary and reflective review provides an account of the research process critiquing the decisions made throughout. This includes the process of the literature review searches and topic selection; the empirical paper design, variables, method, data collection and measures. Reflective discussion in this review includes consideration of the ethical issues, clinical and theoretical implications and personal reflexivity.

The primary aim of this thesis is to consider whether the social work complaints procedure in Scotland is an appropriate means of dealing with dissatisfaction experienced by users of community care services. Debate in the socio-legal literature has focused on different models of justice in grievance and appeal mechanisms for users of public services. Set in the context of this wider debate, this study looks at the operation of the social work complaints procedure in Scotland, focusing on the experiences of complainants in two local authorities. Setting the research in context, the thesis looks at recent policy developments in community care in Scotland, at recent changes to the health complaints procedure and at proposals to change the social work complaints procedure in Scotland, England and Wales. The main source of data is interviews with people who had made complaints in the two local authorities. As well as looking at complainants’ views, the study also considers the views of people responsible for running the complaints procedure in both local authorities. Focus groups with community care service users were used to explore the views of those who may not have used the complaints procedure. A key concern is whether it is possible to distinguish different types of complaints: those which are primarily ‘appeals’ against refusal of services; and those which are about the way that people are treated. Using the experiences of people who had made complaints in both local authorities and a database of all complaints to one local authority, it is shown that it is not easy to make this distinction although some complaints fall more clearly into one category or the other. The classification of complaints relates closely to what people want from a complaints procedure. The purpose of a grievance procedure can be considered in terms of ‘models of justice’. The motivations of complainants and the views of those who operate the procedure are considered in the context of literature on models of justice. The thesis looks at how the complaints procedure operates in each of the two local authorities and considers the relative value of ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ processes. It goes on to look at what happens when people make formal complaints, whether complaints are resolved and what people think about this. Barriers to complaining are also considered. Finally the thesis looks at complaints which reach the end of the complaints procedure - the complaints review committee - and those which reach the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. The thesis concludes that there is considerable ambiguity as to the purpose of the community care complaints procedure. Some complainants use the procedure as an ‘appeal’ against decisions made by the local authority, while others just want to get their problems ‘sorted out’. Some complainants are, at least in part, attempting to get the local authority to improve services for others. The emphasis of local authority staff in this study is primarily on ensuring that complainants have an opportunity to have their ‘voice’ heard. The word ‘complaining’ itself carries connotations which some service users see as negative, although others are more assertive in their use of the word. In procedural terms there is much that can go wrong between the initial ‘informal’ complaint and the more independent level of the procedure: the complaints review committee. There are considerable problems in defining ‘complaints’ and ensuring that they are handled within the guidelines. This means that it is difficult for justice to be seen to be done.

Parenting capacity assessments (PCA) have been used in the child intervention system in Canada since at least the 1970s. They are used in other Western jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. There is a relatively large literature that considers the ways in which these assessments might be conducted. This thesis, drawing upon the prior work of the candidate, seeks to show that, despite widespread use, the PCA is a colonial methodology that should not be used with Indigenous peoples of Canada. The PCA draws upon Eurocentric understandings of parenting, definitions of minimal or good enough parenting, definitions of family and community as well as the use of methods that have neither been developed nor normed with Indigenous peoples. Using critical theory, particularly "Red Pedagogy" which is rooted in an Indigenous lens, the PCA is deconstructed to examine applicability to Indigenous populations of Canada, and potentially other populations that do not fit a Eurocentric understanding of family and parenting. Implications for clinical practice with Indigenous peoples are drawn which may have relevance for other populations.

Chan Wai Shun. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-216). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.III / 緒論 --- p.IV / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.V / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.VII / ABBREVIATIONS / LIST OF TABLES / LISTS OF FIGURES --- p.XII / Chapter CHAPTER 1: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Policy Background --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Questions and Hypotheses --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3 --- Conceptualization of Terms --- p.8 / Chapter 1.4 --- Thematic Framework of the Whole Dissertation --- p.11 / Chapter 1.5 --- Methodology and Research Limitations --- p.14 / Chapter 1.5.1 --- The Selection of Case --- p.16 / Chapter 1.5.2 --- The Articulation of Narratives and Discourses --- p.17 / Chapter 1.5.3 --- The Source of Narratives and Discourses --- p.18 / Chapter 1.5.4 --- The Methodological Limitations --- p.20 / Chapter 1.6 --- Potential Contributions --- p.21 / Chapter 1.6.1 --- Contributions to Academic Community --- p.21 / Chapter 1.6.2 --- Contributions to the Diplomatic Community --- p.23 / Chapter 1.7 --- Chapter Summary and the Preview of the Dissertation --- p.24 / Chapter CHAPTER 2: --- A THEORETICAL REVIEW ON EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1 --- IR Theories and their Application in European Neighbourhood Policy --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Realism and its Variation --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Liberal Institutionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism --- p.28 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Constructivism and its Application --- p.30 / Chapter 2.2 --- Problems of the Traditional IR Theories --- p.34 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- The Maltreatment of Bargaining Game within EU --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- The Maltreatment of EU Polity --- p.37 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- The Maltreatment of EU Foreign Policy --- p.38 / Chapter 2.3 --- From IR ThEories to Policy-oriented Analysis --- p.40 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Enlargement Experience of the Usual Reference --- p.41 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- The Cross-pillar Characteristics of ENP --- p.42 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Criticisms of the Policy-oriented Approach --- p.43 / Chapter 2.4 --- Common Shortfalls of IR Theories and Policy-oriented Analysis --- p.44 / Chapter 2.5 --- Chapter Summary and Preview of Next Chapter --- p.46 / Chapter CHAPTER 3: --- THE TANGLED RELATIONS BETWEEN IDENTITIES AND INTERESTS --- p.48 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Political Context of European Union in the 21ST Century --- p.49 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- The End of Cold War --- p.49 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- The Rise of Transnational Challenges --- p.51 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- The Big-bang Enlargement in 2004 --- p.54 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Demand for a European Identity --- p.56 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- The Common Objective: the Maintenance of EU Institutional Stability --- p.57 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- The Established States: Striving for the Ownership of the Order --- p.60 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- The New Acceding States: Searching for Justification --- p.63 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- The European Commission: Pushing for the Supranational Europe --- p.65 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Supply of European Identities --- p.68 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Europe as the Christendom --- p.69 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Europe as a Disintegrated System of Nation-states --- p.70 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Europe as the Frontier of Capitalism --- p.72 / Chapter 3.4 --- Unsatisfied Demand-Supply - The Limitations of European Identity --- p.74 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Lacking of Shared Roots --- p.75 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Absence of Territorial Space --- p.77 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- "Absence of the"" Others´ح" --- p.79 / Chapter 3.5 --- The Reconstruction of Post Cold War Identity --- p.81 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- The Symbolic Creation of the EU Commons --- p.82 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- The Copenhagen Criteria --- p.83 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- The EU Constitutional Project --- p.84 / Chapter 3.6 --- From Identities to Policy - Liberal-Discursive Constructivism --- p.86 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- Constructivist Understanding of European Foreign Policy --- p.86 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- Liberal Conception of European Identity Bargaining --- p.87 / Chapter 3.6.3 --- Discursive Reading of Boundary Formation --- p.92 / Chapter 3.7 --- Chapter Summary and Preview of Next Chapter --- p.98 / Chapter CHAPTER 4: --- THE CONTESTATION BETWEEN THE ACTORS - “PROXIMITY´ح --- p.99 / Chapter 4.1 --- EU Policies Prior to the Proximity Policy --- p.99 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- European Economic Area --- p.100 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Euro-Mediterranean Partnership --- p.104 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Partnership and Cooperation Agreements --- p.108 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Proximity Policy as the First Label --- p.110 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Proximity as the Mapping of European Space --- p.114 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Proximity as the Reflection of European Project --- p.118 / Chapter 4.3 --- Chapter Summary and Preview of Next Chapter --- p.120 / Chapter CHAPTER 5: --- THE COMMISSION-LED NARRATION - “WIDER EUROPE´ح --- p.121 / Chapter 5.1 --- Representation of “WIder Europe´ح --- p.121 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Core Europe as the Land of Prosperity and Stability --- p.122 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Wider Europe as an Empire of Unity in Diversity --- p.126 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- European Union as a Benevolent Normative Civilian Power --- p.129 / Chapter 5.2 --- Policy Practice in Wider Europe --- p.134 / Chapter 5.3 --- Play of Discursive Practices in Winder Europe --- p.137 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- A Freezing Relation towards the WNIS --- p.138 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- A Pseudo European Economic Area --- p.140 / Chapter 5.4 --- Chapter Summary and Preview of Next Chapter --- p.143 / Chapter CHAPTER 6: --- THE COUNCIL-LED NARRATION - “EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD´ح --- p.145 / Chapter 6.1 --- Changes in Representation in ENP --- p.146 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- From Friends to Partners/Neighbours --- p.146 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- From Friendly Neighbourhood to Problematic Neighbourhood --- p.152 / Chapter 6.1.3 --- From Responsibility to Reciprocity --- p.157 / Chapter 6.1.4 --- More Differentiation but Less Distinction --- p.163 / Chapter 6.2 --- Policy Practice in ENP --- p.167 / Chapter 6.3 --- Play of Discursive Practice in ENP --- p.171 / Chapter 6.4 --- Chapter Summary and Preview of Next Chapter --- p.174 / Chapter CHAPTER 7: --- CONCLUSION --- p.176 / Chapter 7.1 --- Summarization of the Empirical Findings --- p.176 / Chapter 7.1.1 --- European Identity in Wider Europe --- p.178 / Chapter 7.1.2 --- .European Identity in European Neighbourhood Policy --- p.181 / Chapter 7.1.3 --- The Institutional Bargaining Game --- p.183 / Chapter 7.2 --- Further Implications from the Thematic Framework --- p.187 / Chapter 7.3 --- Application of the Framework in Other Areas of European Foreign Policy --- p.188 / Chapter 7.4 --- Future Research Possibility --- p.192 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.193