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The adequate care of older persons is a major global concern and countries are examining ways to respond to these needs, especially the needs of frail older persons in the care environment. Important strides have been made in developed countries but progress has been slow in less developed countries in the Global South and limited information exists on the care needs of frail older persons and lived experiences of formal and informal caregivers. This thesis examines the care needs of frail older persons in Namibia. Namibia has only recently been liberated from colonial rule by Germany and apartheid South Africa. During this time black communities were disenfranchised, resource-scarce and living under poor conditions. For older persons, this meant unequal treatment, social exclusion and denial of access to decent care. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth understanding of the needs of frail older persons in the care environment in Namibia by examining the lived experiences of caregivers and analysing policy. Using a qualitative methodology, the study collected primary data from formal and informal caregivers based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The data analysis relied mainly on coding strategies under Atlas-ti and qualitative content analysis. The secondary data were collected from legislation, government policy documents, journals and other public reports. The finding revealed that Namibia's history has entrenched the current situation of unmet needs of frail older persons, exacerbated by inadequate policy protection. These limitations were highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The study also found that the effective care of frail older persons is only possible through stakeholder engagement and cross-sectoral collaboration. The study therefore recommends that government should undertake a process of social reforms to ensure that the needs of this group are prioritised, that a performance framework should be implemented to ensure delivery and that all stakeholders should be mobilised. The study has contributed to these outcomes by suggesting a model for needs assessment of frail older persons, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. This model could be used to improve care practices, serve government in evidence-based policy making and provide a useful analytical tool for scholarship.

A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Commerce (Economic Science) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 28 February 2019 / This paper investigates the impact of the South African Child Support Grant (CSG) on the beneficiary’s height-for-age z-score (HAZ). We make use of data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), the wave 3 dataset. Using Propensity Score Matching approach the effect of the CSG is positive but statistically insignificant and relatively small. This popular technique rely on assumptions that often do no hold for observational studies. Furthermore, it is susceptible to misspecification of the propensity score equation which could bias the results. This paper therefore look into a technique that address these limitations and can assess the treatment effect robustly and with more precision. We apply genetic matching algorithm, namely GenMatch. GenMatch is an iterative search algorithm that uses distance metrics to optimize covariate balance in the process of estimating the treatment effect. It automates the search process without the need of manual intervention to achieve the best balance. This algorithm is applied using two balance measures namely, the entropic distance metric and the standardized difference in means. The former compares distributions while the latter compares the first two moments (means and variances) of distributions. The results showcase the significance of utilizing a method that automates the process of optimizing balance and the influence of balance measures on the resulting treatment effect estimate. Specifically, we found that the estimate of the effect of the CSG is larger and more precise than the one reported in the literature. / PH2020

Research on attitudes towards immigration policies typically considers the economic and cultural threats that compel many Americans to favor exclusionary policies that curb immigration. Less is understood about how indifference to inequality shapes Americans’ attitudes towards immigration policies—that is, how ‘not caring’ about the unequal conditions faced by immigrants likely has detrimental consequences for their safety and wellbeing. The present research examines indifference to inequality as a predictor for policies that impact opportunities for immigrants to come to the U.S., and who are otherwise undocumented and/or at great risk for exploitation. Using survey data from the American National Election Studies gathered in 2016 (Study 1; n = 3,187) and 2020 (Study 2; n = 6,941), we find that greater indifference to inequality is associated with less support for providing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and greater support for building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, independently of other explanatory intergroup variables (e.g., prejudice, threat, and demographic characteristics). However, these associations tend to be moderated by ethnoracial background, such that although indifference to inequality predicts immigration policy attitudes among U.S.-born White Americans, it is not predictive of attitudes among U.S.-born Latino and Black Americans. Furthermore, these associations are not moderated by recent family history of immigration, suggesting that respondents’ group status in the U.S. ethnoracial hierarchy, and not the personal relevance of immigration, may well be driving these associations.

The Swedish welfare state is often conceived as a universal and encompassing welfare state. However, research has shown significant contractions of coverage and benefit levels in several Swedish welfare programs in the last 20 years. One such program is the unemployment insurance. The development has led to occupational insurance through collective agreements and income insurance provided through the unions to become increasingly important for individuals’ income protection in times of unemployment. While previous research has tended to focus on the public welfare provision of unemployment insurance, this thesis seeks to make an empirical and methodological contribution to the study of social policy by investigating the development of complementary unemployment insurance plans and the potential differences it creates in the level and affordability of income protection for different groups of workers. The study is conducted by modeling a set of stylized workers facing different income levels and risk of unemployment to calculate the degree to which the different insurance plans replace former income and the cost of that income protection. The analysis shows that the development of complementary insurance plans has led to differences in the level of income protection due to declining generosity of the public system, which in recent years, however, has to some extent been restored. Moreover, the result suggests that unemployment risk becomes an important factor for the level of income protection and the cost of insurance, especially for workers with lower wage levels with similar risks and for longer durations of unemployment.

The US criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people, with approximately 641,000 being released back into the community each year (Carson & Anderson, 2016). One in five of those incarcerated in 2015 were convicted of a drug related offense (Carson & Anderson, 2016). With a specific focus on how the formerly incarcerated with substance use disorders reenter the community from prison, this dissertation examines the role of postincarceration policy, as well as other factors, that impact the use of physical, mental, and substance use services in the community post release. Study 1 is a critical policy analysis, arguing that in addition to postincarceration policies being punitive, they result in significant social, financial, educational, housing, and health care barriers to reentry and reintegration of prisoners into their communities as productive citizens. This article describes the types of postincarceration policies in place in the US currently and provides implications for future postincarceration policy development, program implementation, and research. Study 2 is a qualitative pilot study, presenting descriptive results from in-person semi-structured interviews with reentry clients (n=10) and reentry staff (n=10). Both clients and reentry staff view client’s mental health needs as priority at reentry. For clients, enabling factors included remaining abstinent from drugs or alcohol, informal support from family and friends, as well as professional support from agencies and barriers included long wait times for services, issues with their insurance coverage, stigma related to their drug use and time spent incarcerated. Staff, meanwhile, described systems level factors as facilitating or enabling, such as postincarceration policies limiting those with incarceration histories in accessing basic necessities and health services. Study 3 aims to expand on the Study 2 pilot with a larger, in-person interview study featuring 100 clients. Results also show high levels of chronic medical problems, clinical PTSD diagnoses, experiences of both physical and sexual abuse, and injection drug use. Additionally, signaling need for mental health service, less substance use related issues in the past 30 days, and being male all predicted service need.

Although Congress enacted civil rights legislation in the 1960s to address racial inequities in income and employment, the executive branch and the courts have since retreated from efforts to pursue those policies aggressively. Meanwhile, anti-racism advocates, including the Montgomery County, Virginia based Dialogue on Race, have continued to promote strategies aimed at securing employment and income equity for all citizens. This study analyzed the social and economic costs of continued racial inequality in employment and income, and examined the ways in which local employers are addressing this challenge in the Blacksburg, Virginia region by exploring their self-reported rationales for action on the basis of economic efficiency or profit, moral obligation to fairness and justice, adherence to legal requirements, or leader influence. I addressed these concerns through population data analysis, key informant interviews, and a survey of major local employers. I found that New River Valley employers appear to be motivated by economic and moral reasons, as well as legal compliance. I conclude that activists should use this apparent openness to multiple rationales to work to help community leaders and local employers recognize racial equality as a moral imperative rather than as an instrumental claim incidental to its perceived utility. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

At the same time as the European Union’s (EU) influence has grown, path-breaking changes in Sweden’s social policy characteristics have appeared. Previous research gives contradictory evidence on whether and how these developments relate, and it remains unknown to what extent the EU contributed to the changes observed in Sweden.  By operationalising four theories on the mechanisms of social policy change (institutionalism, power resources approach, new politics, and new social risks), using the EU as a driving force, and two diverging policy developments as outcomes, this thesis cast the net wider than previous research and applies process tracing methods to a selection of 339 policy documents to answer: (i) How has Europeanisation affected unemployment policy and family policy in Sweden, 1990- 2019? (ii) To what extent can Europeanisation sufficiently explain the retrenchment in unemployment policy while family policies were expanded in the same period of time?  I find no support for the mechanisms of institutionalism and new politics, limited support for new social risk, and mixed support for the power resource approach explaining the Europeanisation of Swedish social policy. Although I found empirical support for parts of several, I conclude that no theory can sufficiently explain the complete causal chain of how the EU influence the two Swedish policy outcomes.

[pt] A presente dissertação, inserida na linha de pesquisa Trabalho, Políticas Sociais e Sujeitos Coletivos do Programa de Pós-graduação em Serviço Social (PUC-Rio), tem como objetivo apresentar a pesquisa sobre o trabalho dos(as) assistentes sociais na política de assistência social em tempos de pandemia da COVID-19, no município do Rio de Janeiro, no período de março de 2020 a dezembro de 2021, e enunciá-las considerando os rumos do capitalismo no século XXI. Nesse viés, serão analisados dados coletados de uma pesquisa qualitativa realizada com as assistentes sociais de treze (13), dos quatorze (14) Centros de Referência Especializados de Assistência Social (CREAS s) do município em questão, por meio de formulário com quinze (15) assistentes sociais trabalhadoras dos CREAS’s e dos dados sistematizados em materiais produzidos pela Comissão de Assistência Social do Conselho Regional de Serviço Social do Rio de Janeiro (CAS/CRESS 7ª. Região – RJ), com a finalidade de identificar as principais demandas e requisições profissionais do trabalho dos(as) assistentes sociais na política de assistência social, por meio das experiências apresentadas pelos(as) profissionais e analisar as competências e atribuições privativas dos(as) assistentes sociais, considerando a articulação entre as dimensões teórico-metodológica, ético-política e técnico-operativa da profissão com base na teoria marxista. / [en] The present dissertation, inserted in the line of research Work, Social Policies and Collective Subjects of the Postgraduate Program in Social Work (PUC-Rio), aims to present research on the work of social workers in politics of social assistance in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, from March 2020 to December 2021, and enunciate them considering the directions of capitalism in the 21st century. In this bias, data collected from a qualitative research carried out with social workers from thirteen (13) of the fourteen (14) Specialized Reference Centers for Social Assistance (CREAS s) of the municipality in question will be analyzed, through a form with the fifteen (15) social workers working at CREAS s and the data systematized in materials produced by the Social Assistance Commission of the Regional Council of Social Service of Rio de Janeiro (CAS/CRESS 7th Region – RJ), in order to identify the main professional demands and requisitions of the work of social workers in the social assistance policy, through the experiences presented by the professionals and to analyze the competences and exclusive attributions of social workers, considering the articulation between the theoretical-methodological, ethical-political and technical-operative dimensions of the profession based on Marxist theory.

This thesis explores the ideological role of metaphor in British governmental discourses on ¿social exclusion¿. A hybrid methodology, combining approaches from Corpus Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and cognitive theories of metaphor, is used to address how social exclusion and other metaphors are deployed to create an ideologically vested representation of society. The data consists of linguistic metaphors identified from a 400,000+ word machine-readable corpus of British governmental texts on social exclusion covering a ten year period (1997- 2007). From these surface level features of text, underlying systematic and conceptual metaphors are then inferred. The analysis reveals how the interrelation between social exclusion and a range of other metaphors creates a dichotomous representation of society in which social problems are discursively placed outside society, glossing inequalities within the included mainstream and placing the blame for exclusion on the cultural deficiencies of the excluded. The solution to the problem of exclusion is implicit within the logic of its conceptual structure and involves moving the excluded across the ¿boundary¿ to join the ¿insiders¿. The welfare state has a key role to play in this and is underpinned by a range of metaphors which anticipate movement on the part of the excluded away from a position of dependence on the state. This expectation of movement is itself metaphorically structured by the notion of a social contract in which the socially excluded have a responsibility to try and include themselves in society in return for the right of (temporary) state support. Key systematic metaphors are explained by reference to a discourse-historical view of ideological change in processes of political party transformation. / BISA and CSV