Objectives: Concerns have been raised that child welfare systems may inappropriately target poor families for intrusive interventions. The term “neglect” has been critiqued as a class-based label applied disproportionately to poor families. The objectives of the study are: to identify the nature and frequency of clinical and poverty-related concerns in child neglect investigations and to assess the service referral response to these needs; to examine the contribution of poverty-related need to case decision-making; and to explore whether substantiated cases of neglect can be divided into subtypes based on different constellations of clinical and poverty-related needs. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of data collected through the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS‑2008), a nationally representative dataset. A selected subsample of neglect investigations from the CIS‑2008 (N = 4,489) is examined through descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and two-step cluster analysis in order to explore each research objective. Results: Children and caregivers investigated for neglect presented with a range of clinical and poverty-related difficulties. Contrary to some previous research, the existence of poverty-related needs did not influence case dispositions after controlling for other relevant risk factors. However, some variables that should be, in theory, extraneous to case decision-making emerged as significant in the multivariate models, most notably Aboriginal status, with Aboriginal children having increased odds of substantiation, ongoing service provision and placement. Cluster analyses revealed that cases of neglect could be partitioned into three clusters, with no cluster emerging characterized by poverty alone. Conclusions: The majority of children investigated for neglect live in families experiencing poverty-related needs, and with caregivers struggling with clinical difficulties. While poverty-related need on its own does not explain the high proportion of poor families reported to the child welfare system, nor does it account for significant variance in case decision making, cluster analysis suggests that there exists a subgroup of “neglected” children living in families perhaps best characterized by the broader notion of social disadvantage. These families may be better served through an orientation of family support/family welfare rather than through the current residual child protection paradigm.

Many Americans appreciate the availability and ease of using government websites to conduct their business with the state. What then of the most vulnerable in society? How do they access and use a standardized application process for government assistance, considering their potential resource, educational and physical constraints? Many go to public libraries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which shifts the responsibility to help applicants from the government agency administering the program to local actors whose primary duties lie elsewhere. The aim of this research is to document the experiences of three groups of people, primarily located in a central Florida, urban environment, who interact with an electronic government (e-government) program known as "ACCESS." This program is an online application for lower-income Floridians seeking food, medical and temporary cash assistance. ACCESS is part of the growth in e-government where public information and services are placed online. The first group of stakeholders in this research is the applicants themselves who frequent public libraries and NGOs, seeking technological access and assistance with the ACCESS program. The second group is the employees at these locations who provide varying levels of support to the applicants. Finally, there are the employees of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) who created and continue to manage the program. The formal research process involved ethnographic methods spread over 16 months, including participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, free listing and think alouds with the applicants and those who help them at libraries and NGOs. No DCF employee agreed to participate in the research, leading to a reliance on reports either produced by DCF, or shared with them by other government agencies about the ACCESS program. The data from the above methods were used to construct a survey, administered to a largely different group of ACCESS applicants and employees at the same public libraries and NGOs. The interpretation of findings was informed by the anthropological literature on U.S. poverty studies and public policy as well as the disciplines of e-government and design. The findings produced a model for analyzing e-government anthropologically. The model arose to fill several gaps in the literature. First, little work in U.S. anthropology deals with e-government and e-governance. Second, triangulation through ethnographic methods is not widespread within e-government research. Finally, the model demonstrates that the "audit culture" or evaluative norms and assumed ideologies of assessing e-government can shape program design, maintenance, and ultimately the experiences of users or citizens. The model is instructive and emergent, intended as a strategy to encourage further research about e-government.

The thesis set out in this submission is drawn from six of the candidate’s publications, based in turn on empirical findings from four research studies of adult social care in England spanning the period 1992 2006. As a body of work, it interrogates the validity of Lipsky’s (1980) conclusions about the origins and nature of ‘streetlevel bureaucracy’ in the wake of subsequent welfare restructuring. The earlier studies pay particular attention to the impact of managerialisation on frontline assessment practice amongst adult social work teams following implementation of the 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act. Later studies tackle a further challenge to Lipsky’s thesis of street-level bureaucracy, that is, the potential for a change in the nature of the exchange relationship between street-level bureaucrat and client in the light of the insertion of service user involvement, empowerment and rights into governance arrangements after 1990, including adult social care. The candidate argues that the ethnomethodological approach adopted in three out of the four studies has yielded rich data on frontline practice of a type screened out by much contemporaneous research on the impact of social care reforms. Taken together with the span of the research studies over some fifteen years, this has supported not only a detailed analysis of the relationship between the micropolitics of assessment practice and key features of the differing environments within which they occur but also their articulation with changing modes of welfare governance. Discourse analysis of interview findings from the remaining study has permitted insights into the way social workers integrate thinking about human and social rights into their everyday assessment practice. The candidate summarises her threefold contribution to the literature in a taxonomy derived from the research findings which serves, firstly, to articulate the relationship between core dimensions of the policy and practice environment and the differing forms of frontline discretion to emerge after 1990; secondly, to explore the impact of user empowerment and rights on the distribution of resources; and, thirdly, to evaluate the continuing relevance of ‘streetlevel’ bureaucracy for understanding frontline social work practice. She concludes by sketching out possible future directions for her work.

Objectives: Concerns have been raised that child welfare systems may inappropriately target poor families for intrusive interventions. The term “neglect” has been critiqued as a class-based label applied disproportionately to poor families. The objectives of the study are: to identify the nature and frequency of clinical and poverty-related concerns in child neglect investigations and to assess the service referral response to these needs; to examine the contribution of poverty-related need to case decision-making; and to explore whether substantiated cases of neglect can be divided into subtypes based on different constellations of clinical and poverty-related needs. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of data collected through the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS‑2008), a nationally representative dataset. A selected subsample of neglect investigations from the CIS‑2008 (N = 4,489) is examined through descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and two-step cluster analysis in order to explore each research objective. Results: Children and caregivers investigated for neglect presented with a range of clinical and poverty-related difficulties. Contrary to some previous research, the existence of poverty-related needs did not influence case dispositions after controlling for other relevant risk factors. However, some variables that should be, in theory, extraneous to case decision-making emerged as significant in the multivariate models, most notably Aboriginal status, with Aboriginal children having increased odds of substantiation, ongoing service provision and placement. Cluster analyses revealed that cases of neglect could be partitioned into three clusters, with no cluster emerging characterized by poverty alone. Conclusions: The majority of children investigated for neglect live in families experiencing poverty-related needs, and with caregivers struggling with clinical difficulties. While poverty-related need on its own does not explain the high proportion of poor families reported to the child welfare system, nor does it account for significant variance in case decision making, cluster analysis suggests that there exists a subgroup of “neglected” children living in families perhaps best characterized by the broader notion of social disadvantage. These families may be better served through an orientation of family support/family welfare rather than through the current residual child protection paradigm.

Very few narratives go as unchallenged about the transition of Central and Eastern European countries from state socialism to market democracies as the following: before the transitions people in these countries had strong social rights but were lacking any civic and political rights, and while the transformations provided the people with firm civil and political citizenship, they lost out on social rights. In my dissertation I argue that this is an oversimplifying and highly distorted narrative that is blind to the deep inequalities in these societies. My research focused on one particular means of reproducing these inequalities, namely welfare institutions, and explored what recipients of social assistance provision learned about their citizenship in the post-transition Hungarian welfare complex. This analysis not only demonstrated an inextricable interrelationship between civil, political and social citizenship, but also allowed for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which apparent political inequalities were reproduced in practice. By the innovative method of institutional ethnography I constructed a mosaic of the various component elements of the institutional system of social assistance provision in contemporary Hungary and investigated the influence that each had on recipients' civil and political citizenship. This study indicated a marked discrepancy between recipients' ideal and their lived experiences of citizenship, and found that certain characteristics of the system of social assistance provision played a crucial part in reproducing this discrepancy. The high level of discretion in the system, recipients' lack of information, the treatment they underwent in the welfare office, as well as the lack of institutional guarantees that could ensure that they enjoyed equal and fair treatment in all the welfare offices in the country proved to be the most important characteristics of social assistance provision that had direct or indirect effects on recipients' democratic subjectivity.

A proposta deste trabalho constitui-se através do acompanhamento de um projeto de habitação popular na Vila dos Tocos (Palmares do Sul / RS), realizado no ano de 2004. Ele é o ponto de partida para pensarmos as intervenções públicas nas formas de habitar. Analisaremos os elementos que antecedem os projetos, as propostas apresentadas no papel e os efeitos desta junção para pensarmos em alternativas que ampliem a autonomia dos sujeitos e mantenham a esfera do desejo presente. Como alternativa possível para alcançarmos um respeito mútuo inclusivo, capaz de não apagar o desejo, propomos um olhar maior sobre as utopias iconoclastas. Estas se apresentam como possibilidade por serem capazes de mostrar os limites de nosso pensamento, propondo um tempo de espera e uma possibilidade outra de vir-a-ser. / The purpose of this paper is established through the observation of a housing project in Vila dos Tocos (Palmares do Sul / RS), held in 2004. This project is the starting point for thinking about public interventions in diverse forms of living. We will analyze the elements prior to the project, written proposals and the effects of this junction to think of alternatives to enhance the autonomy of individuals and keep the desire present. As a possible alternative to achieve an inclusive mutual respect, one that will not erase the desire, we propose a greater look on iconoclastic utopias. These are presented as a possibility for being able to show the limits of our thinking, proposing a standby time and potential outcomes.

A proposta deste trabalho constitui-se através do acompanhamento de um projeto de habitação popular na Vila dos Tocos (Palmares do Sul / RS), realizado no ano de 2004. Ele é o ponto de partida para pensarmos as intervenções públicas nas formas de habitar. Analisaremos os elementos que antecedem os projetos, as propostas apresentadas no papel e os efeitos desta junção para pensarmos em alternativas que ampliem a autonomia dos sujeitos e mantenham a esfera do desejo presente. Como alternativa possível para alcançarmos um respeito mútuo inclusivo, capaz de não apagar o desejo, propomos um olhar maior sobre as utopias iconoclastas. Estas se apresentam como possibilidade por serem capazes de mostrar os limites de nosso pensamento, propondo um tempo de espera e uma possibilidade outra de vir-a-ser. / The purpose of this paper is established through the observation of a housing project in Vila dos Tocos (Palmares do Sul / RS), held in 2004. This project is the starting point for thinking about public interventions in diverse forms of living. We will analyze the elements prior to the project, written proposals and the effects of this junction to think of alternatives to enhance the autonomy of individuals and keep the desire present. As a possible alternative to achieve an inclusive mutual respect, one that will not erase the desire, we propose a greater look on iconoclastic utopias. These are presented as a possibility for being able to show the limits of our thinking, proposing a standby time and potential outcomes.

nÃo hà / A pesquisa circunscrita neste trabalho dissertativo apresenta como objeto de investigaÃÃo a avaliaÃÃo em processo da construÃÃo da intersetorialidade no Paif do Centro de ReferÃncia da AssistÃncia Social (CRAS) do Bairro Mondubim, municÃpio de Fortaleza. A pesquisa apresenta delineamentos teÃrico-metodolÃgicos configurados em postulaÃÃes epistemolÃgicas que demarcam a proposiÃÃo do âRacionalismo aberto e crÃticoâ de Alba Carvalho, como via do conceber e fazer ciÃncia. Nessa direÃÃo, o traÃado metodolÃgico da pesquisa foi materializado com a realizaÃÃo de pesquisa bibliogrÃfica, de pesquisa documental e de pesquisa empÃrica. Considerando-se a demarcaÃÃo teÃrico-empÃrica, circunscrita no objeto da investigaÃÃo, a construÃÃo dos aportes analÃticos da pesquisa foi estruturada com base no levantamento e na leitura de produÃÃes cientÃficas sobre os temas: Estado, pobreza, proteÃÃo social, polÃtica pÃblica de assistÃncia social e intersetorialidade. O campo empÃrico da pesquisa està circunscrito ao Ãmbito de espaÃos institucionais que operacionalizam a polÃtica de assistÃncia social em Fortaleza, no decurso dos anos de 2012 e 2013, a saber: Secretaria Municipal de AssistÃncia Social; Distrito de AssistÃncia Social da Secretaria Executiva Regional V e, por fim, o Cras do Bairro Mondubim. A pesquisa apresenta um enfoque qualitativo, articulando-se à adoÃÃo de aportes prÃprios da abordagem quantitativa. Nessa direÃÃo, foram aplicados 54 questionÃrios com profissionais de nÃvel superior e mÃdio do Paif da SER V e realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com 19 profissionais e usuÃrios(as) do Paif do Cras Mondubim. No percurso metodolÃgico da pesquisa, tambÃm foi realizado o levantamento e a anÃlise de documentos e, por fim, foi efetivado intenso processo de observaÃÃo do desenvolvimento do Paif no Ãmbito do Cras Mondubim. No que diz respeito aos resultados demarcados pela investigaÃÃo, destacam-se: os(as) interlocutores da pesquisa â em meio Ãs diferenciaÃÃes quanto à perspectiva analÃtica e as especificidades delineadas pelos seus discursos â postulam que a categoria da intersetorialidade apresenta lugar de destaque na configuraÃÃo da identidade e do modus operandi da polÃtica de assistÃncia social, indicando que o estabelecimento desta categoria na operacionalizaÃÃo dos programas, projetos e serviÃos da assistÃncia social demarca uma importante via para a sua afirmaÃÃo como polÃtica pÃblica de proteÃÃo social nÃo contributiva. / The research circumscribed in this argumentative work presents as its main object of investigation the evaluation of the intersectoral construction process in the Paif Social Assistance Reference Center (CRAS) of Mondubim, a neighborhood in Fortaleza . The research presents theoretical and methodological designs configured in epistemological postulations that mark the proposition of "open and critical rationalism" as proposed by Alba Carvalho, as a way of conceiving and doing science. In this sense, the methodological route of the research was done through bibliographical research, desk research and empirical research. Considering the theoretical and empirical demarcation, confined to the subject of the investigation, the construction of the analytical contributions of the research was structured based on the survey and the reading of scientific papers on the themes: State, poverty, social protection, public policy social assistance and intersectoral. The empirical field of the research is limited to the scope of institutional spaces which operationalize social assistance policy in Fortaleza, during the years 2012 and 2013, namely: Secretaria Municipal de AssistÃncia Social; Distrito de AssistÃncia Social da Secretaria Executiva Regional V; and, finally, Cras Mondubim. The research presents a qualitative approach, linking to the adoption of contributions of the quantitative approach. In this sense, interviews questionnaires were applied to 54 professionals of high and medium levels from Paif SER V and conducted in depth with 19 professionals and users (as) the Paif of Cras Mondubim. In the methodological research route, it was also carried out the survey and the analysis of documents and, finally, an intense process of Paifâs development observation was done in Cras Mondubim. With regard to the results marked by the research, we can point out: the interlocutors results â through differences on the analytical perspective and the specifications outlined by their speeches - postulate that the intersectoral category has a prominent place in the configuration of identity and the modus operandi of social welfare policy, indicating that the establishment of this category in the operationalization of programs, projects and services of social work marks an important route to its statement as a public policy of non-contributory social protection.

A proposta deste trabalho constitui-se através do acompanhamento de um projeto de habitação popular na Vila dos Tocos (Palmares do Sul / RS), realizado no ano de 2004. Ele é o ponto de partida para pensarmos as intervenções públicas nas formas de habitar. Analisaremos os elementos que antecedem os projetos, as propostas apresentadas no papel e os efeitos desta junção para pensarmos em alternativas que ampliem a autonomia dos sujeitos e mantenham a esfera do desejo presente. Como alternativa possível para alcançarmos um respeito mútuo inclusivo, capaz de não apagar o desejo, propomos um olhar maior sobre as utopias iconoclastas. Estas se apresentam como possibilidade por serem capazes de mostrar os limites de nosso pensamento, propondo um tempo de espera e uma possibilidade outra de vir-a-ser. / The purpose of this paper is established through the observation of a housing project in Vila dos Tocos (Palmares do Sul / RS), held in 2004. This project is the starting point for thinking about public interventions in diverse forms of living. We will analyze the elements prior to the project, written proposals and the effects of this junction to think of alternatives to enhance the autonomy of individuals and keep the desire present. As a possible alternative to achieve an inclusive mutual respect, one that will not erase the desire, we propose a greater look on iconoclastic utopias. These are presented as a possibility for being able to show the limits of our thinking, proposing a standby time and potential outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if and what effect universal and means-tested welfare programs have on people's (different forms of) trust. This is done through an experimental design in order to be able to demonstrate a causal relationship between the design of welfare programs and the perceived level of trustin individuals. A total of 98 students from Midsweden University in Sundsvall, Sweden, participated in the experiment. The respondents were divided into two experimental groups that had to fill out a trust-survey that was preceded by one out of two separate welfare scenarios – a means-tested one or a universal one. The results confirms the hypothesis that universal welfare programs create a statistically significantly higher universal trust than means-tested programs, but not the hypothesis that means-tested programs create a statistically significantly higher particularized trust than universal welfare programs. At the same time the results show that universal welfare programs create a statistically significantly higher universal trust than particularized trust and that means-tested programs create a statistically significantly higher partizularized trust than universal trust. Finally the results also provide empirical support for the existence of a causal relationship between the design of welfare programs and the level of trust in individuals and society. / <p>2019-06-04</p>