Images of welfare in law and society: the British welfare state in comparative perspective.

Designed by Beveridge and built by Attlee's post-war Labour government, the welfare state was created during the 1940s. Britain has been seen ­ in domestic debates and internationally ­ as a world first: the place where both the idea and the practice of the welfare state were invented. I draw together comparative welfare state analysis with law and society scholarship (previously largely developed in isolation from one another) ­ as well as using British political cartoons as a source ­ to develop a revisionist historical critique of this conventional wisdom. First, the British welfare state has always been comparatively parsimonious. Second, the idea of the welfare state seems to have its origins outside the United Kingdom and this terminology was adopted relatively late and with some ambivalence in public debate and scholarly analysis. Third, a large body of socio-legal scholarship shows that robust 'welfare rights' were never embedded in the British 'welfare state'.

What adult worker model? A critical look at recent social policy reform in Europe from a gender and family perspective.

Analyses regularly feature claims that European welfare states are in the process of creating an adult worker model. The theoretical and empirical basis of this argument is examined here by looking first at the conceptual foundations of the adult worker model formulation and then at the extent to which social policy reform in western Europe fits with the argument. It is suggested that the adult worker formulation is under-specified. A framework incorporating four dimensions­the treatment of individuals vis-à-vis their family role and status for the purposes of social rights, the treatment of care, the treatment of the family as a social institution, and the extent to which gender inequality is problematized­is developed and then applied. The empirical analysis reveals a strong move towards individualization as social policy promotes and valorizes individual agency and self-sufficiency and shifts some childcare from the family. Yet evidence is also found of continued (albeit changed) familism. Rather than an unequivocal move to an individualized worker model then, a dual earner, gender-specialized, family arrangement is being promoted. The latter is the middle way between the old dependencies and the new "independence." This makes for complexity and even ambiguity in policy, a manifestation of which is that reform within countries involves concurrent moves in several directions.

Faith-based social services: saving the body or the soul? A research note.

Faith-based organizations might be ideal social service providers, claiming to transform clients' lives with holistic support while meeting immediate needs. While organizations have such goals, their success is impacted by constituencies with differing goals for the organization. Clients with goals not commensurate with an organization's may compromise its ability to attain its goals. Three questions are examined here: What are the goals of faith-based service providers? When asked what they think about the services, do clients share the organizational goals? Are organizations likely to meet either set of goals? Homeless persons patronizing faith-based soup kitchens were interviewed; service activities of organizations were observed. Clients' goals focused on survival in their current situation. Organizations' goals ranged from meeting clients' immediate needs to transforming clients through spiritual restoration. Congregations studied met clients' immediate needs. However, clients' accommodational goals were potentially problematic for organizations with spiritual goals.

Social influences on trajectories of self-rated health: evidence from Britain, Germany, Denmark and the USA.

BACKGROUND: This study investigates social inequalities in self-rated health dynamics for working-aged adults in four nations, representing distinct welfare regime types. The aims are to describe average national trajectories of self-rated health over a 7-year period, identify social determinants of cross-sectional and longitudinal health and compare cross-national patterns. METHODS: Data are from national household panel surveys in Britain, Germany, Denmark and the USA. The self-rated health of working-age respondents is measured for the years 1995-2001. Social indicators include education, occupational class, employment status, income, age, gender, minority status and marital status. Latent growth curve models are used to estimate both individual change and average national trajectories of self-rated health, conditioned on the social indicators. RESULTS: Ageing-vector graphs reveal general declines in health as people age. They also show differential patterns of change for specific national cohorts. Older cohorts in Denmark had poorer health and young cohorts in the USA had better health in 2001 than 1995. Social covariates predicted baseline health in all four countries, in ways that were consistent with welfare regime theories. Once inequalities in baseline health were accounted for, the few determinants of mean health decline occurred mainly in the USA, again in line with theoretical expectations. Finally, trajectories of health for those in average and advantaged social circumstances were similar, but disadvantaged individuals had much poorer health trajectories than 'average' individuals. The differences were greatest in the countries with lower levels of public transfers. CONCLUSION: National differences in self-rated health trajectories and their social correlates may be attributed partly to welfare policies.

Saberes ancestrales: para preservar el bienestar y la armonía en las comunidades indígenas: diagnóstico de la medicina tradicional,base de identidad de los pueblos indígenas del Pacífico, Centro y Norte de Nicaragua / Ancestral knowledge: to preserve well-being and harmony in the indigenous communities: diagnosis of traditional medicine, the basis of identity of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific, Central and Northern Nicaragua

La diversidad humana y las particularidades de actuaciones y comportamientos, a veces impredecibles, de una comunidad constituyen aspectos importantes de la riqueza de la sociedad, tanto en lo individual como en su convivir social. La riqueza del ser humano desde el punto de vista individual ha sido estudiada ampliamente por los psicólogos y psiquiatras, sus resultados se han descrito en múltiples publicaciones sobre la psicología humana.

Contested visions of American democracy: citizenship, public housing, and the international arena.

This essay reexamines the history of public housing and the controversy it generated from the Great Depression to the Cold War. By recasting that history in the global arena, it demonstrates that the debate over public housing versus homeownership was also a debate over the meaning of American citizenship and democracy, pointing up starkly divergent notions about what was and was not American. Through an examination of national conflicts and neglected local struggles, this article further shows that the fight over public housing was far more meaningful and volatile than traditionally assumed. Both critics and advocates of public housing drew from international experiences and imagery in positioning the home as a constitutive feature of citizenship in American democracy. Fears of Bolshevism, fascism, and communism served to internationalize issues of race, space, and housing and together shaped the decision of whether a decent home was an American right or privilege.

Care for the "racially careless": Indian hospitals in the Canadian West, 1920-1950s.

In the 1930s, sanatorium directors and medical bureaucrats warned of the threat to Canadian society of "Indian tuberculosis." Long-standing government policy aimed to isolate Aboriginal people on reserves and in residential schools, while their access to medical care was limited by government parsimony and community prejudice. Characterized as "racially careless" concerning their own health, Aboriginal bodies were seen as a menace to their neighbours and a danger to the nation. By the 1940s state-run racially segregated Indian hospitals institutionalized Aboriginal people who were not welcome in provincial sanatoria or in the modernizing community hospitals. The opening of the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital in Edmonton in 1946, one of the first acts of the newly created department of National Health and Welfare, was a very public demonstration of the state's commitment to define and promote "national health" by isolating and institutionalizing Aboriginal people.