“I am in a constant state of insecurity trying to make ends meet, like our service users”: Shared austerity reality between social workers and service users: Towards a preliminary conceptualization

This article introduces the concept of an emerging shared austerity reality, which refers to the socio-economic context of austerity that is shared both by social workers and service users, albeit to different degrees. Traditionally, the concept of the shared reality has been utilized to encompass the experiences of welfare professionals working in situations where both they and service users are exposed to the adverse effects of a natural disaster, war or terrorist attack. Here, the concept of shared reality is expanded through the introduction of the context of austerity. Drawing on 21 in-depth interviews with public sector social work practitioners in Greece it discusses, among other things, social anxieties about their children’s future, and their inability to take care of their elderly relatives that suggest an emerging shared austerity reality, reflecting the deterioration of socio-economic conditions. The paper ends with a discussion about the possibilities of alliance and division that emerge from the concept and future research directions. Moreover, it concludes with a reflection on the role of the social work profession and recent political developments in Greece in anti-austerity struggles.

I Stormens Öga : En kvalitativ studie inspirerad av grundad teori, om väntade förändringar inom elitidrottsföreningar

Adapt or die. En omvärld i ständig rörelse ställer högre krav än någonsin på organisationer att utveckla sitt förändringsarbete och sättet man ser på förändringar, något som lett till att fenomenet "organisationsförändringar" blivit ett fokusområde för organisationsforskare. Inom denna forskning framhävs inte sällan vikten av att ta ställning till hur anställda tar emot, och påverkas av, detta förändringsarbete. En typ av förändringar som dock förblivit outforskade är väntade förändringar, förändringar där de anställda vet att en förändring kan komma att ske men inte när eller hur den kommer ske. Inom idrotten återfinns en viss typ av organisationer, elitidrottsföreningar, som ställs inför väntade förändringar med jämna mellanrum. Dessa situationer uppkommer när föreningarna omplaceras i det standardiserade seriesystem som återfinns i Sverige och ställs inför kraftigt omväxlande ekonomiska förutsättningar. För att kunna hantera denna osäkerhet förutsätts att organisationen konstant står redo att genomföra omvälvande förändringar, enbart baserat på föreningens sportsliga resultat. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en förståelse för de anställdas reaktioner vid situationer av omplacering och väntad förändring. För att uppnå syftet utgick uppsatsen ifrån bristen på forskning och sökte, med hjälp av metoden Grundad teori, producera en serie väl underbyggda frågeställningar baserade i studiens fynd. Frågeställningarna producerades sedan via fyra semi-strukturerade intervjuer inom två olika elitidrottsföreningar. Resultatet visar på att en utbredd acceptans för väntade förändringar återfinns hos anställda inom elitidrottsföreningar. Uppsatsens fynd grundades i data från respondenterna och sammanställdes via en resultatmodell innehållandes en kärnkategori och fyra underkategorier. Uppsatsen erbjuder således, via metodvalet, en nyproducerad infallsvinkel på en situation som många organisationer inom idrotten – men även utanför – kan komma att ställas inför.

The cost of a minimum essential food basket in Northern Ireland : Pilot study for two household types

A good diet and adequate food supply is central to promoting health and wellbeing. A poor quality diet is associated with higher rates of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Social and economic conditions impact on diet quality which in turn contributes to health inequalities. This relationship is recognised and addressed at a policy level in NI through the Fitter Future for all framework(1). Access to a healthy diet requires transport, money and skills such as budgeting and food preparation. Food is the most flexible aspect of the household budget due to the fact the consumers can meet hunger and calorie needs on cheaper, nutritionally-poor foods.

Health, ageing migrants and care strategies

This article is the result of a study that seeks to understand the relationship between socio-economic conditions, health and active ageing. Behaviours related to active ageing in relation to health were identified as were the strategies used in active ageing and their determinants. A qualitative methodology was adopted in the form of semi-structured interviews. Data processing consisted of thematic content analysis in interviews. Two socio-economic groups of elderly Cape Verdean men and women composed the study sample. Both groups totalled 22 cases. Findings indicated that the socio-economic status interferes directly in the affairs of active ageing rather than health issues. In the higher socio-economic group, it was found that status determines active ageing rather than health issues.

Juridik eller socialpedagogik? : Skolors strategier för att hantera kränkningar

Legal perspectives or Social Pedagogy? Schools strategies of handling harassments The present study explores how Swedish schools define and categorize situations when students have been exposed to different forms of abusive acts and violence at school. The empirical study is designed as case studie of two urban secondary schools situated in areas with different socioeconomic conditions. One of the schools is located in a suburb in one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in a greater city area. The other school is located in a small town municipality, where the students are relatively privileged in respect to their socio-economic backgrounds. The results indicate that different socio-economic conditions influence how professional’s describe and categorize violence and harassment and the types of strategies chosen. In the suburban school professionals talk and collaborate with the police, reporting cases of violence and harassment. In the small town school the professionals talk about the importance of collaborating with parents.

The effect on the performance of listed family and non-family firms

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the ownership of public firms is related to accounting and market performance, comparing family and non-family listed firms. Design/methodology/approach: We use regression analysis, considering a sample of Portuguese family and non-family firms for the period between 1999 and 2010. Findings: Overall, the results show that family firms are older, are more indebted and have higher debt costs than non-family firms. However, they present lower levels of risk. The evidence suggests that family firms outperform non-family firms when we consider a market performance measure. The market performance of family-controlled firms is more sensitive to the crisis periods and age, compared to their counterparts. The empirical findings suggest that under economic adversity, the performance is especially compromised by the firms’ age. Research limitations/implications: A limitation of this study is the small size of the sample, which derives from the small size of the Portuguese stock market, the Euronext Lisbon. Originality/value: This paper offers some insights on the ownership of public firms and firm performance by investigating a small European economy. The study also contributes to the stream of firm performance, considering new independent variables as determinants of firm performance, such as operational risk. Finally, the study examines the interaction between ownership and performance under both steady and adverse economic conditions, giving the opportunity to analyze whether firm performance differs according to market conditions.

Vehicle Occupancy, 1981

The purpose of the survey is to monitor trends in vehicle occupancy. These trends may reflect changes in the driving habits of the general public caused by fuel shortages and economic conditions.

Counting Crime: an explanation of falling crime rates

The current crime decrease is defying traditional criminological theories such as those espoused by Bonger (1916) who researched the relationship between crime and economic conditions and stated that when unemployment rises so does crime. In both the USA and the UK crime has dropped dramatically while unemployment has risen. Both the USA and the UK have been in a deep recession since 2008 but the crime rate has decreased dramatically in both countries. Over the past 20 years it has halved in England and Wales. So how do we explain this phenomenon? Crime is down across the West but more so in Britain (see Figure 1). In England and Wales crime has decreased by 8% in a single year (2013). Vandalism is down by 14% and burglaries and vehicle crime by 11%. The murder rate in the UK is at its lowest since 1978; in 2013, 540 people were killed. Some less serious offences are vanishing too; antisocial behaviour has fallen from just under 4million incidents in 2007-08 to 2.4million. (The Economist 20/4/13). According to the most recent annual results from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), crime is at its lowest level since the survey began in 1981; the most recent annual figures from the survey, Latest figures from the CSEW show there were an estimated 7.3 million incidents of crime against households and resident adults (aged 16 and over) in England and Wales for the year ending March 2014. This represents a 14% decrease compared with the previous year’s survey, and is the lowest estimate since the survey began in 1981.

Foreclosure Counseling with Latino Households: Policy Assumptions in a Changing Demographic Landscape

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Panika moralna w dyskursie publicznym. Rosjanie wobec współczesnej imigracji z Chińskiej Republiki Ludowej.

Wydział Nauk Społecznych: Instytut Socjologii

Essays on Information Frictions, Prices and Unemployment

I investigate the effects of information frictions in price setting decisions. I show that firms' output prices and wages are less sensitive to aggregate economic conditions when firms and workers cannot perfectly understand (or know) the aggregate state of the economy. Prices and wages respond with a lag to aggregate innovations because agents learn slowly about those changes, and this delayed adjustment in prices makes output and unemployment more sensitive to aggregate shocks. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I show that workers' noisy information about the state of the economy help us to explain why real wages are sluggish. In the context of a search and matching model, wages do not immediately respond to a positive aggregate shock because workers do not (yet) have enough information to demand higher wages. This increases firms' incentives to post more vacancies, and it makes unemployment volatile and sensitive to aggregate shocks. This mechanism is robust to two major criticisms of existing theories of sluggish wages and volatile unemployment: the flexibility of wages for new hires and the cyclicality of the opportunity cost of employment. Calibrated to U.S. data, the model explains 60% of the overall unemployment volatility. Consistent with empirical evidence, the response of unemployment to TFP shocks predicted by my model is large, hump-shaped, and peaks one year after the TFP shock, while the response of the aggregate wage is weak and delayed, peaking after two years. In the second chapter of this dissertation, I study the role of information frictions and inventories in firms' price setting decisions in the context of a monetary model. In this model, intermediate goods firms accumulate output inventories, observe aggregate variables with one period lag, and observe their nominal input prices and demand at all times. Firms face idiosyncratic shocks and cannot perfectly infer the state of nature. After a contractionary nominal shock, nominal input prices go down, and firms accumulate inventories because they perceive some positive probability that the nominal price decline is due to a good productivity shock. This prevents firms' prices from decreasing and makes current profits, households' income, and aggregate demand go down. According to my model simulations, a 1% decrease in the money growth rate causes output to decline 0.17% in the first quarter and 0.38% in the second followed by a slow recovery to the steady state. Contractionary nominal shocks also have significant effects on total investment, which remains 1% below the steady state for the first 6 quarters.

Empirical studies on share issuance and repurchase decisions

Financial constraints influence corporate policies of firms, including both investment decisions and external financing policies. The relevance of this phenomenon has become more pronounced during and after the recent financial crisis in 2007/2008. In addition to raising costs of external financing, the effects of financial crisis limited the availability of external financing which had implications for employment, investment, sale of assets, and tech spending. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the effects of financial constraints on share issuance and repurchases decisions. Financial constraints comprise both internal constraints reflecting the demand for external financing and external financial constraints that relate to the supply of external financing. The study also examines both operating performance and stock market reactions associated with equity issuance methods. The first empirical chapter explores the simultaneous effects of financial constraints and market timing on share issuance decisions. Internal financing constraints limit firms’ ability to issue overvalued equity. On the other hand, financial crisis and low market liquidity (external financial constraints) restrict availability of equity financing and consequently increase the costs of external financing. Therefore, the study explores the extent to which internal and external financing constraints limit market timing of equity issues. This study finds that financial constraints play a significant role in whether firms time their equity issues when the shares are overvalued. The conclusion is that financially constrained firms issue overvalued equity when the external equity market or the general economic conditions are favourable. During recessionary periods, costs of external finance increase such that financially constrained firms are less likely to issue overvalued equity. Only unconstrained firms are more likely to issue overvalued equity even during crisis. Similarly, small firms that need cash flows to finance growth projects are less likely to access external equity financing during period of significant economic recessions. Moreover, constrained firms have low average stock returns compared to unconstrained firms, especially when they issue overvalued equity. The second chapter examines the operating performance and stock returns associated with equity issuance methods. Firms in the UK can issue equity through rights issues, open offers, and private placement. This study argues that alternative equity issuance methods are associated with a different level of operating performance and long-term stock returns. Firms using private placement are associated with poor operating performance. However, rights issues are found empirically to be associated with higher operating performance and less negative long-term stock returns after issuance in comparison to counterpart firms that issue private placements and open offers. Thus, rights issuing firms perform better than open offers and private placement because the favourable operating performance at the time of issuance generates subsequent positive long-run stock price response. Right issuing firms are of better quality and outperform firms that adopt open offers and private placement. In the third empirical chapter, the study explores the levered share repurchase of internally financially unconstrained firms. Unconstrained firms are expected to repurchase their shares using internal funds rather than through external borrowings. However, evidence shows that levered share repurchases are common among unconstrained firms. These firms display this repurchase behaviour when they have bond ratings or investment grade ratings that allow them to obtain cheap external debt financing. It is found that internally financially unconstrained firms borrow to finance their share repurchase when they invest more. Levered repurchase firms are associated with less positive abnormal returns than unlevered repurchase firms. For the levered repurchase sample, high investing firms are associated with more positive long-run abnormal stock returns than low investing firms. It appears the market underreact to the levered repurchase in the short-run regardless of the level of investments. These findings indicate that market reactions reflect both undervaluation and signaling hypotheses of positive information associated with share repurchase. As the firms undertake capital investments, they generate future cash flows, limit the effects of leverage on financial distress and ultimately reduce the risk of the equity capital.

Wsparcie Stanów Zjednoczonych skierowane na promowanie demokracji na Bliskim Wschodzie w latach 2003-2013 na przykładach Egiptu, Iraku i Jordanii

Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa

Génese, apogeu e declínio das fortificações calcolíticas da Extremadura

En este artículo se presenta un análisis de las condiciones de tipo socioeconómico que determinarán el origen y el desarrollo de las fortificaciones calcolíticas en la Extremadura Portuguesa, unos 2800 a.C. En la interpretación de los acontecimientos, se considera determinante la evolución interna de las propias comunidades que habitarán la región, al menos desde el neolítico final, caracterizadas por un sistema agro-pastoral de creciente complejidad y diversificación.

Desenvolvimento de tecnologias sociais na área da saúde da mulher : intervenções em nível comunitário com gestantes

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Psicologia, Programa de Pós-graduação em Psicologia Clínica e Cultura, 2016.