Taking Class Seriously

This article critically analyzes the human rights perspective upon what has emerged as one of the most significant socioeconomic and political challenges confronting many millions of people residing within high-income, liberal-democratic societies: rising poverty and socioeconomic inequality. This article argues that international and domestic human rights law and the social and political imaginaries of the wider human rights community largely fail to adequately diagnose and effectively respond to poverty and inequality within high-income, liberal-democratic societies. As a political and ethical doctrine founded upon a normative commitment to social justice, human rights should be taking the lead in efforts to condemn, understand, and develop responses to the poverty and inequality which blight the lives of many millions of people within many of the world's most affluent and, allegedly, most "liberal” societies. Human rights law has historically not done so. We, as a community, have not done so. This article offers a specific explanation for this continuing failure, by focusing upon the absence of any concerted recognition of or engagement with social class as it contributes to and compounds our exposure to poverty and inequality. Human rights remain largely blind to the many ways in which social class is intricately connected to poverty and inequality. The human rights community within high-income, liberal-democratic societies characteristically fails to take class seriously. Building upon previous writing in this area, this article explains why class is rarely recognized or engaged with by the human rights community. This article also sets out the basis for how we might begin the task of overcoming this highly damaging class blindness, to set the stage for what the author asserts as an urgent need if human rights is to provide the kind of political and ethical leadership required to effectively engage with poverty and inequality in affluent societies: the degentrification of human rights.

Impact of Direct Taxation on Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence Based on Panel Data Regression Analysis at the Level of Eu Countries

Through fiscal policy, the government can influence businesses and individuals in order to regulate their behaviour. The research used panel data from all 27 EU countries covering the period 2008–2020 to investigate the impact of direct taxation on economic growth at the level of two main clusters of countries concerning fiscal efficiency. Therefore, the analysis employed cluster methods to classify the main EU countries in both groups of countries with a high level of fiscal efficiency and those with a rather limited level of fiscal efficiency. The study employs fixed effect models and dynamic GMM methods to investigate the effect of direct taxation components (personal and corporate income taxes) on economic growth. The analysis also considers the informal economy's role in relation to the official economy. The empirical results revealed that corporate income taxes significantly negatively impact economic growth for both clusters of high- and limited fiscal efficiency countries. Additionally, personal income tax was associated with lower economic growth for countries in the limited fiscal efficiency group. Thus, from the perspective of policymakers, lowering direct taxation can increase disposable income, stimulate consumption and economic growth, encourage investment leading to job creation, increase competitiveness, and reduce tax evasion and avoidance, thereby leading to a more efficient tax system.

Approaches to Occupational Mobility under the Conditions of the Current Economic Crisis

The objectives of economic development in the modern world demand new approaches in the study, analysis and research of social aspects, labour markets and local and regional economic development in the context of the new transformations, the multiple crises that humanity is going through today. For the labour market, the geographical approach opens up the lens of analysis, formulation of priorities and the development of new methodologies that will help us build new theories and policies of local and regional economic development, the development of a labour market through the prism of economic geography. This approach will allow us to analyse the migration processes of occupational mobility and to develop viable policies and measures to create new jobs and ensure sustainable, smart and inclusive economic growth.

Employee Turnover: Why Medical Practices Lose Good Employees

[...]physician owners emerged as both a critical enabler and a critical barrier for employee retention. A recent poll by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) found that nearly half of medical practices saw increasing turnover rates in the last quarter of 2021, leaving many practices short of adequate operational and clinical staff.1 To maintain operational continuity, managing employee turnover rates is more important than ever, because lack of adequate staffing impedes a practice's ability to provide adequate patient care. An unexpected result emerged within the data: although succession planning and leadership development are key factors in employee retention and turnover, organizational structure and medical practice owners play a key role as well. [...]organizational structure emerged as a barrier for retaining high-performing high-potential employees.

Rethinking Human Capital: A Case of Migrant Workers in Vietnam during the COVID-19 Pandemic

While pandemic-related labour shortages have been documented in other countries especially in particular sectors, the seemingly obvious reverse migration of this demographic of the Vietnamese workforce highlights implications for person's social participation in human capital development. In a broader sense, human capital has been raised as a key issue concerning social and economic recovery, with businesses in the city being in great need of employable persons, citing labour shortages as a critical issue (Dat & Dang, 2021;Le, 2021a;Vien, 2021b). [...]while migrants often reap subjective benefits in their decision to move from their places of origin in terms of the welfare of their families and communities, primarily through remittances, they also contribute to the local metropolitan workforce as well as being 'an indispensable tendency of urbanisation' (Huong et al., 2021, p. 385). Interestingly, the practices of migrant workers in the context and instance discussed here challenge traditional conceptions of human capital theory, with implications for how this useful frame of reference might be productively employed. While pandemic-related labour shortages have been documented in differing sectors and countries worldwide, the seemingly obvious reverse migration of this part of the local workforce foregrounds the entanglements of persons' social participation in the human capital development process.

A Theory-Led Evaluation of a Scalable Intervention to Promote Evidence-Based, Research-Informed Practice in Schools to Address Attainment Gaps

Evidence-based practice is a salient solution that has been presented to address the persistent educational attainment gap linked to economic disadvantage. However, most schools do not engage with research, and we know little about facilitating school-led research use at scale. Linking different approaches to studying educational effectiveness, equity and change, and drawing on cultural-historical activity theory, this study develops intermediate theory about the mechanisms influencing institutions’ success in using research. In the context of the Opportunity Area Programme, supporting place-based interventions in the UK’s most socio-economically disadvantaged regions, we conducted a theory-led evaluation of the Evidence-Based Practice Fund (EBPF), aimed at supporting school-led research engagement to improve learning outcomes. We analysed the documentation of 83 EBPF projects, 8 focus groups, and a school survey. We demonstrate that enabling schools to address locally identified needs motivates research engagement but formulating these as stimulus for change requires scaffolding. Schools were keen but needed re-translation to use research to address those challenges. Low-key school-to-school support was found adequate. Leadership support and collaboration were significant but require relational expertise and professional learning to be effective. This study demonstrates that the use of research by schools at scale is possible and can transform a school’s agency in developing their own practice to improve equity.

Rural Food Insecurity: A Longitudinal Analysis of Low-Income Rural Households with Children in the South

Researchers have noted large spatial variations in rates of food insecurity. But little research exists on why this is so and the impacts it has on rural families. Drawing on a mixed-methods longitudinal study with 124 poor and working-class households in North Carolina, we analyze the processes that shape lower-income rural families’ access to food. We trace the narratives of three families whose stories are emblematic of themes from the larger data set to illumine how space and context influence families’ experiences across the life course. As the caregivers in our study navigated how to feed their families, living in a rural area shaped the resources and often precarious forms of support that they drew on from their social networks, local communities, and the state.

Radical Democratic Inclusion: Why We Should Lower the Voting Age to 12

Democratic societies such as the United Kingdom have come to fail their young citizens, often sacrificing their interests in a political process that gives much greater weight to the preferences and interests of older citizens. Against this background of intergenerational injustice, this article presents the case for a shift in the political system in the direction of radical democratic inclusion of younger citizens, through reducing the voting age to 12. This change in the voting age can be justified directly, with reference to the status, interests, and capacities of younger citizens, and it can also be justified as a remedy to existing forms of intergenerational injustice. This change in the voting age would require a parallel transformation in the role of secondary schools as part of the ‘critical infrastructure' of a democratic society, which would be part of a broader shift towards a more genuinely democratic political culture. The proposal is defended against less radical alternatives (such as votes at 16) and more radical alternatives (such as votes for younger children). The article concludes with some reflections on democracy and intergenerational justice in light of the Covid pandemic and the climate emergency.

INCENTIVIZING FAIR HOUSING

Restrictive land use regulation has thwarted the upward mobility of many Americans, particularly Americans of color. Local restrictions imposed by affluent municipalities have limited access to safe neighborhoods, better housing, and good schools. Racism and economic self-interest have both played a role in exclusionary practices which have contributed to high housing costs that place a strain on the entire economy. Fair Housing Act litigation has been one weapon in the fight against these practices. Despite the Supreme Court's decision in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., disparate impact litigation faces significant obstacles that limit its value as a tool to fight exclusionary zoning. First, because restrictive zoning ordinances have such widespread economic effect, it will generally be difficult to prove that their impact on members of protected classes is disparate. Second, municipalities are likely to have successful defenses against disparate impact claims arising from restrictive zoning-including the "business necessity" defense that zoning restrictions are necessary to minimize the tax burden on local residents. Third, litigation sets up an adversarial dynamic that leads municipalities to resist housing initiatives rather than embracing them. By contrast, incentives are better calculated to induce local cooperation in the development of fair housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development made some use of incentives during the Obama Administration, but those efforts were not ideally designed to promote buy-in by recalcitrant municipalities and were abandoned during the Trump Administration. States, however, are well positioned to use the real property tax system to create substantial incentives for municipalities to abandon exclusionary practices. Using tax incentives rather than mandates would enlist municipal self-interest as a weapon against exclusion.