Introduction

Individualised employment relations formed a key pillar of the shift to neoliberal economic policy in the 1980s, complementing other dimensions of orthodoxy deployed across governments, public administrations and central banks in the same time. In the neoliberal narrative, market forces would ‘naturally' and justly compensate labour for its contribution to productivity, like any other input to production. Consequently, redistributive institutions empowering workers to win more adequate wages and conditions (through minimum wages, Awards, unionisation, and collective bargaining) were dramatically eroded, or discarded entirely. Combined with welfare state retrenchment, this restructuring of labour market policy increased the pressure on people to sell their labour, and under terms over which workers wielded little influence. Since then, forms of insecure, non-standard work have proliferated globally, and employment relations have been increasingly individualised. Now, most workers in Anglo-Saxon market economies, and a growing proportion of workers in European and Nordic nations, rely on individual contract instruments (underpinned only by minimum wage floors typically far below living wage benchmarks) to set the terms and conditions of employment. Wages have stagnated, the share of GDP going to workers has declined, and inequality and poverty (even among employed people) has intensified. More recently, after years of this employer-friendly hegemony in workplace relations, successive crises (first the GFC and then the COVID-19 pandemic) have more obviously shattered traditional expectations of a natural linkage between economic growth and workers' living standards.After a generation of experience with this individualised model of employment relations, and with the human costs of that approach becoming ever-more obvious, there is renewed concern with reimagining policies and structures which could support improvements in job quality, stability, and compensation. Important policy dialogue and innovation is now occurring in many industrial countries, in response to the negative consequences of neoliberal labour market policies. In those conversations, institutions like collective bargaining have returned to centre stage.

Assistência Social no ajuste fiscal: pandemia e gestão da força de trabalho

O presente artigo objetiva discutir aspectos recentes da política de assistência social brasileira, considerando a incidência da radicalização do projeto neoliberal sobre seus serviços e as características de sua intervenção no contexto da pandemia da Covid-19. Elegemos como mote de análise central a relação entre a referida política e a gestão da força de trabalho mais precarizada e empobrecida, que no geral têm composto o público-alvo deste campo de proteção social. Tomando como base os fundamentos da crítica marxista da política social, a abordagem da assistência social procura desvelar as contradições inerentes a esta política de seguridade social, problematizando os principais elementos do endurecimento do ajuste fiscal no Brasil. Essas reflexões sedimentam as bases para a análise acerca da condição dessa política na gestão da força de trabalho mais empobrecida a partir das determinações da pandemia da Covid-19. A pesquisa, de natureza qualitativa, se assenta em revisão bibliográfica e análise de dados empíricos de fonte primária e secundária.Alternate :This article aims to discuss recent aspects of Brazilian social assistance policy, considering the incidence of the radicalization of the neoliberal project on its services and the characteristics of its intervention in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. We chose as a central analysis theme the relationship between the aforementioned policy and the management of the most precarious and impoverished workforce, which in general have made up the target audience of this field of social protection. Based on the foundations of the Marxist critique of social policy, the approach to social assistance seeks to reveal the contradictions inherent in this social security policy, questioning the main elements of the tightening of fiscal adjustment in Brazil. These reflections solidify the bases for the analysis about the condition of this policy in the management of the most impoverished workforce from the determinations of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research, of a qualitative nature, is based on a literature review and analysis of empirical data from primary and secondary sources.

Publics and their health: Historical problems and perspectives

The nature of the relationship between publics and their health has long been a concern for those seeking to improve collective and individual health. Attempts to secure the health of the population of any given place are one of the oldest forms of governmental action. Whether it be providing clean water or preventing the spread of disease, such efforts require the involvement of the publics these measures are designed to protect. Despite its importance, surprisingly little attention has been paid to who or what the ‘public' of public health consisted of. This collection addresses this gap by considering ‘who' the public of public health was in an array of places and around a variety of public health problems. Ranging across Europe and North and South America, and from the interwar period to the near present, this book explores the construction of ‘problem publics' to deepen our understanding of the ‘who' of public health. This book offers detailed case studies of the making of ‘problem' publics and public health problems in different places and at different times. By placing examples of the construction of problem publics in contexts as diverse as the USA in the interwar period, East Germany in the 1980s and contemporary Argentina, this collection identifies what is general and what is specific to the processes that make certain kinds of publics appear problematic. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this volume offers fresh insights into the nature of public health problems, practices and publics. © Manchester University Press 2023.

Balanço dos impactos da crise da COVID-19 sobre o mercado de trabalho brasileiro em 2020

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar os impactos da crise associada à pandemia da Covid-19 sobre o mercado de trabalho brasileiro até o final de 2020. Para tanto, são utilizados principalmente os dados da PNAD Contínua, visando identificar o comportamento da força de trabalho, a dimensão do desemprego gerado, as principais características dos postos de trabalho perdidos e os efeitos sobre a renda do trabalho no período. O mercado de trabalho nacional foi fortemente atingido a partir de março de 2020, registrando quedas inéditas no nível de ocupação. Os trabalhadores mais prejudicados foram aqueles que se encontravam em ocupações informais e mais flexíveis, com menor grau de proteção social. Com a contração da população ocupada e do número de horas trabalhadas, houve uma intensa queda nos rendimentos do trabalho, destacadamente nas menores faixas salariais. Com isso, a pandemia pode ter deflagrado a pior crise da história do mercado de trabalho brasileiro, com impactos duradouros sobre os níveis de emprego e de renda.Alternate :This study aims to analyze the impacts of the crisis associated with the Covid-19 pandemic on the Brazilian labor market until the end of 2020. Therefore, data from PNAD Contínua are analyzed in order to identify the behavior of the labor force, the main characteristics of the jobs lost and the impacts on labor income in that period. The national labor market was strongly hit from March 2020, with a historical slump in the level of occupation. The most affected workers were those who were in informal and more flexible occupations, with a lower degree of social protection. With the contraction of the employed population and the number of hours worked, there was an intense fall in labor income, especially in the lowest salary ranges. As a result, the pandemic may have triggered the worst crisis in the history of the Brazilian labor market, with lasting impacts on employment and income levels.

Assessing public support for social policy in times of crisis: evidence from the Child Tax Credit during the COVID-19 era in the United States

The 2021 American Rescue Plan included the temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC)-the largest individual income tax credit program in the United States-for most families with children. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, how did the public perceive this social policy benefit for families, especially in relation to other traditional social programs? By focusing on the CTC, an understudied policy area, and presenting original survey data, this paper first shows that, while the majority of respondents favored the CTC, levels of support for these benefits were lower than support for other social programs. Second, the paper suggests that, compared to older people and people with disabilities, Americans view families as part of the "undeserving" population. Third, by presenting panel data, we show that there is no change in levels of CTC support even among recipients of these benefits. Overall, these findings shed light on important challenges to the development and implementation of family policy in the USA, as well as the possibility of recalibrating the US liberal welfare state.

Savings groups and the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe: Critical assessment of the informal social protection scheme

The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged nations and people's lives throughout the globe across multiple dimensions. Measures to curtail the spread of the disease in Zimbabwe have stifled the capacity of the majority of the population, relegated to the informal sector, to source a living. In the absence of robust social protection interventions from the state, these measures pose a more immediate threat to the lives of marginalised and vulnerable communities than the pandemic itself. Savings groups (SGs), which have providedfinancial relief andprotection from economic shocks and stressors to such population groups, have been entrapped by the preventive and containment measures employed by the Zimbabwean authorities. It is unclear how and to what degree such conditions leave underserved populations exposed to socioeconomic shocks as such vital informal social protection alternatives have been rendered ineffectual. Using documentary review, this study examines the fate of SGs in such socially restricted and economically debilitating circumstances. In addition, the authors discuss strategies for improving the sustainability of such grassroots micro-finance initiatives under COVID-19 induced contraptions. Programmatic andpolicy measures necessary for retaining and protecting the viability of (SGs) as alternatives for informal social protection for marginalised and vulnerable groups under COVID-19 are advanced.

Krisenspezifische Solidarität. Der Stellenwert wohlfahrtstaatlicher Solidarität in Krisenzeiten

In diesem Beitrag wird der krisenspezifische Einfluss der Covid-19-Pandemie auf wohlfahrtsstaatliche Solidarität während der ersten Infektionswelle und des ersten Lockdowns von März bis Mai 2020 untersucht. Wir verknüpfen dabei ein wohlfahrtsstaatssoziologisches Verständnis von Solidarität mit katastrophensoziologischen Überlegungen zu krisenspezifischer Solidarität und einer differenzierungstheoretischen Sichtweise auf Institutionenwandel. Mittels einer strukturierenden Inhaltsanalyse der Bundestagsplenarprotokolle wird ein innerparlamentarischer Solidarisierungsdruck nachgezeichnet, der zu einer krisenspezifischen Vergemeinschaftung führt. Durch die qualitative Analyse der Parlamentsdebatten verdeutlichen wir zudem die temporäre Begrenzung dieses Zusammenhangs, der nach erfolgreicher Rekonstitution einer gemeinsamen normativen Basis der Parlamentsmitglieder die Wiederaufnahme von parteipolitischen Solidaritätskonflikten erst ermöglichte. Auf einer weiteren Ebene arbeiten wir die Stabilisierungsfunktion von wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Solidarität als abstrakter normativer Leitidee heraus, die auch in konflikthaften Aushandlungen von sozialpolitischen Maßnahmen ihre Wirkung entfaltet.Alternate :This paper examines the crisis-specific impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on welfare state solidarity during the first wave of infection and the first lockdown from March to May 2020. We combine a sociological understanding of solidarity in the context of the welfare state with sociological reflections on crisis-specific solidarity and a differentiation-theoretical perspective on institutional change. By means of a structuring content analysis of the Bundestagsplenarprotokolle, an intra-parliamentary solidarity pressure is traced that leads to crisis-specific Vergemeinschaftung. Through the qualitative analysis of the parliamentary debates, we also clarify the temporary limitation of this connection, which made the resumption of party-political solidarity conflicts possible in the first place after the successful reconstitution of a common normative basis of the members of parliament. On a further level, we elaborate the stabilizing function of welfare state solidarity as an normative guiding idea (Leitidee), which also exerts its effect in conflictual negotiations of social policy measures.

Solidarity During Crises. The Importance of Welfare State Solidarity in Times of Crisis

This paper examines the crisis-specific impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on welfare state solidarity during the first wave of infection and the first lockdown from March to May 2020. We combine a sociological understanding of solidarity in the context of the welfare state with sociological reflections on crisis-specific solidarity and a differentiation-theoretical perspective on institutional change. By means of a structuring content analysis of the Bundestagsplenarprotokolle, an intra-parliamentary solidarity pressure is traced that leads to crisis-specific Vergemeinschaftung. Through the qualitative analysis of the parliamentary debates, we also clarify the temporary limitation of this connection, which made the resumption of party-political solidarity conflicts possible in the first place after the successful reconstitution of a common normative basis of the members of parliament. On a further level, we elaborate the stabilizing function of welfare state solidarity as an normative guiding idea (Leitidee), which also exerts its effect in conflictual negotiations of social policy measures.

Path dependence or steps for major reforms? Pandemic-related social protection measures in ten OECD countries

This article examines with empirical evidence the social protection measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in ten welfare states in the Global North. We analysed the potential similarities and differences in responses by welfare regimes. The comparative study was conducted with data from 169 measures, collected from domestic sources as well as from COVID-19 response databases and reports. In qualitative terms, we redeveloped Hall's theory on the distinction between first-, second- and third-order changes. In accordance with the path-dependence thesis, we show systematically that the majority of the studied changes (91%) relied on a pre-pandemic tool demonstrating flexibility within social security systems. The relative share of completely new instruments was notable but modest (9%). Thematically, the social protection measures converged beyond traditional welfare regimes, particularly among the European welfare states. Somewhat surprisingly, the changes to social security systems related not just to emergency aid to mitigate traditional risks but, to a greater extent, also to prevent new risks from being actualised.

Digital welfare state and problem arising: an exploration and future research agenda

PurposeThe penetration of technology and the strengthening of evidence-based policies have paved the way for the automated delivery of social services. This study aims to discuss the inherent risks of this automatization, particularly those associated with the discrimination, exclusion and inequality problem, which the authors package under the theoretical umbrella of a digital welfare state (DWS).Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual article reviews the literature on the welfare DWS, with an empirical focus on the recent experience of selected countries from India, Kenya and Sweden. These countries reflect three different types of welfare regimes but are connected by the same digital social risk. The authors' exploration also includes questions about what this DWS has in common with and how it differs from the previous era. This article illustrates that there has been a very similar trajectory in regards to the development of the DWS and the associated risks in the examined countries.FindingsDWS has triggered new social risks (e.g. discrimination, exclusion and inequality in welfare access) that are a result of data breaches experienced by citizens. Further, vulnerable groups in the digital age should be viewed not only as those who lack access to welfare services, such as education, health and employment, but also as those without internet access, without digital skills and excluded from the DWS system.Originality/valueThe article calls for the development of scholarly research into the DWS in particular and the contemporary one in general. The authors also predict that a critical aspect of the future regime typology rests in the ability to mobilize resources to address contemporary digital risks, as every country is equally vulnerable to them. Overall, this article can be considered to be one of the initial works that focus on cross-national comparison across different meta-welfare regimes.

(No) country for old men? Intergenerational welfare distribution across welfare state regimes

PurposeThe article examines the interplay between welfare state regimes and the distribution of welfare between generations.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from 2017 for 24 European countries on six standard of living dimensions, the authors investigate the intergenerational welfare distribution in a two-stage procedure: (1) the authors compare the intergenerational welfare distribution across welfare state regimes using their existing typologies and find a moderate nexus. Therefore, (2) the authors employ clustering procedure to look for a new classification that would better reflect the cross-country variation in the intergenerational welfare division.FindingsThe authors find a complex relationship between the welfare state model and welfare distribution across generations and identify the policy patterns that shape it. Continental and liberal regimes are quite similar in these terms and favour the elderly generation. Social-democratic and CEE regimes seem to be a bit more balanced. COVID-19 pandemic will probably increase the intergenerational imbalance in terms of welfare distribution in favour of the elderly.Originality/valueIn contrast to the majority of previous studies, which employ inputs (social expenditures) or outputs (benefits, incomes), the authors use intergenerational balance indicators reflecting living conditions of a given generation as compared to the reference point defined as an average situation of all generations.

Thinking Resistance, "Emergency,” and Kismet: A Response to Dylan Rodríguez's Presidential Address

The battles over masking only amplified preexisting culture and race wars in which entrenched libertarianism and neoliberal individualism evaded the economic and existential precarity caused by degraded social welfare and state health care. Counterterrorism projects such as Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) introduced by Barack Obama have relied on recruitment of community members, social service providers, and educators for self-surveillance and self-regulation of political expression and community organizing: a liberal counterterrorism approach for "reformist reform.” 5 Nabeel Abraham and Will Youmans provide important analyses of the "Containment System” in response to the War on Terror, based on "entrepreneurial opportunism” (Rodríguez) by Arab and Muslim American educators, professionals, and community leaders (including in the nonprofit industrial complex), some of whom collaborated with federal and state agencies.6 Academic Containment Reckoning with these critiques from critical Arab American or Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) studies requires grappling with the long history of anti-Arab/Muslim state policies of surveillance, policing, and mass incarceration that preceded 2001. The Zionist lobby and anti-Palestinian organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League have increasingly deployed the language of tolerance and civility to tar critics of Israel with charges of anti-Semitism.7 These liberal strategies, illustrating Rodríguez's argument, can be more damaging than frontal attacks on the Palestine justice movement because the language of racism is harder to challenge

Crisis and the welfare state: the role of public employment services for job placement and the Danish flexicurity system during COVID-19

Denmark is a Nordic welfare state with local government autonomy in public service provision related to workfare policies. We use a policy experiment that re-opened on-site public employment services after the first COVID-19 lockdown in a spatially staggered manner to provide evidence on the effect of public employment services on job placement during a crisis. Early re-opening of on-site public employment services is associated with a better local labour market performance. It particularly benefits low-skilled unemployed and rural areas with specific sector mixes and demographic structures, why workfare-oriented welfare state arrangements remain important to counter social and regional imbalances.

From austerity neoliberalism in Europe to social reconstruction in Spain: Proposals for constitutional reforms

More than a decade after the start of the eurozone crisis, the coronavirus in Spain has brought back the idea of constitutional reform in social rights. The paradigm shift that occurred with the arrival of the pandemic is hardly questionable. From the austerity promoted by European institutions and assumed by national authorities in the face of the 2008 financial crisis, we have recently moved on to boosting public investment and social spending in both spheres of governance. This paper comparatively analyses the two scenarios to demonstrate that economic policy is a matter of ideology. Moreover, austerity is only one of many possible responses to economic downturns. And to preserve our welfare state in the face of future austerity trends, this paper argues strongly in favour of a series of constitutional reforms in Spain to guarantee the effectiveness of social rights.

The effects experienced by battered women in light of the Corona pandemic (COVID-19): A study applied to social workers in the Social Protection House and government hospitals in Makkah Al-Mukarramah

The Corona pandemic represents a human catastrophe that leads to changes and transformations that attacked the heart of societies and their economies, as global indicators indicate an increasing rise in cases of infection and death around the clock as a result of non-compliance with precautionary measures and measures to prevent the spread of infection in an alarming manner, which called on all governments of developed and developing countries to take measures to limit From the spread of this epidemic, as air traffic stopped, land, sea and air flights were canceled, borders were closed, trade and industry movement stopped, and states of emergency were declared to prevent citizens from being in gathering places in all its forms. A ban was imposed, and the current study seeks to identify the effects that battered women suffer in light of The Corona pandemic (COVID-19), through a set of sub-objectives and questions adopted by the study. The study is a descriptive analytical study using the comprehensive social survey method, social workers in the Social Protection House, in addition to those concerned with dealing with cases of violence in government hospitals in the Makkah region. The study on the questionnaire as a main tool in the studies The study reached a set of results, the most important of which were: the social factors associated with social distancing, the economic factors associated with closure, the psychological factors associated with home quarantine and lead to violence against women, and the results revealed the effects that battered women suffer as a result of the Corona pandemic, which are ( health, economic, social and psychological)

The history and future of the tax state: Possibilities for a new fiscal politics beyond neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is marked by fiscal austerity. Yet, in response to the COVID-19 crisis states again, briefly, began to exercise fiscal discretion. We reflect on the potential for a more enduring shift in fiscal politics beyond neoliberalism by placing recent developments in the historical context of the ‘tax state'. We make two claims. First, we argue that different phases of capitalism are reflected in, and can be understood through, changes in fiscal accounting practices that demarcate public and private, and mark turning points for the role of the state within capitalism. Charting the unravelling of the Keynesian welfare state, we propose a fiscal understanding of neoliberalism in which asymmetric applications of capital accounting practices facilitated the financialisation of the state. Second, we argue democratic pressures are giving rise to forms of ‘fiscal hybridity' that reassert accounting symmetries between public and private wealth to potentially create ‘fiscal space'. We examine how the fiscal actions taken by states in response to COVID-19 express hybridity, reflecting contestation over neoliberal policy models that was emerging prior to the pandemic, as fiscal politics shifts the state's focus to its role as creditor, underwriter and investor. © 2023 The Authors

COVID‐19 Policy Interventions and Fertility Dynamics in the Context of Pre‐Pandemic Welfare Support

This paper focuses on nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to explain fertility dynamics during the pandemic, while considering countries' institutional context. We argue that containment policies disrupted people's lives and increased their uncertainty more in countries with weak welfare support systems, while health‐related and economic support NPIs mitigated such disruptions much more there, as they were less expected by citizens. We estimate monthly "excess” crude birth rates (CBRs) and find that countries with low public support—Southern Europe, East Asia, and Eastern Europe—experienced larger decreases and less of a rebound in CBRs than countries with histories of high public spending—Western, Central, and Northern Europe. However, in low support countries, NPIs are much more strongly associated with excess CBRs—containment NPIs more negatively and health and economic support NPIs more positively—with the exception of the one‐month lag of containment NPIs, for which the opposite holds. When putting these coefficients into broader perspective, our findings suggest that the actual implementation of all NPIs taken together mitigated fertility declines. This is especially the case for low public support countries, whereas one might have seen a birth decline even in high support countries if the NPIs were not implemented. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Population & Development Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Sustainable Employment and Livelihoods for All

The coronavirus pandemic has not only caused unemployment and livelihood issues, among others, but also has exposed the (pre-pandemic) need for greater employment opportunities and working conditions, and social protection measures. This special issue on ‘Sustainable Employment and Livelihoods for All' discusses how in/formal workers' lives are impacted and calls for immediate policy reforms and innovative programs to salvage and prevent millions of people from further plunging into poverty.

Wealth Stratification and the Insurance Function of Wealth

This thematic issue examines the insurance function as a mechanism to underlie wealth effects on various outcomes. The articles in this issue shed an innovative light on the insurance function of wealth concerning a range of topics rele-vant to social stratification and social policy researchers. This editorial provides an overview of the contributions of this thematic issue and highlights some gaps and remaining open questions. Altogether, the contributions suggest that wealth can provide insurance against adverse life events in various contexts. However, this insurance effect depends on welfare state characteristics, wealth portfolios, and the way families handle their wealth. © 2023 by the author(s).

SPAIN FACING NEW CHALLENGES Spain: Difficult Option in Conditions of Uncertainty. Moscow, ILA RAN, 2022, 198 p

The monograph prepared by a group of experts from the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences presents a volu-minous, multifaceted picture of modern Spain and reveals the latest trends in its development. The political process in the kingdom is characterized by uncertainty and unpredictability. The problem of governability has become aggravated, connected with the arrival of new parties in "big politics" com-peting with the traditional ones, so as with the underdevelopment of a culture of compromise. The authors underline the disunity and polarization of socie-ty. The Spanish development model and the built Welfare State, despite some successes, are not very efficient. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing problems, making even more obvious the need to restructure the production structure in order to make it more flexible and efficient. Spain's foreign policy - transatlantic relations, Latin American, Asian and African directions occupies a significant place in the monograph. A separate section in the publication is devoted to Russian-Spanish relations characterized in the first decades of the 21st century by periods of rapprochement, of cooling and even by the absence of contacts. Hope for improved bilateral ties was dashed in February 2022, when Spain, as a member of European Union, joined the anti-Russian sanctions adopted after a special military operation in Ukraine. The development of Russian-Spanish relations will depend on how far the ruling elite of this country will follow the decisions made within the framework of the EU and NATO. © 2022,Iberoamerica (Russian Federation).All Rights Reserved.