social welfare advice and health among young people: a scoping review

Social determinants of mental and physical health that influence young peoples' trajectories into adulthood are often remediable through law. To address inequalities, including those exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to better understand young people's need for and uptake of advice for social welfare legal problems. This scoping review aimed to review available evidence and identify gaps to inform further research. To identify studies relevant to social welfare legal advice among young adults we conducted searches of eight bibliographic databases (compiled between January 1998 and June 2020), hand searches of included article reference lists and targeted grey literature searches. 35 peer reviewed and grey literature studies were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria including evaluations of interventions to promote access to advice, general population surveys, observational studies, and audits of charity data or targeted surveys. Evidence suggests considerable and inequitable need for social welfare legal advice among young adults with adverse consequences for health and wellbeing. Needs among higher risk groups are likely underestimated. Evidence for interventions to enhance access/uptake of advice is limited and methodologically weak. We identify several gaps in the literature to inform research and to enable systematic reviews around more specific questions to inform practice.

Economic Justice in Post-COVID India: A Macroeconomic Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown wreaked havoc on substantial segments of the Indian population through unemployment and income loss, only highlighting the lack of institutional structures and policies to protect vulnerable sections of society from aggregate as well as idiosyncratic shocks. This chapter argues that the variations in the capacity to better one's life are conditional on socio-economic divisions a person belongs to and this makes such divisions fault lines. They constitute structural weaknesses in the economy leaving out millions of people without the capability to participate in the economy meaningfully and remuneratively. The author provides evidence of disproportionate impact of the pandemic along these fault lines and provides a policy framework for economic justice and prosperity to all in the post-COVID economy. He also highlights the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to policy-making given the complex nature of the problem. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.

Connecting and relating in Brazil: Implications of remote work

COVID-19 triggered a monumental shift to remote work. The challenge of connecting and relating among knowledge employees emerged globally, and research about remote work in this unique circumstance surged. However, we know more about the impact of remote work on knowledge employees in low-context cultures than in high-context. Given that Brazil is high context, we explored how remote work impacted relating and connecting among knowledge employees in Brazil. First, employees lost the informality of work-life;instead of informal, fluid communication and collaboration, participants had to book appointments and schedule time to discuss simple issues. Second, good-humoured behaviours diminished, implicating connectedness. Third, non-verbal communication ceased, and employees lost facial expressions, eye contact, and other prevalent signs necessary for context. Fourth, the loss of unstructured exchange of experiences and ideas lessened tacit knowledge sharing. Fifth, workspace inequalities emerged as the employees' homes were unequipped for remote work. Lastly, the most significant win was work-life balance. Therefore, remote work in high-context cultures is not without peril;culture and socioeconomics underline remote work's self-generating, self-organizing mechanisms. Thus, corporate leaders and human resource professionals should address remote work as a layered phenomenon and, carefully, with employees, co-construct the notion of connecting and relating. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Localizing Responses to Gender-Based Violence: The Case of Women-Led Community-Based Organizations in Jordan

While the rationale for localizing humanitarian health response is well established at the level of policy rhetoric, the operationalization of the concept and its mainstreaming into concrete practice still require clearer intentionality. With COVID-19 pushing more people further into vulnerability, placing local communities at the heart of humanitarian and development health efforts has never been more urgent. Focusing on Jordan, this essay brings attention to the significant toll of violence against women and girls in conflict-affected communities and the importance of empowering local actors with community knowledge and resources to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. The essay follows on from the research conducted for CARE Jordan's She Is a Humanitarian report (2022) and draws on interviews I conducted with the heads of women's organizations in the summer of 2022. The essay explores the role of local women humanitarian actors as frontline responders, the challenges that hinder their role, and the advantages such actors enjoy, which, if harnessed, can achieve gains in accountability, health service quality, and gender equality.

Social Inequality and Mobilization in Changing Thailand

Inequality has long persisted in Thailand and its level reached a peak in 2018. Around the end of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread around the world and reached Thailand in January 2020, intensifying inequality with critical socio-economic disruptions. Subsequently, over 2,000 protests took place from 2020 to 2022. The combination of challenges caused rapid changes in Thailand. This article offers explanations of ‘who' was doing ‘what' and ‘how' in response to inequality. The article discusses situations of social inequality and people's reactions during the period 2019-2022, by using Bourdieu's concept of capital to tackle inequality and the demands of the various groups. The article utilized a quantitative method based on measures of frequency and regression techniques. The results demonstrate that the middle classes want democracy, and the working classes want more equality and participation. Key responses to social inequality and the government administration included both online and onsite mobilizations. Findings show that age, residency, and capital have impacts on mobilizations in which young people constitute the largest group to join both physical and virtual spaces. © The Authors.

#I Stay Home (If I Can): COVID-19 and Social Inequality in Peru: A View from Auto-Ethnography

The chapter aims to analyze the COVID-19 pandemic from an autoethnography carried out in Cusco (Peru). This highlights the social differences and socioeconomic conditions that influence theway of living the pandemic and suffering its effects, which, in the Peruvian case, has more critically affected the most vulnerable populations. Thus, the privileged people can stay at home while the rest must go out to live/survive. The chapter invites us to think about a new social pact, more equitable and fairer, that divorces the pandemic-social inequality marriage, observed in different parts of the planet, particularly in the Americas. This is necessary to avoid future problems of equal or greater magnitude that tend to take their toll on vulnerable populations that often do not have the means to pay, or pay at the risk of their lives. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022, corrected publication 2022.

Lessons for the Age of Consequences: COVID-19 and the Macroeconomy

Comparative empirical evidence for 22 OECD countries shows that country differences in cumulative mortality impacts of SARS-CoV-2 are caused by weaknesses in public health competences, pre-existing variances in structural socio-economic and public health vulnerabilities, and the presence of fiscal constraints. Remarkably, the (fiscally non-constrained) U.S. and the U.K. stand out, as they experience mortality outcomes similar to those of fiscally-constrained countries. High COVID19 mortality in the U.S. and the U.K. is due to pre-existing socio-economic and public health vulnerabilities, created by the following macroeconomic policy errors: (a) a deadly emphasis on fiscal austerity (which diminished public health capacities, damaged public health and deepened inequalities);(b) an obsessive belief in a trade-off between ‘efficiency' and ‘equity', which is mostly used to justify extreme inequality;(c) a complicit endorsement by mainstream macro of the unchecked power over monetary and fiscal policy-making of global finance and the rentier class;and (d) an unhealthy aversion to raising taxes, which deceives the public about the necessity to raise taxes to counter the excessive liquidity preference of the rentiers and to realign the interests of finance and of the real economy. The paper concludes by outlining a few lessons for a saner macroeconomics.

Breastfeeding in emergencies with assessment of recent humanitarian crises and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The world is becoming a place where the number of emergencies and humanitarian crises is increasing rapidly due to economic inequality and the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries, as well as climate changes leading to disruption of the natural balance and development of natural disasters. The most vulnerable groups of the population including women and children always are affected by disasters. The younger the child, the more vulnerable he/she is, especially if not naturally fed or having a mother or parents. Various humanitarian organizations have been involved in a number of crises, with the World Health Organization and UNICEF and other United Nations-related organizations leading the way. In the care of mothers, infants and young children, most important is to ensure appropriate nutrition because otherwise it can result in life-threatening health conditions. The lack of protection, support and promotion of natural nutrition (breastfeeding) and its disruption and undermining by uncritical and uncontrolled donations and distribution of infant formula are the biggest challenge due to the lack of information of mothers, those who provide support in emergencies from both governmental and non-governmental sector, without cross-sectoral cooperation, thus causing uncoordinated and sometimes harmful interventions. Therefore, it is recommended that governments issue guidelines on infant and young child nutrition prior to the occurrence of an emergency, and crisis management regulations in which the issue of infant and young child nutrition will be given due consideration.Copyright © 2020 Croatian Paediatric Society. All rights reserved.

Economic Inequality during Covid-19 as a Pathway to Food Insecurity for People who are Disabled and Racialized as Non-White

Covid-19 heightened economic inequality across the U.S., especially for people who are disabled and non-white. These intersecting economic vulnerabilities open pathways to hunger. Using a survey from July 2020 (n = 2,043) in the Intermountain West, we find that economic inequality explained a substantial portion of food insecurity for people with disabilities. Racially stratified models show that people who were also non-white were more likely to be food insecure and receive differential protection from economic resources. Stronger social support will help mitigate food insecurity, yet such programs must grapple with the ways that ableism and racism intersect, especially during economic shock.Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The many shades of violence against women: a call to action

Confronting gender-based violence is a key area of concern and one that calls for urgent action. These debates have become particularly relevant in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the unveiling of underlying inequalities. Amongst the many unintended consequences of the pandemic lies the increased risk of domestic violence for vulnerable women who have been required to self-isolate. There is increasing evidence that we are facing more than one pandemic with quite worrying and widespread problems in global systems, whether they relate to public health or to human rights. As academics, we can contribute by theorizing with intersectionalities, translating research into practice, engaging with our local communities and creating non-stigmatized environment. But most of all, we can advocate for victims.

Leaving: Residential mobility and housing conditions in France during the Covid-19 epidemic

In the spring of 2020, a national lockdown was declared in France to control the Covid-19 epidemic - the longest and strictest to date. This led to spontaneous population movements, widely publicised in the media as the urban exodus of Parisians. But were departures from large cities to low-density areas the only types of mobility during this period? And what can we learn from housing changes during lockdown about the ordinary residential practices and dwelling conditions of households, as well as about the resources mobilised to cope with these exceptional situations? Based on the EpiCOV survey (Inserm-Drees), conducted in France among a sample of 135,000 people aged 15 and over at the end of the first lockdown, this article examines the different types of residential mobility that took place in the spring of 2020 on French territory. While this study does not predict whether or not these movements are to become permanent, or whether they would be repeated during further phases of lockdown, it highlights the heterogeneity of mobility practices, captured here in terms of distance travelled, changes within the urban gradient, types and conditions of housing, as well as the variety of resources mobilised according to sex, age and social position of individuals. While long-distance mobility more often concerns wealthy populations, local movements are almost as frequent and concern more heterogeneous fractions of the population. © 2023 Geographie-Cites. All rights reserved.

Converging Crises and the Cost of Exclusion: Unveiling the Invisible Women of Sri Lanka's Economy

In Sri Lanka, womens labor force participation has never exceeded 35% in over three decades. As of 2022, the country was ranked 110 out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forums Gender Gap Index. The gaps in womens participation in the formal economy alongside womens limited political empowerment are two leading causes for the country to be lagging in such global gender equality indicators. At a large cost to the economy, the existence of archaic gender norms that promulgate womens unpaid care work often exclude women from the formal labor force. This paper dissects the socio-economic and socio-political factors that lead to the invisibility of women in Sri Lankas economy, while seeking to understand how such underlying causes have been aggravated within the precarity of the post-pandemic context. It is important, now more than ever, to recognize the invisibility of women in Sri Lankas formal economy, while bringing about a transformative vision with a multi-pronged approach to address existing gaps and challenges. With reference to key principles of feminist economics, including the theoretical foundations of Claudia Goldin, Nancy Folbre, and Diane Elson, among others, the paper will make a case for inclusivity and intersectionality in policy recommendations aimed at encouraging womens entry, active engagement, contribution, and retention in Sri Lankas economy. The paper reaches a conclusion that when women lead, participate, and benefit equally in all aspects of life, societies and economies will thrive, thereby contributing to sustainable development and inclusive economic growth.

The impact of COVID-19 on women and children in the UK who were victims of domestic abuse: a practitioner perspective

PurposeThis study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on women and children in the UK who were victims of domestic abuse.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw from their experiences of working in the domestic abuse sector to reflect on the impact of lockdown restrictions on women and children, focussing on the impact of government restrictions that created an environment in which abusers could control the movement of victims.FindingsThe impact of the pandemic was significant as victims were locked into the abuse, unable to escape for fear of breaching lockdown rules. The lockdown affected victims of different forms of violence against women and girls in the UK including forced marriage and female genital mutilation, which highlighted the ramifications of intersectional inequalities for abuse victims.Originality/valueThis paper articulates the devastating impact of the pandemic on vulnerable women, and their fair and just access to the family courts. This paper concludes that women were failed by the government and that there was not nearly enough support from support agencies, which has left many at risk and suffering significant harm.

Desdobramentos das desigualdades raciais na pandemia da Covid-19

O presente estudo tematiza o racismo na sociedade de classes e tem como objetivo analisar os desdobramentos das desigualdades raciais na pandemia da Covid-19. Logo, utilizou-se o método materialismo histórico-dialético e uma abordagem qualitativa. Dessa forma, foi realizada uma pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, além de um trabalho de mapeamento a partir dos dados secundários do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) de 2019;Atlas da violência de 2020, elaborado pelo Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA);e o Boletim especial 20 de novembro de 2021, do Departamento Intersindical de Estatística e Estudos Socioeconômicos (DIEESE), para dialogar com a realidade dos afro-brasileiros em cenário pandêmico. Dos resultados do estudo, destacamos: que o racismo tem sido um eixo estruturante da sociedade brasileira mesmo numa fase pós-abolicionista;e que a questão racial tem sido uma das expressões da questão social na sociedade do capital, de tal modo que as desigualdades são conexas na contemporaneidade;e ainda, que a pandemia acentuou as desigualdades raciais no Brasil.Alternate :The present study thematizes racism in class society and aims to analyze the consequences of racial inequalities in the covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Historical-Dialectical Materialism method and a qualitative approach were used. In this way, a bibliographic and documentary research was carried out, in addition to a mapping work based on secondary data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) of 2019, Atlas of Violence of 2020 made by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Special Bulletin 20 November 2021 of the Inter-union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (DIEESE) to dialogue with the reality of Afro-Brazilians in a pandemic scenario. From the results of the study, we highlight that racism has been a structuring axis of Brazilian society even in a post-abolitionist phase;that the Racial Question has been one of the expressions of the Social Question in the society of Capital, in such a way that inequalities are connected in contemporaneity;and, that the pandemic accentuated racial inequalities in Brazil.

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.

Education in times of COVID-19. Socio-cognitive critical discourse analysis

This article summarizes a research whose general objective was to analyze the way in which the documentary corpus associated with the "Learn at home" strategy reproduces the relations of power, control, social-educational inequality and exclusion in its recipients. The units of analysis were organized in textual visualization matrices with double coding: one open, cross-coded and the other using NVivo v.12 software. Subsequently, the main lines of inquiry were categorized and an inductive categorical interpretation was carried out, relating the categories discourse and society with social knowledge as an interface. The findings indicate that the discursive structures analyzed reproduce power, control, inequality and exclusion, maintaining the status quo, prolonging educational social injustice and privileging symbolic elites;furthermore, the issuers resort to discursive strategies such as the principle of influence, values and praise to achieve the purposes of social domination. As for the research design, this was a qualitative documentary research, of discourse analysis type, in critical perspective from the socio-cognitive approach

The COVID-19 pandemic and polarisation of income distribution in South Africa

A number of reports have shown that workers with certain characteristics are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since these characteristics are associated with vulnerable workers, we hypothesise that the income distribution in the pandemic era will be polarised compared to the pre-pandemic period. This article compares the pre-COVID income distribution (February 2020) with the one that prevailed just after the hard lockdown (April 2020). Consistent with the hypothesis, the result shows evidence of polarisation. Disaggregating the analysis by worker characteristics, we find that the polarisation was stronger in vulnerable groups. Our decomposition result suggests that, apart from job losses, returns to gender and job characteristics explain the location and shape differences in the COVID-19 era income distribution. Although this analysis only looks at the short-term effect of the pandemic on income distribution, the result suggests that the structure of labour markets in developing countries is not conducive to a future of work where disruptions (or pandemics) may become more frequent. © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of UNSW Canberra.

The establishment of a national federation representing health workers from ethnic minorities

ContextThe Federation of Ethnic Minority Healthcare Organisations (FEMHO) was established in 2022 in light of the disproportionate inequalities experienced by this group before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.The FEMHO is as a multidisciplinary consortium representing Ethic Minority organisations and individuals within the health and social care in the UK. At the time of writing, FEMHO represents over 55,000 individual members, covering various disciplines, specialisms and levels of seniority, spanning across 43 organisations and interest groups. As a self-governed union, FEMHO encourages organisations to collaborate and work collectively to achieve better outcomes through the implementation of improved policies and opinion formers as well regulators and commissioners both locally and nationally.Issue/ChallengeOf the 1.2 million staff employed by NHS, 20.7% belong to Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) background. However, analysis of deaths of NHS Staff during the pandemic showed that 64% of those who died belonged to a BAME background. Such disproportionate impacts were seen when the number of deaths amongst doctors and nurses were further analysed, where 20% of nursing staff identified as BAME yet 64% of nurses who died were BAME and 44% of medical staff identified as BAME and 95% of doctors who died were BAME.Doctors from BAME backgrounds also reported:Feeling less confident that appropriate adjustments had been made to mitigate riskFeeling less confident about PPE provision and feeling safe to report PPE shortagesHigher rates of bullying and harassment during the pandemic periodSuch inequalities are believed to be as a result of a number of structural inequalities that existed well beyond the pandemic. it also hypothesised that several inequalities may persist well beyond the pandemic, such as the disproportionate impact of long-covid of health workers from an ethnic minority, which is currently being investigated by researchers at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre.In view of these challenges, the FEMHO was established as a method of collaborating and co-ordinating the efforts of grassroots organisations, policy makers, regulators and commissioners to ensure that the lived experiences and potential solutions offered by organisations and individuals within this group can be better heard and acted upon.Assessment of issue and analysis of its causesThe FEMHO was established to promote a more concerted approach for the advocacy for health workers from ethnic minority backgrounds, with the aim of reducing the inequalities experienced by this group. A two pronged approach of galvanising grassroots organisations already working tirelessly to support ethnic minority health workers along with lobbying and collating interests amongst policy makers, commissioners and regulators was utilised.For grassroots organisations, a mixed methodology of targeted invitations and open advertisement of opportunities for membership was utilised. Several mediums were used to spread the word of such opportunities, including social media posts, word of mouth and email.For policy makers and systems leaders, a more targeted approach was adopted to acquire their support. A targeted email campaign was developed to raise awareness of FEMHO's work with the aim of acquiring their official support, particularly in the form of endorsing FEMHO's call for the inclusion of race inequality in the COVID-19 public enquiry.ImpactAt the time of writing, the FEMHO has been successful in galvanising the membership and support of both grassroots organisations and policy makers respectively at a national level.FEMHO now represents over 55,000 individual members, covering various disciplines, specialisms and levels of seniority, spanning across 43 organisations and interest groups.The targeted email campaign saw the achievement of 39 cross party MPs officially supporting FEMHO's call for inclusion of race inequality in the COVID-19 public enquiry.An inaugural meeting was also held within th Houses of Parliament, where grassroot organisation leads as well as MPs were invited to discuss the strategic priorities and direction of the organisation such as the organisations contribution to the COVID-19 public enquiry, to ensure that inequality is truly at the ‘forefront' of issues.Feedback acquired during the inaugural meeting from MPs and front-line workers was incredibly positive, with attendees welcoming this concerted approach to effect change.Challenges faced in this process largely themed around the limited time availability of the several individuals involved with this project. Executive members of the union as well as grassroots member leads largely worked full time in a variety of demanding healthcare professionals, making communication, organisation and prioritisation of voluntary roles such as contribution to FEMHO work difficult at times.InterventionThe intervention, being the development of a national union equipped with the lived experience and expertise of members who are able to effectively advocate for the interests for health workers from ethnic minority backgrounds, has had numerous positive outcomes:A shared space for grassroots organisations to share best practice for support of healthcare workers from ethnic minority backgroundsA concerted voice to contribute to policy change to address the structural inequalities that adversely impact healthcare workers from ethnic minority backgroundsFrom this experience thus far I have learnt that leadership, with regards to solving complex problems, can often be a journey of harnessing the voices, expertise and influence of several individuals and organisations to effect change. Such a journey can come with numerous hurdles: from stakeholder mapping to initiatives to promote cross-specialty, cross-seniority, cross-political party discussions. But I have learnt, particularly from the exec leadership team, made up Ade Adeyemi MBE (a Global Health Policy Expert) and Professor JS Bamrah CBE (Chair, British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin), and other notable individuals, that such efforts to galvanise individuals who have seemingly different priorities is often possible when you are able to see beyond this as a leader and define, clarify and communicate where such individuals share interests and focuses in common.Involvement of stakeholders, such as patients, carers or family members:As mentioned, the main stakeholders that had to be consulted within this process were front-line care workers from ethnic minority backgrounds and any relevant organisations who may work at a grassroots level to support them.Such stakeholders were involved through the establishment of communication channels as well as feedback sessions to ensure that the FEMHO was sufficiently and accurately representing the interests of the group in question.Key MessagesSolving complex problems as a leader requires the ability to create a collaborative environment that often sees the development, nurturing or new relationships at both an individuals and organisation levelLeaders are able to harness human energy through the development and forecast of a vision and mission that is inspiring and compelling, encouraging individuals to sacrifice their time for a matter bigger than themChange that is sustainable and impactful can often be slow, as seen with the policy changes we continue to advocate for as an organisation, but leaders must be patient.Lessons learntAs mentioned, I have learnt that to effect change, one must be patient as a leader. Our policy activities has taken a great deal of time to be heard and seen, and it can often be tempting to grow impatient and quit.Future barriers to our work include the degree to which can promote regular communication and collaboration amongst member organisations who are often time poor, competing with a number of other priorities such as a demanding full time career in healthcare. Other barriers include maintaining political interest from policy makers, commissioners, MPs, many of which may not hold positions for a long-term basis, as a r sult of the political nature of many of their positions.Measurement of improvementWe will measure the effect of our initiative through a series of feedback forms, particularly of member organisations and their members to assess the degree to which front-line care workers from ethnic minority backgrounds feel that progress in being made in the level of advocacy and campaigning on their behalf. Additionally, we will seek to gather feedback on our members perception of ways of working and any suggestions to ensure that all member organisations feel empowered to influence the direction of the federationStrategy for improvementAfter each feedback round, held on a quarterly basis, executive members of the FEMHO will analyse findings and implement changes accordingly where possible

Meeting the challenge of gender inequality through gender transformative research: lessons from research in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

While the global development agenda has prioritized gender equality, many challenges remain, and the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated inequalities. Gender transformative approaches to social change have the potential to address the underlying causes of inequality. This paper draws insights from studies funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre to understand how integrating gender transformative approaches to research can support social change. The findings suggest that gender transformative research is most successful in supporting change when it analyzes and addresses the multiple causes of inequality, takes an intersectional and structural approach, embeds the research in local contexts, and engages power holders and perpetrators of inequality.Alternate :RÉSUMÉSi les objectifs de développement mondial ont donné la priorité à l'égalité des genres, il y a encore de nombreux défis à relever dans ce domaine et la crise de la COVID-19 a exacerbé les inégalités. Les approches transformatrices du genre nous permettent de faire face aux causes sous-jacentes de ces inégalités. Cet article base son analyse sur des études financées par le Centre de recherches pour le développement international, au Canada, et vise à mieux comprendre comment l'adoption d'approches transformatrices du genre dans le contexte de la recherche peut appuyer le changement social. Nos résultats suggèrent que la recherche se basant sur une approche transformatrice du genre a de meilleurs chances d'inciter des changements sociaux lorsqu'elle analyse et répond aux différentes causes des inégalités, lorsqu'elle adopte une approche intersectionnelle et structurelle, lorsqu'elle intègre la recherche dans des contextes locaux et lorsqu'elle confronte les détenteurs du pouvoir et les responsables des inégalités.

The aleatory moment of finance and the structural production of class-based inequality

This article considers the conceptual role that contingency plays in class-based inequality, by examining financial insecurity in the UK following the 2008 financial crisis, austerity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on Althusser's aleatory materialism, I counter postmodern and poststructuralist ideas of contingency as a universally disruptive challenge to power and stratification, showing instead how a pervasive sense of uncertainty drives working households into debt and diminishes savings, creating ongoing financial strain or poverty. Using Althusser's concept of the 'encounter', I note how the emergence of consumer finance is historically contingent, but has become normalized in the wage relation. Financial risk, with its potential to yield high rewards for institutional investors and financial firms trading stocks, securities, and assets, amplifies uncertainty that working households face in socially reproducing themselves, because it forces those who draw an income as their main source of wealth to manage the potential risk of loss on an untradeable commodity. The encounter between financial institutions and working households is thus unevenly weighted, with precarious households unable to offload risk in unpredictable times. I connect this aleatory reading of inequality with Althusser's earlier work on contradiction and overdetermination, to understand the implications of stratification on crisis and change.