A Família Está em Chamas(?): Razão de Estado, Conservadorismo e (Reconhecimento à) Diferença / The Family Is Burning(?): Reason of State, Conservatism and (Acknowledgment of) Differences / (¿) La Familia Está en Llamas(?): Razón de Estado, Conservadurismo y (Reconocimiento à la) Diferencia

A ascensão de governos neoliberais e de movimentos ultraconservadores vem reforçando a heterocisnormatividade e o racismo, produzindo desigualdade e infligindo ainda mais sofrimento e riscos letais às minorias. Conjurando imposição de regimes de austeridade, limites da presença do Estado e esvaziamento da propriedade social à autorresponsabilização pela gestão da própria vida e saúde, a questão da diferença passou a ser forjada como ponto de instabilidade e ameaça a tais propósitos e pressupostos político-econômicos. Uma das consequências é a ampla circulação de discursos de ódio e desprezo pela diversidade. Este trabalho buscou, assim, compreender como então se estabelecem intersecções enunciativas entre marcadores de diferença e a racionalidade liberal na economia e conservadora nos costumes, tomando como foco a (des)articulação em torno da precarização de parentalidades e conjugalidades diversas. Os resultados desta investigação apontam que, quanto maior a densidade democrática de uma sociedade ou relação sociocultural, maiores as possibilidades de afirmação positiva da alteridade e diferença, bases importantes para a produção da saúde e da cidadania (racial, sexual, de gênero e ambiental).

The rise of neo-liberal governments and ultra-conservative movements has been reinforcing cisheteronormativity and racism, thus generating inequalities and inflicting even more lethal risks and suffering upon minorities. Conjuring the imposition of austerity regimes, limitations on State action and the emptying of social property in favor of self-responsibility for managing one's own life and health, the issue of differences started being forged as a point of instability and threat to such political and economic premises and purposes. One of the consequences is the widespread circulation of discourses filled with hate and contempt for diversity. This study aimed to understand how discourse intersections are established between markers of difference and the liberal rationale in terms of economy and the conservative rationale in terms of customs, focusing on the (dis)articulation surrounding the precariousness of diverse parenthood and conjugalities. The results of this study point out that the larger democratic density of a given society or sociocultural relationship, the greater the possibilities of positively affirming otherness and difference, which are important foundations for health care, and citizen (racial, sexual, gender and environmental) rights.

La ascensión de gobiernos neoliberales y de movimientos ultraconservadores viene reforzando la heterocisnormatividad y el racismo, produciendo desigualdad e imponiendo aún más sufrimiento y riesgos letales a las minorías. Invocando imposición de regímenes de austeridad, límites a la presencia del Estado y el vaciamiento de la propiedad social a la auto-responsabilización por la gestión de la propia vida y salud, el tema de la diferencia pasó a ser forjado como punto de instabilidad y amenaza a tales propósitos y presupuestos político-económicos. Una de las consecuencias es la amplia circulación de discursos de odio y desprecio hacia la diversidad. Este trabajo buscó comprender cómo, entonces, se establecen intersecciones enunciativas entre marcadores de diferencia y la racionalidad liberal en la economía y conservadora en las costumbres, tomando como enfoque la (des)articulación sobre la precarización de parentalidades y conjugalidades diversas. Los resultados de esta investigación apuntan a que cuánto más grande la densidad democrática de una sociedad o relación sociocultural, mayores posibilidades de afirmación positiva de la alteridad y la diferencia, bases importantes para la producción de la salud y de la ciudadanía (racial, sexual, de género y ambiental).

Palestinians Under Israeli Settler Colonialism and "Anglo-Centric" Colonization of Knowledge Production.

Calls for decolonizing knowledge production are increasing considerably. Yet the domination of knowledge production by English-speaking, neoliberal, Western countries continues, with understandings and assumptions often irrelevant and unimportant to southern countries, and can contain racialized portrayals of the people of the developing world. Palestinians under Israeli military rule have also become governed by neoliberal funding northern institutions that have commoditized research and education and control what should be researched and how. The dual colonization of Palestinians by Israel and the hegemony of neoliberal political-economy among a captive Palestinian population-reinforced by the Zionist lobby's ferociousness in punishing whoever dares to raise questions about Israel's wrongdoings-is silencing Palestinians and those supporting justice to Palestinians in ways perhaps not experienced by others who want their voices heard. Yet Palestinians continue to teach and conduct research and to struggle for freedom and justice on one hand and for liberation from donor dictates on what to research and how to research and write on the other. We continue to hope that international funders and publishers would take concrete steps to turn calls for the decolonization of knowledge production from lip service to actions so that all knowledges can contribute to debates and societal advancement worldwide.

Persistent Vulnerabilities in the World of Work and Contemporary Capitalism: Some Reflections on India.

The onslaught of COVID-19 has been catastrophic for India's world of work. While it was a bolt out of the blue, its impacts on employment need to be located in the context of a long-term and ongoing structural crisis of (un) employment and systemic vulnerabilities (and subsequent burgeoning of 'labour reserves') that have tended to worsen during the neo-liberal regime. Using the various EUS and subsequent PLFS rounds for roughly the last two decades, the paper seeks to highlight selected aspects of the vulnerabilities and inequities that have plagued India's world of work. These include participation rates, vulnerable employment, composition of workforce and access to certain aspects of decent work such as social security, paid leaves, and written contract. An important issue that the paper investigates is 'income-vulnerability' of the employed at the present juncture. Further, inequities across gender and social groups have also been assessed as regards these variables using the most recent data.

Anti-trafficking saviors: Celebrity, slavery, and branded activism.

This article traces the development of popular forms of anti-trafficking activism in the United States through a social network and discourse analysis that focuses on NGO websites, celebrity advocacy, merchandising, social media campaigns, and policy interventions. This "branded activism," as we describe it, plays an important role in legitimizing an emerging anti-trafficking consensus that increasingly shapes both US foreign policy and domestic policing, and is frequently driven by an anti-sex work politics. Popular anti-trafficking discourses, we find, build on melodramatic narratives of victims and (white) saviors, depoliticize the complex labor and migration issues at stake, reinforce capitalist logics, and enable policy interventions that produce harm for migrants, sex workers, and others ostensibly being "rescued." Celebrity and marketing-driven branded activism relies especially strongly on parallels drawn between histories of chattel slavery and what anti-trafficking campaigns call "modern-day slavery." We challenge these parallels, particularly as they encourage participants to see themselves as abolitionist saviors in ways that reinforce neo-liberal notions of empowerment rooted in communicative capitalist networks.

Living in the Era of an Ideological Climate of Globalisation: A Study of Psychological Sense of Community Among Young and Older Adults in Two Cultures (India and Norway). Challenges for Community Psychology and the Applied Social Sciences.

How do people describe the psychological sense of community (PSOC) in the present day ideological climate of globalising neo-liberalism, assuming that people are essentially individualistic, that solidarity, social commitment, and citizenship are not natural dispositions, as we all are the lonely citizen? This issue is addressed by a mixed-methods study using semi-structured interviews with two age groups-young and older people-from two different cultures-India (Mumbai) and Norway (Oslo). This two by two design gives the opportunity to analyse people's meaning systems of PSOC, asking; is there a core meaning system of PSOC shared by people within as well as across cultures? Belongingness and citizenship are continuously formed and negotiated, just at the intersection of two dimensions: culture and historical time. The young and older adult informants often live in different "historical times." The meaning systems of PSOC were explored and compared by language analyses of words used by the informants. Text search queries were made for 69 words. "Help,", "care," "different," "problem," and "family" were identified as central for further in-depth qualitative analyses. The word, "family" demonstrated high frequencies of use across sub-samples. There was nothing more relevant for the groups than the family when thinking of PSOC, revealing almost a "prior to society perspective." PSOC is about being part of families. Simultaneously, we are members of other communities: schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, cities and nations. The informants mentioned such communities, but not often. Feeling part of the family, helping and caring not only the family but also your neighbourhood, local community, or national and global communities are particularly necessary today, as we live in a time where communities, societies, and nations across the world are heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this crisis, it is vital that nobody forgets that we are national and transnational citizens and part of many interrelated social systems. This study points out how community psychology and the applied social sciences can work to strengthen the feelings of connections to other communities, societies, and nations outlining and co-creating transformative multi-level interventions of public policy programmes of inclusion and "we-ness."

Attitudes toward and Utilization of Evidence-based Practice among Norwegian Social Workers.

Purpose: This study analyzes Norwegian social workers' attitudes toward evidence-based practice (EBP).Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 social workers and managers from social services and child welfare services.Results: Social workers were positive about EBP, yet confused about it, rarely distinguishing between EBP, empirically supported treatments (ESTs), experience-based knowledge and research when describing the concept. Five barriers to conducting EBP were identified: (i) concerns regarding a negative impact on the relationship with the client, (ii) lack of time, (iii) a top-down implementation approach, (iv) restriction of social workers' autonomous decision-making, (v) EBP research models not always suiting the client's/family's need. Two benefits for practicing EBP were identified: (i) utilization of research in practice, (ii) utilization of general guidelines in decision-making processes.Discussion: The empirical material demonstrated that the social workers valued multiple types of knowledge when making informed decisions. The most prominent were practical and theoretical knowledge.Conclusion: The findings confirm recent studies, but also suggest a need for future research to bridge gaps in knowledge transfer.

A relational ethic of rural home support on two Gulf Island communities, 1978-2018.

Since their widespread establishment in the 1970s, home support services across Canada have been subject to shifting state logics, policies, and funding models. The impacts and responses of local actors differ across historical, socio-cultural, and geographical settings. This paper traces the development and evolution of a small home support society on two rural islands off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Using historical and current data sources, we demonstrate that local actors have consistently engaged a relational ethic that challenges neo-liberal discourses and practices. Our central thesis is that the islands' distinct social, cultural, and rural features set the context for particular constructions of relational care. We identify three themes central to a relational ethic of home support on two rural islands: the strength of intergenerational connections, community-embedded relationships, and care as compassionate civic engagement. Within each theme, we consider how shifting policy structures inform changes over time in the nature and delivery of home support. To conclude, we elaborate on the conditions that allow for relational care to flourish in a particular rural context, and on the potential relevance to other settings.

Reconciling economic concepts and person-centred care of the older person with cognitive impairment in the acute care setting.

Person-centred care is a relatively new orthodoxy being implemented by modern hospitals across developed nations. Research demonstrating the merits of this style of care for improving patient outcomes, staff morale and organizational efficiency is only just beginning to emerge. In contrast, a significant body of literature exists showing that attainment of person-centred care in the acute care sector particularly, remains largely aspirational, especially for older people with cognitive impairment. In previous articles, we argued that nurses work constantly to reconcile prevailing constructions of time, space, relationships, the body and ethics, to meet expectations that the care they provide is person-centred. In this article, we explore key concepts of neo-liberal thought which forms an important back-story to the articles. Economic concepts, "efficiency" and "freedom" are examined to illustrate how nurses work to reconcile both the repressive and productive effects of economic power. We conclude the article by proposing a new research agenda aimed at building a more nuanced understanding of the messy actualities of nursing practice under the influences of neo-liberalism, that illuminates the compromises and adaptations nurses have had to make in response to economic power.

Inclusivity in neo-liberal policy environment: preparedness of mass media to support disability awareness campaigns in Ghana.

Purpose: The mass media have been described as an important institution in educating society about persons with disabilities and in facilitating their acceptance. However, calls to project a positive public image of persons with disabilities and to develop an inclusive society have coincided with the neo-liberal approach to policymaking, whereby government plays a minimised role in the provision of basic services to citizens. Although the extant literature from advanced countries has found stereotypical and disempowering portrayals of persons with disabilities in the mass media, this area remains unresearched in developing countries. The purpose of this study was to explore how the managers of media organisations conceptualise disability, their perception of the role and contribution of the media towards promoting effective public awareness campaigns about persons with disabilities.Methods: This descriptive, qualitative study draws on a purposive sample of 20 participants consisting of general managers, news editors and programme managers from ten media organisations in a region in Ghana. A semi-structured interview guide was developed from the literature, which included tenets of neo-liberalism, to collect the data.Results: The study found that the majority of respondents cited medical model explanations of disability. Also, they were unprepared to prioritise disability issues due to lack of public interest in disability programmes and lack of funds and sponsorship for disability programmes.Conclusion: Governments must offer tax rebates to media organisations to enable them to prioritise disability issues. Other recommendations for developing media interest in disability issues are also discussed.Implications for rehabilitationThis study shows limited understanding of disability among decision-makers or key players in media organisations in Ghana.In an environment of meritocracy, persons with disabilities who struggle to access education in Ghana, may be unable to secure jobs at media organisation.This study shows that media organisations seem unprepared to support or project image of persons with disabilities because such ventures come with no reward.We conclude that if the government is committed towards achieving an inclusive society in Ghana, it could offer tax rebate to media organisations to enable them cover disability programmes.

Thriving in today's health care environment: strategies for social work leadership in population health.

The current healthcare environment challenges social workers to balance multiple constituencies - organizational, payer-related, and professional - and convey the value-added nature of clinical work with patients and families. As healthcare systems move towards population health, leadership opportunities abound. This article provides an historical overview of healthcare transformation and its impact on social work practice, and describes strategies implemented to bolster the clinical focus and organizational responsiveness of Mount Sinai Health System care management staff. The training and supervisory approaches offered make possible relatable and synergistic connections between clinical practice and organizational imperatives to decrease unnecessary utilization and healthcare costs.

A neo-institutional analysis of the hidden interaction between the Israeli Supreme Court and the Ministry of Finance: the right to healthcare services.

BACKGROUND: Under structural conditions of non-governability, most players in the policy arena in Israel turn to two main channels that have proven effective in promoting the policies they seek: the submission of petitions to the High Court of Justice and making legislative amendments through the Economic Arrangements Law initiated by the Ministry of Finance. Nevertheless, an analysis of the principal trends emerging from the High Court of Justice rulings and legislative amendments through the Economic Arrangements Law indicates that these channels are open to influence, primarily by forces that are essentially neo-liberal. Little is known about the effects of these trends on the right to healthcare services, which in Israel has not been legislated as an independent constitutional law in Basic Laws. METHODS: We use four major legal cases decided by the Supreme Court of Israel in the past 10 years where the Court reviewed new legislative initiatives proposed by the Economic Arrangements Law in the area of healthcare. We utilize an institutional approach in our analysis. RESULTS: A neo-institutional analysis of the legal cases demonstrates that petitions against the Economic Arrangements Law in the area of healthcare services have been denied, even though the Court uses strong rhetoric against that law and the government more generally in addressing issues that concern access to healthcare services and reforms in the healthcare system. This move strengthens the trend toward a neo-liberal public policy and significantly weakens the legal protection of the right to healthcare services. CONCLUSION: In deciding petitions against the Economic Arrangements Law in the area of healthcare, the Supreme Court allows the Ministry of Finance to be a dominant player in the formation of public policy. In doing so, it may be promoting a goal of strengthening its position as a political institution that aspires to increase the public's trust in the judiciary and especially in the Supreme Court itself, in addition to exercising judicial restraint and allowing more leeway to the executive and legislative branches more generally.

New hypotheses regarding the Danish health puzzle.

AIMS: Nordic welfare states have achieved admirable population health profiles as a result of public policies that provide economic and social security across the life course. Denmark has been an exception to this rule, as its life expectancies and infant mortality rates since the mid-1970s have lagged behind the other Nordic nations and, in the case of life expectancy, behind most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations. METHODS: In this review paper, we identify a number of new hypotheses for why this may be the case. RESULTS: These hypotheses concern the health effects of neo-liberal restructuring of the economy and its institutions, the institution of flexi-security in Denmark's labour market and the influence of Denmark's tobacco and alcohol industries. Also of note is that Denmark experienced higher unemployment rates during its initial period of health stagnation, as well as its treatment of non-Western immigrants and high wealth inequality and, until recently, the fact that Denmark did not systematically address the issue of health inequalities. CONCLUSIONS: These hypotheses may serve as covering explanations for the usually provided accounts of elevated behavioural risks and psychosocial stress as being responsible for Denmark's health profile.

Comprehensive primary health care under neo-liberalism in Australia.

This paper applies a critical analysis of the impact of neo-liberal driven management reform to examine changes in Australian primary health care (PHC) services over five years. The implementation of comprehensive approaches to primary health care (PHC) in seven services: five state-managed and two non-government organisations (NGOs) was tracked from 2009 to 2014. Two questions are addressed: 1) How did the ability of Australian PHC services to implement comprehensive PHC change over the period 2009-2014? 2) To what extent is the ability of the PHC services to implement comprehensive PHC shaped by neo-liberal health sector reform processes? The study reports on detailed tracking and observations of the changes and in-depth interviews with 63 health service managers and practitioners, and regional and central health executives. The documented changes were: in the state-managed services (although not the NGOs) less comprehensive service coverage and more focus on clinical services and integration with hospitals and much less development activity including community development, advocacy, intersectoral collaboration and attention to the social determinants. These changes were found to be associated with practices typical of neo-liberal health sector reform: considerable uncertainty, more directive managerial control, budget reductions and competitive tendering and an emphasis on outputs rather than health outcomes. We conclude that a focus on clinical service provision, while highly compatible with neo-liberal reforms, will not on its own produce the shifts in population disease patterns that would be required to reduce demand for health services and promote health. Comprehensive PHC is much better suited to that task.

'Introducing Michael Gove to Loïc Wacquant': Why Social Work Needs Critical Sociology.

In 2013, Michael Gove, then Secretary of State for Education and Health in the UK coalition government, criticised social workers for laying insufficient emphasis on the 'agency' of individuals and for being too preoccupied with social and economic inequalities. Such a perspective, which is not unique to Gove, needs to be countered by reaffirming the significance of an expansively critical sociology for social work. In this context, the thematic concerns of the French theorist, Loïc Wacquant, illuminates key aspects of social work engagement with clients which Gove and his ideological associates appear intent on ignoring. The issues raised have significant political resonances given the pending UK General Election taking place in May 2015.

Rethinking the private-public mix in health care: analysis of health reforms in Israel during the last three decades.

OBJECTIVES: To analyse the process of health care privatization using the case of Israeli health care reforms during the last three decades. METHODS: We used mixed methods including quantitative analysis of trends in health expenditures in Israel and qualitative critical analysis of documents describing the main health reforms. RESULTS: Israel epitomizes how boundaries between the private and public sector become blurred when health care services are subject to privatization, both of finance and supply. Additionally, the continuous growth of public-private relationships in health care results in systems that lack both equity and efficiency. CONCLUSIONS: More than three decades of experience show that such private-public partnerships increase both inequality and inefficiency. While most discussion surrounding the private-public mix in health care focuses on financing infrastructure, in Israel, the public-private mix has become a central way of financing and delivering services, making its damaging influence more pervasive.

25 anni di criminalizzazione razzista in europa / 25 years of racial criminalization in Europe

Il testo analizza la criminalizzazione razzista degli immigrati in Europa e negli Stati Uniti come fenomeno intrinseco della globalizzazione neoliberista a livello locale, nazionale e mondiale, in particolare dal 1990 al 2015. Attraverso ricerche degli ultimi 20 anni, l’articolo fa riferimento alla teoria interazionista della costruzione sociale. L’autore mostra come il fenomeno è legato al proibizionismo delle migrazioni e al protezionismo delle nazionalità dominanti e anche alla produzione di inferiorizzazione e neo-schiavitù dei migranti, dei rifugiati e perfino di molti autoctoni. La criminalizzazione razzista degli immigrati ha dunque una “funzione specchio” rivelando la brutale deriva dei dispositivi e delle pratiche di dominio dei dominanti, spesso interiorizzati dai dominati (autoctoni e gli immigrati). Il caso italiano è analizzato come caso rivelatore del governo liberista delle migrazioni contemporanee.(AU).

The text analyze the racial criminalization of immigrants in Europe and in the United States as phenomenon intrinsic to the frame of neo-liberalism globalization at local, national and worldwide level, in particular from 1990 to 2015. Through researches of the last 20 years, the article refers on the theory of interactionist social construction. The author show how the phenomenon is linked to prohibitionism of migrations and protectionism of dominant nationalities and also to produce inferiorization and neo-slavery of migrants, refugees and also of many autochthonous. The racist criminalization of immigrants has therefore a “mirror function” revealing the brutal drift of devices and practices of dominion often internalized by the dominants as well as by the dominated (autochthonous and migrants). The Italian case study is analysed as emblematic.(AU).

Teaching Conflict: Professionalism and Medical Education.

Resistance by physicians, medical researchers, medical educators, and medical students to pharmaceutical industry influence in medicine is often based on the notion that physicians (guided by the ethics of their profession) and the industry (guided by profit) are in conflict. This criticism has taken the form of a professional movement opposing conflict of interest (COI) in medicine and medical education and has resulted in policies and guidelines that frame COI as the problem and outline measures to address this problem. In this paper, I offer a critique of this focus on COI that is grounded in a broader critique of neo-liberalism, arguing it individualizes the relationship between physicians and industry, too neatly delineates between the two entities, and reduces the network of social, economic, and political relations to this one dilemma.

"Deficits Don't Matter": Abundance, Indebtedness and American Culture.

If deficits, nor defaults, don't really matter anymore, what sign of our times is it? What has changed from the days that Franklin Delano Roosevelt risked the fragile economic recovery from the great depression by returning, in 1937, to the standard of his economic orthodoxy, a belief in fiscal rectitude and anaversion to debts and deficits? If that was a sign of a certain American character, what has happened to it? A massive shift in public culture must have occurred, affecting people's views on public probity and political rectitude. The following is an attempt to trace some of the main shifts on the way to our present quandary.

Theories of lean management: an empirical evaluation.

Debates within organization theory traditionally argued the relative merits of bureaucracy but today there is broad agreement across different perspectives that bureaucratic organization is inefficient and outmoded. Despite their differences, post-bureaucratic and neo-liberal theories argue that organizations with relatively flat hierarchies and low management overhead are better adapted to current market requirements. Post-bureaucratic theory also argues that employees, as well as firms, benefit from leaner management structures. This paper investigates trends in managerial leanness, proposed explanations for such trends, and the consequences of leanness for firms and employees. Although there is a trend toward flatter management hierarchies, there is only weak support for current claims regarding both the causes and consequences of lean management.

Techno economic systems and excessive consumption: a political economy of 'pathological' gambling.

This article argues that gambling is a paradigmatic form of consumption that captures the intensified logic at the heart of late modern capitalist societies. As well as a site of intensified consumption, it claims that gambling has also become the location of what has been described as a new form of 'social pathology' related to excess play. Drawing on Castells' (1996) notion of techno-economic systems, it explores the ways that intersections between technology, capital and states have generated the conditions for this situation, and critiques the unequal distribution of gambling environments that result. It argues that, while the products of these systems are consumed on a global scale, the risks associated with them tend to be articulated in bio-psychological discourses of 'pathology' which are typical of certain types of knowledge that have salience in neo-liberal societies, and which work to conceal wider structural relationships. We argue that a deeper understanding of the political and cultural economy of gambling environments is necessary, and provide a synoptic overview of the conditions upon which gambling expansion is based. This perspective highlights parallels with the wider global economy of finance capital, as well as the significance of intensified consumption, of which gambling is an exemplary instance. It also reveals the existence of a geo-political dispersal of 'harms', conceived as deteriorations of financial, temporal and social relationships, which disproportionately affect vulnerable social groups. From this, we urge an understanding of commercial gambling based on a critique of the wider social body of gambling environments within techno economic systems, rather than the (flawed) individual bodies within them.