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Inequality of opportunity and intergenerational persistence in Latin America
No full textHow strong is the transmission of socio-economic status across generations in Latin America? To answer this question, we first review the empirical literature on intergenerational mobility and inequality of opportunity for the region, summarizing results for both income and educational outcomes. We find that, whereas the income mobility literature is hampered by a paucity of representative datasets containing linked information on parents and children, the inequality of opportunity approach – which relies on other inherited and pre-determined circumstance variables – has suffered from arbitrariness in model selection. Two new data-driven approaches – one aligned with the ex-ante and the other with the ex-post conception of inequality of opportunity – are introduced to address this shortcoming. They yield a set of new inequality of opportunity estimates for 27 surveys covering 9 Latin American countries over various years between 2000 and 2015. In most cases, more than half of the current generation’s inequality is inherited from the past – with a range between 44 and 63%. We argue that on balance, given the parsimony of the population partitions, these are still likely to be underestimates
Inventing and re-inventing populism to protect Europe: the case of the Italian Partito Democratico, 2007-2022
No full textPopulism has been used by its critics to support European integration. The case of the Italian Partito Democratico (PD) highlights that, as a relatively empty signifier, ‘populism’ affords parties scope to adapt to different circumstances, as evidenced by the evolving use of the term in relation to shifts in policymaking paradigms at the European level. In the period between the Eurozone crisis and the Covid pandemic, the PD changed the connotation of populism in relation to key debates at the European level. While initially the term was used mainly to contrast unproductive uses of spending by the Berlusconi government and then by the M5S-League coalition, the definition of populism narrowed as European support for austerity measures faded. More recently, the PD has started using the term almost exclusively as a synonym for right-wing extremism. The Italian case suggests that critics of populism continuously shift their understanding of the term in order to protect European integration
Claiming deservingness: the durability of social security claimant discourses during the Covid-19 pandemic
No full textThe Covid-19 pandemic created extraordinary conditions for social protection systems globally, with both material and discursive implications. In the UK, these unprecedented circumstances led to an influx of (first-time) social security claims, expectations of increased social solidarity and more positive public discussion around benefits. One might expect this to affect attitudes towards claiming. This article focuses on the accounts of claimants themselves, and how they conceived of their own claims during the pandemic. We analyse in-depth interviews conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic with a large, diverse sample of social security benefit claimants, and draw on concepts of deservingness to show how social security claimants negated stigma through appealing to specific deservingness frames. We show how frames relating to the normative criteria of need, control, contribution and identity were deployed by those who began claiming during the pandemic, as well as those whose claim began pre-pandemic. Despite important points of variation, especially in relation to the categories of control and identity, we find that these deservingness frames did not appear to be disrupted in a major way by the pandemic context, suggesting their notable durability in extraordinary circumstances, with implications for the conditions that can (and cannot) precipitate discursive change or rupture
How to support mothers on Mother's Day and every day of the year
No full textMothers are pressured to comply with clashing motherhood ideals and workplace demands. On the occasion of Mothers’ Day (30 March this year in the UK), Anne Theunissen shares key research insights and best practice to better support mothers every day of the year
The internationalisation of British primary and secondary schools
No full textInvestors are increasingly striking deals to gain licensing agreements with British independent schools to use their names to open for-profit schools outside the UK, often in emerging markets. Take Dulwich College International as an example, it has expanded rapidly across Asia over the last decade, pitching itself under the banner of Dulwich College, one of England’s oldest independent schools. But unlike Dulwich College, which is a registered charity, Dulwich College International is a profit-driven enterprise run by investors
What are the risks of investment migration? Going beyond the status quo
No full textCitizenship by investment (CBI, or “golden passport”) and residence by investment (RBI, or “golden visa”) schemes, have come under criticism as potential tools for money laundering, evading taxes, and committing financial crimes. However empirical work on these themes remains limited. This chapter takes as its starting point the most thorough report on these issues to date, “The Misuse of Citizenship and Residency by Investment Programmes” by the OECD/FATF, to ask: What and where are the wider risks involving residence, citizenship, and identity documents with respect to identity laundering, money laundering, and tax evasion or avoidance? To answer this question, the chapter draws on nine years of fieldwork in 19 countries and a new dataset on investment migration. First, it addresses scope issues, identifying several modes of acquiring citizenship or residence based on wealth that carry similar vulnerabilities to investment migration programs and that should be taken into account when developing problem-based approaches to risk mitigation. Next it assesses the scale of actual CBI and RBI offerings, identifying typically ignored cases that are particularly vulnerable to misuse, and it fills in absences in the depiction of the investment migration ecosystem by including powerful but overlooked actors and relationships. Finally, it assesses risks related to identity laundering, money laundering, and tax. Overall, it shows that risks in these three areas operate through building profiles that are legible and acceptable to financial institutions as indica of a person’s relationship to a jurisdiction and that can be used to establish legal “substance” or techniques around “ghosting residence.” As such, a wider range of possibilities for acquiring citizenship or residence based on financial means – beyond merely investment migration programs – needs to be taken into account if financial crime risks are to be fully addressed. Though this chapter paper carries over the risk approach employed in the OECD/FATF report, it closes by proposing that future research and policymaking take a more targeted approach that begins from the analysis of actual harms rather than posited risks
Views from above: the continued discrimination of domestic workers living in the apartment blocks of Northern Johannesburg
No full textWhile Apartheid legislatively ended in 1994, the legacy of structural discrimination still defines urban realities in South African cities. The historically white ‘old money’ Northern suburbs of Johannesburg remain an enclave of privilege where race, class and gender define the social production of space. Atop the roofs of apartment buildings in the suburbs of Killarney, Illovo and Rosebank lie ‘locations in the sky’: staff accommodation designed during Apartheid for live-in domestic workers. These structures illuminate how Apartheid spatial planning continues to shape the city and its power relations: the colonial legacy of domestic work in South Africa. Using a Lefebvrian lens, this study investigates experiences of ‘locations in the sky’, and how discrimination is enforced and experienced. Through 38 semi-structured interviews and a doctrinal legal analysis of 13 body corporate rules, various forms of discrimination are revealed. Domestic workers and residents of staff accommodation encounter physical and structural discrimination in terms of sub-par living conditions, as well as discriminatory rules. This discrimination is enforced through social power. Finally, an analysis of discrimination scenarios illustrates that discrimination is both written and enforced to varying degrees based on the unique context of each building. The findings contribute a spatial analysis of domestic work in the under-researched space of staff accommodation in apartment buildings. Documenting this discrimination provides a basis upon which to identify injustices, reevaluate rules and address discrimination, which should be of concern to apartment residents, bodies corporate, civil society organisations and urban planners as well as legislators
The political effects of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone
No full textThe unexpected defeat of the Labour Party in a recent by-election has been attributed to the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). Employing a difference-in-difference methodology across two phases of ULEZ expansion and examining three sets of elections, we find inconsistent political effects. In all three election scenarios, we observe relatively minor effects for the incumbent Labour Party. Support for both the Green Party and the Conservative Party fluctuated. Complementary individual-level analysis using UKHLS data reveals no discernible political party support effects stemming from the ULEZ expansion announcement in 2017 on those with non-compliant cars relative to the rest of the population. Our study suggests caution in generalising the political effects of green policies from mixed evidence in a single case, while contributing to the growing body of research on the complexities of public response to environmentally focused legislation