1,721,017 research outputs found
Towards greater personalisation of active labour market policy? Britain and Germany compared
No full textThis PhD study centres on analysing the changing employment service portfolios available
to disadvantaged people out of work in Britain and Germany. Looking at the recent wave of
comparative studies on ‘activation’ reforms, it springs to mind that the question of the
changing portfolio of ‘active’ labour market policy (ALMP) measures has received only little
attention in the sense of a rigorous comparative analysis. In order to address that gap, this
study develops a novel normative and analytical perspective for the study of ALMP, which
then is applied to the empirical cases Britain and Germany.
I first develop the concept of personalisation as the normative and analytical framework for
the analysis of ALMP. I show that the diversity of ALMP portfolios, which is a
precondition for a personalised service provision, can serve as a proxy for measuring
personalisation. Equipped with this analytical tool, the analysis subsequently focuses on the
changes to ALMP portfolios over the past 15 years in terms of diversity. It is shown that
during this period both Britain and Germany reformed working-age benefits in a way that
led to a closer integration of the benefit system at an institutional level. Taking the policy
rhetoric that closer integration will lead to more ‘personalised’ (UK) or more ‘tailor-made’
(Germany) services as a starting point, I analyse whether these developments at an
institutional level have indeed led to a more personalised, or more diverse, provision of
employment services. This study looks in particular at the situation of those groups in the
two countries who have been most affected by recent integration reforms. These have
primarily been claimants of second-tier working-age benefits, namely incapacity related
benefits in the UK, and ‘Sozialhilfe’ (SH, social assistance) and ‘Arbeitslosengeld II’
(ALGII, Unemployment Benefit II) in Germany.
I find that in both countries, employment services for claimants of these second-tier
benefits have become more diverse in the wake of the integration reforms of the past 10 to
15 years, thereby increasing their personalisation potential. However, the two countries have
each followed very specific reform trajectories. While the volume and coverage of ALMP
have increased in both countries, the portfolio of services for second-tier claimants today is
much more diverse in Germany than in Britain. This is primarily due to the existence of a
large volume of services directed at claimants more distant from the labour market that
follow a social integration & employability approach. These services are more marginal in
Britain, where measures that follow a work-first approach are dominant. This divergent
development is indicative of major and persistent differences in terms of ideational context
as well as institutional (operational) factors. New Public Management reforms have
influenced operational policy to different degrees in the two countries, effectively limiting
the diversity of employment services in Britain more than in Germany
Welfare Markets and Personal Risk Management in England and Scotland
No full textThe project adopted a broad approach, employing quantitative as well as qualitative methods. It covered both public and private forms of risk protection, and it analysed attitudes as well as actual behavior. First, we reviewed Britain's current 'mixed economy of welfare' in the aforementioned five key areas. We mapped the social programmes, occupational schemes and private options that have been available since the early 1990s. The second phase was based on quantitative data analysis, making use of the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and the ABI Risk and Protection Survey. We analysed the take-up of insurances and how it was influenced by attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics. Third, we conducted 61 qualitative interviews, where we explored personal risk management strategies of middle-income households from Scotland and England. The main result was a typology of risk management rationales that guide household economies. This stage also explored the ramifications of the recent financial uncertainties and economic downturn. Comparing England and Scotland, the purpose was to review Britain's current 'mixed economy of welfare' in key areas: unemployment, sickness, costs of higher education for children, retirement and infirmity in old age. The aim was to map the types of statutory protection against such risks and contingencies and examine changes in the scope of public provision. In parallel, we will examine the scope of non-statutory (occupational and personal) provision, investigating how 'private welfare markets' have developed since the early 1990s. The second phase is based on quantitative data analysis of household savings and investment behaviour in insurances and private market-based contracts for risk protection. Finally, via qualitative interviews, we explore personal risk management of socially and economically similar families from Scotland and England. This stage will also explore the potential ramifications of the most recent financial uncertainties and economic downturn. </span
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Accumulated disadvantage? Welfare state provision and the incomes of older women and men in Britain, France and Germany
No full textCross-national perspectives on firm-level family policies: Britain, Germany and the US compared
No full textVariations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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