Is there a crisis in the family?

Is the family in crisis? There is a widespread perception at the present time that something has gone wrong with the family. High rates of divorce, increased marital conflict and the escalating costs of welfare programmes, coupled with rising crime, drug taking and anti-social behaviour among the young, are all taken as evidence that the family and the social values on which it is based are in decline. How accurate is this picture? Does it reflect a form of "moral panic" rather than a description of an empirical situation? Historians and social scientists have documented many instances in different societies at various times of what they term "moral panic". These moments of crisis in what are perceived as deeply rooted and firmly held cultural and social values have often occurred in periods of transition and rapid social change. The extent to which such crises accurately reflect changing circumstances is questionable, since they often appear to be part of a response to change rather than an instigator of it. However, it is clear that many countries and communities at the present time sense their social and cultural values to be under threat from a diverse range of social, economic and political changes that appear both interconnected and global in their spread. The purpose of this paper is to examine what these global processes might be and how they are affecting family forms, gender relations and family-market linkages. Globalization, increasing market integration and the changing nature of labour markets are identified as the macro-economic forces which act as sources of pressure, and produce strain, on intra-household resource allocation, conjugal relations and child care and socialization. In the context of increasingly unified and deregulated markets for capital and labour, people within vulnerable countries and those within vulnerable groups have to maintain family relations and livelihoods from a diminished resource base. This paper identifies the care of children and the reproduction of human capital as the main issues to be addressed by those interested in the family, and it sets out the reasons for and the benefits of such an approach

Dairy product consumption behaviour of Addis Ababa city households: A multivariate probit model approach

Although Ethiopia is holding one of the largest dairy cattle herds in the world, the per capita consumption of dairy products is low. Moreover, the dairy marketing system in the country from where the consumers obtain dairy products is dominated by the informal market that supplies raw milk which can be a risk factor for zoonotic disease transmission. Using primary data collected from 384 sample households of Addis Ababa city, determinants of dairy products purchase decision was investigated. Descriptive statistics and multivariate probit (MVP) model were used to analyse the data. The results showed that raw milk, pasteurized milk, powdered ilk, cottage butter, cottage cheese, factory cheese, cottage yoghurt and factory yoghurt were purchased by 46%, 73%, 12%, 94%, 64%, 9%, 11% and 26% of the sampled households, respectively. The MVP model results indicated the interdependence of decisions to purchase different dairy products. The result of the model further revealed that religion, age and education of household head, family size, presence of children in household, and consumption value variables such as taste, price, social values (influence of friends and families), emotional values (the perception that dairy products offer pleasure and good feeling), conditional value (availability), and epistemic value (habit of trying new products) had a significant impact on dairy product purchase decision of the respondents. Therefore, addressing demographic, socio-economic and consumption value variables, and acknowledging the interdependence of decisions consumers make while purchasing multiple dairy products, would all be important factors to consider when designing policies to improve the consumers‟ nutritious food consumption and zoonotic diseases control

Structure-activity relationships in Werner clathrates

Includes bibliographical references.The synthesis and characterization of a series of inorganic coordination compounds which, upon crystallization, have the ability to include solvent or guest molecules spatially within the lattice are reported. The compounds have the following general formula: [NiX2B4] - where X is isothiocyanate or bromine and B is 4-ethylpyridine, 4-vinylpiridine or 3,5-dimethylpyridine; [NiX2B2]n - where X is isothiocyanate, B is 2-aminopyridine and n indicates it is a polymer; [NiX2AB2]2 - where X is isothiocyanate, B is 3-aminopyridine (two of these four ligands in the dimer are bridging) and A is water. The various guest molecules have been carefully chosen, according to their point symmetry, which is a key factor in yielding structures of a particular type. The structures of seventeen compounds have been elucidated by single crystal x-ray analysis. The difficulty has been found to lie in refining disordered guest molecules. Other techniques employed in the initial characterization of these compounds are Microanalysis, Mass Spectrometry and UV/Visible Spectrophotometry. An intramolecular potential energy study on the [Ni(NCS)2(3,5-diMepy)4] complex reveals that the orthohydrogens on the 3,5-dimethylpyridine ligands control the conformation of the molecule. Packing densities and volume comparisons of the [Ni(NCS)2(4-Etpy)4] and [Ni(NCS)2(4-Vipy)4] complexes and their clathrates have been carried out. The exact sizes and shapes of the cavities in which the guest molecules are located in the x-ray crystal structures have been evaluated by both intermolecular potential energy and molecular volume calculations. Thermodynamic and spectroscopic properties of the [Ni(NCS)2(4-Etpy)4] and [Ni(NCS)2(4-Vipy)4] clathrates have been studied in both solution and the solid state. The techniques used are x-ray powder diffractometry, IR spectroscopy and Thermogravimetry (including Differential Thermal Analysis)

Social Protection for the 21st Century: Towards a New Politics of Care

Warnings that the UK is facing a ‘crisis of care’ are growing in volume. NHS wait times have reached a record high, and staff shortages across the social care workforce are predicted to rise to 500,000 by the end of 2030, as poor working conditions and the lowest wages of almost any sector in the UK make these careers increasingly unsustainable. The shortfall is being met by the most vulnerable, and over 350,000 people aged 16-25 in England and Wales now provide unpaid care to a loved one (BMA, 2022). This IGP working paper unpicks the UK’s care crisis, using London’s tuberculosis (TB) rate as a case study. We argue that the crisis extends beyond health and social care: the UK is experiencing a breakdown of its social protection system, as the state fails to fulfil its duty of car

Social protection in Sub-Saharan Africa: A whole-systems approach to prosperity

Social protection is a central function of modern welfare states, yet it is defined and enacted differently across contexts, shaped by respective histories, political climates and institutions. Broadly, the term refers to the mechanisms and policies designed to mitigate vulnerability and shocks (Ellis, Devereux & White, 2009; ILO, 2020; World Bank, 2021; FAO, 2017; European Commission, 2020). A formal call for universal social protection by 2030, in support of Sustainable Development Goal 1.3, was made in 2019 by a coalition of national and multi-lateral partners including the African Union, the ILO, USAID and UNICEF (USP2030). This IGP working paper addresses social protection from a whole-systems perspective, exploring case studies from sub-Saharan African countries with their own histories of welfare policy and practice. The intersection of the climate emergency with changes in demographics, urban/rural life, technology and population health is creating a new landscape of vulnerability across the region, that presents social protection policymakers with a complex set of challenges. While there is a growing body of literature that explores how income support in particular can reduce vulnerability to climate-related risk, (Costella et al, 2023; Ulrichs, Slater & Costella, 2019; Etoka et al, 2021; Weingartner et al, 2019), we argue for a transformative approach. In response to new, intersecting vulnerabilities, and in light of historical injustice in the delivery of social protection, the mechanisms we implement today must be different. Social protection for the 21st century must not only mitigate risk but deliver the necessary conditions for prosperity. To do so, and to deliver sustainable justice on a social and planetary level, social protection systems must ultimately begin from a different perspective, operate proactively, and address the intersections between precarities

Conceptualising and measuring prosperity

This paper has been produced as an Issue-Based Contribution to the sixth Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization (GOLD VI): the flagship publication of the organized constituency of local and regional governments represented in United Cities and Local Governments. The GOLD VI report has been produced in partnership with the Development Planning Unit (University College London), through the programme Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW). GOLD VI focuses on how local and regional governments can address the local manifestations of growing inequalities and contribute to create ’Pathways toward urban and territorial equality’. The GOLD VI report has been produced through a large-scale international co-production process, bringing together over a hundred representatives of local and regional governments, academics and civil society organizations. This paper is an outcome of this process and is part of the GOLD VI Working Paper series, which collects the 22 Issue-Based Contributions produced as part of the GOLD VI process. In particular, the present paper has contributed to Chapter 8 on 'Prospering’, which focuses on prosperity as a culturally specific and multi-dimensional concept: one that includes, but is not limited to, the concept of income. The chapter explores key drivers of urban inequality reflected in the scarcity of decent work and in social-spatial disparities in the location of different productive activities within cities. Through the lens of ‘prospering’, the chapter analyses how local and regional governments can increase decent work opportunities, and, drawing on the impacts of COVID-19, how they can mitigate the effects of future pandemics and of climate change on decent work, urban prosperity, and inequality

Thinking vulnerability infrastructurally: Interdependence and possibility in Lebanon’s overlapping crises

The notion of ‘vulnerability’ has gained growing traction in a range of different fields, from disaster risk reduction to feminist theory. This increased academic use has been paralleled by a rise in the use of the term as an operational concept in humanitarian and development policy. Using the incongruent deployments of the term as a starting point, this article examines the assumptions underpinning definitions of vulnerability in humanitarian programming in Lebanon, with a particular focus on the links between Lebanon’s crisis of public services and the mass displacement from neighbouring Syria since 2011. We show that, in the international response to Lebanon’s overlapping crises, ‘vulnerability’ is operationalised in ways that fail to address underlying causes, and thus resist meaningful transformation while even bearing the potential of additional harm. Based on the finding that vulnerabilities emanating from Lebanon’s public service crisis and from mass displacement are deeply entangled, the article proposes that an ‘infrastructural’ approach to vulnerability may better be able to address precariousness and precarity linked to basic service provision. An infrastructural approach, we posit, foregrounds dynamic interdependency and relationality with the human and non-human environment. Such a view allows us to acknowledge the power relations at work in both the production and alleviation of vulnerability and ultimately may better enable us to ‘think otherwise’ in situations of seemingly perpetual crisis and disruption

Addressing the UK's livelihood crisis: beyond the price of energy

The UK is suffering a sustained crisis, as the cost of living and energy prices soar. In recent months, and across successive changes in leadership, the government has announced various policies to mitigate the effects, yet they have failed to act systemically. The government’s response so far has reflected a reactive fixation on the rising price of energy; but the UK is ultimately facing a deeper livelihood crisis, that exists at the nexus of rising food, transport and energy prices, high levels of inequality, and an unsustainable dependence on fossil fuels. This crisis demands a whole systems approach, underpinned by the principles of equality and sustainability. The Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) has a plan for the UK. Since its inception, the IGP has been developing novel approaches to livelihood security. At the core of this work is Universal Basic Services (UBS), an expanded social protection system for the 21st century. This working paper analyses the cost of living crisis through a livelihood lens: exploring what the implementation of UBS could mean for the cost of living crisis, and how it could ultimately work to secure livelihoods in the long-term

Ethiopian Dairy and Animal Health Policy Sector: A Stakeholders' Network Analysis

አህፅሮትፖሉሲ ቀረፃ ስራ ብዙውን ጊዜ በርካታ ባሇድርሻ አካሊትን ያካትታሌ፡፡ በነዚህ በርካታ ባሇድረሻ አካሊት መካከሌ ያሇው ግንኙነት ይዘት ትብብርም ይሁን የመቀናቀን ሁኔታ ፖሉሲው የሚያስክትሇውን ውጤት ይወስናሌ፡፡ በምርምር ውጤቶች ሊይ ተመስርቶ የፖሉሲ ማሻሻያ እንዲዯረግ ተፅዕኖ ማሳዯር የሚፈሌጉ ተመራማሪዎች በፖሉሲ ቀረፃ ሊይ የትኞቹ አካሊት እንዯሚሳተፉ፣ የፖሉሲ ሇውጥ ሇማምጣት ያሊቸውን ፍሌጎት፣ የመሇወጥ አቅምና በመካከሊቸው ያሇውን ግንኙነት ሁኔታ ጠንቅቀው ማወቅ ይኖርባቸዋሌ፡፡ ይህ ጥናት የኢትዮጵያን የእንስሳት እርባታ ፖሉሲ ዋነኛ ባሇድርሻ አካሊትና በመካከሊቸው ያሇውን ግንኙነት በተመሇከተ የተዯረግ ጥናት ነው፡፡ ጥናቱ ተሳትፎአዊ የባሇድርሻ አካሊት ትንተና እና የግንኙነት መረብ ትንተና ዘዴን በመጠቀም በተሇይ በወተት ሊም እርባታ እና ተያያዥ የእንስሳት ጤና ጉዳይ ሊይ ያለ ባሇድርሻዎችን የመሇየት እና በመካከሊቸው ያሇውን ግንኙነት ተመሌክቷሌ፡፡ ውጤቱም እንዯሚያሳየው በኢትዮጵያ የወተት ከብት እርባታ ፖሉሲ ሊይ በርካታና የተሇያየ ፍሊጎት ያሊቸው ባሇድርሻ አካሊት የሚሳተፉበት ዯካማና መካከሇኛ ዯረጃ እፍግታ ያሇው በአስተዳዯራዊ መዋቅር ሊይ የተመሰረተ የግንኙነት መረብ ያሇው ሆኖ አግኝተነዋሌ፡፡ ከዚህ በተጨማሪ ክሌሊዊ የአስተዳዯራዊ መዋቅርን የሚሻገሩ የፖሉሲ መረብ ግንኙነቶች የላለ መሆኑን አረጋግጠናሌ፡፡ ነገር ግን አንዳንድ በአሇም አቀፍ እና በፌድራሌ መንግስት ዯረጃ ያለ ተቋማት ላልች በተሇያየ ዯረጃ ያለ ባሇድርሻ አካሊት በማገናኘትና፣ የፖሉሲ ውይይትና አንዲካሄድና ማሻሻያ እንዲዯረግ የማነሳሳት ከፍተኛ ማዕከሊዊ ሚና እንዳሊቸው አረጋግጠናሌ፡፡ ይህም ማሇት በኢትዮጵያ የእንስሳት እርባታ ፖሉሲ ቀረፃ የሁለም አካሊት ፍሊጎት ከግምት የሚገባበትና አካታች የማድረግ እድሌ መኖሩን የሚያመሇክት ሲሆን የፖሉሲ ማሻሻያ በዚህ ሴክትር ሲታሰብ ከእነዚህ በአሇምአቀፍ፣ በፌዯራሌና በክሌሌ ዯረጃ ያለ ቁሌፍ አካሊት ጋር መስራት እንዯሚያስፈሌግ ያመሇክታሌ፡፡AbstractPublic policy making often involves a multitude of actors. The level and nature of interaction among these actors, be it cohesion or friction, determines policy outcomes. For outsiders with the aim of influencing policy based on empirical evidence, it is imperative to know who are involved in the policy making process, the interest and influence of each actor as well as the nature and extent of their interaction. A study was conducted to analyze the Ethiopian livestock policy sector in terms of the main actors and their interaction in the dairy and animal health policy subsector. The study applied participatory stakeholders and social network analysis to identify the most important actors, their salience and network characteristics. The results indicate that a multitude of actors with diverse interests is involved in the Ethiopian dairy sector in a loosely connected network with medium level of clustering aligned along administrative tiers. The results also showed that in the existing federal administrative structure, there are no policy networks in the Ethiopian diary policy landscape that cut across regional boundaries. However, the international and federal level government actors play important role as central actors with bridging role connecting the decentralized regional and local level actors as well as in initiating policy engagement and change. This implies that there is a room for pluralistic policymaking and any attempt to influence policy in the livestock sector need to work with these international, federal and regional level actors