Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice Research Collection
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Browsing Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice Research Collection by Type "Working Paper"
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- PublicationAre married women more deprived than their husbands?Conventional methods of analysis of poverty assume resources are shared so that each individual in a household/family has the same standard of living. This paper measures differences between spouses in a large sample in indicators of deprivation of the type used in recent studies of poverty at household level. The quite limited overall imbalance in measured deprivation in favour of husbands suggests that applying such indicators to individuals will not reveal a substantial reservoir of hidden poverty among wives in non-poor households, nor much greater deprivation among women than men in poor households. This points to the need to develop more sensitive indicators of deprivation designed to measure individual living standards and poverty status, which can fit within the framework of traditional poverty research using large samples. It also highlights the need for clarification of the underlying poverty concept.
322 - PublicationCombating social disadvantage in social housing estates: the policy implications of a ten year follow up study(Combat Poverty Agency/Department of Social Protection, 2011-06)
; ; ; This paper presents a policy-focused report on the research project 'Progress and Problems in Social Housing Estates: A ten-year follow-up study'. The project was carried out between late 2007 and early 2009 in seven local authority housing estates in Ireland and took the form of a follow-up to a study of the same estates which had been carried out in the period 1997-1999. The seven estates examined in the study are: Fatima Mansions and Finglas South in Dublin City; Fettercairn, Tallaght, in South County Dublin; Deanrock estate in Togher, Cork City; Moyross in Limerick City; Muirhevnamor in Dundalk and Cranmore in Sligo town724 - PublicationA comparison of GP visiting in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland(ESRI, ISSC & University of Ulster, 2006-04)
; ; ; 818 - PublicationCrisis and recovery : labour market impact on women and men. Report on IrelandNational Expert assessment of Crisis and Recovery in Ireland - Labour Market Impact on Women and Men commissioned by and presented to the EU Directorate General Employment and Social Affairs, Unit G1 “Equality between women and men”.
1497 - PublicationA cross-sectional analysis of the utilisation of GP services in Ireland : 1987- 2001This paper examines the determinants of general practitioner (GP) utilisation patterns in Ireland over the period 1987-2001. Using three different micro-data sets, the influence of socio-economic factors as well as health status variables on the demand for GP visits is analysed. A particular focus of this paper is an examination of the impact of economic incentives as represented by medical card eligibility. While medical cardholders are entitled to free GP consultations, nonmedical cardholders must pay for each visit. In addition, it is important to analyse the impact of the 1989 change in the reimbursement system for GPs with medical cardholder patients from fee for service to capitation. A variety of cross-sectional econometric methodologies are considered with the two-step hurdle negative binomial model found to be the most appropriate. The empirical results confirm the results of earlier studies about the effects of socio-economic characteristics such as age, sex and income on GP utilisation patterns and also confirm the highly significant effects of health status. While medical card eligibility is consistently positive and significant across the years of our analysis (1987, 1995, 2000, 2001), there is no evidence to show that this effect diminished in importance between 1987 and 1995.
282 - PublicationA discussion of international, national, discipline and institution contextual factors that impact on the design /redesign of a Post Graduate Social Work Programme in IrelandThe purpose of the paper is to examine what international, national and institutional influences need to be considered in appraising the need and design of a post-qualifying training in therapeutic or counselling social work. It is my view that such a programme could augment both the existing social work counselling skill base and could provide a mechanism whereby social workers identity and work opportunities in the therapeutic and counselling roles would be enhanced. This paper will examine the feasibility of the programme and the issues/ influences that need to be considered in the design of the curriculum.
266 - PublicationDwelling type and quality of life in urban areas: evidence from the European Social Survey(2014-11)Much of the literature on sustainable communities and compact cities calls for higher density housing. However, case studies suggest that there can be problems with multi-unit dwellings. Problems identified include inadequate space, noise pollution, suitability for families and children, and a lack of personal green/outdoor space. These studies raise questions about the quality of life, life satisfaction and liveability for its residents. Some suggest that residing in these dwellings is likely to be short-term, that those who can do so relocate to lower density housing over time. However, rigorous comparative research on this topic has not been conducted to date. This paper draws on comparative data from the European Social Survey to analyse: the quality of multi-family dwellings in European urban areas; the characteristics of residents of these dwellings, and their quality of life compared with those living in detached housing.
410 - PublicationEarnings inequality, returns to education and immigration into IrelandIncreasing earnings inequality has been an important feature of the US and UK labour markets in recent years. The increase appears to be related to an increased demand for skilled labour and an increase in the returns to education. In this paper we examine what has happened to earnings inequality and the returns to education in Ireland between 1987 and 1997. We find that while both increased between 1987 and 1994, the increases slowed dramatically between 1994 and 1997. This is somewhat surprising as the exceptional growth in the Irish economy occurred from 1994 on. We look to immigration as being a contributing factor to this pattern because a large group of skilled workers flowed into the Irish labour market between 1994 and 1997. We develop a model of the Irish labour market and use it to simulate the impact of an increase in skilled labour. The simulation suggests that immigration did indeed reduce earnings inequality. This result is an interesting corollary to work from the US that shows the immigration of unskilled workers increasing earnings inequality.
1263 - PublicationAn exploration of curriculum design when devising a masters degree in clinical social work : working paper seriesThe features of curriculum design are applied in this paper and it forms the basis for a discussion as to the viability of such a development in Ireland of 2009.
303 - PublicationFamily size as a social leveller for children in the second demographic transitionSteep socio-economic gradients in family size were a major source of disparities for children in the early 20th century and prompted much social research and public commentary. By the 1960s, a scholarly consensus was emerging that SES differentials in women’s fertility in western countries were tending to narrow but developments since then have received limited attention and a children’s perspective relating to the distinct question of sibling numbers (or 'sibsize') has been lacking. Drawing mainly on data from the United States but with some comparative information for other western countries, this paper finds that a sharp reduction in social disparities in sibsize occurred in the final third of the twentieth century and acted as an important (though in the US case, incomplete) social leveller for children. This development is significant as a counter to other aspects of sociodemographic change in the same period which have been found to widen social inequalities for children. A key implication is that until we pay closer attention to sibsize patterns, our picture of how socio-demographic change has affected social inequalities among children in recent decades may be both incomplete and unduly negative.
200 - PublicationFathers, Fathering, and Fatherhood across Cultures: Convergence or Divergence?(University College Dublin. School of Applied Social Science, 2015-05)
; Parenting research in large-scale societies initially focused on White, North American, and middle-class mothers and fathers. Building on these roots, interest in and research on fathers, fathering, and fatherhood became more catholic and spread worldwide. Extant research is now available from cultures in every continent, but the coverage within and between societies varies widely. Uneven coverage makes cross-cultural comparisons difficult but when possible they often challenge previous assumptions made in Western cultures. For instance, physical play as an essential hallmark of father interactive style is not found in Taiwan, India, Africa, and Thailand and few differences are found in play activities between mothers and fathers or by gender. Approaches to fathering vary widely from a primary concern with being a disciplinarian and provider to those focusing on nurturing child care with many possible types and combinations occurring in between. Moreover, national variances in Western approaches to fathering, and especially to father involvement in the early years post-partum, are increasingly mediated by the availability and non-availability of ‘father-friendly’ social policies, such as paid parental leave (Rush and Seward, 2014). Non-Western fathering varies more dramatically than fathering practices in the Western world, which has in the main, albeit not uniformly, dismantled the patriarchal power of fathers over the course of the 20th century (Therborn, 2004) and replaced kinships or familial based responses to child welfare and social protection with welfare state arrangements (Sommestad, 1998). Almost all research findings on fathers across cultures since 1990 suggests some change in fatherhood in the direction of expecting greater involvement by fathers, yet changes in fathering or the conduct of fathers has been slower and lagged behind. Although, in some Western countries, especially the Nordic countries, the gap between social expectation and actual father involvement is lessening because of the introduction of father-friendly parental leave policies (Rush, 2015). The history, tradition, economy, and geography for each culture play important roles in this change and the uneven rates of change across cultures or lack thereof. For fatherhood evidence suggest a growing convergence of expectations but fathering practices are still very diverse or exhibiting a convergence to divergence.881 - PublicationFiscal system and female employment in IrelandExternal report commissioned by and presented to the EU Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs, Unit G1 'Equality between women and men'.
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