The objective of this article is to gain an in-depth understanding of the eating lives of low-income single mothers in Japan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine low-income single mothers living in the three largest urban areas (Tokyo, Hanshin [Osaka and Kobe] and Nagoya) in Japan. Framed by the capability approach and sociology of food, their dietary norms and practices, as well as underlying factors that impact the norm-practice gap were analysed across nine dimensions: meal frequency, place of eating, meal (...) timing, duration, persons to eat with, procurement method, food quality, meal content and pleasure of eating. These mothers were deprived of various types of capabilities, extending not only from the quantity and nutritional aspects of food, but also to spatial, temporal, qualitative and affective aspects. Aside from financial constraints, eight other factors (time, maternal health, parenting difficulties, children’s tastes, gendered norms, cooking abilities, food aid and local food environment) were identified as influencing their capabilities to eat well. The findings challenge the view that food poverty is the deprivation of economic resources required to ensure a sufficient amount of food. Social interventions that go beyond monetary aid and food provision need to be proposed. (shrink)

Amartya Sen’s work has contributed to shifting our focus from food availability to food access and utilisation, together called ‘nutritional capability’. Existing food insecurity instruments have been informed partially by the capability approach, but remain focused on material deprivation and its economic sub-dimensions. This narrow focus has become problematic, particularly in high-income countries, where material deprivation is largely overcome and food poverty manifests itself differently from that in low-income countries. Food poverty in high-income countries should thus be approached (...) from a ‘food capability’ perspective that fully recognises the multidimensionality of eating lives and the multiple factors that affect their dietary standards. To demonstrate the usefulness of this perspective, the Alkire-Foster method for multidimensional food poverty was utilised to analyse food poverty in Japan. The Alkire-Foster measure has a dual cut-off approach and its adapted method can produce a multidimensional food poverty index by setting reasonable food deprivation and poverty thresholds. The national data used for empirical demonstration was obtained from a web-based questionnaire conducted in Japan, to which 973 participants (aged 20–60 years) responded. The measurement identified a 20.6% food-poor population and inequalities in food capabilities among subgroups. Although economic deprivation was tightly linked to food poverty, the results suggested that gender- and age-based inequalities were larger than socioeconomic status-based ones, which reflected much wider societal problems in Japan than growing economic poverty, such as gender inequality and population ageing. The proposed measurement is effective for monitoring food policy impacts and complementing existing food insecurity assessment tools. The results will be useful for promoting social debate about what the minimal dietary standard should be in high-income societies. (shrink)

In Mexico, the management of public resources has been questioned by the State, and mainly the results that the public administration at its three levels (federal, state and municipal), by the lack of transparency in the application and verification of public resources. The experience that gives us the operation of different emerging programs that focused on reducing social and economic inequality in the country, we can locate them as the first attempts in the search for a solution that is complex. (...) Moving from the role of the benefactor and welfare state to the promoter of the regions and in the recognition of the focalization of priority attention areas, the path that has been taken is not only the beginning. Recognizing the public nature of public finances as a promoter of social development, we must understand it as the one assumed by the State through social, political and economic co-responsibility to solve poverty and marginalization of its own public policy orientation and vision of solution has been made since the eighties. From the above, we can point out some preliminary conclusions including the study of the indigenous language-speaking population with a high level of social exclusion in the methodology for the definition of multidimensional poverty in Mexico, will allow the allocation of public resources in the fight against poverty to be effective since it will make it possible to identify to the target population that is subject to social exclusion and marginalization. This invites us to a final reflection: What to do to address the just social demands of the indigenous population that is immersed in poverty, marginalization and exclusion? What to do so that they do not leave their communities, and if they have already done so, how to attend to the needs of family groups that are due to the expense of a remittance that may never arrive? (shrink)

This chapter documents a participatory approach to developing a new, gender-sensitive measure of deprivation that improves upon existing measures of poverty and gender equity. Over 3 years, across 18 sites in Angola, Fiji, Indonesia, Malawi, Mozambique, and the Philippines, men and women in poor communities engaged in a range of qualitative discussions and quantitative evaluation exercises to help develop the Individual Deprivation Measure. The IDM tracks deprivation in 15 dimensions, uses interval scales within dimensions and can easily be administered (...) in most impoverished areas. It represents a significant advance in multidimensional measurement by focusing on individuals rather than households, by covering all important dimensions of poverty, by being gender-sensitive in the selection and coding of dimensions and by being appropriately sensitive to the depth of deprivation. The IDM demonstrates the possibility of establishing objective tools of social valuation through a process of public reason. (shrink)

Winds of change, from the political perspective in Mexico, invite us to reformulate the methodological vision for the direction of public policy in the field of social development, directing their actions towards the construction of a methodological proposal that allows us to direct ourselves towards achieving higher levels of Well-being Social in our country, as a desirable objective of public policy and which is expected to be inclusive, participatory and democratic. -/- In this sense, it is important to recognize that (...) the current debate, in the academic and political sphere, questions what is being well? What is the life that is worth living? And that, additionally, the recognition of the satisfaction of life goals, at an individual and collective level, which invites us to reflect, if the current economic and social policy and strategy has produced results in what we envision as social welfare? Is a new approach necessary to solve the problem? What strategy should it be to consider the new methodological approach that seeks social welfare? And what components should be considered in the measurement of social welfare? This document is an invitation to review the concept of social welfare, as a proposal whose purpose is to correct the deficiencies or historical deficiencies suffered by the population, in the elemental enjoyment of social rights, a situation that causes social backwardness, marginalization, and that it is aimed at the impossibility of participating in the social decisions of the community and in collective decisions, such as: speaking, proposing, being heard and demanding compliance with fundamental human rights such as: health, food, housing, employment and security, among others. These deficiencies in the enjoyment of social and human rights are seen in the presence of social exclusion, and that together these social deficiencies explain the degree of multidimensional poverty suffered by the population in rural and urban areas. It is here that he invites us to reflect: what is the problem that social welfare seeks to solve? Multidimensional poverty, social exclusion, social backwardness or social inequality? And consequently, how to define the components to identify social welfare? -/- The document is made up of three sections: i) Social welfare: A retrospective look; ii) Social Welfare, an integrative view: The contribution of Sen, Naussbam, Rawls, Actis Di Pasquale and Keyes; and iii) Social Welfare: The recognition of limits in economic development -/- The first section presents a review of the proposals, which in the area of economic development have been presented since 1968 in the Human Condition Project, until the 2015 proposal of Sustainable Development Goals. -/- In the second section, the contributions of (Rawls, 1995), (Sen, 1982), (Nussbaum, 2011), (Keyes, 1998) , (Actis Di Pasquale, 2015) and (Actis Di Pasquale, 2017) are presented in order to present an integrative approach to the concept of social welfare. And finally, the third section presents the recognition of limits in development, as well as an invitation for action from a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective in the study of social welfare. -/- August 2020 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24147.20006/1 LicenseCC BY-SA 4.0 -/- . (shrink)

Poverty observed from business in the academic field has evolved in some publications and is characterized as a multidimensional phenomenon, having several theoretical strands that add their attention to this problem. The objective of this study is to identify and cluster the variables of poverty in the business area through the network analysis. There were 1,745 keywords mentioned in 566 papers about the theme present in the Scopus database between 2000 and 2016. The results demonstrate a network (...) with four clusters: (a) Economy, government and people; (b) Community, institutions and market; (c) Business and environment; and (d) Social aspects and finance. From the network, it is possible to understand the most cited categories of variables (research methodology and business aspects), the most consolidated relations between categories of variables (poverty and economic aspects), the most studied area (Economy, government and people), and the gaps to be explored. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article provides a Global South perspective on marginalised migrant youth and higher educational aspirations, with a specific focus on South Africa. We use data from a case study in Johannesburg to illustrate how marginalised migrant youth experience particular forms of disadvantage in their endeavours to realise their educational aspirations. Yet, educational opportunities and the achievement of educational aspirations may enhance dimensions important for individual wellbeing. Through education, marginalised migrant youth become better positioned to pursue what they have reason to (...) value, including escaping poverty in both their home and host countries. Using the human development and capability lens, the paper also presents what the disadvantages experienced by marginalised migrant youth may mean for human development. We argue that constrained educational aspirations can result in corrosive disadvantage and ultimately systemic poverty. We conclude the paper by highlighting how the capability approach could be used to inform social and educational policies in contexts of marginalisation. (shrink)

This chapter outlines and defends a number of key conceptual choices with regard to poverty: poverty is regarded as material; as related to a lack of real freedoms; as involuntary; as multidimensional; as objective; and as in important respects absolute, yet time-relative. The chapter also considers the resulting links between poverty on the one hand and justice and human rights on the other.

This article focuses on the gender dimension of poverty in Morocco. It questions the inadequate parameters relied on in the existing studies on the subject and underlines their blindness to the complex causes and effects of poverty among the female population in the country. The article then approaches female poverty from its multidimensional perspective in order to underline the social, cultural, legal as well as economic aspects and implications of poverty. The final section of the (...) article gives a critical reading of some of the strategies currently adopted to reduce the incidence of poverty in Morocco. (shrink)

In Mexico, the Productive Organization Program for Indigenous Women (POPMI) seeks the empowerment of productive capacities in indigenous women. Our study analyzes POPMI outreach, focusing our attention on women beneficiaries who present a high degree of social exclusion and multidimensional poverty in the State of Veracruz. In the study area, the 542 indigenous women benefited in POPMI, presented a condition of multidimensional poverty and a degree of social exclusion: very high, high and medium, they represent only (...) 22.19% of the total beneficiaries of this program In 2010, since at the state level a total of 2,243 indigenous women were cared for. The results show that the localities where the condition of multidimensional poverty and very high, medium and high levels of social exclusion have been excluded in the coverage of POPMI. (shrink)

Educational practices are affected by the dominant paradigm in the belonging context, which influences the representation of the human being, the idea and the purposes of education. Consequently, as a connecting science between the human sciences, pedagogy is called upon to be a critical instance. This article examines the issue of educational poverty — and of possible actions to prevent and combat it — in light of the cultural frameworks in which it is conceived. The responses to variations of (...) the phenomenon could benefit from contaminations or from the openness to different epistemological and cultural paradigms, capable of enriching educators’ professionalism and nourishing their motivation. In order to deal with today’s Western society typical forms of poverty, it is proposed to draw from both the emerging systemic holistic paradigm and the epistemology of complexity, as well as from proto-holistic practices and guiding principles deriving from neurosciences. The reader is supported in reflecting on the foundations of an integrating education which, taking advantage of sciences from East to West, favours the flourishing and expression of human multidimensionality. (shrink)

Child poverty reduction is one of the most important and urgent tasks that requires attention in most regions of the world, nations and Anambra state specifically. The population of impoverished children is progressively increasing in Nigeria because of economic recession and poor security situations that lead to displacement and death of their parents. Although children constitute half of the entire population, commensurate attention is not given to them to match the dimensions of poverty they face. This study argued (...) that child poverty is multidimensional, evidenced in lack of safe drinking water, adequate nutrition, shelter, decent sanitation, medical advice or health services and education, to mention a few. The article highlighted the laudable efforts of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and Anambra government and maintained that multiple strategies can help in solving this problem. To complement these efforts, the enforcement of biblical policies or principles about children’s rights would in no small measure reduce child poverty. It was concluded that a proper repositioning of children would be matched with implementation of biblical strategies. Biblical intervention could help children socially, mentally and psychologically and in their general well-being. Biblical principles would erase wrong socio-cultural notions about children. (shrink)

Resumen Se analiza desde el punto de vista ético la acción internacional en desarrollo, a través del acuerdo de la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas: la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible. Los desafíos éticos de la nueva agenda son numerosos, pero hay un compromiso ético de primer orden: no dejar a nadie atrás. Para ejercitar esta acción, el PNUD y otros organismos como el Banco Mundial o UNICEF están trabajando con enfoques multidimensionales. Se trata de cubrir lo que se (...) conoce como la Última Milla, los casi mil millones de personas que siguen viviendo en pobreza extrema, y que están excluidos de toda acción de desarrollo. En este artículo se dan las pautas de cómo se debe abordar desde la multidimensionalidad esta pobreza extrema y la vulnerabilidad y cumplir el mandato de la Agenda 2030, no dejar a nadie atrás.The international action under development is analyzed from the ethical point of view, through the agreement of the General Assembly of the United Nations: the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The ethical challenges of the new agenda are numerous, but there is an ethical commitment of the first order. do not leave anyone behind. To implement this action, UNDP and other agencies such as the World Bank or UNICEF are working with multidimensional approaches. It is about covering what is known as the Last Mile, the almost one billion people who continue to live in extreme poverty, and who are excluded from all development action. This article gives guidelines on how to tackle this extreme poverty and vulnerability and to fulfill the mandate of the Agenda 2030 from the multiamensionality, leaving no one behind. (shrink)

For the Life of the World (FLW), part IV, offers a thought-provoking discussion about the problems of poverty, wealth and civil justice. Poverty, basic needs and a living wage are central to the concerns and proposed goals for action in this part. While understandably referred to in a general sense since FLW is ‘a preliminary step for further discussion’, in the contemporary world, these issues are highly ambiguous, controversial and difficult to measure. Hence, to promote further dialogue, I (...) explore and highlight critical issues that must be addressed. I also offer a brief discussion of the stigmatization of poverty that cruelly affects many who are poor. I argue that to develop a more expansive theological and normative discourse about poverty and wealth, we should first aim to clearly understand key terms such as poverty in a fully multidimensional, holistic manner that explicitly considers the dynamics of the stigmatization of poverty. (shrink)

The present proposal is an approach to the vision, cosmogony and philosophy of the Totonacapan people, and particularly with the inhabitants of the Totonacapan region in Veracruz Mexico, a town whose wisdom is manifested to this day, in the conservation of customs and traditions , as well as the hierarchy of collective desire that seeks health, well-being and peace in the region, are guides in the evolution of their cultural processes, where a closeness, respectful and deep with Mother Nature stands (...) out. This wisdom by the Council of Elders, transmitted to the new generations, by the Supreme Council of Totonacapan who seek share the basis to understand and conceive the current world, from the ancestral vision and cosmogony to identify their space, thought, spirituality and in the building your social context. In the Totonacapan region, the first pre-hispanic population concentrations were located around 1259 to 1311. Already by the year 1450, there is a record of incursions and the conquest of Totonaca territory, by the Mexica, establishing a relationship of domain and subordination. As a result of the presence of "Mexica" in the Totonaco territory, there was an imposition of customs and language, since in some areas they begin to speak in Nahuatl, resulting in the presence of a bilingualism (Nahuatl-Totonac) , situation that persists, until the encounter with the Spaniards in the year of 1519. At present, the Totonacapan region includes the area that extends from the Cazones River to the north, to the towns of Gutiérrez Zamora and Tecolutla, in the State of Veracruz in Mexico. 2 The importance of the document is that it constitutes an invitation to deepen and understand the vision of the inhabitants of Totonacapan, in the construction of their social context and their connection with nature, as part of an ancient culture, which creates and recreates their vision, in the search for the feeling of belonging and as an inheritance of the children of thunder (Tajin), as well as the need to preserve the benefits that nature itself offers them, seeking a peaceful and harmonious coexistence, in the social and environmental environment. However, the preservation of its history, tradition and philosophy of life, contrast with public policy strategies, particularly in the social sphere, and which are aimed at achieving economic development in the fight against multidimensional poverty and marginalization, all Once they have not incorporated into them, the feeling and living of the relationship between individual and nature, as the guiding axis, of the philosophy of the Totonacapan people. What is sustainability for the people of Totonacapan? What is social justice in the search for sustainability? And what is your concept of justice in sustainability and human development? From the vision and philosophy of the people of Totonacapan, as part of the history and tradition of the children of thunder "Tajin" and in whose worldview, he is responsible for regulating the rain, climate and life of the people of the region. How does the people of Totonacapan live and live in the face of the maelstrom of actions that, from public policy, that seek human development? How do you adjust, your way of life and how do you adapt to the requirements, which from the perspective of justice, are required to contribute to the objectives of the 2030 development agenda? This document is an effort to learn and recognize one of the most important millenary cultures in Mexico, in the construction of a more inclusive vision of the social development of the Totonacapan people, which invites us to reflect on the direction and scope of this response. (shrink)

Mexico, with the commissioning of the "National Crusade Against Hunger Program" in 2013, aimed at serving the population that presents both extreme poverty and food deprivation. The article aims to analyze whether the criterion of the selection of the municipalities of the State of Veracruz incorporated in the National Crusade Against Hunger Program (PNCH) show complementarity with the efforts in the fight against poverty in the social expenditure strategy applied in the Priority Attention Zones Program (ZAP) and the (...) Priority Areas Development Program (PDZP) and, particularly, the indigenous municipalities that have a greater degree of social exclusion. The adjustment of a binary logistic regression model is presented, in order to assess the incidence of contextual factors to interpret the scope of the strategy adopted by the federal government in the fight against poverty and hunger. As a result, it is evident that there is no continuity in the fight against poverty, since the municipalities included in the strategy Priority Areas of Attention and Program of Development of Priority Zones are not considered in the selection of municipalities incorporated in the National Program of Crusade Against Hunger, a situation that identifies the relationship between programs is not complementary. (shrink)

Recent studies have shown that the indigenous population has been subject to social exclusion (Medel, 2016; Tetreault,2012; Rionda,2010; Del Popolo et al.,2009; World Bank,2004; Uquillas et al.,2003; Appasamy,1996). However, in the case of Mexico, there is no indicator to measure the degree of social exclusion. This article presents a methodology for estimating social exclusion index (IES) by estimating main components. Our proposal is to incorporate the index of social exclusion as a factor that can explain the current status of (...) class='Hi'>poverty in the localities that have a high concentration of indigenous population and high economic marginalization in the state of Veracruz, and thus analyze the scope social policy to combat poverty, as the case Development Program Priority Areas (PDZP). (shrink)

The relevance of the research topic is that various approaches are analyzed on the essence of globalization, which is represented as an objective, qualitatively new process of internationalization and integration of all fields of activity of the modern civilizational structure. Analysis of the literature. The works of A. Appadarui, Z. Bauman, U. Beck, Z. Bzezhinski, F. Braudel, I. Wallerstein, E. Giddens, P. Drucker, M. Castells, T. Levitt, I. Tirikyan, K. Waite, F. Fernandez-Armestro, S. Huntington. In the post-Soviet space, the ideas (...) of globalization were developed in the works of V. Inozemtsev, V. Stepin, A. Chumakov, P. Vodopyanova, V. Voronkova, O. Punchenko, A. Zelenkova, C. Kirvel, A. Lazarevich, V. Nikitenko, A. Sosnin, A.Utkin and many others. The aim of the article is to concretize the concept of “globalization”, and also through the analysis of tectonic shifts in the world sociological system, to represent the main socio-political, cultural and civilizational dimensions of this concept. Research objectives - in the context of the stated goal, the essence of the social dynamics of a globalizing world is revealed. Research Methodology. The methodology is based on an integrated approach, due to its interdisciplinary nature. The result of the study. Sociodynamics is revealed as the process of its deployment in time and space in conjunction with the social organization of social organization, as well as with social changes and upheavals affecting the progressive course of its development. The contradictory nature of globalization has been proved, its brilliance and poverty are revealed with specific examples. The whole range of problems of globalization as a multidimensional phenomenon is actualized. The reasons that prevented the implementation of the concept of Western ideologists about building a unipolar world and the creation of a single governing body under the auspices of the United States are revealed. Sociodynamics of the global world, in the context of the goal set, is reflected through the prism of the financial and economic dimension; through the formation of frontiers, fraught with the charge of aggravation, instability, risks, dynamic chaos. Conclusions. The mechanisms of regulation of the emerging chaos in social relations - threats, sanctions, crisis fluctuations, the use of “soft power”, conflicts, etc. are substantiated. Such dimensions of sociodynamics as environmental and demographic are described, the negativity of their development at the present stage is revealed. (shrink)

In the last two decades, commercial crop production has boomed to meet global food and biofuel demands as well as produce industrial commodities, while also being promoted as an effective approach for poverty alleviation in the Global South. Despite possible new economic opportunities, scholars are concerned that crop booms could exacerbate vulnerability in farmer livelihoods. However, it is little known how local resilience can be built in the context of crop booms. Through mixed methods of combination of quantitative and (...) qualitative approaches, this research conducted a multidimensional assessment of livelihood resilience by focusing on absorptive, adaptive and anticipatory capacities of local people in Southwest China. Unlike existing literature, this research found that farmers who adopted a hybrid livelihood strategy that was partially involved in crop booms under agriculture modernization while simultaneously maintaining some degree of traditional agricultural practices had a higher level of livelihood resilience. In contrast, those who were fully involved and put all of their capital into cash crop planting as well as those who did not participate in cash crop production and completely avoided crop booms both showed a relatively low level of livelihood resilience. The paper argues that crop booms might provide more possibilities for farmers to diversify their agricultural systems and livelihood strategies to strengthen livelihood resilience when they have better access to land and markets. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:All You That Labor: Religion and Ethics in the Living Wage Movement by C. Melissa SnarrSarah A. NeeleyAll You That Labor: Religion and Ethics in the Living Wage Movement C. Melissa Snarr New York: New York University Press, 2011. 205pp. $49.00Melissa Snarr’s All You That Labor offers an ethical and sociological analysis of the role of religious and feminist organizations in the living wage movement, both of which (...) have been previously overlooked. Snarr not only brings religion [End Page 194] into the conversation but also effectively demonstrates that religious activism has played a significant role in the US living wage movement since its conception in Baltimore. Although Snarr is an activist in the movement, her academic rigor comes through as her research weaves the stories and experiences of other activists with the rich religious traditions of Walter Rauschenbusch, John Ryan, and Martin Luther King Jr. She argues that religious leaders are well equipped to provide leadership and change the conversation on the topic since they are versed in ethical arguments and challenging ideologies. Religious activists, as Snarr aptly shows, have brought attention to the issues of race and gender oppression in wage discrimination, which is significant since Snarr provides statistical evidence that persons of color and women are significantly underpaid in the United States.One of the many strengths of the book is Snarr’s unique perspective on the topic. She provides arguments that are both sociological and ethical. The work beautifully combines the two disciplines to offer a well-balanced history of the movement, analysis of key issues, and critique of society. Furthermore, the feminist work is written by an insider, one of the activists in the movement, without neglecting research or critique. At no point does Snarr oversimplify the issues related to the movement. She offers a complex view of multiple poverties and does not allow the living wage movement to be reduced to economic discourse. Spiritual, emotional, physical, and political poverties receive equal attention alongside monetary poverty with the statement that “most people in poverty experience the intersection of multiple poverties simultaneously” (23). The argument and ethical imperative is clear: systems of oppression are widespread and attempt to destroy on multiple fronts, and religious activism is well suited to provide the multidimensional, holistic response needed to adequately confront economic oppression of groups with a long history at the margins.Perhaps one of the greatest contributions of Snarr’s book is that it is a work in feminist ethics that pays equal attention to women and people of color. An entire chapter on wage discrimination is expected from a white feminist; however, there is an equally detailed chapter on racial discrimination before the chapter on gender justice. The chapter on race argues that the movement itself provides an example for racial justice because it is one of the most racially diverse social action movements. The chapter on gender provides complexity to the systems of sexism as Snarr argues that the movement furthers gender oppression through unpaid or underpaid activist positions filled by women. What is not clear is how the issues of sexism and racism are related in the larger system of economic oppression.Snarr provides example after example of approaches and actions that were effective, although some only to a small extent, and the book concludes with an invitation for the reader to join the movement with a vision for future [End Page 195] justice. Snarr’s book is a timely academic account of the living wage problem and an ethical call for action when the economic future, especially for the United States poor, remains uncertain and worker justice is beginning to receive attention.Sarah A. NeeleyIliff School of Theology/University of DenverCopyright © 2013 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

Individual actions designed to address issues of public concern is a common theme in the discourse on how to mobilize resources and target efforts toward sustainable practices. We contribute to this area by developing and empirically validating a multidimensional scale for civic engagement; synthesizing and testing the adequacy of the theory of planned behavior and the value–belief–norm theory in explaining civic engagement; and considering how an individual’s orientation, identity, and beliefs motivate moral thinking and action. The focus is on (...) the important social issues of global warming and climate change, income inequality, and world poverty, and hunger. We follow both correlational and configurational approaches to examine symmetric and asymmetric causal relationships, respectively. The findings from a sample of 819 US citizens reveal that the TPB and VBN theory can adequately explain civic engagement, after we control for the influence of past experience. In addition, while belief in a just world inhibits the occurrence of adverse consequences and the formation of positive attitudes, social value orientation, and moral identity facilitate them. Notably, at least two causal conditions need to be present for adverse confsequences to emerge, while moral identity is almost a necessary condition for the development of positive attitudes. We conclude with a discussion of important implications for researchers and practitioners. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The 2004 Meeting of the Society for Buddhist-Christian StudiesFrances S. AdeneyThe 2004 meeting of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies was held in San Antonio, Texas, 19–20 November 2004. This year's theme was "Dealing with Illness and Promoting Healing: Buddhist and Christian Resources." During the first session panelists Laura Habgood Arsta, Jay McDaniel, and Beth Blizman presented Christian views on dealing with illness, and Rita Gross responded from a Buddhist (...) perspective. The second session focused Buddhist resources for promoting healing by panelists Francis Tsio and Grace Buford, with Laurel Curran presenting a Christian response.Laura Habgood Arsta presented research done by undergraduate students in border communities between the United States and Mexico. The topic was the connection between the Pentecostal movement and environmental health. Pentecostal Christianity (250–400 million members worldwide) emphasizes the signs that accompany the presence of Christ, evidenced by experiences of spirit baptism and faith healing.Their sample indicated that poor and minority people don't identify with the environmental movement until personal health problems emerge. One possible reason for Pentecostal religion thriving, according to this research, might be that exposure to toxins and poverty draws people to healing, a theological pillar of Pentecostalism. Religious services provide an emotional outlet and inspire self-confidence, which can become a mental health component of a healing solution. Women are free to share and lead services, finding leadership opportunities and a social group in churches. As an inexpensive alternative to medical care, healing in the Pentecostal church provides a sense of physical healing as well as help in overcoming addictions.Beth Blizman informed the group of the toxicity of the Lake Erie area of northern Ohio. Cancer is becoming normalized in this region, which has the highest level of multiple cancers in the United States. Beth feels called to heal her own body and become part of the healing process of that region. She argued that an attitude that disrespects the earth leads to disrespect of one another. "How can healing be found?" she asked. She discussed many resources from ancient monastics to modern women religious, from process and feminist thought to new cosmologies. Finally she connected [End Page 149] Audre Lourde's work on the rejection of difference to the bioregional studies that she has been doing on toxicity and illness.Jay McDaniels followed by giving a Christian perspective on Alzheimer's disease as an ecumenical Christian influenced by Buddhism. He addressed three questions that Christians ask in this situation. The first question is "Where is God now? Is God inside my loved one? How?" In response to this question, Jay outlined an evangelical view of God that understands God as a transcendent being, "way up there, watching from a distance." He contrasted this view with a process view of God as an "umbrella of compassion that envelops the world without smothering it." In this view, God is the great companion, sharing the confusion and anxiety of the ill person.So where is the person as they experience personality changes caused by the disease? Jay addressed this second question through process theology, stating that in process theology the person is defined in Buddhist terms, inheriting from the past and contributing to the future. A person is constantly in flux or transformation, so the person with illness may be a different person than they once were but can be embraced as the person that they are now. The multidimensional universe of process theology allows for a person to live "with one foot on earth and one foot in heaven."Help for dealing with Alzheimer's disease, Jay's third question, can be found in the Benedictine vow of obedience, stability, and ongoing conversion. The deepest need for those with Alzheimer's is to be with them, being available to others to listen. Stability is the vow to stay with the relationship through these changes. Ongoing conversion can come through Alzheimer's as those with this disease invite us into a space of creative imagination and a new kind of respect.Rita Gross responded to the three presentations by arguing that how one perceives a situation changes it tremendously. Two Buddhist principles that apply here are... (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to determine how the economic crisis, and the ad hoc attempts made by the authorities to counteract it, affected the Polish society and, above all, to prepare a multidimensional analysis of how the crisis impacted systemic changes in the Polish social policy. The author will examine both positive changes that followed the relevant global trends and also negative changes that resulted from the developmental lag, the country’s economic situation and especially the generally low (...) involvement of the state via public funding in activities that were part of the state’s social policy. Assessment of Polish social policy during the crisis must be ambiguous. On the one hand, systemic changes in social policy introduced as a result of the economic collapse can be clearly distinguished, on the other hand, however, the severity of the crisis visibly affected many activities of state and local governments in the social sphere. These activities posed unsuccessful attempts to rescue the situation in the labour market. Additionally, an effective response to deepening poverty was missing, amendments adopted to labour legislation were disadvantageous to employees, and finally fundamental sacrifices in terms of social policy were made as the lawmakers passed the Unification Act during the crisis. Polish social policy was unable, for a number of reasons, to essentially redefine its approach to addressing the numerous social issues it had to face. (shrink)

In 2012 the Spanish government implemented the Royal Decree Law 16/2012 by which undocumented migrants are denied free access to the Spanish healthcare system. In the midst of unemployment, poverty and cuts in social protection, undocumented migrant women are facing multidimensional exclusions whereby austerity measures are having different consequences for women, especially for those who bear the greater brunt of caring roles in the form of mothering. Drawing upon qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews in Madrid, (...) this article examines the structural vulnerabilities of undocumented migrant mothers and analyses the gendered processes that provoke them. At a time in which the borders of Europe are reinforced and internal political and economic tensions question this fortress, migrants become shock absorbers for national anxieties. The article argues that the Royal Decree Law, following neoliberal discourses of citizenship and social rights and saturated by patriarchal normative understandings of women’s place in society and care, turns undocumented migrant mothers into disposable and invisible reproductive bodies deprived of rights. (shrink)

Employability is an important issue in the labor context. Currently, the European Union presents employability as the path to full employment and active citizenship, and a strategy to reduce unemployment and poverty. This study develops and validates an Employability Appraisal Scale. Specifically, we propose a multidimensional employability scale that analyzes both individual indicators and personal circumstances from the Bioecological Model of Employability. The Employability Appraisal Scale (EAS) assesses personal and social dimensions of employability. It was developed and tested (...) using data from 489 people from a very heterogeneous sample (precarious workers, professionals, prisoners, long-term unemployed, socially excluded, etc.). Results provide evidence for the multi-dimensional structure and validity of the EAS. This scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure employability, and it provides criteria for interpreting scores. Finally, we present theoretical and practical implications of the EAS for social and labor integration, job transition, and career development. Our findings have positive implications for identifying effectiveness indicators in training programs, and they contribute to designing intervention policies to increase employability. (shrink)

Associations between family income and child developmental outcomes are well documented. However, family income is not static but changes over time. Although this volatility represents income shocks that are likely to affect children’s lives, very few studies have so far examined its effect on early cognitive development. This study investigated associations between family income, volatility, and changes in cognitive outcomes in early childhood and examined whether these associations are dependent on a family’s overall income position. Data for the study spanned (...) five waves of the Growing Up in Scotland longitudinal survey. Findings indicate that income volatility was more prevalent among disadvantaged sociodemographic groups. In addition to average income, short-term volatility was associated with changes in child cognitive outcomes from ages 3 to 5. While upward volatility was associated with gains in expressive vocabulary, downward and fluctuating volatility were associated with declines in child problem-solving abilities. The association between volatility and changes in cognitive outcomes was similar for both children living in poverty and those from medium–high-income households. Our results suggest that policies aiming to cushion all families from negative income shocks, boost family income to ensure stability, and take low-income families out of poverty will have a significant impact on children’s cognitive development. Additionally, a more nuanced conceptualization of income is needed to understand its multidimensional impact on developmental outcomes. (shrink)

Social attachment can explain well the bond between users and social media, but existing research lacks measures of social attachment scales. To this end, this study takes attachment theory as the basis for scale development. On the basis of the development of multidimensional scales for adult, brand, and local attachment, it combines existing relevant studies on social attachment, selects three representative social media such as TikTok, WeChat, and MicroBlog as theoretical samples, explores the concept and structure of social attachment, (...) and develops a social attachment scale through qualitative interviews and open-ended questionnaires. This study applied SPSS 24.0 and Mplus 7.0 to test the social attachment scale. The findings reveal that social attachment consists of three constructs: social connection, social dependence and social identity, and the scale possesses high reliability and validity. This study has developed and validated a social attachment scale in the context of social software use, realizing a quantitative study of social attachment and providing a basis for future empirical research related to social attachment. (shrink)

Incivility in the academic arena elicits a wide range of reactions: it interferes with learning, increases stress, feelings of disrespect and helplessness. Although reactions to incivility were mainly tested in workplaces, an extensive, robust framework to explain and measure responses to faculty incivility is yet to be offered. This study used Facet theory approach with a multidimensional scaling method of smallest space analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the theoretical structure of reactions to FI. A mapping sentence was (...) constructed expressing the composite of three individual facets based on the theoretical framework: Facet A including four types of reactions Exit Voice Loyalty and Neglect ; Facet B reflecting the destructiveness – constructiveness dimension, and Facet C illustrating a dimension ranging from passive to active responses. Data were gathered by a scale measuring students’ reactions to FI. According to the findings, the CFA result presented four relatively interpretable factors while the SSA showed these factors as well as additional facets. (shrink)

Cognitive load theory has been widely used to help understand the process of learning and to design teaching interventions. The Cognitive Load Scale developed by Leppink and colleagues has emerged as one of the most validated and widely used self-report measures of intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load. In this paper we investigated an expansion of the CLS by using a multidimensional conceptualization of the EL construct that is relevant for physical and online teaching environments. The Multidimensional (...) Cognitive Load Scale for Physical and Online Lectures goes beyond the CLS's operationalization of EL by expanding the EL component which originally included factors related to instructions/explanations with sub-dimensions including EL stemming from noises, and EL stemming from both media and devices within the environment. Through three studies, we investigated the reliability, and internal and external validity of the MCLS-POL using the Partial Credit Model, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and differences between students either attending a lecture physically or online. The results of Study 1 provide initial evidence for the validity and reliability of the MCLS-POL within a higher education sample, but also highlighted several potential improvements which could be made to the measure. These changes were made before re-evaluating the validity and reliability of the measure in a new sample of higher education psychology students, and psychological testing students. Together the studies provide evidence for a multidimensional conceptualization cognitive load and provide evidence of the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of the MCLS-POL and provide suggestions for future research directions. (shrink)

In the mid-1990s, fairtrade-organic registration data showed that only 9 % of Oaxaca, Mexico’s organic coffee ‘farm operators’ were women; by 2013 the female farmer rate had increased to 42 %. Our research investigates the impact of this significant increase in women’s coffee association participation among 210 members of two coffee producer associations in Oaxaca, Mexico. We find that female coffee organization members report high levels of household decision-making power and they are more likely than their male counterparts to report (...) control over their coffee income. These significant advances in women’s agency within the household are offset by the fact that the women experience significant time poverty as they engage in coffee production while bearing a disproportionate share of domestic labor obligations. The women coffee producers view organizational labor as a third burden on their time, after their reproductive and productive labor. The time poverty they experience limits their ability to fully participate in coffee organizational governance and consequently there are few women leaders at all levels of the coffee producer businesses. This is problematic because it limits women’s ability to fully benefit from organizational membership: when women fully participate in governance they gain valuable business and leadership skills and producer associations with active female members may also be more likely to develop and maintain programs and policies that enhance gender equity. Our findings indicate that targeted agricultural development programs to improve gender equity among agricultural smallholders should involve creative ways to ease women’s labor burdens and reduce their time poverty in order to facilitate full organizational participation. The research findings fill a gap in existing studies of agricultural global value chains (GVCs) by demonstrating how the certified coffee GVC depends on women’s under and un-paid labor not only within the household but also within producer organizations. (shrink)

This special issue offers a multidimensional perspective on the recent inquiries into knowledge representation. Multidimensionality exposes the complexity of knowledge representation and helps distinguish between different approaches and research tools. On the one hand, the presented research focuses on the theoretical and empirical aspects of knowledge representation (taking into account cognitive processes and capacities, including linguistic skills needed to generate and express knowledge); on the other, the articles included in the issue discuss the practical discourse, analyzing actions from the (...) point of view of cognitively oriented semantics and the scientific practice broadly understood. The issue consists of five papers that show how certain ideas in the research area of knowledge representation inspired the authors to look for new approaches to modelling concepts and practical reasoning, constructing theory of signs using the tools of data science, and dealing with cognitive artifacts in scientific practice and its dynamics. What these approaches have in common is their attempt at capturing the multidimensionality of knowledge representation in such a way that integrates them. Our goal is to emphasize some innovative aspects of those approaches with respect to the dynamics of knowledge representation in both the cognitive system and scientific practice. (shrink)

Species concepts aim to define the species category. Many of these rely on defining species in terms of natural lineages and groupings. A dominant gene-centred metaconception has shaped notions of what constitutes both a natural lineage and a natural grouping. I suggest that relying on this metaconception provides an incomplete understanding of what constitute natural lineages and groupings. If we take seriously the role of epigenetic, behavioural, cultural, and ecological inheritance systems, rather than exclusively genetic inheritance, a broader notion of (...) what constitutes a natural grouping or lineage may be required. I conclude by outlining an alternative metaconception that is a de-centred metaschema for species. (shrink)

This paper proposes a personalized music recommendation method based on multidimensional time-series analysis, which can improve the effect of music recommendation by using user’s midterm behavior reasonably. This method uses the theme model to express each song as the probability of belonging to several hidden themes, then models the user’s behavior as multidimensional time series, and analyzes the series so as to better predict the use of music users’ behavior preference and give reasonable recommendations. Then, a music recommendation (...) method is proposed, which integrates the long-term, medium-term, and real-time behaviors of users and considers the dynamic adjustment of the influence weight of the three behaviors so as to further improve the effect of music recommendation by adopting the advanced long short time memory technology. Through the implementation of the prototype system, the feasibility of the proposed method is preliminarily verified. (shrink)

We explore success drivers of reward-based crowdfunding for poverty alleviation in China. The results from our econometric modeling using data from 4375 reward-based crowdfunding campaigns suggest that poverty alleviation campaigns, as compared to ordinary ones, benefit from higher funded amounts, larger backer numbers, and greater success rates. The results also suggest that poverty alleviation campaigns perform better when the products sold originate from poorer (as compared to wealthier) regions and when price premiums are lower (as compared to (...) higher). We corroborate important findings from the field study with an experimental study, showing that the consumer’s feeling of warm glow accounts for the positive effects of poverty alleviation campaigns (as compared to ordinary) campaigns. We expand the applications of warm-glow theory into the context of reward-based crowdfunding campaigns for poverty alleviation and offer new insights into success drivers of such campaigns. (shrink)

Metaphilosophy, Volume 53, Issue 1, Page 38-44, January 2022.

This article demonstrates a practical theological approach to the challenge of poverty in post-1994 South Africa by using Apostolic Faith Mission as a case study. It argues that while the Reconstruction Development Plan, the Growth Employment and Reconstruction strategy, Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, New Growth Path and the National Development Plan have achieved some level of economic growth, the majority of people in South Africa still live in poverty. To establish this argument, the article starts (...) first by describing the challenge of poverty in post-1994 South Africa. The different economic approaches to the challenge of poverty in post-1994 South Africa are also explained in detail. Lastly, the article elaborates on the ways in which the AFM through its local assemblies can alleviate poverty. The article concludes that the AFM is a collaborator to the post-1994 South African government. (shrink)

This work examines the dynamics through which women are marginalized and impoverished, and offers a constructive proposal for addressing women's socio-economic vulnerability. Part One surveys the economic status of women globally and discerns both common threads of subordination and significant differences among women. Part Two reviews the social-justice positions of the Roman Catholic church and the World Council of Churches in light of this survey. Part Three identifies theoretical resources that adequately address women's socio-economic vulterability. Brubaker advances her own theoretical (...) approach, which illuminates and engages women's impoverishment. She concludes with a discussion of how placing women's economic condition at the center of Christian economic ethics would affect social analysis, economic policy, and social vision. (shrink)