Since 1935, Social Security has provided a vital safety net for millions of Americans who cannot work because of age or disability. This safety net has been especially critical for Americans of Latino decent, who number more than 50 million or nearly one out of every six Americans. Social Security is critical to Latinos because it is much more…

Background: Supported decision-making and personal budgets for services are the new paradigms. Method: Supported decision-making proposals from the Australian State of Victoria are analysed against international trends to determine the viability of laws reflecting new international norms of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons…

The National Career Development Strategy Green Paper is a discussion paper issued by the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations. It is aimed at the formulation of a coherent and structured career development strategy throughout Australia. The Green Paper seeks to lay the foundation for policy change through establishing the…

Slow economic growth since the end of the U.S. recession in June of 2009 has not yet translated into increases in employment large enough to meaningfully reduce the rate of unemployment. Because expansionary macroeconomic policy has been pursued on both the fiscal and monetary fronts, it appears at first glance that the hands of government at this…

This paper begins with an analysis of global problems shaping education, particularly as they impact upon learning and life chances. In addressing these problems a range of philosophical positions and controversies are considered, including: traditional romantic and institutional views of schooling; and more recent maximalist, neo-liberal,…

Government spending is declining, yet the need for jobs and training is higher than ever. The current supply of quality apprenticeships is clearly not sufficient to meet demand and that was highlighted this year when British Telecom received 24,000 applications for only 221 places on its apprenticeship programme. The main obstacle to increasing…

Since U.S. economic growth began to slow in 2006, both the Bush and Obama Administrations have enacted a number of fairly costly programs designed to stimulate the economy and employment growth. Because many of these programs are fairly new, there has been little comprehensive examination of their impacts, but initial analysis suggests that these…

The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program is growing at an unsustainable pace. Over the past 40 years the number of disabled worker beneficiaries has increased nearly sixfold, rising from 1.5 million in 1970 to 8.2 million in 2010. Rapid growth in the rolls has put increasing pressure on program finances. The rapid rise in SSDI…

This article reports on a study which aimed to explore the extent to which drug policy making in Ireland might be deemed to be a rational, evidence-based process. The research was completed during the first half of 2008, as the National Drug Strategy 2001-2008--which explicitly claimed to have research as one of its main "pillars"--was…

Psychology can make a significant contribution to limiting the magnitude of climate change by improving understanding of human behaviors that drive climate change and human reactions to climate-related technologies and policies, and by turning that understanding into effective interventions. This article develops a framework for psychological…

Big changes are ahead for China, probably abrupt ones. The economy has grown so rapidly for many years, over 30 years at an average of nine percent a year, that its size makes it a major player in trade and finance and increasingly in political and military matters. This growth is not only of great importance internationally, it is already having…

The purpose of this article is to present a specific approach to the practice of action research "in complex organisations". Clearly, there are many approaches to the challenge of doing action research in organisations; approaches that are, and also must be, quite context dependent and specific. But my purpose is neither to give an…

Strategies aiming to foster social cohesion seek to enhance predictability and trust among heterogeneous actors. Although undoubtedly nation-states remain the dominant context for examining social cohesion, in Europe and in South America, nation-states have formed regional organizations to support political stability and economic cooperation in a…

When some people think of post-18 education, they only perceive real merit in the traditional university route. The central role that further education (FE) plays in the economy and society is often overlooked and undervalued. In truth, FE for adults, whether in a college, at work, or an informal evening class, not only has the power to improve…

Everyone is talking about civil society. Perhaps it's the election, and the shock of seeing more voters at the polling booths than anyone had expected. Now David Cameron's idea of a "big society" is being translated into some early policy measures. Does today's debate have anything to do with adult learning? The author believes that the…