Field experiments which test the application of behavioural insights to policy design have become popular to inform policy decisions. This study is the first to empirically examine who and what drives these experiments with public partners. Through a mixed-methods approach, based on a novel dataset of insights from academic researchers, behavioural insight team members and public servants, I derive three main results: First, public bodies have a considerable influence on study set-up and sample design. Second, high scientific standards are regularly not met in cooperative field experiments, mainly due to risk aversion in the public body. Third, transparency and quality control in collaborative research are low with respect to pre-analysis plans, the publication of results and medium or long-term effects. To remedy the current weaknesses, the study sketches out several promising ways forward, such as setting up a matchmaking platform for researchers and public bodies to facilitate cooperation, and using time-embargoed pre-analysis plans.

Although reduced working time and furlough policy initiatives are widely regarded as important for economic and business reasons, little is known about their impacts on workers’ mental health at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Panel Study data from 2018 to February 2020 and April 2020 and change score analysis, this study aims to compare mental health changes between those who worked reduced hours, were furloughed and left/lost paid work. The results suggest that at the onset of COVID-19 reduced working time and furlough can protect workers’ mental health, but only for men not for women. The gender differences remain significant even after controlling for housework and childcare responsibilities at the onset of COVID-19. These results highlight the importance of distributing paid work more equitably and formulating gender-sensitive labour market policies in protection of workers’ mental health.

Paternalistic nudging and framing aim to correct flaws in deliberation by relying on the same cognitive mechanisms that create those flaws. Regarding some choices as flawed and in need of correction requires some standard of correctness. In their well-known book, Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein take the individual's own “purified” preferences to be that standard, which is inconsistent with the finding of behavioral economics that individuals do not have a stable preference ranking of alternatives, but instead construct their preferences when faced with a choice. This essay defends an alternative, readily usable standard to judge whether individuals are choosing badly and whether nudges can help them to choose better.

Ireland’s policy approach to personal insolvency went through sudden changes in 2012 after a lengthy period of stability. This article presents the findings of a study examining one of the remedies introduced with the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 (as amended), the Debt Relief Notice (DRN). The study examined the DRN’s effectiveness in addressing the financial well-being of over-indebted individuals. The results revealed a reduction in participants’ financial distress after obtaining a DRN, which in turn enabled increased control over day-to-day finances. Improved health, increased resourcefulness, and lifestyle improvements were also identified when the participants’ financial distress was reduced. However, participants were incapable of attaining long-term financial resilience, and, therefore, were unable to achieve high financial well-being. A negative impact on social mobility was also identified as an outcome. The short-term impact identified is similar to findings of earlier research (Stamp, 2012) examining Ireland’s previous policy approach to personal insolvency.

Across many countries, increases in inequality driven by rising top incomes and wealth have not been accompanied by growing popular concern. In fact, citizens in unequal societies are less concerned than those in more egalitarian societies. Understanding how the general public perceive richness is an essential step towards resolving this paradox. We discuss findings from focus group research in London, UK, a profoundly and visibly unequal city, which sought to explore public perceptions of richness and the rich. Participants from diverse socio-economic backgrounds discussed their views of the ‘wealthy’ and the ‘super rich’ with reference to both vast economic resources and more intangible aspects, including, crucially, security. High levels of wealth and income were perceived to be necessary for achieving security for oneself and one’s family. The security of the rich was discussed in contrast to participants’ own and others’ insecurity in the context of a (neo)liberal welfare regime – specifically, insecurity about housing, personal finances, social security, health care and the future of the welfare state. In unequal countries, where insecurity is widespread, lack of confidence in collective welfare state provision may serve in the public imagination to legitimate private wealth accumulation and richness as a form of self-protection.

Studies on the development of social policies have provided us with a rich body of knowledge. However, being based mostly on class, gender or racial analysis, this body of work has seldom used disability as an analytical framework. This article proposes a systematic research agenda for addressing this lacuna. Drawing on the political and institutional approaches, this article illustrates how mainstream theories on social policy development cannot be assumed applicable to disability policies ‘as is’. To apply them effectively, we argue, students of social policy need to rework them in light of the insights of disability studies. Such conceptual work would involve closer attention to the uniqueness of disability as a socio-political category. Integrating these social policy theories with disability studies will allow us to better identify the unique political and institutional factors behind the trajectories of disability related policy. We conclude this discussion with suggestions for future research.

Examining what we call “crimmigrating narratives,” we show that US immigration court criminalizes non-citizens, cements forms of social control, and dispenses punishment in a non-punitive legal setting. Building on theories of crimmigration and a sociology of narrative, we code, categorize, and describe third-party observations of detained immigration court hearings conducted in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, from July 2018 to June 2019. We identify and investigate structural factors of three key crimmigrating narratives in the courtroom: one based on threats (stories of the non-citizen’s criminal history and perceived danger to society), a second involving deservingness (stories of the non-citizen’s social ties, hardship, and belonging in the United States), and a third pertaining to their status as “impossible subjects” (stories rendering non-citizens “illegal,” categorically excludable, and contradictory to the law). Findings demonstrate that the courts’ prioritization of these three narratives disconnects detainees from their own socially organized experience and prevents them from fully engaging in the immigration court process. In closing, we discuss the potential implications of crimmigrating narratives for the US immigration legal system and non-citizen status.

This study aimed to assess the nature and magnitude of perceptions of wife-beating among women and men in Nepal and experiences of domestic violence (DV) and help-seeking among DV victims. The Nepal Demographic Health Surveys (NDHS) (2001, 2006, 2011, 2016) included questions on whether women and men justify wife-beating and whether DV victims sought help (NDHS 2011 and 2016). Covariates in regression models were guided by the socioecological model. We estimated odds ratios for dichotomous outcomes. Compiled data from Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys was used to understand trends. About 29.1% women justified wife-beating in 2001, 24.2% in 2006, and 29.1% in 2016. About 32.4% of women experienced any DV in 2011 and 28.0% in 2016. In 2011 about 21.8% of those abused sought help and in 2016 about 25.8% sought help. Women who justified wife-beating were more likely to experience DV in 2011 (OR 5.8, p < 0.001) and in 2016 (OR 1.5, p < 0.001) and less likely to seek help in 2011 (OR 0.3, p < 0.001) and in 2016 (OR 0.8, p < 0.001). Perceptions of wife-beating play an important role in actual experiences of DV and help-seeking behavior of DV victims. Societal and individual beliefs are intertwined, and cultural norms have a great bearing on these beliefs. Both individual and wider societal-level acceptance of violence needs to be addressed simultaneously.

There is a growing evidence base that identifying positive experiences in providing care can have a beneficial influence on carer wellbeing. However, there is a need to better understand what carers identify as the positive aspects of care-giving. The aim of this study is to explore the satisfying aspects of providing care to people with dementia. This study utilised Time 1 data from 1,277 carers of people in the mild-to-moderate stages of dementia taking part in the IDEAL (Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life) cohort study. Responses from 900 carers who answered the open-ended question ‘What is your greatest satisfaction in caring for your relative/friend?’ were analysed using thematic analysis. From the responses, 839 carers detailed satisfactions. Eight themes were identified, pertaining to three groups of beneficiaries: carers, people with dementia and the dyad. Perceived benefits for carers included identifying aspects of personal growth, seeing glimpses of the person, feeling they were making a difference and doing their duty. For the person with dementia, these included retaining independence, receiving good quality care and being happy. Dyadic benefits concerned the continuation of the relationship between carer and person with dementia. The findings highlight the need to take a dyadic approach when conceptualising positive experiences in providing care. Further research is needed to understand the role these positive experiences play and to develop interventions. Professionals working with carers should identify and validate these experiences.

Most seniors in Canada live at home and consistently indicate that they prefer to stay there for as long as possible. Consequently, this desire places increasing pressure on supports such as informal caregivers and community services. The current rapid review set out to examine the psychosocial aspects of aging and dying in place that point to gaps in programs and services to support this preference. We searched PubMed, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar for peer-reviewed entries, and identified 42 articles for analysis, which we charted on a form we created and tested. Lack of attention to the whole person, lack of preparation for the journey ahead, and difficulties establishing collaborative and trusting relationships were, broadly, the challenges identified. A blend of initiatives in the community combined with an integrated palliative approach to care may mitigate some of the challenges that limit options for aging and dying in place.

The UK's relationship with the European Union (EU) is now embodied in two principal legal instruments: the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which formally entered into force on 1 May 2021; and the Withdrawal Agreement, with its Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, which continues to apply. Using a ‘building blocks’ framework for analysis of national health systems derived from the World Health Organisation, this article examines the likely impacts in the UK of this legal settlement on the National Health Service (NHS), health and social care. Specifically, we determine the extent to which the trade, cooperation and regulatory aspects of those legal measures support positive impacts for the NHS and social care. We show that, as there is clear support for positive health and care outcomes in only one of the 17 NHS ‘building blocks’, unless mitigating action is taken, the likely outcomes will be detrimental. However, as the legal settlement gives the UK a great deal of regulatory freedom, especially in Great Britain, we argue that it is crucial to track the effects of proposed new health and social care-related policy choices in the months and years ahead.

During at least part of the post–World War II period, the constitutions of thirty-six states called for the popular election of the judges of the states’ highest courts. In practice, only slightly more than half of those judges (excluding strictly interim appointees) initially obtained their positions by election. This article examines the likelihood of initial election in actual practice, how it has varied over time, and various factors that might be related to election versus appointment (e.g., type of election, mandatory retirement). It concludes that state norms play a substantial role in determining patterns of actual selection.

The size and especially the growth of the Latino population in the United States are associated with anti-Latino and anti-immigrant attitudes. Findings from a recent line of experimental work suggest that Latino growth may also be associated with Whites’ anti-Black attitudes. Racial status threat could account for this association if Whites view Latino growth as a potential challenge to their status within a multi-group system that includes Blacks. Alternatively, or in addition, by engendering instability and uncertainty, Latino growth may promote ideological conservatism, which itself predicts racial attitudes. Building on prior work, this study examines the association between real, local Latino population growth––as opposed to manipulated or perceived growth––and Whites’ anti-Black resentment for a nationally representative sample of White Americans. Using data from the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey, the study finds that Whites in counties where the Latino population grew more report stronger anti-Black resentment. They are also more likely to perceive a threat to Whites’ racial status and to endorse ideological conservatism. Perceived threat and conservatism each partially account for the association between Latino growth and anti-Black resentment, suggesting the effect of Latino growth on anti-Black resentment is mediated through both channels.

This study examines whether memory intervention programs can mitigate health care costs. Research suggests these programs translate to a decreased intention of older adults who are worried about age-normal memory changes to seek traditional outlets for medical/psychiatric help. We employed a cost-benefit analysis approach to analyze the effectiveness of a memory intervention program within Ontario. We leveraged estimates of decreased intentionality to seek physician care following a community-based memory intervention with physician billing profiles to calculate the potential cost savings to the province’s health care system. The intervention studied was found to reduce provincial health care spending by $6,094 per program group. This amount exceeds $121.25 in direct costs per attendee associated with administering five program sessions. This analysis justifies further research on how community-based memory and aging programs can offer low-cost solutions to help individuals cope with subjective memory complaints and assist the health care system in prioritizing care for aging patients.

Prisoners in Canadian federal penitentiaries can obtain medical assistance in dying (MAiD). This raises questions about the nature and legitimacy of pain and death in incarceration. The authors analyze responses to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation online news article discussing the provision of MAiD to prisoners. The comments exemplify different sensibilities about the state’s lethality with respect to prisoners. These sensibilities—both legal and penal—draw on an array of cultural referents to orient to prisoners’ deaths generally, but also MAiD specifically. The authors explore how certain referents factor in these legal and penal sensibilities and appear to mediate commenters’ judgements. For example, capital punishment factors significantly in conversations about MAiD for prisoners, as well as imaginations of prisoners’ bodies in pain. As a result, there is a spectacularization of prisoners’ carceral death, despite the humane, “civilized” death MAiD provides, which circumscribes how some commenters imagine the procedure and prisoners’ deaths.

How to promote wellbeing in old age is an issue that is drawing increasing attention as populations age in societies around the world. This study explores arts participation in later life and creative ageing through artistic engagement. We focus on potential participants who have had little prior experience with the arts, examining their journey through artistic activities, and the broader benefits to society of a creatively engaged population. We applied an action research methodology by designing two phases of arts workshops, one focused on hands-on creation activities and the other on appreciation of professional artists' works. This approach yielded the following findings. First, facilitation is key to initiating and sustaining artistic engagement among older adults, in part by helping them adapt to a changing society. Second, potential participants should be centred in discussions on creative initiatives. In particular, still active pre-seniors have much to offer in developing creative ageing initiatives. Third, arts participation for creative ageing goes far beyond the individual; it promotes community wellbeing and contributes to creating social value. Finally, we make an actionable suggestion that ‘facilitation for arts participation’ be developed as a specialised professional field.

This study aimed to evaluate the proportion of contraception users among Lebanese youth, and the extent of knowledge and perception on birth control; and to raise awareness and sensitise young adults to sexual health, which remains taboo in Lebanon. The 30-item questionnaire was broadcasted to students in private and public universities in Lebanon, through social media and it collected information on contraception use and student knowledge. Over 30% of responders were medical students, and 41% have ever used contraceptives (mostly women); among which, 52.1% for contraception versus 47.9% for medical reasons. According to responders, the pill ranked high in terms of effectiveness (72.4% of responders perceive the pill as effective), followed by the male condom (69.1%) and the hormonal intrauterine device (29.6%). Some would not use contraception in the future, for religious reasons (30.8%) or for fear of complications (46.2%); indeed, around a third of contraceptive users (all female) have experienced adverse effects. Finally, students expressed concern about long-term complications of contraceptive use (pulmonary embolism/phlebitis, breast/endometrial/ovarian cancer, stroke, depression and myocardial infarction). Though less frequent than in the Western world, contraception use in Lebanon is non-negligible and gaps in university students’ knowledge on contraception were identified; which should prompt sexual education and family planning initiatives in Lebanon.

In the article, ‘Learning Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic’, Powell (2022) rightly implies that there is a profusion of confusion in the ‘industry’ which has grown up around lesson-learning from the pandemic. His contribution sets out a helpful framework for classifying or making attempts at lesson-learning. He combines the tripartite classification of inadequate approaches to policy-learning and policy transfer developed 30 years ago by Dolowitz and Marsh (‘uninformed-incomplete-inappropriate’), which he inverts to produce a classification of approaches which are informed, complete and appropriate, with the framework of ‘outcome-mechanism-context’ from realistic evaluation. (I use the term realistic rather than realist, as the latter implies an epistemological stance as opposed to what was intended, which is that evaluation takes account of complexity in a realistic manner.) This produces a classification, and possibly an ‘ideal type’, of informed outcomes, complete mechanisms and appropriate context. Powell rightly implies that no overall conclusion is available from the literature reviewed. He does however imply that different approaches may work in different settings. This is true in one sense but misleading in another. This commentary argues that such ‘relativism’ is not only dangerous in practice but mistaken in theory.

The social category “people of color” has been born twice from the mixing of peoples in the United States. This article seeks to explain the category’s emergence and varied boundaries in the late 1700s and early 1800s, its decline in the mid-1800s, and its re-emergence and spread in a related meaning of enlarged scope since the 1970s. In both phases, “people of color” has served as a bridging identity across racial lines for those not included among whites; both times it has served primarily as a term of respect, not abuse. The category’s revival has rested on a contested people-of-color equation—the equating of other minorities with Black people—and has come in four stages: 1) the advent of a new configuration of governmentally recognized minorities in the 1960s and 1970s; 2) the adoption of “people of color” as a collective identity for those groups, initially among Black, progressive, and feminist activists; 3) the polarized diffusion of “people of color” in the media; and 4) the emergence among activists of second thoughts about the category “people of color” as insufficiently specific. The article concludes with a brief discussion of whether the traditional color line is being redrawn as a people-of-color line.

Recent sociological research tends to move beyond the divide between economics and sociology in the study of socioeconomic inequality. It focuses primarily on the relationship between social class and work-related income. Yet, it has been shown that wealth, rather than income, was the decisive feature of contemporary inequality and that wealth and income increasingly tend to be captured through the same households. To bridge the gap between the two disciplines and provide a comprehensive understanding of socioeconomic inequality, this article developed an integrated analysis of wealth and income distribution among occupational groups at different ages in five major European countries. To that end, we used the Household Financial and Consumption Survey [2014 wave] of the European Central Bank network.