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| Vol. 24, No. 9 | November 13, 1998 |
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| Vol. 24, No. 9 | November 13, 1998 |
By Kim Brockway
The globalization of the economy and the United States' desire to maintain its competitive edge and its low unemployment rate have led some policy analysts to fear an inevitable decrease in public investment in children.
In a lecture entitled "Does Global Restructuring and Retrenchment Doom the Children's Cause?" Professor Sheila B. Kamerman will address child and family social policy in both the United States and Europe. The University Lecture will be held on Monday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. in Low Rotunda.
Kamerman is the Compton Foundation Centennial Professor for the Prevention of Child and Youth Problems at the School of Social Work.
The U.S. economy maintains its edge by constraining labor costs and cutting public social welfare expenditures, but Kamerman points out that European countries are already experiencing the negative consequences of high labor costs, tax burdens and unemployment rates, as well as the changes in family structure, composition and gender roles underway in the United States.
While many countries are now discussing or initiating retrenchment and restructuring of social policies, child and family benefits are apparently being differentiated from other social policies.
Kamerman's lecture will examine what, in fact, is happening to child and family policies in these countries: specifically, if child and family benefits are protected, what arguments are being raised to protect and promote child well-being; who is raising the arguments and how successful they are and whether any of this is relevant to the United States?
Kamerman's teaching areas are social policy, child and family policy, social services and international social welfare. She is co-director of the Cross-National Studies Research Program at the School of Social Work and has authored, co-authored or co-edited more than 30 books and monographs and almost 200 articles and chapters.