With the transnational turn in the social sciences attention has now turnedto 'global civil society', 'transnational civil society', 'transnational networks' and, most recently, 'migrant' or 'diasporic civil society'. Claims

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The effect that the 2008/09 recession has had on unemployment and, in particular, on the distribution of job losses across households is of key concern to policymakers. During the 1991 recession rising male unemployment was associated with a sharp increase in the number of workless households, with this polarisation of work between 'work-rich' and 'work-poor' persisting many years later. Part of the reason for this polarisation was that the design of the tax and benefit system produced weak work incentives for women partnered to unemployed men, particularly if the jobs open to them were either part time or low paid. Since 1999, the United Kingdom has undertaken reform of employment and transfer programmes, with a particular focus on boosting incomes and work incentives for families with children. The resulting literature focussed on the impact that these reforms had on women's movements into employment. Since the economy entered recession in 2008, an increasingly important question is how have these reforms affected women's decisions to remain in employment (or enter into work) if their partner becomes unemployed. This paper uses Labour Force Survey data to assess the effect of male job loss on their partners' employment and to examine the implications for the distribution of jobs across households. Results suggest that working women whose partners lost their jobs in the 2008/09 recession were more likely to remain in work than before and this has helped to mediate the growth in workless couple households. IntroductionEconomic recession tests the efficacy of social policy with rising unemployment in particular threatening to increase both the incidence and depth of poverty and leaving long-term scarring effects. In the UK, the policy regime that was in place in 2008/09 differed greatly from that of 1991 and the consequent effects of recession on employment and poverty are likely to differ too. This paper considers the effect that the recent recession in the UK has had on women who are married or cohabiting with men, a group termed here as 'partnered women'.

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The present paper analyzes the incidence and progressivity of Vietnamese state income transfers using survey data from the Vietnamese Household Living Standards Survey 2004. Data quality and sample selection issues are highlighted, especially in the coverage of rural-urban migrants. Simple income-based profiles of incidence are matched to several influences that confound and complicate the measurement of progressivity. The issue of the informal economy is highlighted through analysis of both the extent of private inter-household transfers and remittances and their relationship with state transfers, and in the informal charges that accompany uptake of state services and other petty corruption. Second, the issue of user-charges for health and education services is considered, as a considerable portion of state transfers are related to the take up of schooling and health care. Third, the issue of behavioral effects is also considered, concentrating on private interhousehold transfers. The paper concludes by drawing together the evidence and the obstacles to measurement and progressivity to argue a range of data collection, methodological and policy recommendations.