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Purpose: In this chapter, we examine the National Health Service (NHS) and Adult Social Care (ASC) in England, focussing on policies that have been introduced since 2000 and considering the challenges that providers face in their quest to provide a high standard and affordable health service in the near future.

Methodology/Approach: We discuss recent policy developments and published analysis covering innovations within major aspects of health care (primary, secondary and tertiary) and ASC, before considering future challenges faced by providers in England, highlighted by a 2017 UK Parliament Select Committee.

Findings: The NHS and ASC system have experienced tightening budgets and serious financial pressure, with historically low real-terms growth in health funding from central government and local authorities. Policymakers have tried to overcome these challenges with several policy innovations, but many still remain. With large-scale investment and reform, there is potential for the health and social care system to evolve into a modern service capable of dealing with the needs of an ageing population. However, if these challenges are not met, then it is set to continue struggling with a lack of appropriate facilities, an overstretched staff and a system not entirely appropriate for its patients.

This chapter presents a summary of existent evidence regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Minority Ethnic Groups (MEGs) in the United Kingdom Compared to White British, MEGs have historically experienced lower levels of health and socioeconomic outcomes and the COVID-19 crisis seems to have widened these inequalities. In particular, evidence gathered between 2020 and early 2021 suggests that MEGs, and especially MEGs women, experienced a substantive deterioration in mental health. Furthermore, Black and South Asian groups were more likely to contract the infection and die than any other ethnic group. Access to preventative services and healthcare, plus residential and employment segregation seem to be important factors in explaining mortality rates due to COVID-19. Finally, data released by NHS on vaccinations (until August 2021) show that Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities are lagging behind the rest, with a very low proportion of these groups receiving the first dose. Getting everyone vaccinated should be a priority for the Government in order to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and avoid new outbreaks. The evidence collected and summarised in this chapter calls for further attention on, and action to mitigate, the widening gaps in health and socioeconomic attainments across ethnic groups.

The labor regulatory framework in India provides a conducive environment for social dialogue and collective participation in the organizational decision-making process (Venkata Ratnam, 2009). Using data from a survey of workplace union representatives in the federal state of Maharashtra, India, this paper examines union experiences of social dialogue and collective participation in public services, private manufacturing, and private services sector. Findings indicate that collective worker participation and voice is at best modest in the public services but weak in the private manufacturing and private services. There is evidence of growing employer hostility to unions and employer refusal to engage in a meaningful social dialogue with unions. These findings are discussed within the political economy framework of employment relations in India examining the role of the state and judiciary in employment relations and, the links between political parties and trade unions in India.

In these times of globalisation, distances are getting smaller, enhancing the interactions between people of different cultural backgrounds. This is especially true in the area of tourism, a field that is shaped by manifold communication activities. The enormous increases in the numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Europe and other Western destinations require building up intercultural competencies to minimise conflicts and promote mutual understanding. It is therefore necessary to question one’s own cultural view, which is why the debate surrounding de-Westernisation is of crucial importance. The metaphor of the atmosphere – in Chinese qifen – offers a helpful access point to strengthen mutual understanding, because it creates a bridge between eastern and western thinking. Paul Watzlawick (1967) developed his well-known five axioms of communication, the second of which states that every communication has both content and a relational aspect, and the latter classifies the former. This chapter shows why the atmospheric dimension of communication should be established as the third axiom in order to understand communication holistically.

Searching public school students has been a Constitutional reality since the landmark decision New Jersey v. T.L.O. in 1985. The law in this area of students’ rights has expanded greatly, including everything from locker searches involving canines to random drug testing of students involved in sports and extracurricular activities to highly intrusive personal searches. As recent as April 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the strip search of a middle school student for ibuprofen was illegal, but because school authorities would not necessarily have known they were violating the student's Constitutional rights, the school was immune from paying money damages. Thousands of searches of all kinds are conducted every day in schools across the country. Many of those searches are legal but not all. Whether legal or not, are those searches ethical? Is an illegal search of a student per se unethical because it violates the Ethic of Care? If a search is legal can it nevertheless conform to any standard of Ethic? Does searching a student violate the Ethic of Care or the Ethic of Critique?

In macroeconomics, the term recession is defined as a significant decadence in ordinary economic activity in a designated region. There are so many economic theories attempted to explain why and how the economy might fall off of its long-term growth trend and in to a period of short-term recession. Economists say there have been 33 recession in the United States since 1854 through 2018 in total. Since 1980, there have been four such periods of negative economic growth that were considered recession in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Production and flows of goods are directly influenced by the tariff; uses input–output analysis to estimate indirect effects on gross domestic product, exports and employment; and allows redirection of trade toward other producers. The ongoing trade war with similar trade conflicts in history, we reveal three major causes, with varying degrees of importance from both economic and political perspectives.