The problems and needs of families in Hong Kong are becoming more complex. Traditional family structures and functions are rapidly eroding. Moreover, family problems are further exacerbated by a growing number of socio-economic issues including rising divorce rates and extra-marital affairs. continuous family reunion migration from Mainland China, emotional and financial cost of caring for the older people and the changing economy which has pushed more families into hardship. In effect, more and more families are becoming vulnerable to risk. Traditional family services in Hong Kong are varied in mode, operation and provision, often overlapping in service boundaries with other family-oriented programs. In many instances, family service centers are stretched far beyond their capacity. As a consequence, they become too reactive, remedial and casework dominated. The University of Hong Kong Consultant Team recommended that family service programs have to protect vulnerable families and strengthen family capacities to promote maximum independence. The direction of family services is summarized as: strengthening families; child-centered, family-focused and community-based. New integrative family service centers aim at attaining the principles of promoting accessibility to users with minimum physical, psychological and administrative barriers; early identification of needs and intervention before the further deterioration of problems; integration of services cutting across program boundaries, and partnership between service providers to achieve efficient and effective use of scarce resources. Under the new model, multi-skilled teams can respond more proactively to a wide range of social needs, rather than addressing needs in isolation. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the new model, the consultant team has been commissioned by the government to evaluate the performance of these two-year pilot projects. More importantly, a coherent and family-friendly social policy should be formulated to strengthen family capacity against family-related problems.

This paper addresses to the emerging issues for regional/global welfare issues, with special focus on the potentials and influences of the transnational advocacy activism for human and welfare rights. Part One of the paper outlines the emergence of transnational (cyber-)activism for global welfare. It is followed by a discussion of the incompatibility between economic globalization and regional/local deprivation, as well as the potentials for welfare promotion and empowerment. Part Four critically examines the contours and complexity of informational society. The last two parts delineate, respectively, the barriers against and prospects of global welfare activism.

The Scandinavian cluster of welfare societies has for many years been considered a realisation of Richard Titmuss' institutional redistributive model of social policy. Recent reforms have, however challenged this assumption. The paper sets out to evaluate whether recent major changes in welfare provision are merely modifying the model or whether the Scandianian states are converging towards some kind of European social model. It is concluded that besides very many first order changes, such as reducing benefits, an number of second and third order changes have occurred; i.e. the institutional setting and the objective of the welfare states have changed during the 1990s. The Scandinavian welfare states are still distinct, but less so than a decade or two ago. The new elements are features usually associated with welfare models at play within the European Union. It is, hence, concluded that welfare in Scandinavia is undergoing a process of Europeanisation.