Contemporary social policy has never been more vigorously contested. Issues range from single-issue campaigns over housing, social care, hospital closures through to organised movements around disability, environment, health and education. However, the historical and contemporary role played by social movements in shaping social welfare has too often been neglected in standard social policy texts. "Understanding social welfare movements" is the first text to bring together social policy and social movement studies. Using actual case studies and written in an accessible and engaging style, it will attract a wide readership of undergraduate and postgraduate students, higher education teachers and researchers, stakeholders and activists. Introductory chapters examine the historical and theoretical relationship between state welfare and social movements. Subsequent chapters outline the historical contribution of various social movements to the creation of the welfare state relating to Beveridge's 'five giants' of idleness, ignorance, squalor, illness and want. The book then examines the contemporary challenge posed by 'new social movements' in relation to the family, discrimination, environment, and global social justice. The book provides a timely and much needed overview of the changing nature of social welfare as it has been shaped by the demands of social movements.

In 2008, sociologist Peter Townsend celebrated his 80th birthday. It has been 60 years since his first published work. The range of his work is exceptional, including research on the UK's inner city deprivation; older people contemplating retirement; exclusion on the basis of class, race, gender, age, and disability; individual versus state responsibility for health; the social purposes and viability of residential institutions and hospitals; child and extended family development; and persistent poverty. This reader is a collection of his most distinctive work. The Peter Townsend Reader looks at the changes in social policy that have taken place in the UK, as well as internationally, over the past six decades. Each section of the book is introduced by an editor who is acquainted with Peter Townsend's work. It provides insight into the development of one social scientist's entire intellectual approach, particularly in choosing to place social policy at the center of social theory. The b

Urban Action Networks is a study of how communities organize in response to threats to their lives and well being. As HIV/AIDS wreaked havoc on the worlds of some of the most marginal and disenfranchised people in New York, they came together to create a shared response, forming a new organizational field within which their various efforts were coordinated. This book traces the interorganizational processes by which the groups negotiated shared meanings, collective strategies, and a complex, shifting set of relations with local and national government. It covers the first decade of AIDS, when the organized community groups actively set the agenda. How the communities of the most affected people organized, reorganized, and redefined the social and political context of HIV/AIDS offers an encouraging glimpse into the way in which marginal communities can convert shared needs into collective action.

In an ideal world, shouldn't everyone have the security of owning their own home? Doesn't owning one's home improve housing stock, financial security, and civil society? If all this is true, why, in Britain, is the "Right to Buy" the Conservatives' effort to bring the opportunity of homeownership to a large number of people living in social housing such a contentious and vilified policy? Housing Policy Transformed is the first book in ten years which covers the ideological and conceptual issues around owner occupation and the continuance of the Right to Buy in Britain's post-Thatcher era. The book explores Britain's social, economic, and cultural peculiarities that led to the Right to Buy policy, and how it has managed to survive for 30 years. It looks at why there has been such a harsh critique of the Right to Buy policy from the Left and the negative effects that the Right to Buy policy (combined with Britain's Housing Benefit and the Homelessness Act) have had on social housin

In The Rise and Fall of Moral Conflicts in the United States and Canada, sociologist Mildred A. Schwartz and political scientist Raymond Tatalovich bring their disciplinary insights to the study of moral issues. Beginning with prohibition, Schwartz and Tatalovich trace the phases of its evolution from emergence, establishment, decline and resurgence, to resolution. Prohibition's life history generates a series of hypotheses about how passage through each of the phases affected subsequent developments and how these were shaped by the political institutions and social character of the United States and Canada. Using the history of prohibition in North America as a point of reference, the authors move on to address the anticipated progression and possible resolution of six contemporary moral issues: abortion, capital punishment, gun control, marijuana, pornography, and same-sex relations. Schwartz and Tatalovich build a new theoretical approach by drawing on scholarship on agenda-setting, mass media, social movements, and social problems. The Rise and Fall of Moral Conflicts provides new insights into how moral conflicts develop and interact with their social and political environment.

This book explores the tensions between the competing social rights and social control functions of the modern Australian welfare state. By critically examining the history and rhetoric of the Australian welfare state from 1972 to the present day, and using the author's long-standing research on the Australian Council of Social Service and other welfare advocacy groups, it analyses the transformation from rights-based to conditional welfare. The Labor Party Government from 1972-75 is identified as the only clear cut example of Australia positively using welfare payments and services as an instrument to promote greater social equity, inclusion and participation. Since the mid-1970s, the Australian welfare state has gradually retreated from the social rights agenda conceived by the Whitlam Government. Australia has followed other Anglo-Saxon countries in adopting increasingly conditional and paternalistic measures that undermine the protection of social citizenship outside the labour market. In contrast, this text makes the case for an alternative participatory and decentralized welfare state model that would prioritize social care by empowering and supporting welfare service users at a local community level. This book will be of interest to academics, students and policy-makers working within social policy, social work and political sociology.

Gender equality is often seen as a hallmark of the Nordic countries. This book explores this notion by examining the meanings of gender that underpin policies in the Scandinavian welfare states, historically and today. The book focuses on three Scandinavian countries - Denmark, Norway and Sweden - and explores the policy reforms that have occurred relating to family and care. Beginning with the radical marriage reform carried through in all the three countries in the early decades of the 20th century, the book progresses to explore contemporary challenges to the traditional model of equality, including equal rights for fathers, multiculturalism and a critical young generation. The book focuses on differences as well as similarities between the countries and discusses the relevance of talking about a Nordic model. Stressing the importance of viewing the concept of equality in its historical context, the book critically investigates and discusses the Scandinavian 'success story' portrayed in normative political theory and presents an historical analysis of the development of gendered citizenship rights. It will be a valuable collection for researchers, lecturers and graduate students who work with historical and contemporary studies on welfare state and gender models from different disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives.

This fully revised and expanded edition of Janet Batsleer's (1996) Working with Girls and Young Women in Community Settings provides a significantly updated text, incorporating new research, which will serve practitioners and academics well into the twenty-first century. Youth work with girls and young women has taken inspiration from feminisms and THE women's movement, focussing on the strength and potential of girls as beings in their own right, rather than as carriers of social problems. Autonomous community-based projects of can affirm young women's lives and creativity and seek to challenge oppression. Addressing the significant shifts in the social, political and professional context for informal education, this book makes clear the continuities in community-based informal education with girls and argues for its continuing importance. The impact of neo-liberal approaches to empowerment is highlighted throughout. Drawing together historical, theoretical and practice-based work, including case studies from a range of projects, Batsleer offers an analysis of the significant issues that will affect practice in the future and the significance of feminist inspired informal education rooted in specific community contexts. These include: The impact of violence, coercion and resistance, across a range of practices Female sexuality as a contested space The impact of poverty and the creation of networks of care and mutual support Difference and cross-cultural work, including inter-faith work and practice which challenges racism. This is an important source book for youth workers, social workers, and others involved in education outside of school as well as researchers in the practice and politics of youth work. It is an essential reference tool for researchers, as well as for both lecturers and students involved in the education and continuing professional development of youth and community workers and for those who wish to keep alive a radical alternative

Public health in the early 21st century increasingly considers how social inequalities impact on individual health, moving away from the focus on how disease relates to the individual person. This 'new public health' identifies how social, economic and political factors affect the level and distribution of individual health, through their effects on individual behaviours, the social groups people belong to, the character of relationships to others and the characteristics of the societies in which people live. The rising social inequalities that can be seen in nearly every country in the world today present not just a moral danger, but a mortal danger as well. "Social inequality and public health" brings together the latest research findings from some of the most respected medical and social scientists in the world. It surveys four pathways to understanding the social determinants of health: differences in individual health behaviours; group advantage and disadvantage; psychosocial factors in individual health; and healthy and unhealthy societies, shedding light on the costs and consequences of today's high-inequality social models. This exciting book brings together leaders in the field discussing their latest research and is a must-read for anyone interested in public health and social inequalities internationally.

Across the world governments in mature industrial and post-industrial economies are concerned about the ageing population. Dealing directly and exclusively with the issue of older workers, this book brings together up-to-the-minute research findings by many of the leading researchers and writers in the field. The duration and quality of working lives and the timing and circustances of retirement are of growing concern, especially in those cases where employers' demands and imperatives clash with employees' wishes. The contributions in this volume focus upon various measures taken by the state and employers to foster the employment of older workers in Britain, mainland Europe, the US and Japan. The authors address key issues that will influence public policy, exploring what workers over 50 want, the impact of the ageing workforce on employer policies and the implications for governments in promoting and supporting extended working lives. The book is aimed at academics, students, policy makers and other professionals (such as training managers, HR professionals and trade unionists) interested in contemporary issues within social policy, the sociology of ageing, and human resource and diversity management. It wil also be of interest to older workers themselves.

At a time of growing pressure on health and social care services, this book draws together contributions which highlight contemporary challenges for their management. Providing a range of contributions that draw on a Critical Management Studies perspective the book raises macro-level concerns with theory, demographics and economics on the one hand, as well as micro-level challenges of leadership, voice and engagement on the other. Rather than being an attempt to define the 'wickedness' of problems in this field, this book provides new insights designed to be of interest and value to researchers, students and managers. Contributions from international researchers explore four main topics: identifying contemporary challenges in health and social care; managing, leading and following; listening to silent voices in delivering change; and new methodologies for understanding care challenges. The concerns discussed in this volume are 'wicked' in so far as they are persistent, pernicious and beyond the curative abilities of any single organisation or profession. Such problems require collaboration but also new approaches to listening to those who suffer their effects. This book demonstrates such listening through its engagement with policy makers, leaders, followers, professions, patients, forgotten groups and silenced voices. Moreover, it considers how future research might be transformed so as to shine a more inclusive light on 'wicked' problems and their amelioration. This is a timely and engaging book that challenges you - the reader - to think again about how we should look at, engage with and support all those involved in health and social care.

Foreword by Harvey V. Fineberg, President of the Institute of MedicineFor decades, experts have puzzled over why the US spends more on health care but suffers poorer outcomes than other industrialized nations. Now Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren A. Taylor marshal extensive research, including a comparative study of health care data from thirty countries, and get to the root of this paradox: We've left out of our tally the most impactful expenditures countries make to improve the health of their populations,investments in social services. In The American Health Care Paradox , Bradley and Taylor illuminate how narrow definitions of health care," archaic divisions in the distribution of health and social services, and our allergy to government programs combine to create needless suffering in individual lives, even as health care spending continues to soar. They show us how and why the US health care system" developed as it did examine the constraints on, and possibilities for, reform and profile inspiring new initiatives from around the world. Offering a unique and clarifying perspective on the problems the Affordable Care Act won't solve, this book also points a new way forward.

Everyone will experience a number of transitions throughout their life. Many of these will be positive, others may present challenges. This book addresses significant transitions relevant to policy and practice, covering key transition points in social care from childhood to old age. Drawing on the best available research evidence, Managing transitions highlights issues common to all experiencing transition as well as the dilemmas specific to particular situations. Individual chapters explore what we know about how transition is experienced by young people leaving care and by those with learning disabilities and mental health problems. For young people seeking asylum there are multiple transitions, of age, of country and of culture. Further contributions address the current transformation from service provision to self directed support, the major transition for older people who move to supported living, and the enduring challenges that surround the transition from hospital to community.

With new devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, this book makes a comprehensive assessment of the impact of devolution on social policy. It provides a study of developments in the major areas of social policy and a full comparison between Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. To what extent is it valid to speak of agendas for government driven by social policy? With new governments in each country, has a fresh dynamic been given to the emergence of distinct social policies? The impact of devolution on social policy uses a framework of analysis based on the nature and scope of social policies, ranging from major innovations and policy distinctiveness, to differences in implementation, policy convergence and areas of overlap with UK policies. This framework facilitates an integrated analysis and comparison of social policy developments and outcomes between the four UK nations. An assessment is also made of the ideas and values which have driven the direction of social policy under devolution. With devolution becoming increasingly important in the study of social policy, the book will be of key interest to academics and students in social policy, public policy and politics, and will also be a valuable resource for practitioners involved in policy making.

Forty years ago, President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs." Since that time, the country has incarcerated thousands of citizens and spent billions of dollars, and yet the drug problem rolls on. Today, the illegal drug market funds international terrorism, the horrific drug war on the Mexican border, and the senseless violence plaguing our communities, large and small. It is past time for a new direction. This book provides a drug policy framework that will choke off the revenue supporting the illegal drug market. Howard Rahtz outlines a series of drug policy steps buttressed by a historical review of drug policy measures, a review of international efforts against trafficking, and a clear understanding of the dynamics of addiction and its role in facilitating the illegal drug market.

This innovative book addresses the historical development of social and fiscal policies from the late 1970s to the present day by asking three major questions: What has changed? How have these changes affected the lifecourse? What are the potential lifetime impacts of policy change? This book provides an overview of the development of policy change over the period and uses an innovative and unique lifetime approach 'from the cradle to the grave' to put it into perspective. The authors begin by reviewing the political changes and policy story since the 1970s and demonstrate the economic and social changes that have occurred alongside. The book then takes an innovative approach in looking at specific programmes about crucial aspects of the lifecycle - from maternity and childhood, through to adult events and risks before finally looking at retirement, survivorship and death. Finally, profiles of three hypothetical 'families' - the Meades, who are median earners, the Moores, high earners and the Lowes who are low paid - are developed for 1979, 1997 and 2008 to provide a comprehensive discussion of policy change and make innovative insights for the future. This is the first book to join up the history of policy direction with an analysis of outcomes over the whole period. It will therefore be ideal for graduate and post-graduate students of social policy and attract a wide readership with interested in pensions, children's support and related issues.

The twentieth century has been called an 'age of catastrophe', characterized by devastating wars and a general poverty of leadership at government level. This book, written in a more optimistic vein, offers biographical essays on six twentieth century heads of government - three from Latin America, and one each from Africa, Asia and Europe - who were exceptions to the norm. During their terms of office each displayed admirable qualities: moral authority, integrity, an egalitarian spirit, and a firm commitment to democracy, human rights, social justice and international peace. They shunned personality cults, grandiosity and conspicuous consumption. Their governance was shaped by high ideals, in the tradition of democratic socialism or social democracy, but also marked by pragmatism and an awareness that the realization of these ideals was not always practicable. Although some of the six became iconic, venerated figures, none of them are presented here as 'heroes' or 'great leaders'. Each had failings and flaws, and each has been subject to critique. They are rather presented as government heads whose leadership has been worthy of deep respect and admiration. Had other premiers emulated their style of governance, twentieth century history would have taken a very different course.

She has a plan! Get informed about the policies of Massachusetts Senator turned presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. This concise guide will help you decide quickly if Warren deserves your vote for the Democratic nomination and to take on Donald Trump. Warren's strong economic background sets her apart; the senator from Massachusetts defines herself as a capitalist first and seeks to make capitalism more equitable for all. She has already proposed sweeping anti-corruption reforms, refused PAC donations to her campaign, rolled out plans for college debt forgiveness and a tax on the super wealthy. Her background as a Harvard economist, author of The Two-Income Trap, and experience as an economic advisor to Barack Obama positions her well to make change happen. Warren's campaign also features popular Democratic talking points--rebuilding the middle class, ending corruption in Washington, making voting laws more democratic, bringing our troops home and stopping endless war--but it's her experience that sets her apart. From working the campaign trial for Hillary Clinton to weathering President Trump's refrain of "Pocahontas" in reference to her claimed Native American heritage, Meet the Candidates 2020: Elizabeth Warren: A Voter's Guide is your complete handbook to Elizabeth Warren's resume, campaign, and what America would look like if she won the presidency in 2020. The Meet the Candidates 2020 series is the informed voter's guide to making a decision in the 2020 Democratic primary and presidential election. Each book gives an unbiased, political insider's analysis of each contender, featuring: candidate interviews; an introduction by campaign advisor, Democratic Coalition co-founder, and Dworkin Report host Scott Dworkin; and compilation and writing by Occupy Democrats Editor at Large Grant Stern. In two hours of reading, you'll understand their defining characteristics, credentials, campaign issues, challenges, presidential chances, and everything else you need to know to decide who should challenge Donald Trump. Whether it's for Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, or another, Meet the Candidates is what you need to make an informed vote for president in 2020.

As religion continues to regain its centrality in both academic and policy circles around the world, this book presents a new framework which examines the complex social and political dynamics shaping social welfare in the Middle East. Based on an in-depth study of the major Muslim and Christian religious welfare organisations in Lebanon (including Hezbollah), and drawing upon supplementary research conducted in Iran, Egypt and Turkey, the book argues that religion is providing sophisticated solutions to the major social and economic problems of the Middle East. It will be of use to students and academics of social policy, sociology, politics and Middle Eastern studies.

Once regarded as taboo, it is now claimed that we are a death-obsessed society. The face of death in the 21st century, brought about by cultural and demographic change and advances in medical technology, presents health and social care practitioners with new challenges and dilemmas. By focusing on predominant patterns of dying; global images of death; shifting boundaries between the public and the private; and cultural pluralism, the author looks at the way death is handled in contemporary society and the sensitive ethical and practical dilemmas facing nurses, social workers, doctors and chaplains. This book brings together perspectives from social science, health-care and pastoral theology to assist the reader in understanding and negotiating this 'new death'. End-of-life care and old age, changing funeral and burial practices, new stigmas such as drug-related bereavements, are highlighted, and theories of dying and bereavement re-examined in their context. The concluding chapters incorporate recent case studies into an exploration of the meanings and shape of holistic and integrated care. Students interested in death studies from a sociological and cultural viewpoint as well as health and social care practitioners, will benefit from its critical appraisal and application of the established knowledge base to contemporary practices and ethical debates.

"Finally a book that contextualizes community and neighborhood development and planning in a progressive but realist fashion. Peterman provides community and neighborhood planners with preassessment criteria and a methodological tool-kit to help ensure future success. This book is invaluable to neighborhood and community development planning courses and will provide a useful adjunct to social planning and social work courses."

--Mickey Lauria, University of New Orleans

"Bill Peterman has written a passionate treatise on neighborhood planning tempered by more than 20 years of front line experience. The result is a powerful praxis that can guide planners, community activists, and theoreticians who are concerned with making community-building a reality."

--Barbara Ferman, Professor of Political Science, Temple University

"Bill Peterman?s critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of America?s expanding community development movement should be required reading for all community activists, urban planners, policy analysts and municipal officials! Peterman?s rich insights and thoughtful recommendations regarding how community-based planning and development can lead to a broader popular movement for greater social equality deserve the immediate attention of all those concerned about the future of U. S. cities."

--Kenneth M. Reardon, Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

" Bill Peterman offers important insights from his long experience in Chicago on neighborhood planning and community-based development. His case studies offer very useful lessons on success and failure. This is a valuable addition to the literature on urban neighborhoods."

--W. Dennis Keating Professor and Associate Dean College of Urban Affairs,

Cleveland State University

This book explores the promise and limits of bottom-up, grass-roots strategies of community organizing, development, and planning as blueprints for successful revitalization and maintenance of urban neighborhoods. Peterman proposes conditions that need to be met for bottom-up strategies to succeed. Successful neighborhood development depends not only on local actions, but also on the ability of local groups to marshal resources and political will at levels above that of the neighborhood itself. While he supports community-based initiatives, he argues that there are limits to what can be accomplished exclusively at the grass-roots level, where most efforts fail.

Neighborhood Planning and Community-Based Development should be of special interest to individuals who are directly involved in neighborhood planning and development activities. With case studies that include the issues of gentrification, public housing, government-sponsored development of sports facilities, housing management control and racial diversity, the book takes a look at accomplishing successful neighborhood-based planning and development.

While there are signs of recovery from recent economic collapses, relatively few protective measures are in place in the United States to prevent future crises and widespread destruction of livelihoods around the globe. This book, a follow-up and further development of Martin's and Torres' ideas in their acclaimed Savage State: Welfare Capitalism and Inequality, contains a synthesis and critique of economic theory with historical case studies and new discourse on American globalism and its failures to provide for the economic security of millions of people. Since the original publication over ten years ago, there has been a resurgence in radical political economy and critical theory. Instead of "demonizing" the market, Capitalism and Critique draws lessons from the new directions in social theory and seeks clear solutions for future modes of capitalism.

Anyone working, or planning to work, as an advocate for people who need help in dealing with public services will want to read this book. Advocacy is an area of increasing importance in service provision, especially in the voluntary sector. New ways of working have to be found that increasingly create an enabling, rather than a providing, state and advocacy has an important part to play in this shift. Based on the experience of real advocates and using case studies based on real practice issues, "Speaking to power" is written in a vivid, jargon-free style that will make it an enjoyable read for professionals, students and lay people alike. As well as practical chapters on 'what advocates do', using case studies from Scotland where important developments are taking place, the book discusses how advocacy fits into the broader scheme of things. It describes and discusses examples of advocacy, both for individuals and for groups, with chapters dealing with management, training and evaluation of the work. It concludes with a thought-provoking discussion of various strategies which help vulnerable people speak to power on more equal terms. "Speaking to power" will be particularly helpful to advocates working with people who have mental health difficulties or learning difficulties, for doctors, nurses and social workers involved in this work, and for students preparing to enter those professions. It will also be of interest to students of social policy and other readers concerned about Britain's broader social and political development.

A comprehensive and accessible guide to the key themes, issues and debates in global social policy. This Reader collects together key papers by international leaders in the field that cover the emergence of global social policy as a dynamic and expanding field, the transformation of welfare from a predominantly national to a global field of action, and the impact of globalisation on key welfare discourses and governance mechanisms. The global social policy reader will have broad appeal among undergraduate and postgraduate students in a range of social science subjects, including social and public policy, social care and health studies, sociology, politics, economics, international relations and development studies.

Social Policy Review provides students, academics and all those interested in welfare issues with critical analyses of progress and change in areas of major interest during the past year. This year the Review takes the opportunity of the 60th anniversary of the key legislation founding the welfare state in the UK to provide a comprehensive overview of policy developments in the UK and internationally. The first part brings together a selection of papers which have been commissioned to examine historical and contemporary developments in policy tackling Beveridge's five evils of want, idleness, disease, squalor and ignorance, looking at how policy has changed since the aims and ideology of the inception of the post-war welfare state. The second part looks at the issue of the current challenges facing children's welfare services internationally: always a contemporary and contentious issue. The final part brings together a selection of papers looking at the effect of policy development at various governance levels on social policy. The contributions bring together an exciting mix of internationally renowned authors to provide comprehensive discussion of the some of the most challenging issues facing social policy today.