Government interest in wellbeing as an explicit goal of public policy has increased significantly in recent years. This has led to new developments in measuring wellbeing and initiatives aimed specifically at enhancing wellbeing, that reflect new thinking on 'what matters' and challenge established notions of societal progress. The Politics and Policy of Wellbeing provides the first theoretically grounded and empirically informed account of the rise and significance of wellbeing in contemporary politics and policy. Drawing on theories of agenda-setting and policy change, Ian Bache and Louise Reardon consider whether wellbeing can be described as 'an idea whose time has come'. The book reflects on developments across the globe and provides a detailed comparative analysis of two political arenas: the UK and the EU. Offering the first reflection grounded in evidence of the potential for wellbeing to be paradigm changing, the authors identify the challenge of bringing wellbeing into policy as a 'wicked problem' that policymakers are only now beginning to grapple with. This pioneering account of wellbeing from a political science perspective is a unique and valuable contribution to the field. The authors' theoretical and empirical conclusions are of great interest to scholars of politics and wellbeing alike.

This volume makes a valuable contribution to the dynamic and expanding field of scholarship on social policy in developing countries. In combining analytical frameworks used in comparative social policy analysis with an examination of key areas of policy and provision in selected countries, it will be a key resource for anyone interested in current debates in international social policy and welfare.' - Nicola Yeates, Open University, UKThere is increasing interest in the significance of social policy in the management of welfare and risk in the developing world. This volume provides a critical analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing social protection systems in the global South, and examines current strategies for addressing poverty and welfare needs in the region. In particular, the text explores the extent to which the analytic models and concepts for the study of social policy in the industrialised North are relevant in a developing country context. The volume analyzes the various institutions, actors, instruments and mechanisms involved in the welfare arrangements of developing countries and provides a study of the contexts, development and future trajectory of social policy in the global South. The book's comparative and interdisciplinary approach will be of interest to anyone involved in social policy research and analysis and current welfare debates. Contributors: B. Deacon, J. Doherty, P. Dornan, D. Lewis, A. McCord, D. McIntyre, C. Meth, A. Nicholls, S. Pellissery, C. Porter, R. Surender, M. Urbina-Ferretjans, A. Vetterlein, R. Walker

Christian and Social Democratic parties have been the driving force behind welfare state developments post-WWII. This valuable book investigates whether continued party differences have contributed significantly to the design of social welfare in three conservative welfare states, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, since the mid-1970s. Rather than assuming continued differences or convergence between parties, the primary focus is to empirically analyze party positions with regard to employment and labour market policies, social security, and family policies as well as the implemented policies themselves. The analysis demonstrates how changed interpretative patterns have led to a programmatic convergence amongst Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, largely resulting in a liberal-communitarian approach to the development of social welfare policies. Providing a comprehensive approach to welfare state analysis and scrutinizing the policy domains of employment, social security and family policies, this book will be of great interest to political scientists and sociologists interested in welfare state developments. It will also appeal to lecturers and postgraduate students in (comparative) social policy.

This book is a reference for administrators and educators at institutions of higher learning who are thinking about taking serious steps to link their educational mission to helping their surrounding communities. Various research findings across the disciplines in higher education about integrating community engagement in traditional coursework are presented. This book provides a multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach to both incorporating and studying the effects of community engagement (service learning) in the curriculum. Multiple departments, from Kinesiology to Sociology, as well as various types of classes (undergraduate, graduate, online, face-to-face, traditional, international) are represented here. Both qualitative and quantitative work is included. Methods involved include interviews, case studies, reflections, and surveys. One chapter also uses longitudinal data collection to address the overall effect of engaging in community engagement during the undergraduate college experience. If you are not sure how to study the effects of community engagement on students at your university, this book is for you.

Which underlying problems pose the greatest threat to British society in the 21st century? A hundred years after its philanthropist founder identified poverty, alcohol, drugs and gambling among the social evils of his time, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation initiated a major consultation among leading thinkers, activists and commentators, as well as the wider public. Individual contributors, ranging across the political spectrum, include Sean Bailey, Zygmunt Bauman, Anthony Browne, Chris Creegan, A.C. Grayling, Neal Lawson, Anna Minton, Ferdinand Mount, Julia Neuberger, Jeremy Seabrook, Matthew Taylor and Stephen Thake. But the book also reports the results from a web survey of more than 3,500 people and a specially-commissioned consultation with groups whose voices are less often heard, including care leavers, carers, people with learning difficulties, ex-offenders, and people with experience of homelessness or unemployment. The results are eloquently and passionately expressed. They suggest that while some evils - like poverty - endure as undisputed causes of social harm, more recent sources of social misery attract controversy. Not least among them are an alleged rise in selfish consumerism driven by economic liberalization, and a perceived decline in personal responsibility and family commitment.

"Cash Not Care will make you feel angry, sad and inspired in equal measures. This is a book that needs to be widely read and talked about." Dr Kayleigh Garthwaite ~ Postdoctoral Research Associate Centre for Health and Inequalities Research, the University of Durham "Government is entitled to ensure that benefits are given to those with a genuine entitlement and to assess people. But the process must be professional and honest. In this book Mo Stewart peels back the layers of deception, and the confused thinking that underpins the destruction of social support for disabled people... Some of those assessed as fit for work died just afterwards. Others died later and some committed suicide. Stewart names names. She shows where and how the policies originated. She destroys all claims that they were based on solid research. To understand what is happening and why, this is the book to read and I thank Mo Stewart for writing it." Sir Bert Massie CBE, DL ~ Chair, Disability Rights Commission 2000 - 2007 "When the history of the persecution of disabled people in the name of welfare reform in Britain finally gets written for mainstream audiences, Mo Stewart's evidence will form the starting point. Read it here first." Catherine Hale ~ Independent Researcher Author of: `Fulfilling Potential? ESA and the Fate of the Work-Related Activity Group' "Mo Stewart's ground-breaking and tenacious research has led the way in exposing the destructive force of the corporate state on the concept of welfare. It has exposed the duplicity, harm and abuse these actions have caused to disabled people with the courage of truth. Its value cannot be overestimated and its worth must not be ignored." Debbie Jolly ~ Co-founder, Disabled People Against Cuts The Author Mo Stewart is a former healthcare professional, a disabled female veteran and an independent researcher. This book is the culmination of six years of self-funded research and the evidence exposes the influence of corporate America, since 1992, with the future welfare reforms of the UK. The impact of the enforced austerity measures of the UK government is identified, as they negatively affect the welfare and the survival of the chronically sick and disabled population in receipt of welfare benefits when unfit to work. The research has informed welfare reform debates in the House of Lords and the House of Commons since 2011 and contributed to the evidence used by the United Nations to investigate the UK government for breaches of the Human Rights of sick and disabled people. Endorsed by the disabled community and by academics, the research has identified the adoption of lethal social policies, copied from American social security policies, and linked to the death of thousands of the most vulnerable of all, as the UK welfare state is systematically demolished as all planned over thirty years ago by a previous Conservative government. www.researchgate.net/profile/Mo_Stewart/publications

Nick Buckley MBE explores the relationship between "givers" and "takers," and the damaging symbiotic relationship between them. He examines the motivation of disheveled individuals sitting on street corners holding out paper cups, as well as the intergenerational problem of poverty and welfare dependency. Different types of beggars are highlighted, such as politicians begging for votes, charities begging for donations, and even the woke begging for validation and attention. Buckley shows that begging is a complicated topic, part nature and part nurture, and that many engage in such behavior unknowingly. Unlike most authors on this topic, Buckley explores his own history of begging from being raised in a workless household on benefits, to claiming unemployment benefits as an adult, and the journey that eventually led him to found an award-winning charity. Buckley offers us an antidote to such unbecoming behavior: personal responsibility.

This important book offers valuable insights into the way in which social policies and welfare state arrangements interact with family and gender models. It presents the most up-to-date research in the field, based on a variety of national and comparative sources and using different theoretical and methodological approaches. The authors address different forms of support (care, financial, emotional) and employ a bi-directional perspective, exploring both giving and receiving across generations. They illustrate that understanding how generations interact in families helps to reformulate the way issues of intergenerational equity are discussed when addressing the redistributive impact of the welfare state through pensions and health services. Encompassing a wide number of European countries as well as migrant groups, this book will greatly appeal to graduate students interested in sociology, social policy and social psychology. Researchers and policy makers in the fields of demography and sociology will also find the book an invaluable resource.

This open access edited volume introduces the concept of causal mechanisms to explore new ways of explaining the global dynamics of social policy, and shows that a mechanism-based approach provides several advantages over established approaches for studying social policy. The introductory chapter outlines the mechanism-based approach, which stands out by modularisation and a clear focus on actors. The mechanism-based approach then guides the twelve chapters on social policy developments in different Asian, African, European and Latin American countries. Based on these findings, the concluding chapter provides a structured compilation of causal mechanisms and outlines how a mechanism-based approach can further strengthen research on the global development of social policies, especially in a comparative perspective. The edited volume is highly relevant for social policy scholars from a variety of disciplines, as well as for scholars interested in strengthening explanation in the social sciences.

The Welfare Revolution of the early 20th century did not start with Clement Attlee's Labour governments of 1945 to 1951 but had its origins in the Liberal government of forty years earlier. The British Welfare Revolution, 1906-14 offers a fresh perspective on the social reforms introduced by these Liberal governments in the years 1906 to 1914. Reforms conceived during this time created the foundations of the Welfare State and transformed modern Britain; they touched every major area of social policy, from school meals to pensions, the minimum wage to the health service. Cooper uses an innovative approach, the concept of the Counter-Elite, to explain the emergence of the New Liberalism and examines the research that was carried out to devise ways to meet each specific social problem facing Britain in the early 20th century. For example, a group of businessmen, including Booth and Rowntree, invented the poverty survey to pinpoint those living below the poverty line and encouraged a new generation of sociologists. This comprehensive single volume survey presents a new critical angle on the origins of the British welfare state and is an original analysis of the reforms and the leading personalities of the Liberal governments from the late Edwardian period to the advent of the First World War.

This book explores the identity work and conflicted perspectives of general practitioner (GP) trainees working in hospitals in the UK. Drawing on empirical and theoretical scholarship, and privileging the analysis of social language-in-use, Johnston describes primary care medicine as a separate paradigm with its own philosophy, identity and practice. Casting primary and secondary care in historical conflict, the perceived lower status of primary care in the world of medicine is explored. Significant identity challenges ensue for GP trainees positioned at the coalface of conflict. Problematising structures of GP training and highlighting how complex historical power dynamics play out in medical training, the author advocates for radical change in how GPs are trained in order to manage the current primary care recruitment and retention crisis.

Though the history of hikes in petroleum prices began in 1973 when the military government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon increased the price of petrol to 9 kobo per litre from the equivalent of 8.8 kobo that had prevailed before then, the politics and economics of removal of subsidies on premium petroleum products entered into the national lexicon in 1986 when the military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida announced that due to the devaluation of the Naira, the domestic price of fuel had become unsustainable cheap and was becoming a burden on the national purse. Ever since, most regimes in the country have toyed with the idea of removing the subsidies, with organised labour and the civil society usually vehemently opposed to the idea. In late 2011 the Jonathan administration announced plans to completely remove the subsidies but gave no timeline amid threats by organised labour, students and civil society groups to stoutly resist the move. On January 1 2012, the regime announced the removal of the subsidies and subsequently reiterated that its decision on the issue was irreversible. It however announced some measures, including the provision of buses, to help cushion the impact of the move. This volume takes a critical look at the politics and economics of the pro- and anti-subsidisation lobbies. It also examines the likely economic and social impacts of the move and its implications for the poor, the overall economy and the country's democratic project. _____________________________ Jideofor Adibe has been a Guest research fellow in a number of institutions across the world including the Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen, Denmark; the Nordic Institute for African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, the Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada and the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, University of London, UK. He currently teaches political science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi and also writes a weekly column for the Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust. He is equally a member of the paper's Editorial Board. _________