"Fair Play" brings together a selection of Danny Dorling's highly influential writings examining inequality and social justice. Offering crucial insight into the popular feeling that the United Kingdom is in crisis--a feeling made manifest in last summer's riots--Dorling provides a wealth of evidence that the country is becoming more politically, socially, and economically divided despite progress in areas such as education and reduced segregation. Dorling's work covers a broad range of subjects and will be of interest to anyone concerned with where one of the world's leading democracies is headed.

For the past century, governments have been compelled, time and again, to return to the search for solutions to the housing and economic challenges posed by a restructuring countryside. The rural housing question is an analysis of the complexity of housing and development tensions in the rural areas of England, Wales and Scotland. It analyses a range of topics: from attitudes to rural development, economic change, land use, planning and counter-urbanisation; through retirement and ageing, leisure consumption, lifestyle shifts and homelessness; to public and private house building, private and public renting and community initiatives. Across this spectrum of concerns, it attempts to isolate the fundamental tensions that give the rural housing question an intractable quality. The book is aimed at policy makers, researchers, students and anyone with an interest in the future of the British countryside.

The American Settlement Movement was an influential part of the social welfare reforms of the Progressive Era. In an era when America became an urban industrialized nation, the development of the settlement house was interwoven with that of the American city, and settlement workers, living and working among the poor in the city, were in the vanguard of a wide range of social welfare reform initiatives. This selective bibliography covers titles providing an introduction and overview of the American Settlement Movement.

Arranged in six categories, the titles include materials pertaining to the influence of the English Settlement Movement on the United States, general surveys discussing the American Settlement Movement within the context of larger reform efforts, studies focused on the Settlement Movement, biographical titles, settlement workers' research and case studies, and reference works. The bibliography provides easy access to the literature of the American Settlement Movement.

"By focusing squarely on the cultural dimensions of social welfare policy, Sanford Schram brilliantly illuminates recent turns in policy and politics. Nor does he slight the material for the symbolic. Ratherhe shows the close connections between the cultural and material aspects of policy. Most welcome of all, Schram's work is imbued with a rare empathetic concern for the people who are both the beneficiaries and victims of social welfare."
--Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center of the City University of New York

"If you want a flesh-and-blood story of the real agendas that lie behind policy-making in the age of tough love, After Welfare is the best book on the topic. Schram's incisive expose makes for spectacular common sense."
--Andrew Ross, New York University

"This engagingly written book lays bare the 'dirty little secrets' of a new order of social policy, one that shores up inequality by tapping into cultural reserves of race and gender prejudice while publicly presenting a neutral face. Its power derives from Schram's eloquence, his sharp wit, and his talent for persuading the reader to scrutinize social policy through the lens of social theory."
--Lisa Disch, University of Minnesota

"Sanford Schram's After Welfare is an exemplary combination of political theory, cultural critique, applied policy analysis and astute and comprehensive mapping of the contemporary politics of welfare. It should engage a wide readership in both academia and the policy community."
--Michael J. Shapiro, University of Hawai'i

Do contemporary welfare policies reflect the realities of the economy and the needs of those in need of public assistance, or are they based on outdatedand idealized notions of work and family life? Are we are moving from a "war on poverty" to a "war against the poor?" In this critique of American social welfare policy, Sanford F. Schram explores the cultural anxieties over the putatively deteriorating "American work ethic," and the class, race, sexual and gender biases at the root of current policy and debates.

Schram goes beyond analyzing the current state of affairs to offer a progressive alternative he calls "radical incrementalism," whereby activists would recreate a social safety net tailored to the specific life circumstances of those in need. His provocative recommendations include a series of programs aimed at transcending the prevailing pernicious distinction between "social insurance" and "public assistance" so as to better address the needs of single mothers with children. Such programs could include "divorce insurance" or even some form of "pregnancy insurance" for women with no means of economic support. By pushing for such programs, Schram argues, activists could make great strides towards achieving social justice, even in today's reactionary climate.

Family policy holds a particular status in the quest for a more equitable world as it intersects the rights of women, children, and workers. But despite local and global efforts and initiatives, the state of family policy in different areas of the world varies widely. Through a cross-section of countries on six continents, Family Policies Across the Globe offers the current state of the laws concerning family life, structure, and services, providing historical, cultural, and socioeconomic context. Lucidly written chapters analyze key aspects of family definition, marriage, child well-being, work/family balance, and family assistance, reviewing underlying social issues and controversies as they exist in each country. Details of challenges to implementation and methods of evaluating policy outcomes bring practical realities into sharp focus, and each chapter concludes with recommendations for improvement at the research, service, and governmental levels. The result is an important comparative look at how governments support families, and how societies perceive themselves as they evolve. Among the issues covered: Sierra Leone: toward sustainable family policies. Russia: folkways versus state-ways. Japan: policy responses to a declining population. Australia: reform, revolutions, and lingering effects. Canada: a patchwork policy. Colombia: a focus on policies for vulnerable families. Researchers , professors and graduate students in the fields of social policy, child and family studies, psychology, sociology, and social work will find in Family Policies Across the Globe a reference that will grow in importance as world events continue to develop.

Throughout the postwar period, changes in individual behaviour and legal reforms have transformed traditional notions of family life throughout Western Europe. However, interpretations of what constituted a desirable family life varied, together with the type of social intervention adopted towards it. Taking Britain and Italy as comparative cases, the author explores the extent to which dominant notions of family life differed in postwar Britain and Italy and the implications this had on the development of family policy in these two countries.

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.

Public social services are increasingly being individualised in order to better meet the differentiated needs of competent and independent citizens and to promote the effectiveness of social interventions. This book addresses this development, focusing on a new type of social services that has become crucial in the 'modernisation' of welfare states: activation services. The book discusses and analyses the individualisation of activation services against the background of social policy reforms on the one hand, and the introduction of new forms of public governance on the other. Critically discussing the rise of individualised social services in the light of various theoretical points of view, it analyses the way in which activation and the 'active subject' are presented in EU discourse. It compares the introduction of individualised activation services in five EU welfare states: the UK, Germany, Italy, Finland and the Czech Republic, focusing on official policies as well as policy practices. The book provides original insights into the phenomenon of the individualised provision of activation services. It is useful reading for policy makers as well as for students and researchers of welfare states, social policies and public governance.

Illicit drug use is an issue that triggers a wealth of debate and concern. Drawing on well-respected authors in the field, this textbook is at the cutting edge of contemporary debates about illicit drug use. Comprehensive in its coverage, the book examines the major theoretical questions, themes and policy debates and presents them in a straightforward, lucid manner. Knitted together by a strong editorial framework and student-friendly features such as study exercises, Drugs in Britain is essential reading for students of sociology and criminology taking courses in this area.

Human Service Organizations in the Disaster Context explores the efforts of human service practitioners to support communities facing the impacts of large-scale hazardous events. Using the stories of frontline workers and managers who lived through devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, and drawing on international research and sociological theory, van Heugten astutely analyses the challenges and opportunities that arise. In the immediate aftermath of disasters, there is often a surge in altruism giving rise to hope for improved social cohesion. This hope wanes when negative impacts fall unequally on people living in poverty and other vulnerable populations. Political, financial, and professional interest groups vie for power and local citizens' voices are frequently overruled. Human service workers act as boundary spanners, networking between organizations to draw attention to the concerns of vulnerable people, and to advocate for human rights and social justice.

The notion of the European Social Model (ESM) has been one of the fastest growing in European political and academic discourse in recent years. It is conventionally used to describe the European experience of simultaneously promoting sustainable economic growth and social cohesion. However, the concept has suffered from a lack of clear definition. And where definitions have been found in the literature, they do not necessarily converge. This book presents the outcome of a project coordinated by the European Trade Union Institute in which experts from different countries and social scientific disciplines (sociology, political science and economics) were invited to reflect on both the meaning and political status of the concept of the ESM. In addition to analysing the ambiguities and multiple meanings attributed to the concept, the authors unpick the underlying assumptions and make use of a new approach - the ESM as political project - with which European countries can build consensus and share a common understanding. Offering a new analytical framework and with new empirical evidence, "Unwrapping the European Social Model" is essential reading for all those involved in European social policy research, education, policy and practice.

This volume discusses the determinants of happiness and presents case studies of how public policy can help promote happiness. Happiness is a private matter and individual pursuit, however public policy does have an important role and can contribute much through various enabling means. Possible examples of such influence include establishing a set of institutions that allow private enterprises to flourish, investing in infrastructure and in education, protecting people from harm and reducing risks and alleviating pain when harm is unavoidable. This book takes a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science and an international perspective.

Responding to the political and social policy changes made between 2010-2015 a wide-range of experts consider the relationship between the two coalition parties to provide a critical assessment of how their policies affected the British welfare state, including the impact of 'austerity'.

With the increasing focus on 'community' as the site for renewing democracy, improving policymaking and enhancing service delivery, this book provides a challenging approach to understanding community practice. It offers a much-needed theoretical perspective, sets out an analysis of power and empowerment and explores new ways of understanding active citizenship. The book covers a wide range of theoretical and practice topics. First presenting a model of critical community practice, the authors draw upon a variety of case studies from Britain and elsewhere to discuss this in the context of work in and with community groups; management; policy and politics; and development of the critical practitioner. Demands being placed on individuals and organisations have become increasingly complex and greater clarity about community practice is needed. This book, designed to complement the authors' edited volume "Managing Community Practice" (The Policy Press, 2003) provides just that. The book's content will be of particular interest to those following the debates on community involvement in regeneration, social inclusion and health improvement programmes. It will provide a resource for those already engaged in community practice and thus inform the work of local authorities, government agencies, voluntary organisations and partnerships. It will be relevant reading for all those people working to promote change and development in communities. It will also be an essential text for students on a range of professional and management programmes in community development, health, housing, planning and other disciplines with a community focus.

This is the first detailed and systematic study of the social science of poverty as practiced by the Victorian experts who had so much influence on relief policy in this area, and who were among the founders of British social science. The book examines what they knew, or what they thought they knew, about the poor.

"War and Social Welfare: Reconstruction after Conflict" addresses the issues of rebuilding social assistance and pension programs in the wake of war. Arguing that post-conflict reconstruction missions need to pay greater attention to comprehensive social policy formation, the book makes normative and functional claims that social welfare programs articulate the core aspects of citizenship. "War and Social Welfare "uses the case of Kosovo to examine the interaction of international and local political actors in their efforts to rebuild social assistance and pension programs after the 1999 NATO airstrikes. Based extensive field research, as well as the author's experience as a humanitarian field officer in Kosovo in 1999 and 2000, "War and Social Welfare "looks closely at the design and implementation of social policy at both the national and local level.

Will 'what works' in one country work in another? This unique collection examines the cross-cultural transfer of skills and expertise, drawing out the opportunities and challenges involved in taking penal practices from one country to another.

We are often told that 'money can't buy happiness'. But if money is not the answer then what is? This book considers this question by examining empirical data stretching back almost 10 years. Whereas previous concerns of individual well-being have been drawn towards the negative outcomes of life experiences, this book provides a new approach by directly addressing the circumstances under which high subjective well-being is experienced, often with surprising results. Drawing on nine years of panel data, the book examines demographic, social, spatial, health, domain satisfaction and socio-economic circumstances in a rich and complex longitudinal study, providing previously unknown information on factors associated with improved and sustained high well-being. It shows that subjective assessments of our circumstances are more important to well-being than our objective conditions and suggests that high well-being may be the key to improvements in people's subjective experience of a wide range of adverse (and other) life events. It also highlights that high levels of well-being are more likely to be associated with our social relationships and health status than with income or personal status, and that affluence is no guarantee to high subjective well-being and indeed may have negative consequences. The 21st century is seeing the emergence of a positive science, with a new focus on subjective well-being. This research adds new knowledge to the issues and debates which support the move towards a better understanding of the factors that promote subjective well-being. Such findings will be important to the international academic field as well as the national political arena where improving well-being has become a part of the government's agenda.

Dementia has been widely debated from the perspectives of biomedicine and social psychology. This book broadens the debate to consider the experiences of men and women with dementia from a socio-political perspective. It brings to the fore the concept of social citizenship, exploring what it means within the context of dementia and using it to re-examine the issue of rights, status(es), and participation. The book fills a gap in the global market for an up-to-date, coherent, and authoritative account on the present day situation of people with dementia. It offers fresh and practical insights into how a citizenship framework can be applied in practice, and it analyzes biographical accounts of living with dementia from a life course perspective.

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age A riveting, scorching--and hilarious--autobiography by the award-winning author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes and Deadline. From trying to impress a member of the girls' softball team (with disastrous dental results) to enduring the humiliation of his high school athletic club initiation (olives and oysters play unforgettable roles), Chris Crutcher's memoir of the tricky road to adulthood is candid, disarming, laugh-out-loud funny, relevant, and never less than riveting. He vividly describes a temper that was always waiting to trip him up even as it sustained him through some of the most memorable mishaps any child has survived. And how did this guy (he lifted his brother's homework through the entire tenth grade) ever become a writer, not to mention the author of fourteen critically acclaimed books for young people? The frontier may be mild, but the book is not. Fans of Tara Westover's Educated, Jack Gantos's Hole in My Life, and Walter Dean Myers's Bad Boy will laugh, will cry, and will remember. "Funny, bittersweet and brutally honest. Readers will clasp this hard-to-put-down book to their hearts even as they laugh sympathetically."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The book provides a panoramic approach to social exclusion, with emphasis on structural causes (education, health, accidents) and on short term causes connected with the crisis which started in 2008. The picture emerging, based on econometric analysis, is that the crisis has widened the risk of social exclusion, from the structural groups, like disabled people and formerly convicted people, to other groups, like the young, unemployed, low skilled workers and immigrants, in terms of income, poverty, health, unemployment, transition between occupational statuses, participation, leading to a widening of socio-economic duality. It has also been stressed the relevance of definitions of socio-economic outcomes for the evaluation of the crisis, and their consequences to define interventions to fight socio-economic effects of the economic downturn. The adequacy of welfare policies to cope with social exclusion, especially during a crisis, has been called into question.