Britain's New Labour government claims to support the cause of human rights. At the same time, it claims that we can have no rights without responsibility and that dependency on the state is irresponsible. The ethics of welfare offers a critique of this paradox and discusses the ethical conundrum it implies for the future of social welfare. The book explores the extent to which rights to welfare are related to human inter-dependency on the one hand and the ethics of responsibility on the other. Its intention is to kick start a fresh debate about the moral foundations of social policy and welfare reform. The book: explores the concepts of dependency, responsibility and rights and their significance for social citizenship; draws together findings from a range of recent research that has investigated popular, political, welfare provider and welfare user discourses; discusses, in a UK context, the relevance of the recent Human Rights Act for social policy; presents arguments in favour of a human rights based approach to social welfare. The book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of welfare. It is aimed at students and academics in Social Policy, Social Work, Soc

The Danish Welfare State analyzes a broad range of areas, such as globalization, labor marked, family life, health and social exclusion, the book demonstrates that life in a modern welfare state is changing rapidly, creating both challenges and possibilities for future management.

The Fourth Edition of Ernest T. Stringer's best-selling Action Research offers easy-to-follow, clear guidelines that enable novice practitioner researchers to move comfortably through a process of inquiry and applied research. Featuring real-life examples and providing effective solutions that foster understanding of research procedures in real-life contexts, the book offers a simple but highly effective model for approaching action research: Look: building a picture and gathering information, Think: interpreting and explaining, and Act: resolving issues and problems. Using his own experience as a guide, Stringer encourages readers to grapple with the broader political and ethical challenges that frame each inquiry. The author's engaging style makes the book especially relevant to those working with children, young adults, or people in community contexts, and is particularly relevant to those dealing with issues of diversity or with marginalized and disenfranchised groups. Clear, concise, and practical, Stringer's accessible and engaging book is a must for students and professionals in educational, business, health, counseling, and social work settings.

"The New Uprooted" explores the relationship between the single mother and her social and physical environments. Mulroy examines how demographically diverse single mothers (in terms of race, class, marital status, urban or suburban location, educational level, and employment status) experience dual roles as sole family breadwinner and sole resident parent in the 1990s environment of scarce resources. Families headed by single mothers have become a unit of social concern not only because they represent a changing family form, but because their economic marginality threatens a downward spiral toward the instability of urban poverty. The mothers' key issues are the high cost of housing their families in relation to low wages, irregular or nonpayment of child support, public welfare benefit levels, and the effects of domestic violence.

The book is based on multi-method research that includes analyses of the most recent census data relative to the changing composition of families and households, economic trends, and employment; analysis of recent empirical studies on increased neighborhood poverty and urban restructuring; and field research on the coping strategies of 73 single mothers. It will be of interest to public policymakers, scholars, and students of the contemporary American family, housing, and welfare issues.

The aim of this study is to explain why some middle-class Victorian women took up various kinds of public social service, as social workers, researchers or reformers. The conventions of the time made it difficult for women to move out of family into public life and the nature of the work they chose demanded great physical and mental courage and endurance. The author examines the family and social background and the individual character of ten famous nineteenth-century women to try to identify the social circumstances and personal qualities that encouraged their social service activities and relates her findings to the problems faced by women of the present who endeavour to combine family responsibilities and outside employment.

Spanish Society After Franco investigates the origins of collective social welfare from the early 19th century, to set the context for an analysis of contemporary social policy from the perspective of economic and political trends since the transition of democracy in the mid 1970s. The review of policy evolution is complemented by an examination of the critical impact of social change, particularly the decline of the power of the church, regional devolution, the gender dimension and social exclusion.

First published between 1985 and 1992, this set of books analyses social welfare in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, highly developed economies and socialist countries at the time. Each title considers the ideological framework underlying the social welfare system for each country and describes the historical development of both the system and the political and socio-economic context. Each chapter looks at the structure and administration of the systems in place and how these are financed. Contributions examine the nature of the different parts of the welfare system, surveying social security, personal social services, and the treatment of the following key target groups: the aged; those with disabilities and handicaps; children and youth; disadvantaged families; the unemployed; and the sick and injured. Each chapter concludes with an assessment of the effectiveness of the system considered. This set will be of interest to those studying international social welfare and development.

The study of welfare can illuminate debate about many themes in modern Italian history - the question of the success or failure of nation-building, the question of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the state, the question of continuity and discontinuity from liberalism to fascism, and the question of the actual impact of fascist rule on Italian society. This book aims to contribute to scholarship on the social history of modern Italy by examining welfare thinking and policies from the nineteenth century to the fascist period.

The American Myth of Markets in Social Policy examines how implementing American tropes in policy design inadvertently frustrates policy goals. The book investigates multiple market-oriented designs including funding for private organizations to deliver public services, funding for individuals to buy services, and policies incentivizing or mandating private actors to provide social policy. Hevenstone shows that these solutions often not only fail to achieve social goals, but actively undermine them. The book carefully details the mechanisms through which this occurs, and examines several policies in depth, covering universal social insurance programs like healthcare and pensions, as well as smaller interventions like programs for the homeless.

The Dilemmas of Social Democracies seeks to advance the eradication of poverty and the ethical construction of social democracy and sustainable peace. Howard Richards and Joanna Swanger argue that the reason that capitalism resists transformation and that social democracy is so hard to achieve is because of the philosophical and institutional underpinnings_the constitutive rules_of capitalism; the book therefore explores the historical origins of these rules, their implications for blocking progress toward social justice, and how they can be improved.

This engaging and accessible reader takes a social problems approach to health and medicine, providing a broad and critical lens on contemporary health problems. Designed for courses on social problems and on medical sociology, the volume embraces two fundamental principles: that health and illness are at least partly socially produced, and that health care is not an unfettered good and often brings with it serious social problems. The volume is organized into six sections, addressing the medicalization of human problems; the social construction of health problems; social movements; gender; race and class and the provision of health care; and medical accountability. Taken together, the essays demonstrate the depth and richness of a social problems approach to health and medicine, and the critical perspective it brings to our understanding of health and illness in U.S. society.

This authoritative book examines current trends in divorce throughout the world, analyzing hitherto inaccessible information on Asian and Arab countries and Eastern Europe, as well as data from Latin America, Western Europe, and the Anglo countries. William J. Goode asserts that these trends over the past four decades challenge previous theories, including his own, first offered in his classic World Revolution and Family Patterns. Among the topics Goode discusses are how divorce rates in different countries are affected by industrialization, dictatorship, civic standards for nations, and easier divorce laws; the relations between divorce and such factors as age and class; the meaning of the worldwide rise in cohabitation; and why people are becoming less likely to remarry. In all these divorce systems he points to the problems caused by divorce: how to get child support from ex-husbands, the increase in mother-headed families (even in Arab countries), and the scanty help (if any) governments give to such families. He argues that modern countries with high rates must learn an important lesson from what he calls traditional "stable high-divorce-rate" systems--that divorce is part of the system, and that we must create and support social norms (not only laws) that reduce its harsh effects.

Comparative social policy has long neglected welfare development in Asia. Not much is known about social welfare in the economically successful East Asian tigers (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan). They are late starters in social welfare but each has its own trajectory of welfare development. Despite the presence of extensive social welfare, they have shied away from western-style welfare states. The presence of strong developmental states and their development ethos explain in large part the underdevelopment of state welfare.

This book explores the human geographies of skilled migration, specifically the practices, dispositions, relationships and resources of professional women who participate in the global care industry. Drawing on a wealth of interviews with migrant women carers and experts in the fields of labor, care and migration, the book address three major questions: Why do professional women migrate for jobs for which they are overqualified? What strategies do they use to cope with their decisions? And what are the outcomes of their actions in terms of their social and economic integration with the host country?

This book discusses key issues in global and regional social policy, exploring Bob Deacon's pioneering approach to regulation, rights and redistribution. It addresses the role of international actors in shaping social policy and discusses the problems and possibilities of new alliances for global social justice.

This study investigates the extent to which personal welfare state experiences affect general political orientations and attitudes. What are the political effects when a person is discontent with some aspect of, say, the particular health services or the public kindergartens that she has been in personal contact with? Do they lose faith in the welfare state or in leftist ideas about large-scale state intervention in society? Do they take their negative experiences as a sign that the political system and its politicians are not functioning satisfactorily? Will their inclination to support the governing party drop? And if so, how strong are the political effects of personal welfare state experiences compared to those of other, more well-known, explanatory factors? Addressing these and other questions, this study develops a theoretical framework that incorporates insights from a multitude of research traditions, including research on the welfare state, voting behaviour, social psychology, rational choice theory, political psychology, and institutional theory. The framework is tested empirically using Swedish primary survey data collected under the auspices of the 1999 West Sweden SOM Survey, and the 1999 Swedish European Parliament Election Study.

Disability is an increasingly vital contemporary issue in British social policy and particularly so in the area of education. "Education, Disability and Social Policy" brings together for the first time unique perspectives from leading thinkers including senior academics, opinion formers, policy makers and school leaders to explore these issues. Key issues included are: the implications of the law and international human rights frameworks; what these developments in policy will mean for schools and school leaders; how Governments can ensure that disabled children and young people are benefiting from wider efforts to tackle inequalities in the education system, such as widening access to higher education; what changes are needed in the design of the curriculum and qualifications; and, what needs to be done for children who are being failed by the current education system, including those with uncertain futures or children with Autism. The book is a milestone in social policy studies, of enduring interest to students, academics, policy makers, parents and campaigners alike.

The Student Paramedic Survival Guide gives information and advice to help you succeed in your education and become a registered paramedic. The book supports you from the start of your journey as you choose a programme, through study and practice placements, to the final stages of registration and applying for work. Finally, the book prepares you to make the transition into your first paramedic job. To equip you with insights into what studying to be a paramedic is really like, the book is packed full of comments from students, paramedics, mentors, paramedic educators and academics. Their expertise and experience will be invaluable as you study and prepare for practice. Other useful tools are included, such as web links for suggested further reading. The book will answer questions such as: *Is this the right career for me? *What do I need to consider when choosing a university and programme of study? *What will I be studying? *How can I make the most of the simulations that are part of my course? *Who is there to support me on placements? *What is it like caring for patients and their families? *How can I adjust to shift work? *What can I do to prepare for registration and securing my first job? The book also includes advice on making the most of your preferred learning style and guidance on how to look after yourself when you encounter traumatic events. Written by a bestselling author with the help of students, practice staff and academics from a variety of higher education institutions, this guide for prospective and current student paramedics is the essential resource to support your journey through the excitement, challenges and realities of being a student paramedic on a higher education programme.

The opening chapters of this book suggest that transitions in welfare capitalism can be understood in terms of shifts in dominant "corporeal" discourses. The body as a focus for power and resistance in differing welfare regimes is further explored in individual contributions on health and social care, bodily metaphors in social policy and the relationship between animal and human welfare. In highlighting the significance of the body in social policy, the book opens up a novel and potentially rich vein of academic inquiry.

* The Student Book covers 5 units providing enough support for the Award. * Covers all the underpinning knowledge and understanding needed at level 2 to ensure that learners are fully prepared for the course. * The attractive, accessible layout is packed with features, which draw out key points and bring learning to life. * Units are presented in topics with plenty of activities and assessment guidance to help learners achieve their potential. *Assessment activities and grading will help learners to achieve their potential in internally-assessed units and support external assessment. From 2012, Pearson's BTEC First qualifications have been under re-development, so schools and colleges could be teaching the existing 2010 specification or the new next generation 2012-2013 specification. There are different Student Books to support each specification. If learners are unsure, they should check with their teacher or tutor.