This is an analysis of think-tanks in Britain and Germany and their role in the re-making of the British Labour party and Germany's Social Democrats as 'Third Way' parties. The part that think-tanks played in the creation of the the 'workfare state' in the 1990s and 2000s is also explored in this book.

In a unique undertaking, Andrew Yuengert explores and describes the limits to the economic model ofthe humanbeing.He develops a careful accoun of human action and motivation known as a background account that is both non-mathematical and comprehensive. Approximating Prudence provides an alternative account of human choice, to which economic models can be compared.Yuengert emphasizes those aspects which are most likely to contrast with the economic account of choice: the nature of the ends of practical wisdom; the necessity to act in highly contingent environments; practical wisdom as virtue; the synthetic character of choice; and the unformulability of practical wisdom. He then presents a clear account of practical wisdom, emphasizing those aspects which resist mathematical modeling. Economists have attempted in the past to explain human choice based on the boundaries of practical wisdom, but this book will map the limits of those economic models.

The dominant cultural script is that the Baby Boomers have 'had it all', thereby depriving younger generations of the opportunity to create a life for themselves. Bristow provides a critical account of this discourse by locating the problematisation of the Baby Boomers within a wider ambivalence about the legacy of the Sixties.

As the state of America's children and families continues to degenerate, the human services system struggles to render the support it was designed to provide. Despite such efforts, American families have difficulty accessing services; they are forced to navigate an incomprehensible system where quantity is often deemed insufficient and quality is compromised. Simultaneously, expenditures on human services have soared to record levels, further spurring both concerns and efforts to reform and better integrate a sadly dysfunctional system. In the first comprehensive synthesis of the history, theory, and practice of service integration, Sharon Lynn Kagan, with Peter R. Neville, explores why past efforts to reform the human service system have had only isolated triumphs and marginal impact in improving the quality of life for children and families. Tracing the history of human services in America from the colonial period to the present, the author analyzes the underlying assumptions, barriers, and strategies that have characterized the service integration movement. Drawing on history, empirical research, and intellectual theory, as well as on the personal experiences of practitioners and leaders, the author extracts principles and insights that offer new directions for future social service reform. Published in cooperation with the National Center for Service Integration

This reference book provides information on the family planning rights of minors in eleven countries in North America and Western Europe. The Adolescent Dilemma covers a minor's legal rights to abortion services and birth control. In addition, this comprehensive resource discusses sex education, sexual behavior, and the nature and extent of contraceptive practices. The introduction presents a framework for discussing minors' rights and the conclusion draws on the information provided in the book to take a brief, comparative look at the topic. Both a reference resource on family planning and a data source for cross-cultural comparisons, this book will be of interest to social service professionals at all levels.

This book offers an analysis of European capitalist welfare societies, centering on the questions of sustainability and the financing of social rights. Capitalism is defined as a multi-model economy, comprising of a market economy (including production, distribution and exchange), a state welfare economy (based on compulsory transfers, such as taxes and social contributions), a household economy and a voluntary economy. The resources for the welfare economy are produced by some activities of the life course, and used by other activities, once rights over these resources are acquired. Setting out a new conceptual framework that integrates an adapted version of the theory of instituted economic processes with the changing structuration of the life course in European countries, the book argues that European capitalist welfare societies are not sustainable in their present form and that the future financing of social rights is conditional on substantial transformations. The book also analyzes relevant data on the socio-economic positioning of women and migrants.

In a world beset by serious and unconscionable health disparities, by dangerous contagions that can circle our globalized planet in hours, and by a bewildering confusion of health actors and systems, humankind needs a new vision, a new architecture, new coordination among renewed systems to ensure central health capabilities for all. Global Health Justice and Governance lays out the critical problems facing the world today and offers a new theory of justice and governance as a way to resolve these seemingly intractable issues. A fundamental responsibility of society is to ensure human flourishing. The central role that health plays in flourishing places a unique claim on our public institutions and resources, to ensure central health capabilities to reduce premature death and avoid preventable morbidities. Faced with staggering inequalities, imperiling epidemics, and inadequate systems, the world desperately needs a new global health architecture. Global Health Justice and Governance lays out this vision.

Because housing is a multidisciplinary, fragmented field of research, investigators are faced with the difficult task of pulling together information scattered in a wide variety of narrowly focused sources. In this volume, comprehensive, current knowledge encompassing the field as a whole is offered for the first time. Twenty-eight specialists in the major subdisciplines provide up-to-date information on the social, economic, environmental, policy, and architectural dimensions of housing and the built environment, together with extensive bibliographies for each topic. Creating a comprehensive framework for study and research in the field, this handbook will be helpful to planners, architects, developers, and citizens groups in addition to academics in promoting better understanding of the broader issues of housing.

After a decade of Thatcherism, rising illegitimacy and the moral panic over child sexual abuse, the family is more of a political issue than ever. But is it 'the family' that is in crisis, or family ideology? In this revised edition of an important and controversial book, Diana Gittins adds to a broad range of historical, anthropological and feminist evidence, a new chapter on child sexual abuse.

This book provides a major new examination of the current dilemmas of liberal anti-racist policies in European societies, linking two discourses that are normally quite separate in social science: immigration and ethnic relations research on the one hand, and the political economy of the welfare state on the other. The authors rephrase Gunnar Myrdal's questions in An American Dilemma with reference to Europe's current dual crisis - that of the established welfare state facing a declining capacity to maintain equity, and that of the nation state unable to accommodate incremental ethnic diversity. They compare developments across the European Union with the contemporary US experience of poverty, race, and class. They highlight the major moral-political dilemma emerging across the EU out of the discord between declared ideals of citizenship and actual exclusion from civil, political, and social rights. Pursuing this overall European predicament, the authors provide a critical scrutiny of the EU's growing policy involvement in the fields of international migration, integration, discrimination, and racism. They relate current policy issues to overall processes of economic integration and efforts to develop a European 'social dimension'. Drawing on case-study analysis of migration, the changing welfare state, and labour markets in the UK, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, the book charts the immense variety of Europe's social and political landscape. Trends of divergence and convergence between single countries are related to the European Union's emerging policies for diversity and social inclusion. It is, among other things, the plurality of national histories and contemporary trajectories that makes the European Union's predicament of migration, welfare, and citizenship different from the American experience. These reasons also account in part for why it is exceedingly difficult to advance concerted and consistent approaches to one of the most pressing policy issues of our time. Very few of the existing sociological texts which compare different European societies on specific topics are accessible to a broad range of scholars and students. The European Societies series will help to fill this gap in the literature, and attempt to answer questions such as: Is there really such a thing as a 'European model' of society? Do the economic and political integration processes of the European Union also imply convergence in more general aspects of social life, such a family or religious behaviour? What do the societies of Western Europe have in common with those further to the East? This series will cover the main social institutions, although not every author will cover the full range of European countries. As well as surveying existing knowledge in a manner useful to students, each book will also seek to contribute to our growing knowledge of what remains in many respects a sociologically unknown continent. The series editor is Colin Crouch.

A dramatic change of ownership, regulation, and organisation of essential public services, such as electricity, gas, and telecommunications, has taken place in Europe in less than 20 years. This was not the outcome of spontaneous adaptation, but an entirely top-down policy experiment, mainly conceived in London during Mrs Thatcher's years, then pursued in Brussels - the 'capital' of the European Union - and imposed on more or less reluctant players by laws, directives, regulations, and administrative and judicial decisions. The European reform paradigm revolves around three pillars: privatisation, unbundling, and regulated liberalisation of network industries. These industries, despite the reforms, are still special, as they include core natural monopoly components (the electricity grid, the gas pipelines, the telephony networks, etc.), are often based on complex system integration of different segments (for example of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retail supply), and offer services that have critical social and economic importance, from heating to internet. This book offers a careful scrutiny of energy and telephony reforms and prices paid by households in 15 countries across Western Europe. It attempts to answer such questions as: Are the consumers in Europe happier than they were before the reforms? Do they pay less? Do they get a better quality for the services? Network Industries and Social Welfare provides an overview of the main facts, the conceptual issues, and of the empirical evidence on pricing, perceptions of quality of service, and the issues of utility poverty and social affordability. It suggests that the benefits of the reforms for the consumers have often been limited and that governments should reconsider their overconfidence in regulated market mechanisms in network industries.

Across the EU, populations are shrinking and ageing. An increasing burden is being placed on a smaller working population to generate the taxes required for pensions and care costs. Welfare states are weakening in many countries and across Europe, households are being increasingly expected to plan for their retirement and future care needs within this risky environment. At the same time, the proportion of people buying their own home in most countries has risen, so that some two-thirds of European households now own their homes. Housing equity now considerably exceeds total European GDP.

This book discusses questions like: to what extent might home ownership provide a potential cure for some of the consequences of ageing populations by realizing housing equity in order to meet the consumption needs of older people? What does this mean for patterns of inheritance and longer-term inequalities across Europe? And to what extent are governments banking on their citizens utilising their housing wealth now and in the future? "

Approaching family through the lens of food, this book provides a new perspective on the diversity of contemporary family life, challenging received ideas about the decline of the family meal, the individualization of food choice and the relationship between professional advice on healthy eating and the everyday practices of doing family.

This book examines the relationship between development economics, social protection and democratization in the specific context of Sub-Saharan Africa. Moving existing theories of transformation into a new terrain, it sheds light on the exclusive origins of dictatorship and democracy. The book explains how development, social protection and democracy-enhancing policies have been produced by existing institutional frameworks and contingent responses to emergency events, and that these have themselves been shaped by the actions of actors and by their embeddedness in the surrounding political, economic, cultural and social environment. The book also draws attention to the most relevant institutional and social mechanisms, with associated elite strategies and power politics relations in the creation of politically-induced conflicts. In doing so, it highlights the important role of welfare institutions in the reduction and reproduction of vertical and horizontal inequalities as well as their repercussion in the emergence of social conflicts.

A commitment to acceptable levels of accommodation for all has meant that housing has normally enjoyed a high place on the agendas of most socialist countries. However this place has not always been undisputed, and housing has to compete with other welfare and economic requirements. As a result the housing policies in the Eastern bloc have not been uniform. This book examines issues related to housing in Eastern Europe. It describes the broad similarities and differences between Eastern and Western Europe, outlines trends in housing conditions since World War II, and discusses the relevance of factors external to housing. The system of housing provision is seen to be contingent on various economic and social factors, and so the current changes in so many aspects of the Eastern European political scene are seen to be of vital significance for the future of housing.

Although most advanced industrialized countries are facing population aging and other social changes, public long-term care programs for the aged are remarkably diverse across them. This book accounts for the variations in elderly care policy by combining statistical analysis with historical case studies of Sweden, Japan and the USA.

Having previously defined a good society as a sustainable society with a high level of development, significant provision of meaningful jobs, and low levels of inequality and social ills, Toward a Good Society in the Twenty-first Century provides a wide range of principles and policies that would be necessary if we are to achieve a good society.Marangos and Karagiannis have put together a comprehensive volume that explores the principles and policies needed to bring about the good society, and focuses on four broad themes which are deemed important towards achieving a good or better society: quality education and fair distribution; environmentally sustainable prosperity; inclusive economic development and significant job creation; and beneficial civic institutions, and deepening of freedom and time use. All these topics can be highly controversial and call for alternative perspectives on theoretical (philosophical) and policy grounds.

By carefully analyzing a comprehensive data base of questionnaire responses gathered over the past two decades in the developing regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America, this book arrives at a series of powerful conclusions regarding the determinants of well-being and happiness of all sectors of society. The book explores the relative importance of health and education, as well as addressing social and demographic issues surrounding happiness, and the effect of ageing. Psychological factors are also discussed, such as the effects of a belief in social mobility in the less well-off. The authors explore why income poverty is not the only form of poverty, and focus on other factors that uplift the well-being and happiness of the underprivileged.

While social welfare programs, often inspired by international organizations, are spreading throughout the world, the more far-reaching notion of governmental responsibility for the basic well-being of all members of a political society is not, although it remains a feature of Europe and the former British Commonwealth. The welfare state in the European sense is not simply an administrative arrangement of various measures of social protection but a political project embedded in distinct cultural traditions. Offering the first accessible account in English of the historical development of the European idea of the welfare state, this book reviews the intellectual foundations which underpinned the road towards the European welfare state, formulates some basic concepts for its understanding, and highlights the differences in the underlying structural and philosophical conditions between continental Europe and the English-speaking world.

Approaching the problem of homelessness from a broad public policy perspective, Lang focuses on the American political economy and how it permits community development patterns based on racism and self-interest. This interdisciplinary study challenges the belief that homelessness is entirely due to the Reagan administration's cutbacks. Instead, it suggests the need for reform in our housing and employment policies. The book reviews competing socioeconomic paradigms that can explain why meaningful and effective programs are difficult to enact. "Homelessness Amid Affluence" discusses housing, community development patterns, economic segregation, and problems of the urban underclass, as well as proposed solutions. The interdisciplinary nature and historical perspective of this volume make it informative reading for sociologists, social workers, policymakers, and researchers.

This volume is divided into five sections. The first section provides a conceptual overview. Section Two deals with the urban policy context from which a solution to homelessness must emerge. Section Three covers low-cost housing while Section Four deals with specific policies and programs developed in response to the needs of the homeless. A case study based on the author's experience with the efforts of Camden County, New Jersey is included. The last section analyzes some new policy approaches and ends with an assessment of the likely policy outcomes to emerge from this continuing debate.

This innovative book takes a unique approach to rethinking welfare states by considering two centrally interlinked issues: namely what is welfare, and what we should expect from welfare states now and in the future. Bent Greve critically considers thinking on the core elements of welfare states, how they should be ranked and how to recognise indicators of their direction of movement. Providing expert analysis of the historical development of welfare states and the challenges and pressures experienced both regionally and globally, this book argues for a new division of welfare states and a system for balancing old and new social risk. The investigation of dilemmas and the analysis of developing welfare states are particularly illuminating and informative. Greve provides a forward-thinking approach considering long-term stability and the challenges of inequality and poverty in different welfare regimes. He effectively combines new perspectives with attention to a strong public sector economy. With insightful new analysis this book will be an invaluable read for researchers and students of social policy and welfare states.

For some, Sweden is proof that a generous welfare state is fully compatible with a growing competitive economy. For others, it is a frightening example of what big government can do to a once thriving economy. Sweden and the Revival of the Capitalist Welfare State tackles a number of controversial questions regarding Sweden's economic and political development: How did Sweden become rich? How did Sweden become egalitarian? Why has Sweden since the early 90s grown faster than the US and most EU-countries despite its high taxes and generous welfare state? The author uses new research on institutions and economic reforms to explain the rise, the fall and the recent revival of the Swedish welfare state. The central argument is that a generous welfare state like that of Sweden can work well, provided that it is built on well-functioning capitalist institutions and economic openness. The book expertly explains how Sweden developed from a poor and highly unequal society to one of the richest and most egalitarian countries in the world by building a universal welfare state on a capitalist foundation. It also engages in an important discussion about the current and future challenges for the welfare state in general. The book will fit well in introductory and advanced courses on welfare state policy, social work, sociology, economic history, institutional economics and political science. In all these disciplines, the case of Sweden has always provoked interest and debate, due to Sweden's combination of prosperity, equality and extensive welfare state. The rapid pace of change in Sweden over the last 25 years, however, means that most other books are descriptively dated. Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Prosperity and equality: The golden years 1870-1970 3. The 'not quite so golden' years 1970 - 1995 4. The return of the capitalist welfare state 5. The capitalist welfare state's bloc-transcending history 6. The consequences of increasing competition 7. The resilience of labor market regulation and rent control 8. Challenges ahead: Can the capitalist welfare state survive? Appendices Bibliography Index

Based upon Crawford's extensive survey of more than 300 U.S. businesses, this book explores and describes in detail the various types of employee benefits policies designed to ease the burdens of employees caught between the conflicting demands of work and the need to provide care for dependent children and/or parents. Crawford examines in depth such policies as flextime, referral services, on-site daycare, and dependent care service partnerships, identifying the strengths and drawbacks of each and the extent of their current use in American businesses. She also offers the reader a rationale for companies' adoption of dependent care policies, showing that a failure to implement such measures can lead to problems such as increased absenteeism and decreased productivity that will eventually impact the corporate bottom line.

Crawford demonstrates that the combined impact of more women in the workplace and a growing aged population has created a dependency crisis that is only beginning to be adequately addressed by American businesses and policymakers. The policies that are now being developed to address this problem are examined both from the standpoint of how they actually work in practice and how they can provide real benefits to employers as well as employees. Concerned throughout to provide both descriptive detail and practical advice, the author illustrates ways in which to lay the foundation for effective dependent care employee benefits packages. She also reviews and evaluates current legislative activities on behalf of parental leave. Concluding with a look at the future, Crawford assesses the demographics that will define what kinds of dependent care assistance the labor force of tomorrow will require. An indispensable guide for human resource professionals, Crawford's work will also be of significant interest to students in business and management programs.

This book explores the adoption of "active ageing" policies by EU15 nations and the impact on older peoples' work and retirement policy options. It explores the labor market policies (including unemployment benefits, active labor market policies and partial pension receipt) and pension policies (pension principles, early retirement and incentives for deferral) adopted by these nations from the mid-1990s onwards, addressing three main questions. First, to what extent was the EU's vision of "active ageing" adopted in EU15 nations between 1995 and 2010? Second, what was the nature of policy reforms in these nations over this time period? Finally, which sub-groups within the older age cohort were subject to active ageing policies in these countries? The data indicate convergence towards the EU-vision of active ageing is complex, with nations adopting a variety of different reforms and policy mixes, which in turn focus on different groups within the older age cohort.