The politics of austerity has seen governments across Europe cut back on welfare provision. As the State retreats, this edited collection explores secular and faith-based grassroots social action in Germany and the United Kingdom that has evolved in response to changing economic policy and expanding needs, from basic items such as food to more complex means to move out of poverty. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and practitioners in several areas of social intervention, the book explores how the conceptualization and constitutive practices of citizenship and community are changing because of the retreat of the State and the challenge of meeting social and material needs, creating new opportunities for local activism. The book provides new ways of thinking about social and political belonging and about the relations between individual, collective, and State responsibility.

Stress, Coping, and Health in Families: Sense of Coherence and Resiliency, the first volume in the new Resiliency in Families series, has an unusual sociological focus. Rather than focusing on pathology, the authors of this volume study individuals, families, and ethnic groups moving toward health. In Part I, scholar Aaron Antonovsky's landmark work in salutogenesis lays the foundation for a new approach to family studies. His work provides insight as to why some families manage life events with relative ease and recover from adversity with renewed strength, harmony, and purpose. Health is redefined, not as a static norm, but as a process of coping with a myriad of external stress factors. Part II examines how culture and family influence the creation and maintenance of the sense of coherence, which seems to be key in promoting health and well-being. It draws on studies of families facing serious illness, single parenthood, homelessness, or culture shock.

The sense of coherence is also vital to the study of aging and immunology: Parts III and IV examine those links and their wide-ranging implications. This book will appeal to social workers, clinical practitioners, and scholars in ethnic studies, family studies, sociology, counseling, and psychology.

All governments strive to develop and implement policies that contribute to innovation. Both in academic research and policy circles, the concept of National Innovation Systems has represented a significant approach to industrial policy, research and development, and innovation. This book will review the development and implementation of this approach, and its strengths and weakness by considering the experience of Finland, widely regarded as a model of the information society, high-quality equal education, and systemic innovation policy amongst the Nordic welfare states, which themselves have increasingly topped the lists in national competitiveness. The first part of the book analyzes the foundations, emergence, and development of the National Innovation System approach and its adoption in Finnish science and technology policy throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In the second part of the book an alternative viewpoint to innovation and welfare policy is outlined, based on the idea of capability cultivating institutions as a key foundation, both for national welfare and competitiveness. The development of the Finnish comprehensive school and its special education system is studied in order to clarify the nature of institutional change and learning, and the conditions of governing and developing the enabling services. The concept of an enabling welfare state is developed to answer the challenges of the Nordic model of welfare in a globalizing knowledge-driven economy.

Over the past two decades, many welfare states have experienced a combination of low economic growth and rising unemployment, concurrent with increasing pension and health care obligations, which has exacerbated government budget deficits. Some analysts forecast that for a number of welfare states these problems will worsen in the future. Their fiscal problems, in particular, present welfare state policy makers with the dilemma of attempting to fund redistribution schemes consistent with the ideal of a secure egalitarian society while at the same time remaining competitive in a 'new economy' that places a premium on competition, innovation, and flexible labour and product markets. Thus, an important issue has emerged: what types of reforms are required to enable welfare states to preserve sustainability? For the purpose of this study, a sustainable welfare state is one that can remain the guarantor against social risks and adverse economic trends for all segments of their respective societies and satisfy sound fiscal criteria (such as the Maastricht requirement for all members of the EMU that their fiscal budget deficit does not exceed 3% of the GDP), without imposing considerable financial burdens on future generations.

What is humanitarianism? This authoritative book provides a comprehensive analysis of the original idea and its evolution, exploring its triangulation with war and politics. Peter J. Hoffman and Thomas G. Weiss trace the origins of humanitarianism, its social movement, and the institutions (international humanitarian law) and organizations (providers of assistance and protection) that comprise it. They consider the international humanitarian system's ability to regulate the conduct of war, to improve the wellbeing of its victims, and to prosecute war criminals. Probing the profound changes in the culture and capacities that underpin the sector and alter the meaning of humanitarianism, they assess the reinventions that constitute "revolutions in humanitarian affairs." The book begins with traditions and perspectives-ranging from classic international relations approaches to "Critical Humanitarian Studies" -and reviews seminal wartime emergencies and the creation and development of humanitarian agencies in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The authors then examine the rise of "new humanitarianisms" after the Cold War's end and contemporary cases after 9/11. The authors continue by unpacking the most recent "revolutions"-the International Criminal Court and the "Responsibility to Protect"-as well as such core challenges as displacement camps, infectious diseases, eco-refugees, and marketization. They conclude by evaluating the contemporary system and the prospects for further transformations, identifying scholarly puzzles and the acute operational problems faced by practitioners.

An international and historical look at how parenting choices change in the face of economic inequality Love, Money, and Parenting investigates how economic forces shape how parents raise their children. In countries with increasing economic inequality, parents push harder to ensure their children have a path to security and success. In the United States, this force has transformed the hands-off parenting of the 60s and 70s into a frantic, overscheduled activity. Growing inequality has also resulted in an increasing "parenting gap" between richer and poorer families, raising the disturbing prospect of diminished social mobility. Drawing from the experiences of countries of high and low economic inequality, Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti discuss how changes to public policy can contribute to the ideal of equal opportunity for all.

This new analysis of housing policy in Britain since 1945 challenges conventional notions of the relationship between housing and the welfare state. It argues that housing policy in the years after the Second World War is better understood in terms of market restructuring. However, in more recent years housing has been at the forefront of changes that have drawn it closer to other welfare state services, and the modernization of public services is continuing the trend.

This book makes the case for the welfare state. Nearly every government in the developed world offers some form of social protection, and measures to improve the social and economic well-being of its citizens. However, the provision of welfare is under attack. The critics argue that welfare states are illegitimate, that things are best left to the market, and that welfare has bad effects on the people who receive it. If we need to be reminded why we ought to have welfare, it is because so many people have come think that we should not. Arguments for Welfare is a short, accessible guide to the arguments. Looking at the common ideas and reoccurring traits of welfare policy across the world it discusses: *The Meaning of the 'Welfare State' *The Moral Basis of Social Policy *Social Responsibility *The Limits of Markets *Public Service Provision *The Role of Government With examples from around the world, the book explains why social welfare services should be provided and explores how the principles are applied. Most importantly, it argues for the welfare state's continued value to society. Arguments for Welfare is an ideal primer for practitioners keen to get to grips with the fundamentals of social policy and students of social policy, social work, sociology and politics.

In this classic text, pioneering organizational consultant Edwin C. Nevis presents an approach to organizational consulting which is grounded in Gestalt theory. Nevis brings his well-known insight, conceptual clarity and decades of experience to bear on the entire spectrum of concerns facing organizational consultants in a wide variety of settings. Beginning with the development of the Gestalt approach and the "Cycle of Experience" model, Nevis traces the implications of Gestalt theory for such areas as organizational assessment, modes of influence in organizations, dealing with resistance, developing relationships, working at the boundary and the matter of the consultant's presence. The conceptual framework provided in this groundbreaking work gives organizational consultants a powerful tool for understanding and influencing the behavior of organizations, and at the same time invites them to actively partake in the ongoing development of their unique individual styles.

Government investments in social sector has always played an important role in tackling social issues and facilitated in the alleviation of poverty. Hence, budgetary expenditure to be mobilized for such investments needs to be efficiently allocated and utilized to maximize the greatest good. This book focuses on the social sector in India and provides an overview of the sector. The book looks at 15 major Indian states between the year 2000-2011 to see how these states had invested in social sector and whether they had met the criteria of efficient social sector investment. Using stochastic frontier models, the book provides an efficiency norm and making use of this normative estimate, it compares performance across 15 Indian states and suggests important policy implications to improve the future performance of the social sector. The book adopts various quantitative techniques in the analysis and establishes that inefficient and inappropriate allocation of inputs was made in both health and education sectors. The book suggests that such problems and future challenges could be overcome by an appropriate mix of emphasis in different activities. This book will provide insight for those who want to learn more about how to build the capacity of the social sector in more efficient manner by exploring the social sector of India.

With about one half of all marriages ending in divorce today, it is safe to say that nearly everyone will be or has been affected by divorce in some way. For many, it does not mean the end to a family. Focusing on the consequences of divorce for children, The Postdivorce Family examines the stressors that divorce can create; adjustment problems among children of divorce; the issue of resilience for children; and individual differences in the psychological adjustment to divorce. The authors also examine the parents? responsibilities after divorce, including custody issues, child support orders, and nonresidential parenting. This book concludes with a section that explores the effects of a high divorce rate in society, including how the prevalence of divorce has changed the family form and structural factors that have contributed to various social problems. With this volume, the authors hope to incite analysis and reflection of the issues surrounding divorce and their implications for public policy. This book integrates the empirical research and policy perspectives of several scholars in various disciplines including psychology, sociology, human development, law, and social work.

This timely book assesses how Europe's welfare states have dealt with the challenges of globalization and the financial crisis. It asks whether the European Union has adopted a general strategy for dealing with four major threats to the sustainable development of European societies: the employability of a growing number of redundant workers, an ageing population, low birth rates and the persistent problem of gender inequality. The book will be an important read for social policy scholars, particularly those focusing on European welfare states, how they differ and lessons to be learnt from them. It also highlights key lessons from a broad range of case studies to help policymakers in understanding how and where improvements may be made in the future.

What factors lay behind the rehabilitation of central city districts across the world? Set against the contexts of international transformations in a post-industrial postmodern society, this book examines the creation and self-creation of a new middle class of professional and managerial workers associated with the process of gentrification. These are amongst the privileged members in the growing polarisation of urban society. The book examines their impact on central housing markets, retailing and leisure spaces in the inner city. Taking as its focus six large canadian cities, the author identifies a distinctive cultural new class of urbane social and cultural professionals inspired in part by the critical youth movements of the 1960s for whom old inner city neighbourhoods served as oppositional sites to assail the boureois suburbs. The study looks at their close links with reform movements, neighbourhood activism and a welfare state that often provided their employment, in a progressive aesthetisation of central city spaces since the 1980s. The New Middle Class and the Remaking of the Central City offers the first detailed and comparitive study of gentrification which locates the phenomenon in broader historical and theoretical contexts.

This book, first published in 1988, provides an overview of the diverse work that was being done in applied and theoretical environmental and resource economics. Some essays reflect upon the background of the work of John Krutilla, one of the founders of Resources for the Future and a leading scholar of environmental economics, and the development of the field to date. Other essays examine and convey findings on particular resource problems and theoretical issues and resource policies and the practice of applied welfare economics. This title will be of interest to students of economics and environmental studies.

This book examines the long term impact of service reform in children's mental health, focusing on comprehensive state and local initiatives to improve care for children with serious behavioral health and their families to illustrate how programmatic and contextual forces influence policy and practice in this area, and inform readers about strategies employed by policy makers, administrators and advocates to develop and sustain effective systems of care. This book looks at Virginia's effort to reform care for at-risk youth, as well as the transformational initiatives of six states and several localities. Using a comprehensive ecological framework, the authors focus on a statewide transformation of services for children/youth with serious emotional and behavioral challenges to enhance understanding of the course and consequences of system change efforts over an extended period of time. Attention is given to the impact of this reform on individual children and families, and local communities as well as the Commonwealth. Using data from states' and localities' efforts to develop comprehensive systems of care for children and families, this book enhances understanding of the dynamics of large-scale human service reform efforts. It describes how political, economic, social, cultural, and technological forces have shaped policy and practice, offer lessons learned from these ambitious reform initiatives, and provide guidance for those interested in improving care for vulnerable children and their families. This book examines the long-term impact of reform legislation, employing a multi-modal approach to enrich understanding of this ambitious reform effort. Examples are provided to illustrate how CSA and other systems of care have impacted individual children and families as well as the interplay of local community dynamics and macro level policy and political processes. This book also offers the first-hand perspectives of individual consumers and families, child advocates, community based program providers, and local and state wide administrators and policymakers. By combining these multiple perspectives the authors provide a comprehensive perspective on the issues of child mental health services and related reform efforts.

In the 1960s, America set out to end poverty. Policy-makers put forth an unprecedented package of legislation, funding poverty programs and empowering the poor through ineffectual employment-related education and training. However, these handouts produced little change, and efforts to provide education and job-training proved inconsequential, boasting only a 2.8 percent decrease in the poverty rate since 1965. Decades after the War on Poverty began, many of its programs failed. Only one thing really worked to help end poverty-and that was work itself, the centerpiece of welfare reform in 1996. Poor No More is a plan to restructure poverty programs, prioritizing jobs above all else. Traditionally, job placement programs stemmed from non-profit organizations or government agencies. However, America Works, the first for-profit job placement venture founded by Peter Cove, has the highest employee retention rate in the greater New York City area, even above these traditional agencies. When the federal government embraced the work-first ideal, inspired by the success of America Works, welfare rolls plummeted from 12.6 million to 4.7 million nationally within one decade. Poor No More is a paradigm-shifting work that guides the reader through the evolution of America's War on Poverty and urges policy-makers to eliminate training and education programs that waste time and money and to adopt a work-first model, while providing job-seekers with the tools and life lessons essential to finding and maintaining employment.

In the 1960s, America set out to end poverty. Policy-makers put forth an unprecedented package of legislation, funding poverty programs and empowering the poor through ineffectual employment-related education and training. However, these handouts produced little change, and efforts to provide education and job-training proved inconsequential, boasting only a 2.8 percent decrease in the poverty rate since 1965. Decades after the War on Poverty began, many of its programs failed. Only one thing really worked to help end poverty-and that was work itself, the centerpiece of welfare reform in 1996. Poor No More is a plan to restructure poverty programs, prioritizing jobs above all else. Traditionally, job placement programs stemmed from non-profit organizations or government agencies. However, America Works, the first for-profit job placement venture founded by Peter Cove, has the highest employee retention rate in the greater New York City area, even above these traditional agencies. When the federal government embraced the work-first ideal, inspired by the success of America Works, welfare rolls plummeted from 12.6 million to 4.7 million nationally within one decade. Poor No More is a paradigm-shifting work that guides the reader through the evolution of America's War on Poverty and urges policy-makers to eliminate training and education programs that waste time and money and to adopt a work-first model, while providing job-seekers with the tools and life lessons essential to finding and maintaining employment.

We are often told that mean welfare is what the public wants. Whether or not that's true, this book encourages us to at least be honest about what that entails. It explores how diverse welfare users navigate the personal and practical hurdles of Australia's so-called social security system, where benefits are deliberately meagre and come with strings attached. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a region of Sydney known for ethnic diversity and socio-economic disadvantage, Emma Mitchell brings her own experience of belonging to a poor family long reliant on welfare to her research. This book shows the different cultural resources that people bring to welfare encounters with a sensitivity and subtlety that are often missing in both sympathetic and cynical accounts of life on welfare.

This collection of original essays explores the myriad expressions of austerity since the 2008 financial crisis. Case studies drawn from Canada, Australia and the European Union provide extensive comparative analysis of fiscal consolidation and the varied political responses against austerity. Contributions examine such themes as privatization, class mobilization and resistance, the crisis of liberal democracy and the rise of the far right. The potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in shaping future austerity and alternatives is signalled. Given the rapidly shifting terrain, this comprehensive handbook provides important insights into a complex and fast-changing period of politics and policy.

Singapore's successful public housing programme is a source of political legitimacy for the ruling People's Action Party. Beng-Huat Chua accounts for the success of public housing in Singapore and draws out lessons for other nations. Housing in Singapore, he explains in this incisive analysis, is seen neither as a consumer good (as in the US) nor as a social right (as in the social democracies of Europe). The author goes on to look at the ways in which Singapore's planners have dealt with the problems of creating communities in a modern urban environment. He concludes that the success of the public housing programme has done much for Singapore.

Scholarly yet readable, this second volume examines the major content areas where family life education is practiced: marriage enrichment, parent education, sex education, and aging, among others. In each section, the authors offer a critical and succinct introduction to the subject area, provide literature sources, and discuss current educational practices. They also address issues of age, gender, and ethnicity. In addition, the authors identify areas where further work needs to be done and offer suggestions for new directions, thus assisting program developers and leaders in the improvement of their practice.

Seki presents an ethnography of uncertainty and precarity experienced by people in urban, rural, and transnational, communities in the Philippines as a case study of social protection without the possibility of a robust welfare state. He deals with topics including urban poverty, environmental degradation, and transnational migration. Throughout these chapters, Seki elaborates on the modes of security and protection that people living at the margins of global capitalism create through mobilizing their sociality and networks. He traces the emerging configuration of "the social," a collectivity and connectedness that ensures a sense of security in life among people. The social can be defined as an idea or institution, which had enabled formal and impersonal solidarity such as that which provided the underpinnings of the modern welfare states of the West during the mid-20th century. In the twenty-first century the social in this context is experiencing a fundamental reconfiguration as it faces deepening insecurity, risk, and the precariousness of the post-Welfare State or post-Fordist regime. What are the contours of the social emerging in an "unlikely place" of the Philippines amid contemporary insecurity and precariousness? A vital resource for scholars of the Philippines, and of anthropology and social policy in the Global South more widely.

This book offers insights into the development of social welfare policies by exploring the interconnections between policies and practice throughout history. It challenges tacitly accepted arguments that favour particular approaches to welfare, such as conditionality and eligibility. It provides examples of enduring social assumptions which influence the way we perform social welfare, such as the equivocal position of women in social welfare and the unintended consequences of reforms such as Universal Credit. By identifying continuities in welfare policy, practice and thought, it offers the potential for the development of new thinking, policy making and practice.

Across Europe and beyond, changing family living arrangements have stimulated popular and academic debate about the impact of socio-demographic trends on family well-being and the challenges they present for governments. This path-breaking book explores the complex relationship between family change and public policy responses in the enlarged European Union. After comparing the major socio-economic changes of the late 20th century in Europe and their impact on family and working life, the book analyses both the reactions of policy makers and users as they respond to change and the perceptions families have of public policy and its relative importance in their lives. The book combines broad-brush scrutiny of demographic trends, policy contexts and debates in contemporary European societies with a fine-grain analysis of the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of families. Five key questions are addressed: How are families changing in European societies? What are the challenges raised for society by changing family structures? How are policy makers and users responding to family change? Does family policy matter? What can policy actors learn from experience in other countries? Fami

The success of the Nordic welfare state is well known, but the key drivers of its remarkable expansion are not. This book explores the relationships between citizens that constitute the normative groundwork of Nordic societies, arguing that the quality of relations steers welfare development. Chapters explore relations of reciprocity, trust and equality that characterize the relational Nordic welfare state. Through an interdisciplinary approach, expert contributors consider the establishment and growth of welfare institutions in Nordic countries and evaluate the neoliberal challenge that these institutions have faced since the 1980s. This book reveals how and why Nordic societies may find a path of balanced and sustainable development. Timely and insightful, this book will be indispensable for scholars and students of social and political sciences, as well as jurisprudence, especially those interested in welfare states. Contributors include: M. Berg, S. Blomgren, P. Borioni, S. Hanninen, M. Jokela, P. Kettunen, M. Kivipelto, T. Kotkas, P.H. Kristensen, K.-M. Lehtela, K. Lilja, E. Moen, M. Perlinski, P. Saikkonen, S.F. Schram, K. Tuori, N. Witoszek