Demonstrating the relevance of theory to political and policy debates and practice, this lively and accessible second edition helps students to grasp the real-life implications of social policy theory. It considers contemporary shifts in welfare ideologies in the context of global austerity and the UK Coalition and Conservative governments (2010 onwards). With a new chapter focusing on critical debates about disability, sexuality and the environment, this textbook also includes fresh reflections on migration, social security conditionality, resilience, social justice and human rights. Key features include: • real-life examples from UK and international politics and policy to explain and illuminate the significance of social policy theory; • key questions for student reflection and engagement; • and bulleted chapter summaries and annotated further readings at the end of every chapter. This new edition is a dynamic, engaging and valuable introduction to the key theoretical perspectives and concepts deployed in social policy.

Poverty remains one of the most urgent issues of our time. In this fully updated edition of her important and widely acclaimed intervention on the topic, Ruth Lister introduces readers to the meaning and experience of poverty in the contemporary world. The book opens with a lucid discussion of current debates around the definition and measurement of poverty in industrialized societies, before embarking on a multifaceted exploration of its varied interpretations. Drawing on thinking in the field of international development and real-life accounts, the book emphasizes key aspects of poverty such as powerlessness, lack of voice, insecurity, loss of dignity and respect. Ruth Lister embraces the relational, cultural, symbolic as well as material dimensions of poverty, and makes important links between poverty and other concepts such as capabilities, agency, human rights and citizenship. She concludes by making the case for reframing the politics of poverty as a claim for redistribution and recognition. The result is a rich and insightful analysis, which deepens and broadens our understanding of poverty today. It will be essential reading for all students in the social sciences, as well as researchers, activists and policymakers.

A central theme of this lively and accessible text is that theory helps us to understand policy, politics and practice. The book combines an in-depth exploration of selected theoretical perspectives and concepts with the student-friendly format of the Understanding Welfare series. The author uses diverse examples from contemporary social policy to help theoretical arguments come alive. It should provide a key text for 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates and postgraduates in social policy and related subjects, as well as their teachers.

Poverty remains one of the most urgent issues of our time. In this fully updated edition of her important and widely acclaimed intervention on the topic, Ruth Lister introduces readers to the meaning and experience of poverty in the contemporary world. The book opens with a lucid discussion of current debates around the definition and measurement of poverty in industrialized societies, before embarking on a multifaceted exploration of its varied interpretations. Drawing on thinking in the field of international development and real-life accounts, the book emphasizes key aspects of poverty such as powerlessness, lack of voice, insecurity, loss of dignity and respect. Ruth Lister embraces the relational, cultural, symbolic as well as material dimensions of poverty, and makes important links between poverty and other concepts such as capabilities, agency, human rights and citizenship. She concludes by making the case for reframing the politics of poverty as a claim for redistribution and recognition. The result is a rich and insightful analysis, which deepens and broadens our understanding of poverty today. It will be essential reading for all students in the social sciences, as well as researchers, activists and policymakers.

This is a collectively written, inter-disciplinary, thematic cross-national study which combines conceptual, theoretical, empirical and policy material in an ambitious and innovative way to explore a key concept in contemporary European political, policy and academic debates. The first part of the book clarifies the various ways that the concept of citizenship has developed historically and is understood today in a range of Western European welfare states. It elaborates on the contemporary framing of debates and struggles around citizenship. This provides a framework for three policy studies, looking at: migration and multiculturalism; the care of young children; and home-based childcare and transnational dynamics. The book is unusual in weaving together the topics of migration and childcare and in studying these issues together within a gendered citizenship framework. It also demonstrates the value of a multi-level conceptualisation of citizenship, stretching from the domestic sphere through the national and European levels to the global. The book is aimed at students of social policy, sociology, European studies, women's studies and politics and at researchers/scholars/policy analysts in the areas of citizenship, gender, welfare states and migration.

Poverty remains one of the most urgent issues of our time. In this stimulating new textbook, Ruth Lister introduces students to the meaning and experience of poverty in the contemporary world.

The book opens with a lucid discussion of current debates around the definition and measurement of poverty in industrialized societies, before embarking on a thought-provoking and multi-faceted exploration of its conceptualization. It draws on thinking in the field of international development and real life accounts to emphasize aspects of poverty such as powerlessness, lack of voice, loss of dignity and respect.

In so doing, the book embraces the relational, cultural, symbolic as well as material dimensions of poverty and makes important links between poverty and other concepts like well-being, capabilities, social divisions and exclusion, agency and citizenship. It concludes by making the case for reframing the politics of poverty as a claim for redistribution "and" recognition. The result is a rich and insightful analysis, which deepens and broadens our understanding of poverty today.

This book will be essential reading for all students in the social sciences, as well as researchers, activists and policy-makers.

This key text from the best-selling "Understanding Welfare" series provides an unique understanding of the main theoretical perspectives and concepts used in social policy in a student-friendly format. A central theme is that theory helps us to understand policy, politics and practice. Written by a leading author in UK social policy, the book uses diverse examples from contemporary social policy to help theoretical arguments come alive and uses summaries and additional resources to help students and their teachers in their learning. It will be essential reading for 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates and postgraduates in social policy, social theory and related subjects, as well as their teachers.

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The second edition of this classic text substantially revises and extends the original, takes account of theoretical and policy developments, and enhances its international scope. Drawing on a range of disciplines and literatures, the book provides an unusually broad account of citizenship. It recasts traditional thinking about the concept and pinpoints important theoretical issues and their political and policy implications for women. Themes of inclusion and exclusion (at national and international levels), rights and participation, inequality and difference, are thus all brought to the fore in the development of a woman-friendly, gender-inclusive, theory and praxis of citizenship. Wide-ranging, stimulating and accessible, this is a ground-breaking book that provides new insights for both theory and policy.