In this cutting edge collection authors examine risk thinking in a range of policy and practice contexts, including special needs education, digital exclusion, domestic violence and abuse, child protection and youth work. Four key interlinking themes emerge from the chapters. The first is how, within a neoliberal context, risk agendas can be used to justify and normalise the rationing and targeting of services. The second theme demonstrates that the use of such agendas can in themselves redefine what is constituted as social problems, and how they are understood and responded to in practice. Thirdly, it is clear welfare practice itself is being re-structured and re-theorised to adapt and conform to the new definitions and understandings that risk thinking has brought about. Finally, the fourth theme illustrates how the use of risk as a negative organising discourse is not inevitable but, in different contexts, can create positive outcomes for service users, practitioners and society.

This collection explores how the dominant risk agenda is being embedded across welfare policy and practice contexts in order to redefine social problems and those who experience them. Identities of 'risky' or 'safe', 'responsible' or 'irresponsible' are being increasingly applied, not only to everyday life but also to professional practice.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The first major book of feminist critical theory published in the United States is now available in an expanded second edition. This widely cited pioneering work presents a new introduction by the editor and a new bibliography of feminist critical theory from the last decade. This book has become indispensable to an understanding of feminist theory. Contributors include Cheri Register, Dorin Schumacher, Marcia Holly, Barbara Currier Bell, Carol Ohmann, Carolyn Heilbrun, Catherine Stimpson, and Barbara A. White."