Bristol University Press

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Today’s academic and research institutions recognise the importance of diverse research teams in health and biomedical science, in terms of the business case, social justice and the common good.

This ‘go-to’ book familiarises readers with the key equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues in relation to research careers and researcher development. Bringing together the challenges and solutions to EDI matters with an evidence-based approach in one volume, the book offers practical strategies and interventions for academic and research settings.

This is an essential guide for equality planning team members, researchers, HRM officers and managers across academia and research.

What are the building blocks of the new societal architectures after COVID-19? What are the evolving lifestyle patterns, social connections and relationality, and what can biographical research bring to explore these unprecedented societal circumstances?

This first book in the new series Advances in Biographical Research focuses on the place of biographical research in analysing and shaping social futures characterised by physical distancing and isolation, social fragmentation, trauma and vulnerability, including breaks in biographical trajectories.

Written by experienced and early career researchers, it demonstrates how biographical research responds to new societal architectures: theoretically and empirically.

Despite recent achievements in the South Korean economy and development within welfare institutions, new forms of precarious work continue to prevail.

This book introduces the concept of ‘melting labour’, which refers to the blurring of boundaries between traditional forms of work and workplace and the dissolution of standard employment relationships. Presenting a theoretical framework at the intersection of ‘melting labour’ and institutional protection of workers, it addresses how and why the Korean welfare state has failed to protect precarious workers.

Based on rich, in-depth interviews with over 80 precarious workers in Korea, from subcontracted manufacturing workers to platform workers, it provides a real depiction of how workers lose control over their lives and experience precariousness in labour markets.

In recent years, a wave of reforms known as ‘nudges’ or ‘behavioural interventions’ have emerged in public policy and administration. ‘Nudge’ policies are created to lightly influence groups in society to change their behaviour, using behavioural insights to solve complex policy problems. Generally, behavioural approaches focus on the psychology underlying the implementation and effects of policies in practice.

First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics journal, this book situates these reforms within a broader tradition of methodological individualism.

With contributions from international scholars, it demonstrates that when behavioural policies expand their focus beyond the individual, they have the potential to better understand, investigate, and shape social outcomes.

Can our research create conditions for people to flourish? What kinds of questions do we ask about the social world and how knowledge is produced? Does our approach to research itself matter?

This edited collection explores and illustrates the nature of research for social justice. Drawing on a diverse range of social research projects, it examines research with and for young people, marginalised communities and those who work to further social justice and human rights goals.

Providing key examples of the tools, processes and outcomes of research relevant to social justice, including where and how these frameworks can be used in the design and execution of research, this is a much-needed intervention to social research methodology.

Based on a comparative study covering 15 Western European countries, this edited volume examines the responses of long-term care homes for older people to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It analyses the preparedness of governments and residences and the structural weaknesses revealed and exacerbated by the crisis, such as staff shortages, the precariousness of employment in the sector, and the deficient coordination between the health and caring sectors.

By examining the governance structures of the care home sector and their performance before and during the crisis, the book highlights the institutional, organisational, and management challenges facing care homes, both in continuing to provide services to an increasingly ageing population and in the event of future public health crises.

Drawing on international case studies from emerging economies and developing countries including South Africa, India, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, Indonesia, China and Russia, this book examines the rise, nature and effectiveness of recent developments in social policy in the Global South.

By analysing these new emerging trends, the book aims to understand how they can contribute to meaningful change and whether they could offer alternative solutions to the social, economic and environmental policy challenges facing low-income countries within a contemporary global context.

It pays particular attention to reforms and innovations relating to the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the move away from a welfare state, towards a ‘welfare multitude’, in which new actors, such as civil society organisations, play an increasingly important role in social policy.

This book offers a holistic view of Julio Boltvinik’s vast and important work on poverty conceptualisation and measurement. While well known to Spanish-speaking audiences, this volume brings these works together to offer access for English-speaking audiences for the first time.

The book provides the foundations, application and empirical examples of Boltvinik’s Integrated Poverty Measurement Method, which could potentially transform poverty narratives globally as it has done in Mexico.

Deeply critical of available poverty approaches, it provides a challenging and radically new way of conceiving and measuring poverty, offering the only multidimensional poverty measurement method which includes time poverty and allows all Aggregate Poverty Measures to be fully calculated.

In its 75th anniversary year, this book examines the history, evolution and future of the NHS.

With contributions from leading researchers and experts across a range of fields, such as finance, health policy, primary and secondary care, quality and patient safety, health inequalities and patient and public involvement, it explores the history of the NHS drawing on narrative, evaluative and analytical approaches.

The book frames its analysis around the four key axes from which the NHS has evolved: governance, centralisation and decentralisation, public and private, and professional and managerial.

It addresses the salient factors which shape the direction and pace of change in the NHS. As such, the book provides a long-term critical review of the NHS and key themes in health policy.

Building on the work of the previous volumes in the Sex and Intimacy in Later Life series, this book explores how resexualisation may take place in later life.

Drawing on transdisciplinary and international content, it provides a theoretically and experientially informed overview and discussion of resexualisation, highlighting important areas of research in a nascent area of study.

This volume covers a range of sexual identities and ageing populations, blending cultural representations and current research to highlight the possible forms and practices that can lead to the creative enabling of pleasure.

This book firmly positions lived experience-led expertise as a unique and compelling form of knowledge in decolonising and disrupting research, teaching and advocacy.

Based on the insights of people with first-hand experiences, each chapter presents unique accounts and reflections on a diverse range of social justice issues. Together, the authors’ perspectives centre lived experiences in the production of knowledge, challenge outsider-imposed views, and create new research and writing norms. They demonstrate that, when lived experience experts lead the way, their knowledge of how to address social injustices can enrich, transform and decolonise research, teaching and advocacy.

This collection is an invaluable resource for academic and community-based researchers, practitioners, advocates, educators, policy makers, students and people whose lived experiences and views continue to be marginalised across diverse settings.

The movement of policy is a core feature of contemporary education reform. Many different concepts, including policy transfer, borrowing and lending, travelling, diffusion and mobility, have been deployed to study how and why policy moves across jurisdictions, scales of governance, policy sectors or organisations. However, the underlying theoretical perspectives and the foundational assumptions of different approaches to policy movement remain insufficiently discussed.

To address this gap, this book places front and center questions of theory, ontology, epistemology and method related to policy movement. It explores a wide diversity of approaches to help understand the policy movement phenomena, providing a useful guide on global studies in education, as well as insights into the future of this dynamic area of work.

This book firmly positions lived experience-led expertise as a unique and compelling form of knowledge in decolonising and disrupting research, teaching and advocacy.

Based on the insights of people with first-hand experiences, each chapter presents unique accounts and reflections on a diverse range of social justice issues. Together, the authors’ perspectives centre lived experiences in the production of knowledge, challenge outsider-imposed views, and create new research and writing norms. They demonstrate that, when lived experience experts lead the way, their knowledge of how to address social injustices can enrich, transform and decolonise research, teaching and advocacy.

This collection is an invaluable resource for academic and community-based researchers, practitioners, advocates, educators, policy makers, students and people whose lived experiences and views continue to be marginalised across diverse settings.

Children today grow up in an increasingly volatile, complex and uncertain world. Theirs is a generation disempowered from steering their lives while society’s systems are failing to provide the support they need. Yet, a country only prospers when its children – from all walks of life – thrive, meaning that the United Kingdom now faces some consequential choices.

Raising the Nation builds a compelling case showing why we must nurture smart, strong and kind children to one day inherit the stewardship of society. Setting out big public policy ideas, enhanced by contributions from academic and campaigning experts, as well as those with lived experience, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, singer and activist Charlotte Church, and ex-prime minister of Denmark and former CEO of Save the Children International Helle Thorning-Schmidt, this book is a manifesto to deliver our brightest possible future. Reframing political success, it shows why we must prioritise child-centred policies to ensure the future strength of our communities, environment and economy.

This book aims to make clear the interconnections between social policy and criminal justice practice, bringing together key social policy concepts within a framework for reducing reoffending rates. The book focuses on the key social policy issues of employment, health and mental health, low income and poverty, housing and family. It shows how understanding and treating these as issues interconnected to criminal justice outcomes can and does lead to improvements in criminal justice practice.

This book enables students and criminal justice practitioners to understand how a social policy focus can better inform practice with those involved in the criminal justice system. It features:

• a 10 point summary of key points for learning;

• chapter heading questions to support independent learning;

• tables and graphs to illustrate the text.

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

This book examines the idea and practice of co-creation in public services. Informed by practical action, lived experience and research from 10 countries across Europe, including the UK, it shines new light on the theory and reality of co-creation by conceptualising it in terms of human rights, social justice and social innovation.

Focusing on human dimensions, the book presents real life examples in public services as diverse as social care, health, work activation, housing and criminal justice. It also highlights the ways digital technologies can accelerate or hinder co-creation.

The book confronts a paradox at the heart of co-creation: standardisation and inflexibility in planning and resourcing, or ‘concrete-ness’, counters the ‘elasticity’ required to sustain co-creation in complex contexts.

Racism has no place in our society, we are told. In fact, its role is crucial but today public debate on race in Britain is constrained by a facile postracialism. Its features are colourblind narratives, an ‘anti-antiracist’ discourse and erasure of Black working class identities.

This book examines and challenges the marginalisation of critical race analysis in debates on social justice. It reconceptualises Critical Race Theory from a British standpoint, foregrounding the concept of ‘permanent racism’ and its importance in understanding race as a fully social relationship.

Highlighting the need to decolonise public debate and antiracism itself, the book provides an essential resource for academics, students and activists who wish to decolonise public debates on racism, social class, education and social policy.

What does mothering mean in different cultures and societies? This book extensively applies biographical and narrative research methods to mothering from international perspectives.

This edited collection engages with changing attitudes and approaches to mothering from women’s individual biographical experiences, illuminating how socially anticipated tasks of mothering shaped through interlinking state, media, religious beliefs and broader society are reflected in their identities and individual life choices. Considering trust, rapport, reflexivity and self-care, this collection advances methodological practice in the study of mothers, carers and childless women’s lives.

Are you struggling with introductory statistics? Are you trying to get ahead in your course, but feel like you're going around in circles? This short and down-to-earth textbook will give you the knowledge and confidence you need to get acquainted with the fundamentals of statistical concepts and techniques.

Assuming no prior knowledge, and avoiding jargon and dense equations, it will ease your anxiety and demonstrate the value of good descriptive analysis. With a focus on practical use and outcomes, the book:

• provides an accessible grounding in the key elements of descriptive statistical analysis;

• has a clear focus on techniques to describe patterns and relationships in your data;

• provides helpful summaries and exercises, and a glossary of terms to reinforce understanding.

With over 20 years’ experience in teaching statistics at all levels and to students from many different subject areas, Patrick White has written an invaluable guide to key concepts and basic statistical techniques. Regardless of your background, this is the book that will help you interpret and use numbers to make the breakthrough that you need to achieve success in your university course.

Social work education and interventions with Black African families are frequently impaired because of discrimination, racism and the structuring priorities of neoliberalism.

Rooted in rich and fascinating empirical work with practitioners and educators, this urgent, scholarly and accessible book emphasises that ‘Black Lives Matter’. Intent on nurturing more progressive and pluralistic practices in pedagogy and practice, the book is a timely and significant contribution seeking to remake social work approaches to issues of ‘race’, racism and social justice.

Are you struggling with introductory statistics? Are you trying to get ahead in your course, but feel like you're going around in circles? This short and down-to-earth textbook will give you the knowledge and confidence you need to get acquainted with the fundamentals of statistical concepts and techniques.

Assuming no prior knowledge, and avoiding jargon and dense equations, it will ease your anxiety and demonstrate the value of good descriptive analysis. With a focus on practical use and outcomes, the book:

• provides an accessible grounding in the key elements of descriptive statistical analysis;

• has a clear focus on techniques to describe patterns and relationships in your data;

• provides helpful summaries and exercises, and a glossary of terms to reinforce understanding.

With over 20 years’ experience in teaching statistics at all levels and to students from many different subject areas, Patrick White has written an invaluable guide to key concepts and basic statistical techniques. Regardless of your background, this is the book that will help you interpret and use numbers to make the breakthrough that you need to achieve success in your university course.

Racism has no place in our society, we are told. In fact, its role is crucial but today public debate on race in Britain is constrained by a facile postracialism. Its features are colourblind narratives, an ‘anti-antiracist’ discourse and erasure of Black working class identities.

This book examines and challenges the marginalisation of critical race analysis in debates on social justice. It reconceptualises Critical Race Theory from a British standpoint, foregrounding the concept of ‘permanent racism’ and its importance in understanding race as a fully social relationship.

Highlighting the need to decolonise public debate and antiracism itself, the book provides an essential resource for academics, students and activists who wish to decolonise public debates on racism, social class, education and social policy.

Written by a well-respected health and public policy expert, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of the under-appreciated role of public health policy in the United States’ medical care industry.

The book offers students:

• an introduction to the fundamentals of health policy, with comparative perspectives from other countries;

• analysis of major health care programmes, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and regulatory programs;

• reflections on issues around access, quality, cost, and the ethics of provision.

By drawing comparisons between the US and other countries, it deepens our understanding of health policy in the US, where it is headed next, and what it might learn from other systems.

Written by a well-respected health and public policy expert, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of the under-appreciated role of public health policy in the United States’ medical care industry.

The book offers students:

• an introduction to the fundamentals of health policy, with comparative perspectives from other countries;

• analysis of major health care programmes, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and regulatory programs;

• reflections on issues around access, quality, cost, and the ethics of provision.

By drawing comparisons between the US and other countries, it deepens our understanding of health policy in the US, where it is headed next, and what it might learn from other systems.

Rather than being seen simply as social policy implementors, in recent decades there has been increasing recognition of social workers as professionals with unique knowledge and insights to contribute to policy formulation and social justice.

This book offers a path-breaking, evidence-based theoretical framework for understanding why social workers engage in policy, both as professionals and citizens, and the impact of their actions. Drawing on concepts from social work and the political, sociological and policy sciences, the authors set out the implications of this framework for research, education and practice.

Media representations of ageing play a role in stereotype formation and even reinforce them. Encountering these stereotypes can negatively impact the self-esteem, health status, physical wellbeing and cognitive performance of older people.

This international collection examines different dimensions of ageing and ageism in a range of media. Chapters include explorations of the UK media during the COVID-19 pandemic; age, gender and mental health in Ghana; advertising in Brazil; magazines in Canada; Taiwanese newspapers; comics, graphic novels and more.

Bringing together leading scholars, this book critically considers differences in media portrayals and how older adults use and interact with the media.

This book explores the rationale, methodologies, and results of arts-based approaches in social work research today.

It is the first dedicated analysis of its kind, providing practical examples of when to choose arts-based research, how the arts are used by social work researchers and integrated with additional methods, and ways to evaluate its efficacy. The multiple examples of arts-based research in social work in this book reveal how arts methods are inherently connected to the resilience and creativity of research participants, social workers, and social work researchers.

With international contributions from experts in their fields, this is a welcome overview of the arts in social work for anyone connected to the field.

India’s ageing population is growing rapidly; over 60s constitute 7 per cent of the total population and this is projected to triple in the next four decades.

Drawing on a wide range of studies, this book examines living arrangements across India and their impact on the care and wellbeing of older people. Addressing access to welfare initiatives and changing cultural norms including co-residence, family care and migration, it reveals the diversity of living arrangements, cultural customs and the welfare issues facing older adults in India.

This book offers a crucial examination for practitioners, researchers and policymakers seeking to understand and develop the infrastructure required to meet the needs of older people in India.

Many policy analysts – and citizens interested in public issues – believe that rigorous thought should be uncontaminated by values, which are merely subjective. Policy analysis, however, is about what is worth doing and therefore inherently values based.

This accessible book reveals the damage that this contradiction inflicts on policy analysis and society. It also demonstrates the real-world failings of various influential alternatives to the ‘value-free’ ideal. By showing that values are amenable to critical analysis, this book provides a solid foundation for a comprehensive approach that reimagines the scope and role of policy analysis in contemporary society.

Underpinned by the idea of the right to a ‘basic minimum’, welfare states are a major feature of many societies. However, the lived experiences of persons seeking and receiving welfare payments can often be overlooked.

This book seeks to remedy this omission by honouring lived experience as valuable, insightful and necessary. It draws on qualitative interviews with 19 people receiving various working age welfare payments in Ireland to explore stigma, social reciprocity and the notions of the deserving and undeserving poor, and to analyse welfare conditionality in the Irish context.

Breaking new ground, this book offers original research findings which contest and inform policy both within Ireland and beyond.

Drawing on interviews with journalists, senior police and press officers, this is the first ethnographic study of crime news reporting in the UK for over 25 years. It explores changes over the last 40 years, including the aftermath of the Leveson Report and the breakdown of relations between the Met and the mainstream media.

The book argues that new investigative journalism non-profits have been slowly repairing the field of crime journalism and reporting with – and not on – stigmatised communities.

Nevertheless, the police continue to control the flow of policing news to the press and the public. Despite the radical transformation of the Fourth Estate, in the case of the police it has never been so restricted in its ability to speak truth to power.

This original collection explores how critical gerontology can make sense of old age inequalities to inform and improve social work research, policy and practice and empower older people.

With examples of practice-facing research, this book engages with key debates on age-related human rights and social justice issues. The critical and conceptual focus will expand the horizons of those who work with older people, addressing the current challenges, issues and opportunities that they face.

Is transparency a necessary condition to build and restore citizen and civil society trust in governance and democracy?

Throughout Europe, there is a growing demand for effective forms of citizen engagement and decentralisation in policy-making to increase trust and engage increasingly diverse populations.

This volume addresses the relationship between trust and transparency in the context of multi-level governance. Drawing on fieldwork from the UK, France and Germany, this comparative analysis examines different efforts to build trust between key actors involved in decision-making at the sub-national level. It outlines the challenges of delivering this agenda and explores the paradox that trust might require transparency, yet in some instances transparency may undermine trust.

The last few decades have seen an increase in the migration of ageing people from richer Northern and Western countries to poorer Southern and Eastern countries. This book seeks to understand the motivation behind retirement migration and how precarity in later life contributes to this trend.

Drawing on accounts of retirees from different nations, the book examines how welfare policies in their home country and their country of migration interact to shape their experiences of migration. It shows how ageism impacts social precarity across different social classes, and across economic, social and health dimensions. It also evaluates how local and global systems of inequalities influence retirement migrants’ experience, providing both opportunities and constraints that differ across countries.

The voluntary sector was central to the COVID-19 response: fulfilling basic needs, highlighting new and existing inequalities and coordinating action where the state had been slow to respond.

This book curates rigorous academic, policy and practice-based research into the response and adaptation of the UK voluntary sector during the pandemic. Contributions explore the ways the sector responded to new challenges and the longer-term consequences for the sector’s workforce, volunteers and beneficiaries.

Written for researchers and practitioners, this book considers what the voluntary sector can learn from the pandemic to maximise its contribution in the event of future crises.

Today’s economics offers us a far too narrow perspective on the role that paid work plays in our lives, as individuals and as a society.

This book examines the urgent workplace challenges we’re facing today, from automation to AI and climate change, with an interdisciplinary and historical analysis that challenges and broadens the scope of existing economic literature. Exploring the current economic proposals to address these issues, it advocates for a more egalitarian and sustainable future that builds workers’ protections into the very fabric of our economic systems.

This is a resounding call for greater economic social justice and equality at work and a valuable resource for social scientists from fields like heterodox economics, business and sociology.

How do we respond to harm faced by young people beyond their front doors? Can practitioners keep young people safe at school, in their neighbourhoods or with their friends when social care systems are designed to work with families?

The Contextual Safeguarding approach has transformed how policy makers, social care leaders, practitioners and researchers understand harm that happens to young people in their communities and what is required to respond. Since 2015 it has been tested across the UK and internationally. This book shares stories from child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and peer violence about what has been learnt on this journey.

For anyone interested in how we safeguard young people beyond their front doors, this book shows how much we have achieved and raises big questions about what more we need to do to ensure young people are safe – whatever the context.

How do we respond to harm faced by young people beyond their front doors? Can practitioners keep young people safe at school, in their neighbourhoods or with their friends when social care systems are designed to work with families?

The Contextual Safeguarding approach has transformed how policy makers, social care leaders, practitioners and researchers understand harm that happens to young people in their communities and what is required to respond. Since 2015 it has been tested across the UK and internationally. This book shares stories from child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and peer violence about what has been learnt on this journey.

For anyone interested in how we safeguard young people beyond their front doors, this book shows how much we have achieved and raises big questions about what more we need to do to ensure young people are safe – whatever the context.

With a foreword by First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, this book is the first to offer an in-depth look into what makes the Welsh Social Work context unique. It includes the move towards joint children, families and adult provision and the emphasis on early intervention, future generations and partnership considerations.

Covering the subject knowledge required by the Welsh regulator, Social Care Wales, it provides essential reading for students and practising social workers in Wales, and rich contextual analysis for other international social work practitioners and writers. Each chapter includes:

• dialogue on the distinctive ‘Welsh way’ that underpins the nation’s social work approach;

• focus on application: responses and implications for professional practice;

• the ‘giving of voice’ section: demonstrating the key emphasis in Welsh practice of ensuring that multiple stakeholder perspectives are actively heard;

• key resources for further independent exploration of the topics.

Exploring why food aid exists and the deeper causes of food poverty, this book addresses neglected dimensions of traditional food aid and food poverty debates.

It argues that the food aid industry is infused with neoliberal governmentality and shows how food charity upholds Christian ideals and white privilege, maintaining inequalities of class, race, religion and gender. However, it also reveals a sector that is immensely varied, embodying both individualism and mutual aid.

Drawing upon lived experiences, it documents how food sharing amid poverty fosters solidarity and gives rise to alternative modes of food redistribution among communities. By harnessing these alternative ways of being, food aid and communities can be part of movements for economic and racial justice.

What part do the values of growth and prosperity, freedom and justice, security and democracy play in social policy and human welfare? How can we judge the validity of these – the founding principles of Western liberalism – and the policies they shape, as the recipe for progress?

At a time of global ‘permacrisis’, Sebastian Taylor applies his extensive frontline experience working with health systems and healthcare in the Global North and South to assess the concrete impact of contemporary liberal values on our welfare, development and environmental survival.

Drawing on research from around the world, he uses health as an objective metric to assess how effective these policies are for individuals and society as a whole.

What part do the values of growth and prosperity, freedom and justice, security and democracy play in social policy and human welfare? How can we judge the validity of these – the founding principles of Western liberalism – and the policies they shape, as the recipe for progress?

At a time of global ‘permacrisis’, Sebastian Taylor applies his extensive frontline experience working with health systems and healthcare in the Global North and South to assess the concrete impact of contemporary liberal values on our welfare, development and environmental survival.

Drawing on research from around the world, he uses health as an objective metric to assess how effective these policies are for individuals and society as a whole.

The fully updated Short Guide to Town and Country Planning provides a concise introductory overview of the practice of planning for those with little or no prior knowledge. This second edition considers who planners are and what they do, showing how planning – as an art, science and system – has evolved as an organised action of the state.

The book discusses the planning system, processes, legal constructs and approaches, taking into account the recent regulatory changes within the UK nations. Restructured to improve readability, it explores the interactions of government and society with the planning system, and the relationship between urban planning, the environment and placemaking. It encourages the reader to adopt a reflective and inquisitive outlook, and features:

• case study boxes;

• further reading and resources;

• guidance on the recent policy and system updates, including those through devolution.

In the wake of the financial crisis, and with increasing numbers of people in precarious and low paid jobs, there has been a surprising surge of support for populist right-wing political parties who often promote an anti-welfare message. Tougher approaches and welfare chauvinism are on the agenda in many countries, with policies which reduce the welfare state for those seen as undeserving and changes that often disproportionally benefit the rich.

Why are voters seemingly not concerned about growing inequality? Using a mixed-methods approach and newly released data, this book aims to answer this question and to show possible ways forward for welfare states.

Deepening inequalities and wider processes of demographic, economic and social change are altering how people across the Global North move between homes and neighbourhoods over the lifespan.

This book presents a life course framework for understanding how the changing dynamics of people’s family, education, employment and health experiences are deeply intertwined with ongoing shifts in housing behaviour and residential pathways. Particular attention is paid to how these processes help to drive uneven patterns of population change within and across neighbourhoods and localities.

Integrating the latest research from multiple disciplines, the author shows how housing and life course dynamics are together reshaping 21st-century inequalities in ways that demand greater attention from scholars and public policy makers.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic affected all parts of the country, it did not do so equally. Northern England was hit the hardest, exposing more than ever the extent of regional inequalities in health and wealth.

Using original data analysis from a wide range of sources, this book demonstrates how COVID-19 has impacted the country unequally in terms of mortality, health care, mental health, and the economy.

The book provides a striking empirical overview of the impact of the pandemic on regional inequalities and explores why the North fared worse.

It sets out what needs to be learnt from the pandemic to prevent regional inequality growing and to reduce inequalities in health and wealth in the future.

In highly unequal societies such as the UK, where the top 10% take a higher share of disposable income than in most other European countries, many feel resentment towards high earners. On paper, they are doing well, but inequality isn’t even working for them.

Uncomfortably Off reveals that those generally considered to be the most affluent feel anxious about the future and struggle to keep up, or even to stay put. They are starting to doubt their common sense ideas about hard work and meritocracy as work pays less and less and life is becoming more uncomfortable.

This book makes two crucial arguments. First, reducing income inequality will benefit everyone, even those quite near the top. Second, we need to understand the anxieties of high earners to understand their politics. As leading managers and professionals they have disproportionate influence on the institutions that rule over our public life. Their interests are ultimately not that dissimilar from those of the median earner: being able to afford a good quality of life in an ever more expensive and uncertain world.

The hope of this book is to prompt high earners to question accepted truths and long-held beliefs that affect how they see themselves and judge others. In doing so, it seeks to help us all understand why dismissing the concerns of this group will not help in the fight to solve inequality.

For anyone studying childhood or families, a consideration of the state may not always seem obvious, yet a good critical knowledge of politics, social policy and social theory is vital to understanding their impacts upon families’ everyday lives. Accessibly written and assuming no prior understanding, it shows how key concepts, including vulnerability, risk, resilience, safeguarding and wellbeing are socially constructed.

Carefully designed to support learning, it provides students with clear guidance on how to use what they have read when writing academic assignments alongside questions designed to support the development of critical thinking skills.

Covering issues from what the family is within a multicultural society, through issues around poverty, social mobility and life-chances, this book gives students an excellent grounding in matters relating to work with children and families. It features:

• ‘using this chapter’ sections showing how the content can be used in assignments;

• tips on applying critical thinking to books and articles – and how to make use of such thinking in essays;

• further reading.

For anyone studying childhood or families, a consideration of the state may not always seem obvious, yet a good critical knowledge of politics, social policy and social theory is vital to understanding their impacts upon families’ everyday lives. Accessibly written and assuming no prior understanding, it shows how key concepts, including vulnerability, risk, resilience, safeguarding and wellbeing are socially constructed.

Carefully designed to support learning, it provides students with clear guidance on how to use what they have read when writing academic assignments alongside questions designed to support the development of critical thinking skills.

Covering issues from what the family is within a multicultural society, through issues around poverty, social mobility and life-chances, this book gives students an excellent grounding in matters relating to work with children and families. It features:

• ‘using this chapter’ sections showing how the content can be used in assignments;

• tips on applying critical thinking to books and articles – and how to make use of such thinking in essays;

• further reading.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

In the latest edition of Social Policy Review, experts review the leading social policy scholarship from the past year.

The book addresses current issues and critical debates within the field, with a particular focus on intergenerational research. Contributors also explore key social policy and research developments across a wide range of themes, including the impact of COVID-19 on eldercare and homelessness, research into Faith Based Organisations, local social services in Italy and social policies for Autistic adults in England and Wales.

Published in association with the Social Policy Association, this comprehensive volume will be essential reading for students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.

ePUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

This book examines how and why experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Britain varied according to ethnicity.

Drawing from the Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS), the book compares the experiences of ethnic and religious minority groups and White British people in work and finances, housing and communities, health and wellbeing, policing and politics, and racism and discrimination in Britain. Using unrivalled data in terms of population and topic coverage and complete with bespoke graphics, contributors present new evidence of ethnic inequalities and racism, opening them up to debate as crucial social concerns.

Written by leading international experts in the field, this is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary ethnic inequalities and racism, from academics and policymakers to voluntary and community sector organisations.

Understanding prisons and the policies surrounding them is of fundamental importance to students and practitioners of criminology and related fields. This concise and accessible guide offers a compendium of key information, theories, concepts, research and policy, presenting a rounded and critical overview of the prison system in England and Wales.

Covering the historical and contemporary context of prisons, the text guides the reader through the work of prison officers, a tour of international prisons and how prison life is experienced by different groups, such as women.

Focusing on the experiences of stakeholder groups and the themes of power, legitimacy and rehabilitation, the book concludes with an overview of the future challenges for prisons.

Each chapter includes key learning features:

• end of chapter questions;

• definitions of key terms and concepts;

• examples and illustrative case studies;

• learning outcomes;

• summary boxes of major research studies and further reading.

Democracy should enable citizens to play an informed role in determining how power is exercised for their common wellbeing, but this only works if people have the understanding, skills and confidence to engage effectively in public affairs. Otherwise, any voting system can be subverted to serve the interests of propagandists and demagogues.

This book brings together leading experts on learning for democracy to explore why and how the gap in civic competence should be bridged.

Drawing on research findings and case examples from the UK, the US and elsewhere, it will set out why change is necessary, what could be taught differently to ensure effective political engagement, and how a lasting impact in improving citizens’ learning for democratic participation can be made.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made unpaid care more visible through its absence, while also increasing the need for it.

Drawing on a range of research projects covering Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, this book documents a broad spectrum of unpaid work performed by residents, relatives, volunteers and staff in nursing homes.

It demonstrates how boundaries between paid and unpaid work are flexible, varying considerably with conditions, time, place and intersectional populations.

By examining the complex labour process within nursing homes, this book provides insight and understanding which will be critical in planning for nursing home care post-pandemic.

The past 30 years have seen risk become a major field of study, most recently with the COVID-19 pandemic positioning it at the centre of public awareness, yet there is limited understanding of how risk can and should be used in policy making.

This book provides an accessible guide to the key elements of risk in policy making, including its role in rhetoric to legitimise decisions and choices.

Using risk as a framework, it examines how policy makers in a range of countries responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and explains why some were more successful than others.

This book is about tax and social policy and how they interact with each other.

The impact of taxation as an instrument of social policy is central in influencing redistribution and behaviour. This broad-based edited collection fills a significant gap in both literatures, bringing together disparate debates in this emerging area of analysis.

It guides readers through the key interactions of tax and social policies and the central debates and challenges posed by their effect on each other. It examines how analyses might be combined and policy options developed for more effective delivery and impact in both areas.

Women and families within the criminal justice system (CJS) are increasingly the focus of research and this book considers the timely issues concerning experiences of punishment, abuse and justice. With insights from frontline practice and from the lived experiences of women, the collection examines prison experiences in a post-COVID-19 world, domestic violence and the successes and failures of family support.

A companion to the first edited collection, Critical Reflections on Women, Family, Crime and Justice, the book sheds new light on the challenges and experiences of women and families who encounter the CJS.

Accessible to both academics and practitioners and with real-world policy recommendations, this collection demonstrates how positive change can be achieved.

Social work is often presented as a benevolent and politically neutral profession, avoiding discussion about its sometimes troubling political histories.

This book rethinks social work’s legacy and history of both political resistance and complicity with oppressive and punitive practices. Using a comparative approach with international case studies, the book uncovers the role of social workers in politically tense episodes of recent history, including the anti-racist struggle in the US and the impact of colonialism in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

As the de-colonisation of curricula and the Black Lives Matter movement gain momentum, this fascinating book skilfully navigates social work’s collective political past while considering its future.

This book is about tax and social policy and how they interact with each other.

The impact of taxation as an instrument of social policy is central in influencing redistribution and behaviour. This broad-based edited collection fills a significant gap in both literatures, bringing together disparate debates in this emerging area of analysis.

It guides readers through the key interactions of tax and social policies and the central debates and challenges posed by their effect on each other. It examines how analyses might be combined and policy options developed for more effective delivery and impact in both areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left inequalities in schools wider and uncertainty about the future greater. Now seems an appropriate time to think about the contribution schooling makes to the communities it serves and the country generally.

However, drawing on his recent research, Richard Riddell argues that the increasingly narrow focus of Education governance after 20 years of reform has made new thinking impossible and has degraded public life.

Nevertheless, he highlights new possibilities for democratic behaviour and the opening up of schooling to all it serves.

Women and families within the criminal justice system (CJS) are increasingly the focus of research and this book considers the timely issues concerning experiences of punishment, abuse and justice. With insights from frontline practice and from the lived experiences of women, the collection examines prison experiences in a post-COVID-19 world, domestic violence and the successes and failures of family support.

A companion to the first edited collection, Critical Reflections on Women, Family, Crime and Justice, the book sheds new light on the challenges and experiences of women and families who encounter the CJS.

Accessible to both academics and practitioners and with real-world policy recommendations, this collection demonstrates how positive change can be achieved.

This edited collection offers the first system-wide account of the impact of COVID-19 on crime and justice in England and Wales. It provides a critical discussion of the challenges faced by criminal justice agencies (prison, probation, youth justice, courts, police), professionals and service users in adapting to the extraordinary pressures of the pandemic on policy, practice and lived experience.

The text integrates first-hand narrative and artistic accounts from a variety of key stakeholders experiencing the criminal justice system (CJS). The editors recommend a range of evidence-based policy and practice improvements, not only in terms of planning for future pandemics, but also those that will benefit the CJS and its stakeholders in the longer term.

The past three decades have seen an international ‘turn to participation’ – letting those who will be affected by outcomes play an active role in decision-making – but there is widespread dissatisfaction with actual instances of citizen-state engagement. Neighbourhood planning in England exemplifies this contradiction.

This innovative analysis brings theory, research and practice together to give insights into how and why citizen voices become effective or get excluded. Ethnographic data from detailed studies of neighbourhood planning are used to illustrate the constraints and possibilities of a wide range of participatory governance practices and social movements. The book concludes with recommendations to re-invigorate community involvement in planning and beyond.

Over the last decade there has been a series of Government policy initiatives in respect of children’s services and social work education in England, many of which aim to de-regulate or privatise aspects of these services. Critically considering the impact of the MacAlister Review, this book explores the past, present and future of children’s services in the UK from a range of perspectives – lived, professional and academic.

This accessible guide provides a timely and incisive overview of the current children’s services reform agenda in the UK. It identifies current challenges, analyses both strengths and weaknesses in the current policy agenda and sets out alternative policy and practice directions for a system that can meet families’ needs.

Rejecting the assumption that housing and cities are separate from nature, David Clapham advances a new research framework that integrates housing with the rest of the natural world. Demonstrating the wider context of human lives and the impact of housing on the non-human environment, the author considers the impact of current inhabitation practices on climate change and biodiversity.

Showcasing the significant contribution that housing policy can make in mitigating environmental problems, this book will stimulate debate amongst housing researchers and policy makers.

While there has been a gradual increase in scholarship on men, ageing and masculinities, little attention has been paid to the social relations of men in later life and the implications for enhancing their social wellbeing and counteracting ageist discourse.

Bringing together scholars in social gerontology and the social sciences from across Global North and South nations, this collection fills the gaps in key texts by foregrounding older men’s experiences.

It provides new perspectives across the intersections of old age, ethnicities, class and sexual and gender identity, paying particular attention to older men from seldom heard or marginalised groups.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left inequalities in schools wider and uncertainty about the future greater. Now seems an appropriate time to think about the contribution schooling makes to the communities it serves and the country generally.

However, drawing on his recent research, Richard Riddell argues that the increasingly narrow focus of Education governance after 20 years of reform has made new thinking impossible and has degraded public life.

Nevertheless, he highlights new possibilities for democratic behaviour and the opening up of schooling to all it serves.

In highly unequal societies such as the UK, where the top 10% take a higher share of disposable income than in most other European countries, many feel resentment towards high earners. On paper, they are doing well, but inequality isn’t even working for them.

Uncomfortably Off reveals that those generally considered to be the most affluent feel anxious about the future and struggle to keep up, or even to stay put. They are starting to doubt their common sense ideas about hard work and meritocracy as work pays less and less and life is becoming more uncomfortable.

This book makes two crucial arguments. First, reducing income inequality will benefit everyone, even those quite near the top. Second, we need to understand the anxieties of high earners to understand their politics. As leading managers and professionals they have disproportionate influence on the institutions that rule over our public life. Their interests are ultimately not that dissimilar from those of the median earner: being able to afford a good quality of life in an ever more expensive and uncertain world.

The hope of this book is to prompt high earners to question accepted truths and long-held beliefs that affect how they see themselves and judge others. In doing so, it seeks to help us all understand why dismissing the concerns of this group will not help in the fight to solve inequality.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound and persistent impact – a tragic loss of life, changes to established patterns of life and social inequalities laid bare. It brought out the good in many and the worst in others, and raised questions around what is truly important in our lives.

In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember, and to reflect on, the pandemic. What lessons should we learn? How can things be different when this is over?

Sensitive to inequalities of gender, race and class, the book highlights the experience of marginalised and minority groups, and the unjust and uneven spread of violence, deprivation and death. It combines academic analysis with personal testimonies, poetry and images from contributors including Sue Black, Led By Donkeys, Lara-Rose Iredale, Michael Rosen and Gary Younge.

This truly inclusive commemorative overview honours the experience of a global disaster lived up close, and suggests the steps needed to ensure we do better next time.

The sixth, fully updated edition of this bestselling guide links the theory and practice of community work in an insightful and relatable read for students and practitioners alike. With an accessible style, authors Alan Twelvetrees and Russell Todd set out the realities of practice in everyday community development (CD) work.

With a much-expanded section on specialist community work, the guide also features brand new sections on work in health, housing, with children, young people and those with disabilities and the changing role of IT and digital technologies, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. This edition features:

• clear ‘how to’ guides for a variety of CD-related practice;

• case studies;

• end of chapter discussion points;

• signposts to digital resources;

• glossary.

This classic text provides a comprehensive overview of the knowledge required to work in community practice in the UK and abroad and is essential for anyone studying or working in the field.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence

This book assesses how the practice of contracting-out public employment services via competitive tendering and Payment-by-Results is transforming welfare-to-work in Ireland.

It offers Ireland’s introduction of a welfare-to-work market as a case study that speaks to wider international debates in social and public policy about the role of market governance in intensifying the turn towards more regulatory and conditional welfare models on the ground.

It draws on unprecedented access to, and extensive survey and interview research with, frontline employment services staff, combined with in-depth interviews with policy officials, organisational managers and jobseekers participating in activation.

Poverty is perceived as an urban problem, yet many in rural Britain also experience hardship. This book explores how and why people in rural areas experience and negotiate poverty and social exclusion. It examines the role of societal processes, individual circumstances, sources of support (markets; state; voluntary organisations; family and friends) and the role of place.

It concludes that the UK’s welfare system is poorly adapted to rural areas, with the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and cutbacks exacerbating pressures. Voluntary organisations increasingly fill gaps in support left by the state. Invaluable to those in policy and practice, the book recommends a combination of person-based and place-based approaches to tackle rural poverty.

A key resource for students, academics and practitioners, this concise guide brings together various concepts vital to the theoretical, policy and practical debates on forensic psychology and its relationship with crime and policing.

Covering issues such as criminal behaviour, police decision making and crime scene investigation, each entry provides a succinct overview of the topic, together with an evaluation of the emerging issues. The text includes:

• associated concepts and further reading from research and practice;

• references and glossary.

Accessible and comprehensive, this book is the go-to guide for those getting to grips with the relationships between forensic psychology, crime and policing.

Chapters 1, 3 and 5 are available Open Access under CC-BY licence.

Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect is a core area of social work practice but knowledge of how social workers make adult safeguarding decisions is limited.

Applying recent sociological and ethnographic research to this area for the first time, this book considers how adult safeguarding practice is developing, with a focus on risk management. The author explores how social workers conduct safeguarding adults assessments, work with multiple agencies and involve service users in risk decisions. The book is essential reading for those wishing to understand how risk and uncertainty are managed within frontline adult social work and how current practice can be improved.

The subject of policy analysis in Thailand is less examined than in Western societies. This is the first English-language book to engage in a detailed, comprehensive and current study of policy analysis in Thailand.

Providing a broad view of history, styles and methods, it examines policy analysis both within and beyond executive government, revealing the role of parties, the military and interest groups.

It will be a valuable resource for policy analysis researchers and practitioners, and as a comparison with other volumes in the International Library of Policy Analysis series.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

This book provides new insights into the challenges facing older people in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It draws upon novel qualitative longitudinal research which recorded the experiences of a diverse group of people aged 50+ in Greater Manchester over a 12-month period during the pandemic. The book analyses their lived experiences and those of organisations working to support them, shedding light on the isolating effects of social distancing.

Focusing on interviews with 21 organisations, as well as 102 people from four ethnic/identity groups, the authors argue that the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities in the UK, disproportionately affecting low-income neighbourhoods and minority ethnic communities.

The book outlines recommendations in relation to developing a ‘community-centred approach’ in responding to future variants of COVID-19, as well as making suggestions for how to create post-pandemic neighbourhoods.

The last decade has seen a growing focus on producing evidence-based policy and practice in governments around the world – with a specific focus on causal evidence of the impacts of a particular policy on outcomes for citizens. The UK is a key example of this, with the establishment of 14 What Works Centres which collate, create and translate evidence in different policy and practice domains.

In this book, leaders, researchers and practitioners from these institutions share insights to help understand what has worked so far in the Centres, and what could be done better in future. It offers guidance to policy makers and funders looking to establish new centres, and for academics looking to create similar institutions that can have a practical impact on the improvement of the world around us.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

The #MeToo movement sparked many debates and increased the demand for more problematised perspectives on the issue of sexual harassment.

This book opens up new understandings of sexual harassment by bringing researchers, writers and policy makers in the Nordic region into dialogue within an ambitious volume. It asks what role juridical frameworks can and should play in prevention and raises questions about how the image of Nordic states – as gender equal, colour-blind and with strong welfare – affects the work against sexual harassment in the region.

Re-imagining definitions of justice, violence, exploitation and work, this book offers knowledge of immediate importance for everyone working to prevent sexual harassment, through research, policy making or in everyday practice.

What ‘kind’ of community is demanded by a problem like dementia?

As aspects of care continue to transition from institutional to community and home settings, this book considers the implications for people living with dementia and their carers.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork and case studies from Canada, this book analyses the intersections of formal dementia strategies and the experiences of families and others on the frontlines of care.

Considering the strains placed on care systems by the COVID-19 pandemic, this book looks afresh at what makes home-based care possible or impossible and how these considerations can help establish a deeper understanding necessary for good policy and practice.

Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters, or violent conflict present numerous challenges for researchers. Faced with disruption, obstacles, and even danger to their own lives, researchers in times of crisis must adapt or redesign existing research methods in order to continue their work effectively.

Including contributions on qualitative and digital research from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the Americas, this volume explores the creative and thoughtful ways in which researchers have adapted methods and rethought relationships in response to challenges arising from crises. Their collective reflections, strategies, and practices highlight the importance of responsive, ethical, and creative research design and the need to develop methods for fostering mutual, reflexive, and healthy relationships in times of crisis.

Recognising diverse groups within society is a vital part of policy research and analysis, yet few texts have drawn together the breadth of experiences of welfare provision from a diverse group of citizens.

This book fills this gap, by exploring how diverse citizens experience welfare provision. It aims to promote debate about the importance of social divisions in society and to address the gaps in research, in relation to race, ethnicity, disability, gender and LGBTQ+.

It comes at a crucial time as we emerge out of a decade of austerity, a global pandemic and Brexit, where issues of diversity have been at the forefront of debates, and renews the call for analysis within social policy, particularly on issues of diversity in the 21st century context.

Two decades have passed since the devolution of social care policy, with key differences emerging between the UK’s four systems, but what impact have these differences had? This book presents for the first time research on the perspectives of social care policy makers on the four systems in which they operate and the ways in which they borrow from one another.

Drawing on extensive interviews with national and local policy makers across the UK, the book raises vital questions about the role of ‘standardisation’ and ‘differentiation’ in social care, concluding that when given equal capacity to reform their respective systems, the regimes in each nation may take radically different shapes.

Chapter 4 and chapter 7 are available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Even though legal aid is available for people seeking asylum, there is uneven access to advice across Britain.

Based on empirical research, this book offers fresh thinking on what has gone wrong in the legal aid market. It presents a rare picture of the barristers, solicitors and caseworkers practising immigration law in charities and private firms. In doing so, this book examines supply and demand and illuminates what constitutes high-quality legal aid work/provision, subsequent conflicts with financial rationality and how practitioners resolve these issues.

Challenging existing legal aid policy, this book presents innovative insights to ensure public service markets around the globe function well for all those involved.

Understanding prisons and the policies surrounding them is of fundamental importance to students and practitioners of criminology and related fields. This concise and accessible guide offers a compendium of key information, theories, concepts, research and policy, presenting a rounded and critical overview of the prison system in England and Wales.

Covering the historical and contemporary context of prisons, the text guides the reader through the work of prison officers, a tour of international prisons and how prison life is experienced by different groups, such as women.

Focusing on the experiences of stakeholder groups and the themes of power, legitimacy and rehabilitation, the book concludes with an overview of the future challenges for prisons.

Each chapter includes key learning features:

• end of chapter questions;

• definitions of key terms and concepts;

• examples and illustrative case studies;

• learning outcomes;

• summary boxes of major research studies and further reading.

This topical, edited collection analyses the state of the planning system in England and offers a robust, evidence-based review of over a decade of change since the Conservative-led coalition government came to power. With a critique of ongoing planning reforms by the UK government, the book argues that the planning system is often blamed for a range of issues caused by ineffective policy making by government.

Including chapters on housing, localism, design, zoning and the consequences of Brexit for environmental planning, the contributors unpick a complicated set of recent reforms and counter the claims of the think-tank-led assault on democratic planning.

The latest edition in the International Library of Policy Analysis series explores a comprehensive overview of policy analysis in Argentina. It explores theoretical frameworks, views of the State, the development of the field, and current paradigms before examining knowledge produced at different levels (federal, provincial, and local); the application of the discipline by 'Internal Policy Advisory Councils, Consultants, and Committees'; the role of think tanks, NGOs, and political parties; and the developments provided by university teaching and research.

Analysing the conceptual frameworks and methodologies used from a meta-theoretical perspective, it provides a panoramic picture of the perspectives and challenges of policy analysis in Argentina.

Social work is often presented as a benevolent and politically neutral profession, avoiding discussion about its sometimes troubling political histories.

This book rethinks social work’s legacy and history of both political resistance and complicity with oppressive and punitive practices. Using a comparative approach with international case studies, the book uncovers the role of social workers in politically tense episodes of recent history, including the anti-racist struggle in the US and the impact of colonialism in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

As the de-colonisation of curricula and the Black Lives Matter movement gain momentum, this fascinating book skilfully navigates social work’s collective political past while considering its future.

A uniquely hybrid approach to welfare state policy, ecological sustainability and social transformation, this book explores transformative models of welfare change.

Using Ireland as a case study, it addresses the institutional adaptations needed to move towards a sustainable welfare state, and the policy of making such transformation happen.

It takes a theoretical and practical approach to implementing an alternative paradigm for welfare in the context of globalisation, climate change, social cohesion, automation, economic and power inequalities, intersectionality and environmental sustainability, as well as perpetual crisis, including the pandemic.

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.

This textbook offers students and practitioners an accessible introduction to strengths-based approaches in Social Work and Social Care practice. Covering the theory and research in support of these approaches, and packed full of case studies, the book will allow readers to develop a critical understanding of how strengths-based approaches work, and how they can be successfully applied in order to improve outcomes for people with lived experience.

Covering the five main models of strengths-based practice, the text presents international research and evidence on the efficacy of each approach, enabling students and practitioners to apply the benefits in their own social work practice. The guide features the perspectives of people with lived experience throughout and includes the following key learning features:

• case studies of best practice;

• points for practice: succinct tips for practitioners and students on practice placement;

• further reading list and resources;

• glossary.

A uniquely hybrid approach to welfare state policy, ecological sustainability and social transformation, this book explores transformative models of welfare change.

Using Ireland as a case study, it addresses the institutional adaptations needed to move towards a sustainable welfare state, and the policy of making such transformation happen.

It takes a theoretical and practical approach to implementing an alternative paradigm for welfare in the context of globalisation, climate change, social cohesion, automation, economic and power inequalities, intersectionality and environmental sustainability, as well as perpetual crisis, including the pandemic.

This textbook offers students and practitioners an accessible introduction to strengths-based approaches in Social Work and Social Care practice. Covering the theory and research in support of these approaches, and packed full of case studies, the book will allow readers to develop a critical understanding of how strengths-based approaches work, and how they can be successfully applied in order to improve outcomes for people with lived experience.

Covering the five main models of strengths-based practice, the text presents international research and evidence on the efficacy of each approach, enabling students and practitioners to apply the benefits in their own social work practice. The guide features the perspectives of people with lived experience throughout and includes the following key learning features:

• case studies of best practice;

• points for practice: succinct tips for practitioners and students on practice placement;

• further reading list and resources;

• glossary.

The past three decades have seen an international ‘turn to participation’ – letting those who will be affected by outcomes play an active role in decision-making – but there is widespread dissatisfaction with actual instances of citizen-state engagement. Neighbourhood planning in England exemplifies this contradiction.

This innovative analysis brings theory, research and practice together to give insights into how and why citizen voices become effective or get excluded. Ethnographic data from detailed studies of neighbourhood planning are used to illustrate the constraints and possibilities of a wide range of participatory governance practices and social movements. The book concludes with recommendations to re-invigorate community involvement in planning and beyond.

When disaster strikes, our instinctive response is to make things better, not only as individuals but also as groups, organisations, communities and major institutions within society.

With increasing climate-related disasters and the potential for future global pandemics, philanthropy will continue to play an essential role. Yet our knowledge of how philanthropic responses to disasters are motivated, organised and received is fragmented.

This book is a step toward curating our existing knowledge in the emerging field of ‘disaster philanthropy’ and to building a robust base for future research, practice and public policy.

The authors highlight unknowns and ambiguities, extensions and unexplored spaces, and challenges and paradoxes. Above all, they recognise that philanthropic responses to disasters are complex, conditional and subject to change.

The liberal arts approach to higher education is a growing trend globally. We are told that the mental dexterity and independent, questioning spirit cultivated by such interdisciplinary degrees are the best preparation for the as-yet unknown executive jobs of tomorrow.

This book explores the significant recent growth of these degrees in England in order to address an enduring problem for higher education: the relationship between meritocracy and elitism.

Against the view that the former is a myth providing rhetorical cover for the latter, it argues that these are two entangled, but discrete, value systems. Sociology must now pay attention to how students and academics attempt to disentangle them.

This book presents a sensitive account of the challenges faced by adult children when making difficult decisions about care for and with their ageing parents in later life.

It offers new insights into the practical, emotional and physical effects that witnessing the ageing and death of parents has on those in late midlife and how these relationships are negotiated during this phase of the life course.

The author uses a psychosocial approach to understand the complexity of the experience of having a parent transition to care and the ambiguous feelings that these decisions evoke.

This book examines policies on unpaid care throughout the UK since the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. It questions why, after decades of policies and strategies, unpaid care remains in a marginal position in the social care system and in society more broadly, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It provides critical analysis of key policies and professional practice over three decades and highlights the continuing challenges faced by people in caring relationships, as well as reflecting on developments in the position of unpaid carers in the system of social care.

By questioning why this crucially important sphere of human life remains under-resourced, it sheds light on the ways in which care is understood and how policy makers and service providers perceive the need for support.

In this timely analysis, Rich Moth assesses mental health services in a period of major change.

Based on extended fieldwork in community mental health services, he explores the many impacts of policy reform, marketisation and austerity on NHS mental health provision, and positions developments in the contexts of neoliberalism and an increased emphasis on individual responsibility.

Firmly rooted in the lived experiences of people using mental health services and the everyday practices of social workers, nurses and psychiatrists, he develops a stimulating perspective on how mental distress is understood and responded to within these settings.

Chapters 1, 3 and 5 are available Open Access under CC-BY licence.

Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect is a core area of social work practice but knowledge of how social workers make adult safeguarding decisions is limited.

Applying recent sociological and ethnographic research to this area for the first time, this book considers how adult safeguarding practice is developing, with a focus on risk management. The author explores how social workers conduct safeguarding adults assessments, work with multiple agencies and involve service users in risk decisions. The book is essential reading for those wishing to understand how risk and uncertainty are managed within frontline adult social work and how current practice can be improved.