Social and Public Policy - Research

The study, when published in 2002, received coverage across the globe from Brazil to Greece and attracted the support of the then High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. Anyone interested in understanding, campaigning or simply debating the issues facing policy makers today will find this book a rich and compelling resource.

This book challenges the underlying presupposition that regular employment is the royal road to inclusion. Drawing on original empirical research, it investigates the inclusionary and exclusionary potentials of different types of work, including activation programmes.

Childhood poverty and social exclusion offers a rare and valuable opportunity to understand the issues and concerns that low-income children themselves identify as important. Using child-centred research methods to explore children's own accounts of their lives, this original book raises critical issues for both policy and practice.

This book presents a psychosocial examination of changing relationships between service users, professionals and managers in the post-war welfare state. It challenges current emphasis on consumer rights by linking social responsibility to its psychosocial roots and theorises the links between experiences of care and development of social policy.

Throughout Europe, standardised approaches to social policy and practice are being radically questioned and modified. Beginning from the narrative detail of individual lives, this book re-thinks welfare predicaments, emphasising gender, generation, ethnic and class implications of economic and social deregulation.

It is often argued that the regulated labour markets, relatively generous social protection and relative wage equality of European welfare states has become counter-productive in a globalised and knowledge-intensive economy. Using in-depth analysis of employment, welfare and citizenship in a range of European states, this book challenges this view.

This book provides a rich background to the development of post-war social policy in Britain and Japan. Ageing, domestic violence, housing, homelessness, and health are chosen for analysis, each exploring its development process of policy and practices, current issues, and future directions.

The welfare we want? presents a detailed and unique comparison of welfare policies in the Britain and America. A team of international experts outlines, compares and contrasts the reform strategies pursued in each country and summarises the results to date. 

Social Policy Review 15 continues the tradition of providing a different style and approach to policy issues from that found in most academic journals and books. This volume combines issues such as globalization, Europe and pensions with examination of the current and historical contexts of social policy.

Throughout the European Union, rates of unemployment among young people tend to be higher than among the general population and there is a serious risk of marginalisation and exclusion. This important new book presents the findings of the first comparative study of unemployed youth in Europe using a large and original data set.

As citizens we need information to exercise our social rights and responsibilities. However, information provision about welfare services is patchy and the 'information poor' are often disadvantaged in access to those services. This book explores how government information policies directly influence which service users claim their entitlements.

Young people and contradictions of inclusion critically assesses policies addressing young people's transitions from school to employment. It presents and discusses the findings of seven EU-funded projects involving 13 countries.