Social and Public Policy - Research

This book synthesises the challenges of researching everyday life for families on low incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve future policy and practice.

Based on field material collected from 2020 to 2022 in Sweden, this book tells a composite story of the everyday work of public sector workers that maintained the welfare infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

From anti-terrorism agendas, to the punishment of the poor and the governance of parenting, this book explores how diverse fields of social policy intersect more deeply than ever with crime control and in so doing, deploy troubling strategies.

In this engaging and original book, John Clarke is in conversation with twelve leading individual scholars about the dynamics of critical thinking in the social sciences, and he reflects on the necessity of thinking collaboratively and dialogically.

Drawing on the voices and experiences of refugees, activists and professional practitioners, this collection illustrates the complexities of migration with real world case studies, and the possibilities of innovative therapeutic interventions.

Stuart Rees exposes politicians’ fascination with cruelty in their deliberations about policies. Through empirical analysis, human stories and poetic commentary, he identifies non-destructive exercise of power, courageous public action and compelling humanitarian alternatives as the key to achieving a future in which dignity and equality flourish.

The governance of illegal drug use is often subject to polarized debate, with political preferences seemingly driven by the need to appeal to populist fears. Based upon research with ‘elite’ insiders, David Brewster explores global cannabis policy approaches and offers future directions for policy making and comparative criminology.

This book analyses societal trends and controversies related to developments in data ownership, access, construction, dissemination and interpretation, looking at the ways that society interacts with and uses statistical data.

From scarcer resources to greater stresses, this book charts how policies and cuts have compromised workers’ ability to undertake their professional roles. Combining research and practice experience, it assesses the extent of de-professionalisation in recent years, and how workers have responded.

This edited collection considers how conditional welfare policies and services are implemented and experienced by a diverse range of welfare service users across a range of UK policy domains including social security, homelessness, migration and criminal justice.

Can affirmative action in US college admissions survive mounting threats? This judicious review, part of the Sociology of Diversity series, considers the question using up-to-date sociological, policy and legal perspectives to explain both sides of the fierce debate over affirmative action in the context of prominent Supreme Court cases.