Catherine Jones Finer - Böcker

One of the most contested issues of the 20th century is that of welfare - how it should be available, to whom, on what terms and by what means. The debate on welfare has taken place across the developed world, and has spread to developing nations: it encompasses a wide range of ideological positions and consumes a large proportion of the resources of states that provide it. This collection explores the ramifications of welfare and the state over the course of the 20th century, drawing material from a range of disciplines and with a geographical coverage across all the major developed countries.

Via a mutual concern with social exclusion, the agendas of criminology and social policy have begun to overlap far more in recent years. The two fields have always shared a common concern with class, and more recently with race and gender, but remained rigorously differentiated until crime prevention moved higher on political and academic agendas in the 1980s. This collection of papers explores aspects of social exclusion and the measures taken to reduce its impact from the perspective of both disciplines. The contributors write mainly, though not exclusively, from a British perspective, However the issues raised are of broader relevance to North America, Europe and elsewhere. Criminology in Britain has recently been examining the way in which political initiatives designed to contain and exclude dispossessed populations (seen to constitute major crime risks) have permeated all areas of criminal justice policy. In America this has led to an increased emphasis on the rhetoric of retribution, and the 'management' of criminal classes, shifting away from earlier emphasis on 'rehabilitating' individual offenders. Critics of this development increasingly recognise that more practical answers to crime involve not more penal repression but social policies designed to integrate and include the dispossessed, especially the young. It is in this connection that the experience of Singapore offers a different sort of warning.

The politics and practice of social research nowadays amount more to a form of business activity, than to a scholarly pursuit. This collection of specially commissioned papers offers an unrivalled introduction to the realities and pitfalls of undertaking funded research, with reference to a kaleidescopic range of projects and forms of project management.

This title was first published in 2001. This is a seminal collection. For the first time, leading scholars and practitioners from Taiwan join with counterparts from Britain to offer comparable commentary on key social policy and social service issues affecting their respective countries. The result is as thought-provoking as it is informative. The approach adopted - of encouraging writers to speak for themselves virtually without restriction - could well provide a model in itself for encouraging and easing contributions from previously unpresented countries into the mainstream of comparative cross-national social policy debate. Concluding papers, on the prospects for East-West comparative social policy in general, confirm the significance of this collection by emphasizing its contribution to broader, social and political debates.

This title was first published in 2001. This is a seminal collection. For the first time, leading scholars and practitioners from Taiwan join with counterparts from Britain to offer comparable commentary on key social policy and social service issues affecting their respective countries. The result is as thought-provoking as it is informative. The approach adopted - of encouraging writers to speak for themselves virtually without restriction - could well provide a model in itself for encouraging and easing contributions from previously unpresented countries into the mainstream of comparative cross-national social policy debate. Concluding papers, on the prospects for East-West comparative social policy in general, confirm the significance of this collection by emphasizing its contribution to broader, social and political debates.

This title was first published in 2003.The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a timely example of social policy reform in a socialist market economy. This important and topical edited collection brings together leading Chinese and Western experts to introduce and integrate policy issues of the PRC into the mainstream of cross-national social policy debate. Drawing upon comparativist expertise in relevant aspects of social policy, the book explores the ways in which the PRC has or has not taken lessons from abroad in key social policy respects and illustrates policy-relevant relations between Chinese and Western perspectives. The contributors identify those aspects of China’s recent social policy reforms that seem the most and least likely to appeal to Western societies. The collection therefore represents a substantial advance in two-way, East-West lesson learning in social and public policy.

This title was first published in 2003.The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a timely example of social policy reform in a socialist market economy. This important and topical edited collection brings together leading Chinese and Western experts to introduce and integrate policy issues of the PRC into the mainstream of cross-national social policy debate. Drawing upon comparativist expertise in relevant aspects of social policy, the book explores the ways in which the PRC has or has not taken lessons from abroad in key social policy respects and illustrates policy-relevant relations between Chinese and Western perspectives. The contributors identify those aspects of China’s recent social policy reforms that seem the most and least likely to appeal to Western societies. The collection therefore represents a substantial advance in two-way, East-West lesson learning in social and public policy.

This book offers unprecedented insights into both the workings of the Commonwealth and into the contrasting experiences of member states within it, with regard to social exclusion. Chapters on British social policy tradition and on concepts of social inclusion/exclusion, preface a series of case studies illustrative of different member states' experiences to date. The book concludes by re examining the Commonwealth per se, with reference to its own problems of development and, nevertheless, its social policy development potential for the future. PATRICIA HARRIS is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, and Director of the Centre for Social and Community Research at Murdoch University, Australia BARBARA HARRISS-WHITE is Professor of Development Studies and Deputy Directory of Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, UK LAKSIRI JAYASURIYA is Emeritus Professor and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the School of Social and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia, Australia JAMES LEE is Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, China W.DAVID MCINTYRE is Emeritus Professor at the Macmillan Brown Centre of Pacific Studies at the University of Christchurch, New Zealand JAMES MIDGLEY is Harry and Riva Specht Professor of Public Social Services and Dean of the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, USA JOY MONCRIEFFE completed her PhD on Jamaican health policy administration at the University of Cambridge LEILA PATEL is Professor of Social Development Studies and Chairperson of the Department of Social Work at the Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa MORENA J. RANKOPO is a Social Work Lecturer at the University of Botswana, Botswana TAN ERN SER is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore MALCOLM J. STEWART is in the Department of Social Work, University of Toronto, Canada SUSAN ST JOHN is Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a Social Policy Advisor and Consultant SOUCHOU YAO teaches Anthropology in the University of Sydney, Australia

The critical role of food in contemporary policy, in the UK, Europe and internationally, is explored in a comprehensive and readable account of current issues, including food rights, patenting, safety, aid, choice and poverty. This landmark collection explores the critical role of food in contemporary national and international policy.The contributors represent different professional and academic perspectives.The contributions challenge state, institutional and agency structures and responses to food as a social policy issue.Most of the contributors write from an empirical research base.