Welfare & benefit systems
The Failure of Child Support
Gendered Systems of Inaccessibility, Inaction and Irresponsibility
Drawing on interviews with key international informants across 16 countries, this book examines how child support systems often fail to transfer payments from separated fathers to mothers and their children. It identifies how the gender order is entrenched through child support failure and offers possibilities for feminist reform.
Childcare Provision in Neoliberal Times
The Marketization of Care
Opening the ‘black box’ of childcare markets to closer scrutiny, this book brings to light the complex political, social and economic dynamics behind childcare provisioning.
The Changing Politics and Policy of Austerity
Experts from around the world review the complex and rapidly changing politics and policies of austerity in this comprehensive collection of essays. The book details the many different means and expressions of austerity since the financial crisis of 2008, as well as backlashes and emerging political alternatives.
Transformational Moments in Social Welfare
What Role for Voluntary Action?
During the consolidation of the Welfare State in the 1940s, and its reshaping in the 2010s, the boundaries between the state, voluntary action, the family and the market were called into question. This book explores the impact of these ‘transformational moments’ on the role, position and contribution of voluntary action to social welfare.
Fathering and Poverty
Uncovering Men’s Participation in Low-Income Family Life
Anna Tarrant’s revealing research explores the dynamics and diversity of men’s caring roles in low-income households at various stages of their lives. It sheds light on men’s participation in care and the factors that affect it, including class, culture, work and the impact of austerity.
The Struggle for Social Sustainability
Moral Conflicts in Global Social Policy
Leading interdisciplinary scholars focus on the ‘social’ of social policy. This ground-breaking volume tackles pressing ‘social questions’ and critically engages with contested conceptions of ‘the social’ which are increasingly deployed by international institutions and policy makers.
Interprofessional Collaboration and Service User Participation
Analysing Meetings in Social Welfare
This book examines how interprofessional collaboration and service user participation are challenged in multi-agency meetings, demonstrating how collaborative and integrated welfare policy is contingent on the interactional practices of professionals and service users and providing examples of best practice.
What Works in Improving Gender Equality
International Best Practice in Childcare and Long-term Care Policy
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book provides an accessible analysis of what gender equality means and how we can achieve it by adapting best practices in childcare and long term care policies from other countries.
Welfare Reform and Social Investment Policy in Europe and East Asia
International Lessons and Policy Implications
Providing original observations, this seminal text analyses the emergence of social investment policies in both Europe and East Asia. Experts explore the roads and barriers towards effective social investment policies, derive practical social policy implications and highlight important lessons for future social policymaking.
Austerity, Welfare and Work
Exploring Politics, Geographies and Inequalities
The impacts of austerity and welfare reform on work and employment relations are explored in this perceptive assessment. This book highlights the role of trade unions and social movements in challenging the insecurities and inequalities imposed by work-focused welfare policies such as Universal Credit and proposes progressive new paths for welfare.
Minimum Income Standards and Reference Budgets
International and Comparative Policy Perspectives
Research into minimum income standards and reference budgets around the world is compared in this illuminating collection from leading academics in the field.
Maternal Imprisonment and Family Life
From the Caregiver's Perspective
Exploring the untold experiences of family members and friends caring for the children of female prisoners in England and Wales, this book analyses the complex challenges of the ‘family sentence’ they serve and the realities of their disenfranchised status in society, policy and practice.