POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare

Paul Spicker offers an original take on the British welfare state. He outlines the structure of services, the impact of false narratives, the real problems that need to be addressed and how we can do things better.

Pro-'workfare' governments justify their policies by claiming 'workfare' helps enhance self-esteem and promote the dignity of the unemployed. On the other hand, welfare activists argue that 'workfare' suppresses the dignity of unemployed persons. This book examines the concept of human dignity in this context and attempts to clarify its meaning.

This book analyses the current context and use of ICT in the public and voluntary sectors, building on this to provide practical guidance for managers and staff. Assuming no technical knowledge, the book provides ideas, tools and resources to think critically and creatively about current ICT practice and to implement positive change at all levels.

This book uses qualitative longitudinal data, from repeat interviews with people subject to compulsion and sanction in their everyday lives, to analyse the effectiveness and ethicality of welfare conditionality in promoting and sustaining behaviour change in the UK.

Brings the regional and local to the forefront of social investment debates by showcasing original, evaluative evidence from ten European countries, and provides practical, accessible illustrations of good practice, routes to success, and lessons learned.

Based on the findings of the Innovate Project, this book asks how services can be re-envisioned and transformed through innovation. The authors offer insights into the core conditions necessary for socially just and practice-congruent social care innovation that responds to the distinctive, contemporary safeguarding concerns facing young people.

The strengths, weaknesses and enforcement of concepts of international human rights receive a new social policy perspective in this insightful review of a pressing debate. Drawing on examples from around the world, it sets out the evolving role of universal rights in domestic and international policy and human welfare.

Illustrating the insights which Social Policy analysis offers to understanding the social world through examples such as the impact decisions about care provision have on workplace opportunities and access to welfare for men and women.

This important book investigates how the European Union (EU) can use its regional funding programmes in ways that increase citizen well-being. It argues the case for enhancing the inclusivity of EU growth, which yields the promise of a more legitimate and stronger union.

Contributors including Brian Eno, Demos Helsinki, California’s Y Combinator Research and prominent academics explore the impact Universal Basic Income could have on work, welfare and inequality in the 21st century.

This is the first English-language book to take a comparative look at the Italian welfare state as a whole since the 2008 economic crisis and will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers as well as students.

The help we give to others can be more effective and more just if we cultivate greater levels of compassion. Jason Wood reviews the research and talks to experts from across the world to make the moving case for greater compassion in public life.