POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / General

First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this book makes a statement about the study of policy and politics: what it is, how it is done, where it has been and where it is going. It comprises scholarship that has rarely been combined to explore several fundamental challenges about research in policy and politics.

Combining robust evidence with real-life stories, this book reveals the shocking impact of austerity policies on life expectancy and offers an optimistic vision of what can be done to restore life expectancy and reduce health inequality.

How to Create Societies for Human Wellbeing presents a compelling new perspective on psychological wellbeing informed by evidence on human stress responses. It shows how our mental health is shaped by the social and cultural conditions in which we all live and offers new ways to respond through political and social change.

Experts review leading social policy scholarship from across the globe in this new volume in the Social Policy Review series. Published in association with the Social Policy Association, this book will be essential reading for students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY licence.. Informed by practical action, lived experience and international research, this book shines new light on the theory and reality of co-creation, highlighting the possibilities and potential in a range of contexts through practical service dilemmas and lived experience.

Drawing on international case studies from emerging economies and developing countries including South Africa, India, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, Indonesia, China and Russia, this book examines the rise, nature and effectiveness of recent developments in social policy in the Global South.

Why do top-down reforms to public services so often over-promise and under-deliver? Using five concepts from psychology, economics and organisational sociology and diverse examples of successes and failures, Thomas Elston addresses this pressing question of good governance.

In this book, street-level bureaucracy scholars from South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America analyse the conditions that shape frontline work and citizens´ everyday experience of the state.

First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics journal, this book lays out important stepping-stones for the development of new research into the ongoing transition to co-creation as a mode of governance.

Neighbourhood policing has been called the “cornerstone of British policing” but changing demand, pressures on funding and cyclical political support mean that this approach is under considerable pressure. The book investigates whether this UK model - intended to build confidence and legitimacy - has been successful and assesses its future.

Setting out big public policy ideas, enhanced by contributions from academic and campaigning experts, as well as those with lived experience, Raising the Nation shows why we must prioritise child-centred policies to ensure the future strength of our communities, environment and economy.

First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics journal, this book situates reforms known as ‘nudges’ or ‘behavioural interventions’ which have emerged in public policy and administration within a broader tradition of methodological individualism.