POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / General

The novel theoretical framework offered in this book presents a radical reconception of the place of knowledge in contemporary policy making in Europe.

This book presents an academically rigorous yet practical guide to efforts to understand how knowledge, policy and power interact to promote or prevent change.

The appeal of voluntary action as a solution to growing welfare needs in advanced capitalist countries raises important questions about the social impacts and spatial equity of such provision. For the first time, these issues are addressed within a single book, exploring the complex relationship between voluntary action, society and space.

Policy makers have become reliant on mechanistic top-down audit and inspection regimes as the means of implementing public service reforms. This book sets out to redress the balance. It outlines the theory behind whole systems development and gives good practice guidance on how to effectively develop 'systems' to improve joined-up working.

Thoroughly revised to take account of the latest literature and international developments in the field. Drawing on global research and practical examples, Bason illustrates the key triggers and practices of public sector innovation.

Drawing on classical and emerging research perspectives, this comprehensive book provides an up-to-date review of local government in Europe.

This book explores the critical role that local knowledge plays in public policy processes as well as its role in the co-production of policy relevant knowledge with the scientific and professional communities.

Combines political theory with attention to political practice to explore the development of localism as a new mode of statecraft. It highlights the challenges of the state devolving itself and the importance of citizens having the freedom, incentives and institutions needed to act.

With a public health crisis gripping the UK, this book examines the organisational and political barriers to an effective public health system and determines that a new social contract is needed, in which health policy is truly public.

Set in the context of New Labour's emphasis on 'modernisation', and reflecting the growing emphasis on policy making as a skill, this unique book combines both academic and practitioner perspectives to provide critical consideration of contemporary policy-making and highlight examples of good practice at all levels of government.

Written by key people in the field, this timely and accessible book argues that treating policy’s movement as an active process of ‘translation’, in which policies are interpreted, inflected and re-worked as they change location, is of critical importance for studying policy.

This book offers Ireland’s introduction of a welfare-to-work market as a case study that speaks to wider international debates in social and public policy about the role of market governance in intensifying the turn towards more regulatory and conditional welfare models on the ground.