POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Policy

Social Policy Review is an annual selection of commissioned articles focusing on developments and debates in social policy. Social Policy Review 14 reviews a varied and interesting selection of social policy developments in Britain and internationally, and sets current policy developments in a broader context of key trends and debates.

This report presents critical new evidence on the size of the widening health gap. New geographical data are presented and displayed in striking graphical form. The widening gap should be read alongside Inequalities in health: The evidence presented to the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health (The Policy Press, 1999).

'Poverty' and 'social exclusion' have become increasingly important topics on the European research agenda. This book provides an invaluable review of the available literature and presents major new thinking in terms of theory, understanding and data analysis.

Visually and pedagogically rich, this wide-ranging introduction to key concepts and debates in welfare uses an innovative, question-based narrative to highlight the importance of theory to understanding welfare.

This book examines poverty in the context of the economy, society and the political community, considering how states can respond to issues of inequality, exclusion and powerlessness. Drawing on examples in both rich and poor countries, this is an accessible contribution to the debate about the nature of poverty and responses to it.

Authored by two highly respected and experienced academics, this book demonstrates the rewards of studying social policy from an international perspective by avoiding the constraints of a single-nation focus.

A decade of sustained change in policy and funding has altered the landscape of children’s early intervention services and changed the role of charities in it. This study reviews the new interplay between public and third sector providers, considering future roles, opportunities and challenges for practitioners, policy makers and volunteers alike.

Addressing the rapidly shifting politics of the minimum wage in six English-speaking countries, Shaun Wilson analyses minimum wage policies within a political-economy narrative. Topical and poignant, this book identifies the success of living wage campaigns as central to both welfare state change and alternatives to the Basic Income.

Positioning social policy within political economy and social contract debates, Wistow draws on empirical evidence to show how the social contract produces longstanding inequitable consequences in relation to health, place and social mobility in England.

Demonstrating the relevance of theory to political and policy debates and practice, this dynamic and fully updated second edition helps students to grasp the real-life implications of social policy theory. It includes a new chapter featuring debates around disability, sexuality and the environment.

Leaders, researchers and practitioners from the UK “What Works Network” share their insights on the successes, failures, and future of the What Works Centres, which have proven successful and popular across a number of policy settings.

This book addresses the UK's social, political and economic turbulence, exploring proliferating crises and conflicts, from social dissent through rentier capitalism to the looming climate catastrophe and how they have produced a deepening ‘crisis of authority’ that forms the terrain of the Battle for Britain.