Research

This book identifies key topics in the policy arena, subjecting them to sustained theoretical and practical appraisal. It shows the advantage of applying a cross-disciplinary lens to the study of 'policy', presenting critical and reflective engagements with theory and practice at all levels of political organisation within a range of contexts.

This book provides a unique insider view on the impact of neighbourhood conditions on family life and explores the prospects for families from the point of view of equality, integration, schools, work, community, regeneration and public services.

This book examines the key issues of what policing is about and who defines it by exploring the notion of zero tolerance and its application in different settings.

New Zealand has experienced both sweeping economic and social reform and growing poverty and income inequality in the last twenty years. This book explores the changes to social security provision and coverage in the context of these developments and of widening national and international poverty and inequality.

"Beyond the workfare state" explores equality, discrimination and human rights in relation to employability and 'welfare-to-work' policies bringing together a wide and distinctive range of illustrative studies that gives voice to a variety of potentially marginalised groups.

How did partnerships come to emerge almost everywhere and at almost the same time? What is the inner logic of partnerships? And at what point does that logic begin to break down? This book improves our understanding of the shifting ground on which partnerships and agreements must be reached in today's hyper-complex society.

This book analyses male violence against women and children, and the mechanisms society develops to push it out of sight.

This book explores the economic, religious, political and personal forces that led to some 80,000 British children being sent to Canada between 1867 and 1915 and provides a vivid look at one aspect of the history of child welfare practices.

This book considers what makes us happy, using a new approach that directly addresses the circumstances under which highly subjective well-being is experienced, often with surprising results. 

This much-needed new textbook introduces readers to the development of China's welfare polices since its conception of an open-door policy of 1978.

This book examines the meanings of gender that underpin policies in the Scandinavian welfare states, historically and today, and raises the question whether the hallmark of the Scandinavian welfare model is a special combination of gender equality and gender differentiation.

This book presents a lively challenge to the existing thinking on community development, and proposes ways forward for community building.