Textbooks
Policy Press publishes a range of textbooks and other learning resources across the social sciences to suit a variety of course and learning needs. These are designed with students in mind and include many accessible features – from case studies and chapter summaries, to revision questions and illustrative boxes and diagrams.
The majority of our textbooks are available as consumer eBooks as well as in print and we are happy to discuss bespoke options such as print and digital packages or creating unique collections to suit your course needs. Our content is available through the key institutional content providers VitalSource and Kortext in early 2015, allowing seamless integration with VLE platforms. If you would like to discuss how we could help with your course resources, please contact pp-sales@bristol.ac.uk.
For more information about our textbooks, please see Information for Lecturers.
The Ann Oakley reader
Gender, women and social science
Edited and selected by the author, this reader starts with work first published in the early 1970s. Ann Oakley's research and writing on sex and gender, housework, motherhood, women's health, and social science have influenced many inside and beyond social science, helping to shape the academic study of women and gender up to the present day.
Beyond listening
Children's perspectives on early childhood services
This book is the first of its kind to focus on listening to young children, both from an international perspective and through combining theory, practice and reflection. With contributions and examples from researchers and practitioners it examines how listening to young children in early childhood services is understood and practiced.
Order from chaos
Responding to traumatic events
Iin the aftermath of traumatic events, there is a need for improved understanding of the needs of individuals and communitie. This new edition consolidates the core elements of good practice, while bringing theory and practice issues fully up-to-date.
Policy analysis for practice
Applying social policy
This book introduces students and practitioners to the concepts and methods required to undertake the analysis and review of policy and its implementation. Focusing on understanding and skills for a growing area of practice, it combines material from public and social administration with examples and application to social policy and services.
What is professional social work?
What is Professional Social Work? is a now classic analysis of social work as a discourse between three aspects of practice: social order, therapeutic and transformational perspectives. It enables social workers to analyse and value the role of social work in present-day multiprofessional social care.
Working in group care
Social work and social care in residential and day care settings
Working in group care (ie residential and day services) is a challenging and complex task, demanding great skill, patience, knowledge and understanding. This book explains how best practice can be achieved through the focused and engaged work of individuals and teams who are well supported and managed.
Older people and the law
The book is a much-needed revised and updated edition of Elders and the law (PEPAR Publications, 1993). It describes the legal framework for working with older people following the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 and the modernising agenda in health and social care.
Social work and people with dementia
Partnerships, practice and persistence
Current community care policies and increasing numbers of older people needing assistance mean that all social workers must be up-to-date in their knowledge, skills and attitudes towards people with dementia and their carers. This book, written by experienced social workers, provides guidance on best practice in a readable and jargon-free style.
The idea of poverty
Making a committed argument for a participative, inclusive understanding of the term, Paul Spicker examines views about what poverty is and what should be done about it.
Understanding the mixed economy of welfare
Although state provision may have dominated in Britain since 1945, there is a growing movement towards welfare pluralism - a mixed economy of welfare - involving private, voluntary and informal sectors. This book, written by social policy and welfare experts, sheds light on this neglected area of social policy.
Sexual issues in social work
This book provides busy practitioners with a ready reference for the day-to-day problems relating to sex and sexuality that they are likely to face in key areas of engagement, such as promoting sexual health, preventing sexual violence, working with those subjected to sexual abuse, and engaging with the complexities of contemporary sexualities.
Transforming society?
Social work and sociology
This book explores the sociological basis of contemporary society and shows how social workers experience tensions and contradictions in practice.