Work and labour markets
Poverty and Insecurity
Life in Low-Pay, No-Pay Britain
This book is the first of its kind to examine the relationship between social exclusion, poverty and the labour market. It challenges long-standing and dominant myths about ‘the workless’ and ‘the poor’, by exploring close-up the lived realities of life in low-pay, no-pay Britain.
Changing labour markets, welfare policies and citizenship
Social marginalisation due to changing labour markets in a global, knowledge-intensive economy poses a major challenge to international welfare states. Addressing the problem from a citizenship perspective, this book contributes significantly to the understanding of policy problems and the development of appropriate strategies.
Disabled People, Work and Welfare
Is Employment Really the Answer?
EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Led by the disability movement’s concern with the employment choices faced by disabled people, this controversial book uses sociological and philosophical approaches, as well as international examples, to critically engage with possible alternatives to paid work for disabled people.
Europe's new state of welfare
Unemployment, employment policies and citizenship
It is often argued that the regulated labour markets, relatively generous social protection and relative wage equality of European welfare states has become counter-productive in a globalised and knowledge-intensive economy. Using in-depth analysis of employment, welfare and citizenship in a range of European states, this book challenges this view.
Transnational Social Work
Opportunities and Challenges of a Global Profession
An international comparison of labour markets, migrant professionals and immigration policies, and their interaction in relation to social work.
Parental Leave and Beyond
Recent International Developments, Current Issues and Future Directions
This volume provides an international perspective on parental leave policies in different countries, goes beyond this to examine a range of issues in depth, and aims to stimulate thinking about possible futures and how policy might underpin them.
New Labour/hard labour?
Restructuring and resistance inside the welfare industry
This book provides the first critically informed discussion of work and workers in the UK welfare sector under New Labour. It examines the changing nature of work and explores the context of industrial relations across the welfare industry.
Balancing the skills equation
Key issues and challenges for policy and practice
Governments worldwide assume that national competitiveness can be improved by developing workforce skills. This book critically examines this 'high skills' vision at both policy and practice levels. It challenges an oversimplified policy rhetoric that underestimates the complexity of the processes involved in developing a skilled workforce.
Like Mother, Like Daughter?
How Career Women Influence their Daughters' Ambition
Women are encouraged to believe that they can occupy top jobs in society by the example of other women thriving in their careers. This book shows that having a mother as a role model does not predict daughters progressing in their own careers. It offers a timely and original perspective on the debate about gender equality in leadership positions.
For Whose Benefit?
The Everyday Realities of Welfare Reform
'For whose benefit?' explores how those at the sharp end of welfare reform experience changes to the benefit system. It looks at how the rights and responsibilities of citizenship are experienced on the ground, and whether the welfare state still offers meaningful protection and security to those who rely upon it.
Local Policies and the European Social Fund
Employment Policies Across Europe
Comparing data from 18 local case studies across 6 European countries, and deploying an innovative mixed-method approach, this book presents comparative evidence on everyday challenges in the context of the European Social Fund (ESF) and discusses how these findings are applicable to other funding schemes.
Reconstructing Retirement
Work and Welfare in the UK and USA
This assessment of the prospects for work and retirement at age 65-plus in the UK and US is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners interested in the late careers and the future of retirement.