Product Description: Written by internationally renowned author and scholar James Midgley, Social Welfare for a Global Era provides a comprehensive framework for examining social welfare from a global perspective. Drawing on a large body of literature and his own extensive knowledge of the field, Dr...read more

Product Description: Contentious Politics in Brazil and China: Beyond Regime is a highly accessible and compelling examination of two fast-emerging countries in the global arena. It is not common to see Brazil and China examined side-by-side, but authors December Green and Laura Luehrmann show the utility of this unorthodox comparison: By moving beyond region and regime, this book offers a thought-provoking analysis of two very different countries dealing with many concerns and problems in surprisingly similar ways...read more

International Social Policy is a major new contribution to the growing literature on the study of comparative social policy. The book is international in scope with each chapter written by a social policy expert, or experts, from that country. An overview of themes and issues is provided by the editors in a wide-ranging introduction.

Product Description: This book brings together leading international researchers to discuss governmental approaches to analysing social policies. "Analysing Social Policy" expands the scope of social policy analysis using the insights from post-Foucauldian scholarship on the art of governing in liberal democracies...read more

Learn what you can do to promote social policy initiatives that really workInternational Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy presents the latest available research on the various interpretations of “welfare-to-work” in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong, and on the role social work plays in creating and implementing social welfare policies. Preeminent social work scholars from around the world address the changing nature of social work policy and practice, as welfare recipients are required to work in order to receive benefits. This invaluable book examines issues of importance to practitioners and policymakers, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), child welfare, learning disabilities, work and direct payments, Intensive Employment Assistance Projects (IEAPs), and social inclusion. At a time when many governments in the industrial world are reducing social expenditures and privatizing social programs, International Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy encourages the social work profession to be more actively involved in lobbying for social and economic policies that promote social investments, maximize opportunities, foster productive employment, ensure a decent standard of living, and make it easier for everyone to be involved in the economic, political, cultural, and social lives of their communities. The book addresses crucial issues that were raised by its contributors in 2005 at an international symposium organized by the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, including key policy and practice concerns for social work professionals. International Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy examines: the abolition of the Aid to Families with Dependant Children program (AFDC) in the United States the implementation of coordinated service delivery models in California the development of a diversion program that provides a lump sum of cash to alleviate short-term emergencies the effects of welfare-to-work programs on single parents in the United Kingdom the “new deal” offered by social inclusion in mental health policy the role of income support in dealing with learning disabilities the role of Australian social workers in two agencies—the Job Network and CentreLink the development of a program in Hong Kong that helps beneficiaries of means-tested unemployment benefits find workInternational Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy is an important resource for social policy educators and students working in social work, sociology, and political science.

Product Description: This book illustrates why both academic research and policy thinking need to factor-in gender hierarchies and structures if they are to address some of the key challenges of contemporary societies: the widespread informality and insecurity of paid work and the crisis of care.

Parents around the world grapple with the common challenge of balancing work and child care. Despite common problems, the industrialized nations have developed dramatically different social and labor market policies—policies that vary widely in the level of support they provide for parents and the extent to which they encourage an equal division of labor between parents as they balance work and care. In Families That Work, Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers take a close look at the work-family policies in the United States and abroad and call for a new and expanded role for the U.S. government in order to bring this country up to the standards taken for granted in many other Western nations.In many countries in Europe and in Canada, family leave policies grant parents paid time off to care for their young children, and labor market regulations go a long way toward ensuring that work does not overwhelm family obligations. In addition, early childhood education and care programs guarantee access to high-quality care for their children. In most of these countries, policies encourage gender equality by strengthening mothers’ ties to employment and encouraging fathers to spend more time caregiving at home. In sharp contrast, Gornick and Meyers show how in the United States—an economy with high labor force participation among both fathers and mothers—parents are left to craft private solutions to the society-wide dilemma of “who will care for the children?” Parents—overwhelmingly mothers—must loosen their ties to the workplace to care for their children; workers are forced to negotiate with their employers, often unsuccessfully, for family leave and reduced work schedules; and parents must purchase care of dubious quality, at high prices, from consumer markets. By leaving child care solutions up to hard-pressed working parents, these private solutions exact a high price in terms of gender inequality in the workplace and at home, family stress and economic insecurity, and—not least—child well-being. Gornick and Meyers show that it is possible–based on the experiences of other countries—to enhance child well-being and to increase gender equality by promoting more extensive and egalitarian family leave, work-time, and child care policies. Families That Work demonstrates convincingly that the United States has much to learn from policies in Europe and in Canada, and that the often-repeated claim that the United States is simply “too different” to draw lessons from other countries is based largely on misperceptions about policies in other countries and about the possibility of policy expansion in the United States.

Product Description: Bringing together leading planning and urban scholars, and including fascinating international case studies, this unique book investigates urban planning across the world and in different cultures.

Product Description: "A thoughtful assessment of socioeconomic needs and influences, observing the necessity for benefits as well as the lessons of experience offered by various nations"--Library Bookwatch Over the last two decades, aging populations, changing family structures, market forces of globalization, strains of immigration, and political and ideological realignments have joined to create powerful pressures that are reshaping the design and philosophy of social welfare policies...read more

In many areas of the world, there has been an earlier indigenous population, which has been conquered by a more recent population group. In Social Welfare with Indigenous Peoples, the editors and contributors examine the treatment of many indigenous populations from five continental areas: Africa (Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe); Australasia, New Zealand; Central and South America (Brazil, Mexico); Europe (Scandinavia, Spain) and North America. They found that, regardless of whether the newer immigrants became the majority population, as in North America, or the minority population, such as in Africa, there were many similarities in how the indigenous peoples were treated and in their current situations. This treatment is examined from many perspectives: political subjugation; negligence; shifting focus of social policy; social and legal discrimination; provision of social services; and ethnic, cultural and political rejuvenation.

Product Description: Particularly in the 1990s, social welfare programs have been cut back in a number of countries. Indeed, the phrases ending welfare as we know it or dismantling the welfare state have been used to describe this trend. In this analysis by well-recognized social welfare scholars, the nature and extent of changes in social welfare programs in key industrial or post-industrial countries is scrutinized...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This accessible, broad-ranging textbook provides a critical introduction to British and comparative social policy. Drawing on the comparative analysis of welfare regimes, the book show how the welfare systems of individual countries can only be understood thorugh exploring the wider global context...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Discusses improving the quality of life of those at the bottom of the social hierarchy through public policy. This text argues for policy that expands employment and facilitates jobs, finances education and economic and cultural integration, rewards merit, encourages voting and political participation, and seeks to reduce crime to the benefit of all countries around the world...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Best's anthology examines for the first time how diverse social issues--road rage, the metric system, gun control, and abortion are among those included--migrate across national boundaries, modifying themselves from place to place as a result of different claims, claimsmakers, and policy responses...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Compared to other peoples around the world, Americans tend to be very individualistic in their thought. Many of the social problems that we have in the United States stem, at least in part, from that American individualism. We tend to think that it is human nature to be so individualistic; a comparative approach will challenge readers to question that assumption...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Throughout the world welfare systems have been experiencing a period of unprecedented change. Understanding these changes is difficult, not only because of their diversity, but also because they vary so much from place to place. Worlds of Welfare provides a clear and concise guide to these changes...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Offering an introduction to the study of both British and comparative social policy, this book provides a unique approach to understanding the British welfare state through its wider international focus. The British experience is related to those of Hong Kong, Sweden, Germany and Ireland and is set in the context of policy issues within the European Community. Particular attention is paid to the interactions between family policies and issues of race and gender, and to the processes by which individuals or groups are given or denied access to full welfare citizenship. Individual chapters move easily between national and international levels in ways which highlight the richness and complexity of welfare regimes in different

Product Description: This outstanding textbook recounts the major policy developments in Sweden, the former FRG, the United States and Britain since the 1930s and 1940s and concentrates on the restructuring of social policy since the world recession of the mid-1970s...read more