Textbooks
Explore our diverse range of digital textbooks designed for course adoption and recommended reading at universities and colleges. We publish over 140 textbooks across the social sciences, and an annual subscription to digital textbooks is possible via BUP Digital.
Our content is fully searchable and can be accessed on and off-campus through Shibboleth, OpenAthens or an institutional authenticated IP. For any questions on digital textbook pricing and subscription information, please contact simon.bell@bristol.ac.uk.
We are happy to provide digital samples of any of our coursebooks by completing this form. To see the full collection of all our core textbooks, browse our main website.
Books: Textbooks
This bold new textbook represents a significant step forward in social policy teaching by combining comparative and global perspectives.
Introducing readers to a wide spread of international challenges and issues, the book shows how insights into policy can be generated using a comparative and multidisciplinary approach. Global in its canvas and analytical in its method, the book:
• explores the economic, social and political contexts of social policy;
• examines in detail its institutions and fields of practice;
• illustrates the field’s main ideas, themes and practices, drawing on a rich international literature and using pertinent and thought-provoking examples.
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. Clear, authoritative and wide-ranging, it will be essential reading for students of social sciences taking courses covering social policy, social welfare and comparative policy analysis.
This second edition of a widely respected textbook is one of the few resources available to provide an overview of human need, as a key concept in the social sciences. Taking an approach encompassing both global North and South, this accessible and engaging book models existing practical and theoretical approaches to human need while also proposing a radical alternative.
Incorporating crucial current debates and illustrations, the author explores:
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distinctions between different types and levels of need;
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how different approaches are reflected in different sorts of policy goals;
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debates about the relationship between needs, rights and welfare;
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contested thinking about needs in relation to caring, disadvantage and humanity.
Fully revised and updated, this new edition pays due regard to the shifting nature of welfare ideologies and welfare regimes. Offering essential insights for students of social policy, it will also be of interest to other social science disciplines, policy makers and political activists.
This new edition of a widely-respected textbook examines welfare policy and racism in a broad framework that marries theory, evidence, history and contemporary debate. Fully updated, it contains:
• a new foreword by Professor Kate Pickett, acclaimed co-author of The Spirit Level
• two new chapters on disability and chronic illness, and UK education policy respectively
• updated examples and data, reflecting changes in black and minority ethnic demographics in the UK
• a post-script from a minority student on her struggle to make a new home in Britain
Suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in social policy, sociology and applied social sciences, its global themes of immigration, austerity and securitisation also make it of considerable interest to policy and welfare practitioners.
Building substantially on the earlier, landmark text, What Works? (Policy Press, 2000), this book brings together key thinkers and researchers to provide a contemporary review of the aspirations and realities of evidence-informed policy and practice. The text is clearly structured and provides sector-by-sector analysis of evidence use in policy-making and service delivery. It considers some cross-cutting themes, including a section of international commentaries, and concludes by looking at lessons from the past and prospects for the future.
This book will be of interest to a wide range of social science researchers, students and practitioners as well as those interested in supporting more evidence-informed policy and practice.
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. In particular, it:
• Introduces concepts that are core to how policy is formulated and implemented.
• Provides students with a comprehensive vocabulary and toolkit for analysing policy examples and developing social science arguments.
• Includes stimulus material, diagrams, critical thinking activities, further reading lists and a companion website containing further policy examples, podcasts and class activities.
Written by an experienced and inspiring lecturer, this book is suitablefor undergraduate students of social policy, sociology, politics, public policy, social work, health and social care, particularly those taking courses on ‘welfare theory’,‘principles of social policy’, ‘key issues in welfare policy’ and similar. Using some of the hottest current debates about the problems and benefits of state-funded welfare, this book develops students’ social science understanding and analytic skills.
In this distinctive introduction Stephen Sinclair illuminates the subject of Social Policy by showing readers how Social Policy analysts think about welfare issues and policies.
From what influences the decision to have children to how everyday terms such as ‘youth crime’ or ‘poverty’ reveal the structural processes shaping society, the book illustrates the insights which Social Policy analysis offers to understanding the social world and its problems.
Written by an academic with extensive experience of teaching Social Policy analysis to new audiences, the book provides a stimulating introduction to the study of the factors and polices shaping wellbeing. Each chapter includes boxed summaries, applied examples illustrating key issues, and bullet points clarifying key concepts and theories.
Building on the successes of Understanding Global Social Policy (Yeates ed. 2008) and its companion text, the Global Social Policy Reader (Yeates and Holden ed. 2009), the second edition of this leading textbook in social policy identifies and reviews the key issues, debates and priorities for action in global social policy as a field of academic study and research and as a field of political practice and action. All first edition chapters have been systematically revised and updated to reflect major developments in the fast-paced area of global social policy making over the past five years, and include new material on the Millennium Development Goals, the Social Protection Floor and the ‘greening’ of global social policy. This much-needed second edition includes new chapters on global poverty and inequality, social protection, criminal justice and education. Written by an international team of leading social policy analysts , Understanding Global Social Policy is the leading textbook in the field and provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of international actors and social policy formation in global context. It is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners seeking to identify key issues in contemporary social policy and locate them within a global framework of analysis and action.
Social Policy: Theory and practice is a fully revised, updated and extended edition of a bestselling social policy textbook, extensively reworked and adapted to meet the needs of its international readership. The book lays out the architecture of social policy as a field of study, binding the discussion of theory to the understanding of social policy in practice. It aims to provide students and practitioners with a sense of the scope, range and purpose of the subject while developing critical awareness of problems, issues and common fallacies.
Written in an accessible and engaging style, it explains what social policy is and why it matters; looks at social policy in its social context; considers policy, the role of the state and the social services; explores issues in social administration and service delivery; and focuses on the methods and approaches of the subject. For practitioners, there are discussions of the techniques and approaches used to apply social policy in practice. For students, there are boxes raising issues and reviewing case studies, questions for discussion and a detailed glossary.
The book’s distinctive, path–breaking approach makes it invaluable for students studying social policy at a range levels, professionals and practitioners in the field of social policy.
Adult social care has emerged as a distinct policy area in the UK and one which has come under increasing scrutiny by government and other bodies. With the expectation that in future many more adults will need care and support, ideas have emerged about a ‘transformation’ of adult social care.
The focus of this wide-ranging book is on the major themes in policy and provision including personalisation, integration, user participation, the cost of long term care, risk and safeguarding, care quality and workforce issues and is one of the first texts to deal with adult social care as a distinct entity and is an up-to-date source on contemporary government policies, debates and research. The book encourages readers to think critically about decisions being made and about the direction of future policy.
The accessible book will be a valuable resource for undergraduate students in Social Policy, Health and Social Care, and Social Work, those taking advanced vocational qualifications in social care and practitioners.
The second digital-only ebook taster of Unequal health: The scandal of our times by Danny Dorling. Competitively priced, it gives a flavour of one of the major themes: social medicine and contains three chapters from the book, preceded by an all-new introduction specially written by Danny Dorling. This ‘must-read’ will introduce an even wider readership to his work.
