The ongoing social crises and moral conflicts evident in global social policy debates are addressed in this timely volume.
Leading interdisciplinary scholars focus on the ‘social’ of social policy, which is increasingly conceived in a globalised form, as new international agreements and global goals engender social struggles. They tackle pressing ‘social questions’, many of which have been exacerbated by COVID-19, including growing inequality, changing world population, ageing societies, migration and intersectional disadvantage.
This ground-breaking volume critically engages with contested conceptions of the social which are increasingly deployed by international institutions and policy makers. Focusing on social sustainability, social cohesion, social justice, social wellbeing and social progress this text is even more crucial as policy makers look to accelerate socially sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.
Introduction This final chapter draws lessons from across the volume, for thinking through the conceptual ‘lynchpin’ of the ‘social’ and the seismic shifts in social policy over time and space. Here we return to the different conceptualizations of ‘the social’ and ‘the social question’ posed in the different chapters, reflecting further on the ‘social’ in social policy and the struggle for social sustainability in the 21st century. Emerging global social policy frameworks, and proposed pathways and alternatives for accelerating global social progress, are
relating to ‘social sustainability’ and the relevance of collective worker representation prior to the adoption of Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. It goes on to consider the shift in perspective from 2015 onwards. The chapter then examines the ILO approach to the intersection between sustainability and labour objectives, noting a long-standing reluctance to engage with trade-related issues and recent resistance from the employers’ group to concrete protections of freedom of association. What may seem more promising are a number of developments which have taken place in 2019
Part 3 THE CHALLENGES FOR A SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE LONDON
In this insightful collection, academic experts consider the impact of neoliberal policies and ideology on the status of care work in Nordic countries. With new research perspectives and empirical analyses, it assesses challenges for care work including technologies, management and policy-making.
Arguing that there is a care crisis even in the supposedly feminist Nordic ‘nirvana’, this book explores understandings of the care crisis, the serious consequences for gender equality and the hitherto neglected effects on the long-term sustainability of the Nordic welfare states.
This astute take on the Nordic welfare model provides insights into what the Nordic experience can tell us about wider international issues in care.
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.
Sustainable urbanisation has moved to the forefront of global debate, research and policy agendas over recent years. Rapid urbanisation throughout China, India and many other low and middle income countries poses new challenges both locally and internationally at a time when urban areas worldwide are threatened by climate/environmental change.
This compact book is designed to make a signal contribution to the sustainable urbanisation agenda through authoritative interventions contextualising, assessing and explaining clearly the relevance and importance of three central characteristics of sustainable towns and cities everywhere, namely that they should be accessible, green and fair.
These three terms form key tenets of the work of Mistra Urban Futures (MUF), an international research centre on sustainable urbanisation based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and working through transdisciplinary research platforms there, in Greater Manchester (UK), Cape Town (South Africa) and Kisumu (Kenya). Additional platforms are being established in southern Sweden, Asia and Africa.
How is London responding to social and economic crises, and to the challenges of sustaining its population, economy and global status?
Sustainable development discourse has come to permeate different policy fields, including transport, housing, property development and education. In this exciting book, authors highlight the uneven impacts and effects of these policies in London, including the creation of new social and economic inequalities. The contributors seek to move sustainable city debates and policies in London towards a progressive, socially just future that advances the public good.
The book is essential reading for urban practitioners and policy makers, and students in social, urban and environmental geography, sociology and urban studies.
This important volume steps beyond conventional legal approaches to sustainability to provide fresh insights into perhaps one of the most critical global challenges of our time.
Offering analysis of sustainability at land and sea alongside trade, labour and corporate governance perspectives, this book articulates important debates about the role of law. From impacts on local societies to domestic sustainable development policies and major international goals, it considers multiple jurisdictional levels.
With original, interdisciplinary research from experts in their legal fields, this is a rounded assessment of the complex interplay of law and sustainability—both as it is now and as it should be in the future.
As housing supply in England reaches crisis point, Duncan Bowie provides a critical review of housing policy under successive UK governments. From Blair’s New Labour and Cameron’s Coalition government to the 2016 Housing and Planning Act, Bowie demonstrates how successive governments have failed to provide adequate, affordable housing, leading to a chronic lack of provision.
Exploring the inter-relationship between housing, planning and land policies, Bowie puts forward a reform programme based on an alternative set of policy priorities and delivery mechanisms, arguing the case for an integrated approach on land, taxation, planning and public investment to provide radical solutions to a growing crisis.
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Technology is quickly becoming an integral part of care systems across the world and is frequently cited in policy discourse as pivotal for solving the ‘crisis’ in care and delivering positive outcomes.
Exploring the role of technology in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, this book examines how technology contributes effectively to the sustainability of these different care systems which are facing similar emergent pressures, including increased longevity, falling fertility and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It considers the challenges and opportunities of embedding technologies in care systems and the subsequent outcomes for older and disabled service users, carers and the care workforce.
