As the biodiversity crisis deepens, Anna Wienhues sets out radical environmental thinking and action to respond to the threat of mass species extinction.
The book conceptualises large-scale injustice endangering non-humans, and signposts new approaches to the conservation of a shared planet. Developing principles of distributive ecological justice, it builds towards a bold vision of just conservation that can inform the work of policy makers and activists.
This is a timely, original and compelling investigation into ethics in the natural world during the Anthropocene, and a call for biocentric ecological justice before it is too late.
The rapid economic growth of the past few decades has radically transformed India’s labour market, bringing millions of former agricultural workers into manufacturing industries, and, more recently, the expanding service industries, such as call centres and IT companies.
Alongside this employment shift has come a change in health and health problems, as communicable diseases have become less common, while non-communicable diseases, like cardiovascular problems, and mental health issues such as stress, have increased.
This interdisciplinary work connects those two trends to offer an analysis of the impact of working conditions on the health of Indian workers that is unprecedented in scope and depth.
The history of social policy is emerging as an area of growing interest to both students and researchers. This topical book charts the period from the 1830s to the present day, providing a fresh analysis of the relationship between social theory and social policy in the UK.
Drawing on recent historical research, the book:
· reconsiders and challenges many long-held beliefs about the ‘evolution’ of social policy;
· presents a wide-ranging reappraisal of links between social theories and changes in social policy;
· pays particular attention to the importance of idealist social thought as an intellectual framework for understanding the ‘welfare state’ ;
· has a distinctive focus on the importance of ideas in the history of social policy.
This controversial book argues that concepts such as ‘successful’ and ‘active’ ageing - ubiquitous terms in research, marketing and policy making concerned with older adults – are potentially dangerous paradigms that reflect and exacerbate inequalities in older populations.
This author presents a new theory to make sense of the popularity of these ‘successful’ and ‘active’ ageing concepts. Readers are invited to view them through the prism of Model Ageing – a theory that throws light on the causes and consequences of attempts to model ageing as a phenomenon and stage of life that is in need of direction, reshaping and control.
This is essential reading for anyone seeking to make sense of social constructions of ageing in contemporary societies.
Introduction and conclusion available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.
The turn towards a Social Investment approach to welfare implies deploying resources to enhance human capital and mobilise the productive potential of citizens, starting in early childhood.
This edited collection brings regional and local realities to the forefront of social investment debates by showcasing successes, challenges and setbacks of Social Investment policies and services from ten European countries: Italy, UK, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Spain. It provides practical, accessible illustrations of good practice, routes to success, and lessons learned. The book is informed throughout by engagement with service users and local communities, and features many previously unheard voices including front-line workers, local decision makers, volunteers and beneficiaries.
What part should children take in decisions about their lives? Does their need to be involved in decisions conflict with adult responsibility for their welfare? In its search for answers to these questions, Children, family and the state examines different theories of childhood, children’s rights and the relationship between children, parents and the state. Focusing on children who are looked after by the state, it reviews the changing objectives of the care system and the extent to which children have been involved in decisions about their care.
Social innovation has become a prominent theme in discussions of social policy reform across the world. This book examines why social innovation is important to social policy analysis. It discusses the theoretical and policy context of this concept; its origin and background; why it has emerged to prominence in recent years and how it has been applied.
The book relates social innovation to key debates and issues in social policy. These include competing agency and structural explanations of and solutions to social problems; the relative efficacy of government and civil society initiatives, and the capacity of community and/or service user-led responses to address social problems. The book will be a valuable resource for a wide, international readership including social and public policy analysts, policy makers, practitioners and students.
“Tackling prison overcrowding” is a response to controversial proposals for prisons and sentencing set out in by Lord Patrick Carter’s “Review of Prisons”, published in 2007.
The Carter review proposed the construction of vast ‘Titan’ prisons to deal with the immediate problem of prison overcrowding, the establishment of a Sentencing Commission as a mechanism for keeping judicial demand for prison places in line with supply, along with further use of the private sector, including private sector management methods.
“Tackling prison overcrowding” comprises nine chapters by leading academic experts, who expose these proposals to critical scrutiny. They take the Carter Report to task for construing the problems too narrowly, in terms of efficiency and economy, and for failing to understand the wider issues of justice that need addressing. They argue that the crisis of prison overcrowding is first and foremost a political problem - arising from penal populism - for which political solutions need to be found.
This accessible report will be of interest to policy makers, probation practitioners, academics and other commentators on criminal policy.
This collection provides new insights about current welfare professions in a number of European countries.
Focusing on research representing different types of European welfare states, including the Scandinavian and the Continental, the book offers in-depth understandings of professionals’ everyday work within different contextual conditions, explored from empirical and theoretical perspectives. Subjects covered include knowledge and identity, education and professional development, regulation, accountability, collaboration, assessment and decision making.
This is a valuable contribution to the discussion of professionalism and welfare professions, offering lessons learned and ways forward.
Establishing a critical and interdisciplinary dialogue, this text engages with the typically disparate fields of social gerontology and disability studies. It investigates the subjective experiences of two groups rarely considered together in research – people ageing with long-standing disability and people first experiencing disability with ageing.
This book challenges assumptions about impairment in later life and the residual nature of the ‘fourth age’. It proposes that the experience of ‘disability’ in older age reaches beyond the bodily context and can involve not only a challenge to a sense of value and meaning in life, but also ongoing efforts in response.
