Poverty, Inequality and Social Justice

The issues involved in poverty, inequality and social justice are many and varied, from basic access to education and healthcare, to the financial crisis and resulting austerity, and now COVID-19. Addressing Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, our list both presents research on these topics and tackles emerging problems. A key series in the area is the SSSP Agendas for Social Justice.

This focus has always been at the heart of our publishing with the view to making the research in this area as visible and accessible as possible in order to maximise its potential impact.

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In Poverty, inequality and social justice, we aim to address the following goals: 

Poverty, Inequality and Social Justice

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COVID-19 and Regional Inequalities in Health and Wealth

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic affected all parts of the country, it did not do so equally. Northern England was hit the hardest, exposing more than ever the extent of regional inequalities in health and wealth.

Using original data analysis from a wide range of sources, this book demonstrates how COVID-19 has impacted the country unequally in terms of mortality, mental health and the economy.

The book provides a striking empirical overview of the impact of the pandemic on regional inequalities and explores why the North fared worse.

It sets out what needs to be learnt from the pandemic to prevent regional inequality growing and to reduce inequalities in health and wealth in the future.

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Wicked Issues and Relationalism
Editor:

Health and socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been exacerbated by central government-imposed austerity budgeting by local authorities and the health service.

This book, part of the Social Determinants of Health series, extends the ideas developed in the previous volumes by reviewing the impact of COVID-19 on local and national governance from the perspectives of public health, social care and economic development.

Drawing on case studies from across the UK and beyond, it explores the pandemic and other ‘wicked’ issues including climate change, homelessness, unemployment and domestic abuse through the lens of relationalism, and proposes necessary system changes.

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Housing and Home in the UK during the COVID-19 Pandemic
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The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically exposed weaknesses in UK housing’s relationship to the labour market and welfare system. Inequalities in household type, home occupancy, housing cost and security have contributed to the unequal impact of the disease.

Comprehensively charting fast-moving and inter-linked policy developments, Becky Tunstall assesses the position of housing and home in public policy, health and in peoples’ lives, and documents the most immediate responses to the pandemic in one convenient resource for students, scholars and practitioners.

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An Applied Approach
Author:

New public health governance arrangements under the coalition government have wide reaching implications for the delivery of health inequality interventions.

Through the framework of understanding health inequalities as a 'wicked problem' the book develops an applied approach to researching, understanding and addressing these by drawing on complexity theory. Case studies illuminate the text, illustrating and discussing the issues in real life terms and enabling public health, health promotion and health policy students at postgraduate level to fully understand and address the complexities of health inequalities.

The book is a valuable resource on current UK public health practice for academics, researchers and public health practitioners.

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Public health in the early 21st century increasingly considers how social inequalities impact on individual health, moving away from the focus on how disease relates to the individual person. This ‘new public health’ identifies how social, economic and political factors affect the level and distribution of individual health, through their effects on individual behaviours, the social groups people belong to, the character of relationships to others and the characteristics of the societies in which people live. The rising social inequalities that can be seen in nearly every country in the world today present not just a moral danger, but a mortal danger as well.

“Social inequality and public health” brings together the latest research findings from some of the most respected medical and social scientists in the world. It surveys four pathways to understanding the social determinants of health: differences in individual health behaviours; group advantage and disadvantage; psychosocial factors in individual health; and healthy and unhealthy societies, shedding light on the costs and consequences of today’s high-inequality social models.

This exciting book brings together leaders in the field discussing their latest research and is a must-read for anyone interested in public health and social inequalities internationally.

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From Acheson to ‘Choosing Health’

This book offers a unique multi-disciplinary perspective on tackling health inequalities in a rich country, examining the New Labour policy agenda for tackling health inequalities and its inherent challenges.

The book presents an overview of progress since the publication of the seminal and ambitious 1998 Acheson Inquiry into health inequalities, and the theoretical and methodological issues underpinning health inequalities. The contributors consider the determinants of inequality - for example, early childhood experience and ethnicity - the factors that mediate the relationship between determinants and health - nutrition, housing and health behaviour - and the sectoral policy interventions in user involvement, local area partnership working and social work.

Challenging health inequalities offers a combination of broad analysis of progress from differing perspectives and will be key reading to academics, students and policy makers.

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Continuity and change in Sweden

Foreword by Lisa Berkman, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University

How welfare states influence population health and health inequalities has long been debated but less well tested by empirical research. This book presents new empirical evidence of the effects of Swedish welfare state structures and policies on the lives of Swedish citizens.

The discussion, analysis and innovative theoretical approaches developed in the book have implications for health research and policy beyond Scandinavian borders. Drawing on a rich source of longitudinal data, the Swedish Level of Living Surveys (LNU), and other data, the authors shed light on a number of pertinent issues in health inequality research while at the same time showing how health inequalities have evolved in Sweden over several decades. Topics covered include how structural conditions relating to family, socio-economic conditions and the welfare state are important in producing health inequalities; how health inequalities change over the lifecourse and the impact of environment on health inequalities - at home, at school, in the workplace.

Health inequalities and welfare resources will be invaluable to researchers, students and practitioners in sociology, social epidemiology, public health and social policy interested in the interplay between society and health.

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Pathways, policies and practice through the lifecourse

In recent years, tackling health inequalities has become a key policy objective in the UK. However, doubts remain about how best to translate broad policy recommendations into practice. One key area of uncertainty concerns the role of local level initiatives.

This book identifies the key targets for intervention through a detailed exploration of the pathways and processes that give rise to health inequalities across the lifecourse. It sets this against an examination of both local practice and the national policy context, to establish what works in health inequalities policy, how and why. Authoritative yet accessible, the book provides a comprehensive account of theory, policy and practice. It spans the lifecourse from the early years to old age and explores the links between biological, psychological, social, educational and economic factors and a range of health outcomes. In addition it describes key policy initiatives, assesses research evidence of ‘what works’ and examines the limitations of the existing evidence base and highlights key areas of debate.

What works in tackling health inequalities? is essential reading for academics and students in medical sociology, social psychology, social policy and public health, and for policy makers and practitioners working in public health and social exclusion.

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Lifecourse approaches

The lifecourse perspective on adult health and on health inequalities in particular, is one of the most important recent developments in epidemiology and public health. This book brings together, in a single volume, the work of one of the most distinguished academics in the field. It is the first to specifically take a lifecourse approach to health inequalities and will be essential reading for academics, students and policy makers with an interest in public health, epidemiology, health promotion and social policy.

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