Description

About The Book

International Social Policy, 2nd edition provides an accessible and structured look at social policy in a global comparative context. With detailed explanations of the historical, political and social context of policy developments across thirteen nations, the book offers an authoritative picture of social policy across the developed world.

This second edition now offers an expanded first chapter on welfare analysis, completely new chapters on China and South Korea, and updates throughout that flag the latest changes and policy trends. Exploring and comparing a variety of approaches to social policy, each chapter looks at welfare structure, developments and future prospects in a single country. The book considers core areas of policy provision alongside contemporary international concerns, such as globalization, demographic change and economic reform. Specifically, it examines policy in the following nations

Table Of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements; P.Alcock & G.Craig

The International Context; P.Alcock & G.Craig

An American Welfare State?; J.Clarke with F.F.Piven

Canada: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?; E.Lightman & G.Riches

Australia: From Wage-Earners to Neo-Liberal State; L.Bryson& F. Verity

New Zealand: From Early Innovation to Humanising the Market; J.Davey & S.Grey

The United Kingdom: Constructing a Third Way?; P.Alcock

Sweden: Between Model and Reality; T.Salonen

Germany: A Centrist Welfare State at the Crossroads; L.Leisering

Italy: Still a Pension State?; V.Fargion

Russia: State Socialism to Marketised Welfare; N.Davidova& N.Manning

Japan: Constructing the 'Welfare Society'; T.Uzuhasi

Korea: Rescaling the Developmental Welfare State; H.Kwon

China: The Art of State and Social Policy Remodelling; K.Lin

South Africa – Transition Under Pressure; F.Lund

About The Authors

PETE ALCOCK is Professor of Social Policy and Administration and Director of the ESRC Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of Social Policy in Britain 3e (2008) and Understanding Poverty 3e (2006) and co-editor of The Student’s Companion to Social Policy 3e (2008), and The Blackwell Dictionary of Social Policy (2002). He is past chair of the Social Policy Association and of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social Policy.

GARY CRAIG is Professor of Social Justice, Head of the Centre for Research in Social Inclusion and Social Justice, and Associate Director of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, at the University of Hull, UK. He is co-author/editor of Community Empowerment, Social Justice and Public Policy and Community Work in Theory and Practice. He is past Secretary of the Social Policy Association.