Analyses the remaking of the relationships between welfare, state and nation.

As the standard of living has increased, aspirations and financial constraints have required major rethinking. There is considerable disparity between European countries in how they approach the welfare system, with differing concern over aspects such

Changing Welfare is concerned with the sweeping changes that took place in public assistance programs at the end of the 20th century and the way in which the original and reformed versions of these programs relate to the well-being of children and their families. The authors critically review the original conceptualizations and the new directions of programs offering cash assistance, food assistance, health insurance, and child protection services to low-income and disabled children and their families - thus, changes in the welfare programs themselves. And throughout, their concern is with whether and how these programs alter the opportunities for the development of the children targeted by these programs - thus, changes in the welfare of children and their families. The objective of each chapter of the book is to rigorously highlight key theoretical and research issues, including the identification of major empirical findings and unanswered questions. Wherever relevant, the chapters connect theory and research to policy and practice, pointing to recommendations and challenges for the future including alternative approaches for research, policy and practice. Changing Welfare is a valuable reference for practitioners and policy makers who are concerned with children and child-related issues, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, social program administrators, and students in psychology, social work, sociology, political science, and education.

​This book offers an analysis of social security in Ireland from 1981 to 2016 - a period of immense economic and social change during which social provisions such as pensions and family benefits were downsized or diluted in many countries. It considers whether this important area of welfare state provision in Ireland changed, and the extent and pattern of change. In the first in-depth account of this aspect of social policy In Ireland, the book sets the welfare state in a historical and comparative context and reviews the impact of globalisation, politics and the financial crash on the scope and generosity of social security. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of welfare state politics and comparative social policy as well as to students of Irish social policy.

Contains field-tested techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your local social services! Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs describes promising programs and practices that have emerged in the United States since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Using case studies, this reference provides important lessons that will help social service directors and staff to develop strategies that will improve local welfare-to-work services. This casebook focuses on the agencies rather than the welfare population, emphasizing the guiding values of these agencies and the lessons they learned. Changing Welfare Services explores new approaches to service delivery, with emphasis on removing barriers to work force participation and promoting self-sufficiency through support services. The case studies involve programs focused on working with the community by developing partnerships with local organizations to provide better services. This text emphasizes the organizational changes—such as the development of new training programs, merging employment and social service agencies, and restructuring agency programs to foster collaboration between child welfare services and welfare-to-work programs—that were successful strategies used to implement welfare reform. In Changing Welfare Services, you will learn about: the Connections Shuttle and the Guaranteed Ride Home Program—transportation services for welfare-to-work participants the Exempt Provider Training Program— trains Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants and others to launch and improve their own high-quality child care businesses co-location of support services—situating mental health and substance abuse services near the social services agency so TANF participants can make a single visit for all necessary services the Family Loan Program—helps low-income families deal with large or unexpected one-time expenses the JobKeeper Hotline—provides round-the-clock counseling, crisis intervention, and referral services to help participants stay employed and much more! Changing Welfare Services shows how these agencies discovered new ways to serve the needs of low-income residents and offers you a variety of inventive techniques for improving your own agency’s support for welfare recipients. Enhanced with tables, figures, and appendixes, this practitioner-oriented casebook is a much-needed complement to the many quantitative studies of the welfare population. This book is a valuable resource for state and local human service administrators and staff, policymakers, and university faculty and students of public policy.

Changing labour markets, welfare policies and citizenship readdresses the question of how full citizenship may be preserved and developed in the face of enduring labour market pressures. It: clarifies the relationship between changing labour markets, welfare policies and citizenship; discusses possible ways in which the spill-over effect from labour market marginality to loss of citizenship can be prevented; specifies this problem in relation to the young, older people, men and women and immigrants; offers theoretical and conceptual definitions of citizenship as a new, alternative approach to empirical analyses of labour market marginalisation and its consequences; highlights the lessons to be learned from differing approaches in European countries.

There have been major shifts in the framework of social policy and welfare across Europe. Adopting a multi-level, comparative and interdisciplinary approach, this book develops a critical analysis of policy change and welfare reform in Europe. The book applies a dynamic and change oriented perspective to shed light on policy changes that are often poorly understood in the welfare literature, and contributes to a further development of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks for understanding social change. Using citizenship as a focus, several dimensions of change are analysed simultaneously: changes in the discipline of social policy itself; the changing character of social problems; changes in social policy and citizenship; and the emergence of new forms of social integration. The book also speculates on how different dimensions of change are interlinked.

The welfare state plays a key role in people’s everyday lives in developed societies. At the same time, the welfare state is contested and there are constant discussions on how and to what degree the state should intervene, influence and have an impact on the development of society. Recent years have seen an accelerated transformation of the welfare state in the light of the global financial crisis, demographic change and changes in the perception of the state’s role in relation to social welfare. This raises fundamentally new issues related to social policy and welfare state analysis. This book provides: an introduction to the principles of welfare a conceptual framework necessary for understanding social policy at the macro-level a comparative approach to welfare states globally an overview of new ways to organise and steer welfare states an introduction to welfare state politics and underlying economic framework an account of equality and inequality in modern societies new directions for welfare states The book’s focus on core concepts and the variety of international welfare state regimes and mechanisms for delivering social policy provides a much needed introduction to the rapidly changing concept of welfare for students on social policy, social studies, sociology and politics courses.

Since the 1990s, and increasingly so, European welfare states have been undergoing fundamental change. The analysis presented in this book shows that these changes may be interpreted as a paradigmatic shift of European societies, since fundamental concepts, principles and societal effects of welfare institutions have been redefined, reset and rearranged. Given contemporary institutional, economic, social and cultural changes, current post-industrial forms of welfare states are characterised by a very different logic than that which prevailed some 30 years ago. This logic, while being ambivalent in certain areas, brings about highly modified societies. This book provides an understanding and identification of different facets of this paradigmatic shift, in order to contribute to the bigger picture of welfare state and societal change. Rather than referring to persisting differences in welfare state regimes, which are in parts identified here also, it directs its attention towards new and cross-country and cross-regime developments and tensions. The interpretations of welfare state change found in other studies, thereby, are enhanced in original ways. The theoretically-based empirical analysis of welfare state change departs from the generally accepted insight that mature democratic welfare states depend on social cohesion. The central question of this study, therefore, is how emancipatory past and present welfare state regulations are. The results show that the mechanisms, visibility and lines of social inequality differ significantly after three decades of partly fundamental reforms characterized by marketization, fragmentation and equalisation of welfare provision.

'This book is a most timely academic intervention. The concept of universalism is central to social policy and welfare state development yet it is rarely explored with such attention to its time and place specificities as in this book. Nordic and British authors investigate the different dimensions and meanings of universalism and the challenges it has faced. Buffeted by markets and choice on the one side and diversity on the other, can universalism survive? To find out, read on...' - Fiona Williams, University of Leeds, UK 'Universalism in social policy is politically challenged and normatively contested. This book examines how the principle of universalism can be understood and how it has been put into practice in various national contexts. Universalism is contrasted with the idea of diversity which has gained strength as a result of growing affluent middle classes and of multiculturalism in highly developed welfare states. The book deals with varieties of universalism and inspires a re-thinking of the normative basis of the welfare state.' - Stein Kuhnle, University of Bergen, Norway and Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany Welfare State, Universalism and Diversity is a thought-provoking book dealing with key ideas, values and principles of social policies and asking what exactly is meant by universal benefits and policies? Is the time of post-war universalism over? Are universalism and diversity contradictory policy and theory framings? Well-known scholars from different countries and fields of expertise provide a historically informative and comprehensive view on the making of universal social policies. Universalism is defined and implemented differently in the British and Scandinavian social policies. Service universalism is different from universalism in pensions. The book underlines the multiple and transformative nature of universalism and the challenge of diversity. There certainly is need for a greater diversity in meeting citizen's needs. Yet, universalism remains a principle essential for planning and implementing sustainable and legitimate policies in times characterized by complex interdependences and contradictory political aims. This impressive book is an attempt to untangle the multiple meanings of universalism and clarify the concept's relevance to contemporary policy debates. It will prove invaluable for students, researchers and practitioners in social policy, public policy, social administration, social welfare, social history, social work, sociology and political sciences. Policymakers and administrators involved with social and public policies, social services, social welfare, and social work will also find this book groundbreaking.