Designed for use by undergraduates on social policy, social work and sociology courses and by students on vocational training courses (including postgraduate), this textbook covers all the main topics of social policy.

In many Western countries, social welfare payments are increasingly being made conditional on recipients doing voluntary work or attending job training courses, a system known as "welfare-to-work" or "workfare". Although social welfare in Asia is very different to the West, with much smaller social welfare budgets, a strong self-reliance and a much higher dependency on family networks to provide support, the workfare approach is also being adopted in many Asian countries. This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of how welfare reform around work is implemented in leading East Asian. Based on the experiences of seven East Asian economies - including China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau - this book critically analyses current trends; the social, economic and political factors which lead to the implementation of workfare; compares the similarities and differences of workfare in the different polities and assesses their effectiveness.

How can unjust societies be overcome with a better distribution of opportunities to flourish? How can human development be revitalised in countries where social welfare is being questioned? In short, how can human development be fostered in practice? These are some of the important questions asked in this volume through analysis of existing policies and conceptualisations of coherent and systematic strategies for human development policies at the local, national and international level. International contributors innovatively combine the hitherto unpaired perspectives of the capability approach and the tradition of critical social policy with empirical examples using case studies from South-Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America. The result is a call for a new, feasible approach towards more socially balanced, democratic and innovative capability-promoting policy activities, models and programmes that reduce social and human suffering to promote an enhanced social quality of current societies around the world.

The second edition of this textbook 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. The book considers core areas of policy provision alongside contemporary international concerns, such as globalisation, demographic change and economic reform. Specifically, it examines policy in the following nations: - USA - Canada - Australia - New Zealand - UK - Sweden - Germany - Italy - Russia - Japan - South Korea - China - South Africa Written and edited by leading social policy experts in each country, this is an invaluable contribution to the study of global social policy and an indispensable resource for students, researchers and policy-makers. New to this Edition: - Offers an expanded first chapter on welfare analysis - Completely new chapters on China and South Korea - Updates throughout that flag the latest changes and policy trends - Explores and compares a variety of approaches to social policy

Drawing on contemporary theoretical concepts including multiple selves, personal construct theory, intrapsychic survival and the effect of historical and political factors on older people's well being, the author calls for a more positive and constructive approach to improving the lives of people with dementia.

Contemporary Asian society is marked by social processes associated with the loss of stable economic growth and high employment; family structures capable of caring for family members in need; and governmental economic and political competence. Post-financial crisis job uncertainty and income and labor market polarization have become important issue in Asian societies. Family structures are viewed as have been weakened, with a corresponding rise in divorce and domestic violence. Trust in the government is in decline. Against this backdrop it is timely to review three critical issues: 1) policies addressing work-related risks and socio-economic security; 2) changes regarding the structure and stability of families; and 3) issues concerning governance in times of weakened state capacity, declining trust, and the emergence of new politics. Containing chapters written by international scholars, this book introduces the concepts and theoretical approaches of risk and risk and governance and places them within the context of Asian societies.

It has been long overdue to address the principal problems that Africa continues to have. How to bring real African solutions to these problems remains unresolved. Palaeontologists have discovered that Africa is the origin of humanity. Africa has also experienced the commodification of its humanity through slavery, colonialism and apartheid. The African continent has been influenced by a melange of races, cultures, religions, ethnic nationalities making the project of how the differences can be managed to forestall conflict and promote the unity of the current 54 states to turn the cacophony of noises into a single voice that can protect Africa a di? cult challenge. This book on Regenerating Africa: Bringing African Solutions to African Problems addresses why Africans must come together and try to address their own problems. They must look back to the spiritual, struggle and knowledge heritage to re-imagine and innovate a new Africa with leadership, governance, systems and institutions that can address the security and well-being, the employment, social inclusion, poverty eradication and the equality of the people. In fact the key problem to find a solution is how to Africanise those that originated from Africa and those that became settlers with different racial, cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic variations. How to manage inter-African relations? How the settlers from the colonial legacy, the apartheid legacy, the Arabs in Africa and the varied tribes within Africans can all share being Africanised above all else is a real challenge to bring lasting solutions to Africa's enduring problems. This book is one of the few books that addresses the real problems Africa continues to face by suggesting solutions which policy makers and all Africans must learn and never ignore but use to advance a free, united, renascent, proud and dignified independent Africa in this unpredictable time the world is going through. The contributors address in the book how African solutions to African problems in the current global context to create a sustainable African future can be thought, designed and engineered to advance the well-being of people and nature for all. The African Unity for Renaissance series of conferences that over 10 partners contributed to run is the true source for generating the quality papers that have been peer reviewed to constitute the contributions in the book to make African solutions to African problems in reality and not just in talk.

This Second Edition has been extensively revised and expanded to take account of recent theory and research. A new chapter has been added dealing with issues of death and dying, and particular attention has been paid to issues of gender and ethnicity in the social structuring of later life. It has been adopted by The Open University as a set book for its course K256 An Ageing Society.

Based on the findings of in-depth research and on the author's long-standing experience of working with people with dementia, this ground-breaking book provides fresh perspectives and ideas for policy and practice. In the first part of this extensively referenced and up-to-date book, Michael Bender examines the scientific status of the terms 'dementia', 'Alzheimer's' and 'multi-infarct dementias' and concludes that there is little convincing scientific evidence to justify their continued use. He suggests that in order to develop adequate psychological and social models of dementia, a number of perspectives, such as the intrapsychic, the interpersonal and the contextual, need to be developed. Drawing on contemporary theoretical concepts including multiple selves, personal construct theory, intrapsychic survival and the effect of historical and political factors on older people's well being, the author calls for a more positive and constructive approach to improving the lives of people with dementia. He emphasises the importance of the individual's social context; the problems they are facing and their reactions to those problems; their life history and interpersonal relationships and discusses the process of assessment, finally developing techniques that allow the person with dementia to describe their experience, helping to ameliorate cognitive losses. Taking an honest look at what we really know about dementia and how we can learn more, this innovative book will make essential reading for medical and mental health practitioners, researchers and students working in the field.