Rethinking Social Policy is a comprehensive introduction to, and analysis of, the complex mixture of problems and possibilities within the study of social policy. Contributors at the cutting edge of social policy analysis reflect upon the implications of new social and theoretical movements for welfare and the study of social policy. Topics covered include: criminology and crime control; race, class and gender; poverty and sexuality; the body and the emotions; violence; work and welfare in Europe. Examples are drawn from a variety of welfare sectors such as: social services and community care, health, education, employment, and criminal justice. This is a course reader for The Open University course (D860) Rethinking Social Practice.

In a fervent appeal for clearer thinking on social issues, Christopher Jencks reexamines the way Americans think about race, poverty, crime, heredity, welfare, and the underclass. Arguing that neither liberal nor conservative ideas about these issues withstand close scrutiny, he calls for less emphasis on political principles and more attention to specific programs. Jencks describes how welfare policy was dominated in the early 1980s by conservatives who promoted ideas that justified cutting back sharply on the social programs of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. They believed that a period of sustained economic growth, with low taxes and free markets, would do more to help poor people than coddling them with government assistance. Despite the economic expansion of the later Reagan years, however, the problems of persistent poverty grew even more serious. The liberals took the initiative in the late 1980s, but their proposals failed to win broad popular support. With clarity and a gift for apt analogy, Jencks analyzes influential books on such subjects as affirmative action (Thomas Sowell), the "safety net" (Charles Murray), the effects of heredity on learning and propensity to commit crime (James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein), ghetto culture and the underclass (William J. Wilson). His intention throughout is "to unbundle the empirical and moral assumptions that traditional ideologies tie together, making the reader's picture of the world more complicated"--in other words, to force us (readers and policymakers) to look at the way various remedial plans actually succeed or fail. For example, he believes that until we transform AFDC so that it reinforces rather than subverts American ideals about work and marriage, efforts to build a humane welfare state will never succeed. Other prescriptions, initially surprising and sometimes shocking, show demonstrable good sense once they are examined. As the author says, "If this book encourages readers to think about social policy more concretely, it will have served its primary purpose."

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Culture.

Rethinking European Welfare provides a wide-ranging and innovative rethinking of the study of Europe and social policy and offers new ways of analyzing European welfare and its future. Whilst acknowledging the importance of research and analysis of policy making in Europe, this Reader addresses a range of other challenging and provoking issues which have been marginalized or ignored in the study of European social policy. .

This landmark volume brings together some of the titans of social movement theory in a grand reassessment of its status. For some time, the field has been divided between a dominant structural approach and a cultural or constructivist tradition.. The gaps and misunderstandings between the two sides--as well as the efforts to bridge them--closely parallel those in the social sciences at large. This book aims to further the dialogue between these two distinct approaches to social movements and to show the broader implications for social science as a whole as it struggles with issues including culture, emotion, and agency. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Family networks and wider personal social relationships - guanxi - have long been held to be a significant factor making for the success of many Chinese family businesses, and guanxi is often seen as a special characteristic which shapes the nature of all business in China. This book re-examines this proposition critically, bringing together the very latest research and comparing the situation in different parts of "Greater China" – mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It considers entrepreneurship, venture capital, intergenerational succession, disputes, family businesses in different sectors of the economy, and particular family businesses. Among the book’s many interesting conclusions is the observation that guanxi capitalism has evolved in different ways in the different parts of Greater China, with the particular institutional setting having a major impact.

Drawing on discussions of the "Creative Economy," the "Network Economy," and the "Green Economy," Rethinking US Education Policy critiques educational policies authored by the Obama administration and considers the need for a new educational policy framework that is better adapted to an era of accelerating innovation.

This title represents the most forward thinking and comprehensive review of development economics currently available.

Rethinking Social Policy is a comprehensive introduction to, and analysis of, the complex mixture of problems and possibilities within the study of social policy. Contributors at the cutting edge of social policy analysis reflect upon the implications of new social and theoretical movements for welfare and the study of social policy. Topics covered include: criminology and crime control; race, class and gender; poverty and sexuality; the body and the emotions; violence; work and welfare in Europe. Examples are drawn from a variety of welfare sectors such as: social services and community care, health, education, employment, and criminal justice. This is a course reader for The Open University course (D860) R