Books published by Bristol University Press

This book explores issues of ethnicity, identity and racialised exclusion in rural Britain, in depth and for the first time. It questions what the countryside 'is', problematises who is seen as belonging to rural spaces, and argues for the recognition of a rural multiculture.

The appeal of voluntary action as a solution to growing welfare needs in advanced capitalist countries raises important questions about the social impacts and spatial equity of such provision. For the first time, these issues are addressed within a single book, exploring the complex relationship between voluntary action, society and space.

The challenges faced by those rationing scarce health care resources have intensified recently. In an accessible style, this book tackles this challenge by exploring the latest thinking and practice on priority setting methods.

This valuable collection is the first to identify how social solidarity across Europe is being re-invented from below and redefined from above.

This collection, written by leading health policy researchers, examines the role that case-studies play in British health policy, covering key health policy literatures in the policy process, analytical frameworks and seminal moments of the NHS.

Theories heralding the rise of network governance have dominated for a generation. Yet, empirical research suggests that claims for the transformative potential of networks are exaggerated. This topical and timely book takes a critical look at contemporary governance theory, elaborating a Gramscian alternative. It argues that, although the ideology of networks has been a vital element in the neoliberal hegemonic project, there are major structural impediments to accomplishing it. While networking remains important, the hierarchical and coercive state is vital for the maintenance of social order and integral to the institutions of contemporary governance. Reconsidering it from Marxist and Gramscian perspectives, the book argues that the hegemonic ideology of networks is utopian and rejects the claim that there has been a transformation from 'government' to 'governance'. This important book has international appeal and will be essential reading for scholars and students of governance, public policy, human geography, public management, social policy and sociology.

This book draws together a range of case studies by international experts to assess the impacts of social mix policies and the degree to which they might represent gentrification by stealth.

Lifetime attitudes to housing have changed, with new population dynamics driving the market and a greater emphasis on consumption. This important contribution to the literature argues that how we think about households and their housing needs to be recast to acknowledge this changed environment and provide a more powerful conceptual framework.

This edited book provides a hard-hitting and deliberately provocative overview of the relationship between evidence, policy and practice, how policy is implemented and how research can and should influence the policy process.

This is an English version of a text on public policy analysis originally written for practitioners in Switzerland and France. It presents a model for the analysis of public policy and includes examples of its application in everyday situations. This English version introduces supplementary illustrations and examples from the United Kingdom.

This book focuses on how personalisation - the idea that public services should be tailored to the individual, with budgets devolved to the service user or frontline staff - evolved as a policy narrative and has mobilised wide-ranging political support.

Using many data sources, this timely book provides a comprehensive discussion of issues of wealth, looking at potential policy responses, including 'asset-based' welfare and taxation.

One of Britain's foremost social work academics, Peter Beresford, challenges the personalisation agenda and its consequences on service users.

This revised and expanded second edition of the acclaimed international best-seller combines theoretical and applied discussions and case examples to provide an essential guide to research methods, approaches and debates.

An introduction to political crime provides a comprehensive and contemporary analysis of political crime including both violent and nonviolent crimes committed by and against the state in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other advanced industrialized democracies since the 1960s.

Using real social work case examples, Organisational behaviour for social work unites the well-established study of behaviour in organizations with the special, and sometimes unusual, organizational settings of social work practice.

This original book explores the importance of geographical processes for policies and professional practices related to childhood and youth. Contributors from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds explore how concepts such as place, scale, mobility and boundary-making are important for policies and practices in diverse contexts.

This revised and updated edition of an important report looks at macro public policy interventions, community interventions, and individual level interventions in a variety of areas to ascertain 'what works' in practice. It includes new case studies, updated research references, and reference to cost effectiveness.

This multi-disciplinary volume brings together original research from diverse disciplinary backgrounds investigating how we can define and operationalise a bio-psychosocial model of ill-health to improve work participation in middle and later life.

This book critically explores the urban governance of healthy lifestyles and the contemporary problematisations of the obesity, sedentarism and alcohol "epidemics".

This timely book takes a critical look at the impact of the Munro Review (2011) on child protection and the Government's response.

Social class in later life: Power, identity and lifestyle provides the most up-to-date collection of new and emerging research relevant to contemporary debates on the relationship between class, culture, and later life.

In a vivid account of every stage of the migration process, this topical book presents new research that looks in-depth at Polish migration to the UK, in particular the lives of working-class Polish families in the West of England.

World-leading health economist Cam Donaldson defends NHS-type systems on the same basis as their detractors: economic efficiency. However, protecting government funding of health care is not enough: scarcity has to be managed. Donaldson goes on to show how we can get more out of our systems by addressing issues of value for money. In particular, he demonstrates what has been achieved through health care reform but questions how much more this can deliver relative to getting serious about priority setting. The issues addressed in the book have global relevance and this accessible book will therefore appeal to the public, health professionals and health policy specialists.

This book provides a new model for evidence-based policy in UK drug policy and will be essential reading for students and researchers in public policy and criminology.

An analysis of the aspirations of different groups living in East London and the strategies they have used to improve their status.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book is about the ideas, networks and institutions that shape the development of evidence about child poverty and wellbeing, and the use of such evidence in development policy debates.

The development of happiness as an explicit theme in social research and policy worldwide has been rapid and remarkable, posing fundamental questions about our personal and collective motives and purposes. This book examines the achievements and potential of applied happiness scholarship in diverse cultures and domains. It argues that progressive policies require a substantial and explicit consideration of happiness. Part one introduces the development of happiness themes in scholarship, policy and moral discourse. Part two explores the interplay between happiness scholarship and a wide variety of domains of social experience, including relationship guidance, managing social aspirations, parenting, schooling, gender reform, work-life harmonizing, marketing and consumption and rethinking old age. This exciting new text will appeal to policy makers, social organizers and community development practitioners, especially those interested in well-being related policy innovation and social entrepreneurship. It will also be of interest to academics embedded in policy practice.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book is about the experiences of students in institutions of higher education from 'non-traditional' backgrounds with contributions from the UK, the USA and Australia which reveal that the issues surrounding the inclusion of 'non-traditional' students are broadly similar in different countries.