Books published by Bristol University Press

In an era of scarce social resources the question of the changing social policy constructions and responses to disabled people has become increasingly important. Paradoxically, some disabled people are realising new freedoms and choices never before envisioned, whilst others are prey to major retractions in public services and aggressive attempts to redefine who counts as 'genuinely disabled'. Understanding disability policy locates disability policy into broader social policy and welfare policy writings and goes beyond narrow statutory evaluations of welfare to embrace a range of indicators of disabled people's welfare. The book critically explores the roles of social security, social support, poverty, socio-economic status, community safety, official discourses and spatial change in shaping disabled people's opportunities. It also situates welfare and disability policy in the broader conceptual shifts to the social model of disability and its critics. Finally it explores the possible connection between changing official and academic constructions of disability and their implications for social policy in the 21st century. The book is supported by a companion website, containing additional materials for both students and lecturers using the book, which is available from the link above.

This unique Reader traces the changing fortunes of community development through a selection of readings from key writers.

This new edition of this bestselling book argues that patients need to develop as active citizens and co-producers of health. This second edition has been entirely rewritten with two new chapters, and includes new material on resistance to that world-wide process.

This exciting and practical book is filled to the brim with useful ideas for busy practitioners. Building on the work of Paulo Freire, theories are presented in interesting and straightforward ways to provide an everyday reference for practice.

This book is the first to theorise and define the social harm concept beyond criminology and seeks to address these omissions and in doing so provide a platform for future debates, in this series and beyond.

This collection of 12 new and revised essays on child care and children's services gives a unique and lasting review of child care services explaining significant political, economic, legal and ideological aspects of this history from the mid-1850s.

Sociologists' Tales brings together the thoughts and experiences of key UK sociologists from different generations of British sociology in reflecting on why they have chosen a career in sociology, how they have managed to do it and what advice they would offer the next generation.

This is the first book to make the link between popular culture and social problems. Drawing on historical and topical examples, the authors apply an innovative theoretical framework to examine how facets of popular culture shape how we think about, and respond to, social issues.

This is the first English-language book to take a comparative look at the Italian welfare state as a whole since the 2008 economic crisis and will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers as well as students.

Explores the politics and ideology behind a new form of philanthropy whereby wealthy capitalists and private corporations establish initiatives to reduce poverty, disease and food security. Is this new philanthropy just a sticking plaster without long-term results as it fails to tackle inequality?

Written by an experienced author and widely respected academic, this valuable book asks whether the planning system is to blame for the frequent criticism it receives and discusses the ways in which management theories, tools and techniques can be applied to planning.

This landmark study provides the first comprehensive assessment of the nature and associations between the three main forms of social disadvantage in Australia: poverty, deprivation and social exclusion. Drawing on the author's extensive research expertise and his links with welfare practitioners, it explains the limitations of existing approaches and presents new findings that build on the insights of disadvantaged Australians and views about the essentials of life, providing the basis for a new deprivation-based poverty measure.

What does motherhood mean today? Drawing on interviews with new mothers and intergenerational chains of women in the same family, this exciting and timely book documents the transition to motherhood over generations and time. Exploring, amongst other things, the trend to later motherhood and the experience of teenage pregnancy, a compelling picture emerges. Becoming a mother is not only a profound moment of identity change but also a site of socio-economic difference that shapes women's lives.

Amid a welter of simultaneous policy initiatives, treatment centres were a top-down NHS innovation that became subverted into a multiplicity of solutions to different local problems. This highly readable account of how and why they evolved with completely unforeseen results reveals clear, practical lessons based on case study research involving over 200 interviews. Policy makers, managers and clinicians undertaking any organisational innovation cannot afford to ignore these findings.

This first report in the ESRC Learning Society series examines the key processes of learning, as embedded in particular workplaces, organisational structures and specific social practices. The authors explore the conflicts and barriers which organisations run into, even when they are trying to promote greater learning among staff.

This book offers a unique research-based contribution to the debate around community cohesion and counter-terrorism policies in Britain. It is an essential read for academics, policy makers and practitioners concerned with the management of ethnic diversity.

Family policy paradoxes examines the political regulation of the family in Sweden between 1930 and today. It draws attention to the political attempts to create a 'modern family' and the aspiration to regulate the family and establish gender equality, thereby shedding light on ongoing policy processes within Europe and how these can be understood in the light of a particular political experience. The book is valuable for researchers, lecturers, undergraduate and graduate students who study gender, gender equality and welfare state development in gender studies, sociology, social and public policy, social work, politics and social/contemporary history

Using an international and multi-disciplinary approach, this book provides a timely overview of the current issues in environmentalism and social policy. It explores many current debates, including: cities, housing and transport; citizenship and care; employment and green jobs; environmental governance and legislation; and globalisation.

Planning is never far from the top of the policy or media agenda, whether this concerns 'garden-grabbing', the location of wind farms or protests about travellers' sites. The operation of the planning system raises strong views, even passions, and is highly political. Planners have to engage with developers working on multi-million pound schemes and the local communities that will be affected by such schemes. And throughout, they have to work in the public interest, delivering on broad policy goals and meeting the needs of vulnerable communities. This book is about the way that the planning system works, what it can do, what it cannot do and how it should evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It looks at a range of issues to unlock the purpose of planning by being positive about the role of planning while remaining realistic about its achievements and potential. Written in a clear and accessible manner, this book will be essential reading for students studying planning in a variety of disciplines and practitioners engaging with the planning system.

This valuable book is the first to bring together theory and policy with analysis of key areas of the public realm to explore what religious literacy is, why it is needed and what might be done about it. It is aimed at academics, policy-makers and practitioners interested in the continuing presence of religion and belief in the public sphere.

A carefully crafted study of ageing in Ireland, one of the countries hardest hit by the Eurozone financial crisis, presenting a critical analysis of ageing and social policy in a country under tight austerity measures.

This unique book presents all 73 female presidents and prime ministers from around the world, from 1960 (when the first was elected) to 2010, through a series of fascinating case studies that discuss the motives, achievements and life stories of these women of power.

Written by key people in the field, this timely and accessible book argues that treating policy's movement as an active process of 'translation', in which policies are interpreted, inflected and re-worked as they change location, is of critical importance for studying policy.

Bringing together a team of experienced and highly respected researchers from across Taiwan, this book is the first to examine in detail the theory and practice of policy analysis in Taiwan at different levels of government and in non-governmental organisations.

Bringing together international research in social work, this book examines key concepts including the social determinants of health (SDoH) and human rights approaches to LGBT health.

This challenging book analyses the development of anti-racist social work education and training. It critically assesses the concept of 'race', offers an historical exploration of the role of social work and provides an assessment of the backlash against the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work's anti-racist developments.

Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a greater pace of reform to planning in Britain than at any other time. As a public sector activity, planning has also been impacted heavily by the wider changes in the way we are governed. Yet whilst such reform has been extensively commented upon within academia, few have empirically explored how these changes are manifesting themselves in planning practice. This new book aims to understand how both specific planning and broader public sector reforms have been experienced and understood by chartered town planners working in local authorities across Great Britain. After setting out the reform context, successive chapters then map responses across the profession to the implementation of spatial planning, to targets, to public participation and to the idea of a 'customer-focused' planning, and to attempts to change the culture of the planning. Each chapter outlines the reaction by the profession to reforms promoted by successive central and devolved governments over the last decade, before considering the broader issues of what this tells us about how modernisation is rolled-out by frontline public servants. This accessible book fills a gap in the market and makes ideal reading for students and researchers interested in the UK planning system.

Britain's relationship with the European Union (EU) is frequently viewed as simple by the media and politicians. In ways - never really explained - the EU has managed to 'take away' Britain's sovereign powers and has the ability to determine much of its legislation. The history of how this has occurred is never discussed, unlike other countries in Europe.How Europe shapes British public policy examines the development of the EU as a sectarian issue in the UK. It discusses the effects of disengagement through the political practices of policy making and the implications that this has had for depoliticisation in government and the civil service. It considers the effects of EU membership in shaping key policy areas - trade and privatisation, the single market and the environment, and subsidiarity in the development and implementation of devolved and decentralised governance.This book gives new and essential insights for students and practitioners of politics, governance and international relations.

A compelling new approach to public policy-making as problem processing, bringing together aspects of puzzling, powering and participation and relating them to cultural theory, issues about networks, models of democracy and modes of citizen participation.