This bold new textbook represents a significant step forward in social policy teaching by combining comparative and global perspectives. Introducing readers to a wide spread of international challenges and issues, the book shows how insights into policy can be generated using a comparative and multidisciplinary approach. Global in its canvas and analytical in its method, the book: • explores the economic, social and political contexts of social policy; • examines in detail its institutions and fields of practice; • illustrates the field’s main ideas, themes and practices, drawing on a rich international literature and using pertinent and thought-provoking examples.Authored by two highly respected and experienced academics, this book demonstrates the rewards of studying social policy from an international perspective by avoiding the constraints of a single-nation focus. Clear, authoritative and wide-ranging, it will be essential reading for students of social sciences taking courses covering social policy, social welfare and comparative policy analysis.
Michael Hill is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Newcastle University. Zoë Irving is Reader in Comparative and International Social Policy at the University of York.
Social policy and social progress: how can we explore the world?Part I: Themes and perspectivesInequalities and why they matterVarieties of welfarePolicy processesPart II: Policy domainsIncome SecurityWork and employmentEducationHousingHealthSocial careEnvironmentConclusion: a divided world of social policy?
"Demonstrates the important international nature of welfare debates, situating readers in the wider world of social policy and facilitating a deeper understanding of the discipline."Lee Gregory, University of Birmingham