intellectual history of British social policy

John Offer is Professor of Social Theory and Policy in the School of Policy Studies at the University of Ulster, Coleraine. His main research interests are the history of ideas in respect of UK social policy, the social theory of Herbert Spencer, informal care and voluntary action, and the sociology of professional interventions in everyday social life.

• Contents: Images of welfare: conceptual bearings; 'The most pressing of evils': outdoor relief, the Poor Law and social theory; Herbert Spencer, beneficiance and voluntaryism; Charity: the engine of social progress; 'A definite minimum of civilised life': Hobson, Hobhouse and the Webbs; Beveridge; Idealist thought, Titmuss and the new subject of social administration; Non-idealism resurgent: the rediscovery of informal care and welfare pluralism; New Labour and a new idealism: the state, voluntary action and the 'Third Way'; Conclusion.

"Offer's account raises an important question about the relationship between the advocates of voluntary welfare and those of statutory provision." Social Policy