Australian Attitudes presents a set of analyses from the National Social Science Survey which explore a wide range of interesting questions about the attitudes, values and behaviour of the Australian public. The authors combine academic rigour with easy-to-read prose to produce a book which will be of interest to scholars and general readers alike. The topics covered include attitudes towards moral issues such as abortion and foreign aid, views on economic policy and the political...

Welfare states vary across nations and change over time. And the balance between markets and government; free enterprise and social protection is perennially in question. But all developed societies have welfare states of one kind or another - they are a fundamental dimension of modern government. And even after decades of free-market criticism and reform, their core institutions have proven resilient and popular. This Very Short Introduction describes the modern welfare state, ex...

"An excellent introduction to the study of population and its significance for many of the key social, political, cultural and environmental issues facing the world today. It covers population growth, ageing, migration and mobility, parenting, health inequalities, and much more... The authors do not shy away from areas of continuing debate, providing both sides of an argument and encouraging readers to follow up the original sources"**- Tony Champion, Emeritus Professor of Popul...

Social Policy: Themes and approaches is a fully revised, updated and extended edition of a bestselling social policy textbook, extensively reworked and adapted to meet the needs of its international readership. The book lays out the architecture of social policy as a field of study, providing a sense of the scope, range and purpose of the subject while developing critical awareness of problems, issues and common fallacies.

In this fully revised third edition of Australia's Welfare Wars , Philip Mendes questions many of the key values and assumptions that determine contemporary social welfare policies, and the factors and forces that shape these policies in Australia.

No one wants to live in poverty. Few people would want others to do so. Yet, millions of people worldwide live in poverty. According to the World Bank, over 700 million people lived on less than US $2 a day in 2013. Why is that? What has been done about it in the past? And what is being done about it now? In this Very Short Introduction Philip N. Jefferson explores how the answers to these questions lie in the social, political, economic, educational, and technological processes t...

This topical book transforms the analysis of housing problems into a lively, interesting and contentious subject of social scientific study, addressing themes of residential experience, inclusion/empowerment, sustainability and professionalism/managerialism, which lie at the heart of the housing and social policy debate. Each chapter considers a specific social category - such as class, gender, or disability - and evaluates the experience and understanding of housing and social policy unde...

Governments are encouraging later-life working and state pension ages are being raised. There is also a growing debate on intergenerational equity and on ageism/age discrimination. John Macnicol, one of Europe's leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, examines the effect of neoliberalism on the recent ageing and social policy agenda in the UK and the USA. He argues that the demographic and economic impulses behind recent policy changes are in fact less important than the effect of...

Poplulation migration is one of the demographic and social processes which have structured the British economy and society over the last 250 years. It affects individuals, families, communities, places, economic and social structures and governments. This book examines the pattern and process of migration in Britain over the last three centuries. Using late 1990s research and data, the authors have shed light on migrations patterns including internal migration and movement overseas, its im...

This collection examines the profound transformations that have characterised cities of the advanced capitalist societies in the final decades of the 20th century. It analyses ways in which relationships of contest, conflict and cooperation are realised in and through the social and spatial forms of contemporary urban life. In particular, the essays focus on the impact of economic restructuring and changing forms of urban governance on patterns of urban deprivation and social exclusion. Th...

This book makes the case for the welfare state. Nearly every government in the developed world offers some form of social protection, and measures to improve the social and economic well-being of its citizens. However, the provision of welfare is under attack. The critics argue that welfare states are illegitimate, that things are best left to the market, and that welfare has bad effects on the people who receive it. If we need to be reminded why we ought to have welfare, it is because so ...

This 2nd edition of a highly respected textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to Irish social policy. It provides an accessible, critical overview taking account of significant changes over recent years.The book is organised across four key sections:1: Traces the emergence and development of Irish social policy from its origins to the present2: Situates the Irish case in the wider context of the politics, ideology and socio-economic factors relevant to the dev...