Mental ill health has become one of the key 'public issues' of the 21st century. According to the World Health Organization, depression currently affects 350 million people. Politics of the Mind: Marxism and Mental Distress looks at the link between the economic and political system under which we live - capitalism - and the enormously high levels of mental ill-health which we see in the world today. The book ends by looking ahead to a world driven not by the demands of profit but on based...

二○二○年，憂鬱症將成為最主要的精神障礙全球受憂鬱症所苦的人口已上升到三點五億！是誰讓我們墜入痛苦深淵？心衛工作者必讀的啟蒙之作，拆解精神痛苦的社會根源「罷工糾察線不見了，全都變成勞工額頭上的皺紋。」在心理疾病高度汙名化的時代，無論是職場、校園霸凌，或是工作身心創傷，我們幾乎都忘了致病的最大成分不是自己的大腦，而是社會。特別是社會貧富不均加大，有錢人不工作就可以累積財富，我們發現自己越工作越窮，最後身心俱疲。根據衛福部的最新統計，臺灣在二○一七年中有將近二百六十四萬人曾因精神疾患相關困擾而尋求醫療協助，比起十年前的數據大約提增三成。這是不斷提高生產率和盈利的必然結果。中國大陸富士康工廠的年輕工人自殺，世界各地的工人也在苛刻的勞動條件下掙扎求存。此外，若政府以撙節為名刪減社福預算，壓縮民眾的生存空間...

Reclaiming Social Work is a thought-provoking and innovative book which examines how social work′s commitment to social justice has been deepened and enriched by its contact with wider social movements. It explores the tensions between social work values and a market-driven agenda, and locates new resources of hope for the social work profession in the developing resistance to managerialism.The book:" discusses pertinent social work issues such as inequalit...

How is social work shaped by global issues and international problems and how should it address them? This book employs a radical perspective to examine international social work.Globalisation had opened up many issues for social work, including how to address global inequalities, the impact of global economic problems and trends towards neoliberalism. By examining the origins of modern social work, problematising its definition and addressing the care/control dichotomy the book re...

Social work is under unprecedented pressure as a result of funding cuts, political interventions, marketisation and welfare transformations which, combined, are dramatically reshaping the relationship between individuals and the welfare state.A wide range of distinguished academics provide a comprehensive analysis of the evolving challenges facing contemporary social work, reflecting on both the existential and ideological threats to the profession. As well as the chief practice ar...

The Bible stands at the heart of the Christian faith, but now more than ever many question its historical reliability and relevance for life today. In what may become the definitive contemporary evangelical resource on this foundational topic, John MacArthur and a host of pastors, biblical scholars, historians, and theologians defend the doctrine of biblical inerrancy from their various disciplines. With contributions from evangelical leaders such as Kevin DeYoung, R. Albert Mohler Jr., R....

SIR ALEX FERGUSON is one of the most admired and respected managers in the history of the beautiful game. Sir Alex Ferguson: Fifty Defining Fixtures presents a completely new perspective on the longest-serving manager of Manchester United. Covering his complete career as a player and a manager, this book highlights the games that projected the boy from the Glasgow district of Govan to the worldwide phenomenon that was Manchester United. From his Scottish Football League debut with the amat...

Although overshadowed by his contemporaries Adam Smith and David Hume, the Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson strongly influenced eighteenth-century currents of political thought. A major reassessment of this neglected figure, Adam Ferguson in the Scottish Enlightenment: The Roman Past and Europe’s Future sheds new light on Ferguson as a serious critic, rather than an advocate, of the Enlightenment belief in liberal progress. Unlike the philosophes who looked upon Europe’...

Adult social care in Britain has been at the centre of much media and public attention in recent years. Revelations of horrific abuse in learning disability settings, the collapse of major private care home providers, abject failures of inspection and regulation, and uncertainty over how long-term care of older people should be funded have all given rise to serious public concern. In this short form book, part of the Critical and Radical Debates in Social Work series, Iain Ferguson and Mic...

Globalization has become a seemingly unstoppable force over recent decades and, in its wake, global notions of social justice have developed in response to its negative aspects. Neo-liberal economic policies have been a key element in the wider process of globalization, and these policies have had a profound impact on welfare provision and the shape of social work practice. Arising dissatisfaction among users of welfare and social work services is fuelling the search for a new, more radica...

As the world grapples with the complex impacts of COVID-19, this book provides an urgent critical exploration of how Social Work can and should respond to this global crisis.The book considers the ecological, epidemiological, ideological and political conditions which gave rise to the pandemic, before examining the ways that social work has responded in different nations across the Global North and Global South. This series of nation studies examine good practices and suggest new w...