This book brings together leading figures in democratic reform and civic engagement to show why and how better state-citizen cooperation is necessary for achieving positive social change. Their contributions demonstrate that, while protest and non-state action may have their place, citizens must also work effectively with public bodies to secure sustainable improvements.The authors explain why the problem of civic disengagement poses a major threat, highlight what actions can be ta...

In this collection, innovative and eminent social and policy analysts, including Colin Crouch, Anna Coote, Grahame Thompson and Ted Benton, challenge the failing but still dominant ideology and policies of neo-liberalism.The editors synthesise contributors’ ideas into a revised framework for social democracy; rooted in feminism, environmentalism, democratic equality and market accountability to civil society.This constructive and stimulating collection will be invaluable fo...

Singapore is changing. The consensus that the PAP government has constructed and maintained over five decades is fraying. The assumptions that underpin Singaporean exceptionalism are no longer accepted as easily and readily as before. Among these are the ideas that the country is uniquely vulnerable, that this vulnerability limits its policy and political options, that good governance demands a degree of political consensus that ordinary democratic arrangements cannot produce, and that the...

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...

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com.Guy Standing's immensely influential 2011 book introduced the Precariat as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality and insecurity. Standing outlined the increasingly global nature of the Precariat as a social phenomenon, especially in the light of the social unrest characterized by the Occupy movements. He outlined the pol...

Actors and institutions in localities and regions across the world are seeking prosperity and well-being amidst tumultuous and disruptive shifts and transitions generated by: an increasingly globalised, knowledge-intensive capitalism; global financial instability, volatility and crisis; concerns about economic, social and ecological sustainability, climate change and resource shortages; new multi-actor and multi-level systems of government and governance and a re-ordering of the i...

Market Society: History, Theory, Practice explores the social basis of economic life, from the emergence of market society in feudal England to the complex and interwoven markets of modern capitalist society. This lively and accessible book draws upon a variety of theories to examine the social structures at the heart of capitalist economies. It considers how capitalism is constituted, the institutions that regulate economic processes in market society and the experience of living in conte...

The Companion to Development Studies contains over a hundred chapters written by leading international experts within the field to provide a concise and authoritative overview of the key theoretical and practical issues dominating contemporary development studies. Covering a wide range of disciplines the book is divided into ten sections, each prefaced by a section introduction written by the editors. The sections cover: the nature of development, theories and strategies of develo...

These days, it is easy to be cynical about democracy. Even though there are more democratic societies now (119 and counting) than ever before, skeptics can point to low turnouts in national elections, the degree to which money corrupts the process, and the difficulties of mass participation in complex systems as just a few reasons why the system is flawed. The Occupy movement in 2011 proved that there is an emphatic dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, particularly with the e...

The collapse of Britain's powerful labor movement in the last quarter century has been one of the most significant and astonishing stories in recent political history. How were the governments of Margaret Thatcher and her successors able to tame the unions?In analyzing how an entirely new industrial relations system was constructed after 1979, Howell offers a revisionist history of British trade unionism in the twentieth century. Most scholars regard Britain's industrial relations ...

Walking through social development’s key theoreticalprinciples and practice strategies, this book shows how it promotes peoples’ wellbeing not only in the Global South, where it first emerged, but in the Western countries as well. It covers:Definitions and an historical evolution of social developmentKey theoretical debates around social well-being, human rights and social justiceSocial development practice such as human capital interventions, community de...

The Labour Party is at a crossroads. Following its ejection from government, the reasons behind Labour's defeat have been hotly debated - but where to go from here? On the benches of opposition, with ample opportunity to consider how best to travel the path back to power, leading Labour figures are delving into the party's revisionist tradition to find an answer. The challenge now is how to return to the party's core principles, and it is to this challenge that The Purple Book offers a fir...