Social Security and Social Control

Hartley Dean

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
01 August 2025

British & Irish history; Social & cultural history; Social welfare & social services; Politics & government; Law & society

Series: Routledge Revivals

First published in 1991, Social Security and Social Control (now with a new preface by the author) takes a fresh look at social security policy and demonstrates how the disciplinary effects of social security and relief programmes are more extensive, pervasive, and subtle than is commonly supposed. Based on his academic research, drawing particularly upon the post-structuralist ideas of Foucault, and aided by twelve years’ practical experience as a front-line advice worker at a centre in Brixton, South London, Hartley Dean re-interprets the historical development of the British Poor Laws and the modern social security system. Thus, he provides a new context within which to analyse social security reforms and the significance of poverty as a contemporary phenomenon in advanced western societies. Also included is a unique case study of the Social Security Appeal Tribunal and the development of the tribunal system is presented as a commentary upon the disciplinary mechanisms inherent within the social security system as a whole. The book concludes with a reappraisal of debates of the time about social security policy and alternative social security systems.

Invaluable reading for undergraduates and lecturers in social policy, welfare law, sociology, socio-legal studies, politics, and social history, Social Security and Social Control will also be of particular interest to anyone involved in welfare rights, advice work, or legal services.

By: Hartley Dean
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781041066200
ISBN 10: 1041066201
Series: Routledge Revivals
Pages: 236
Publication Date: 01 August 2025
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Social security reform and the question of social control 2. Concepts of social control 3. Social control and the development of the social security system 4. Poverty and partitioning 5. The development of the social security appeal tribunal: A case-study 6. The emergence of the disciplinary examination 7. Strategies for social control

Hartley Dean is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics, UK. He had been a welfare rights worker in Brixton, South London for 12 years before moving on to a 40-year academic career researching, teaching, and writing about social justice issues.