First published in 1989, The Goals of Social Policy is an invaluable text that will give students an admirable introduction to the central concerns of the study of social policy. It asks what have been the traditional concerns of social policy as a subject of academic study, and what its context should be in the changed political environment of twenty-first century. Three issues receive close attention for their future implications: social policy and the family (focusing on gender), social policy and community (including race and public order issues) and social policy and the economy. Retrospective chapters examine the relationship between social policy and social research, social theory and social work.
The book will appeal particularly to students of social policy, social work, sociology and political science, as well as to those in applied fields such as criminology, health studies, education and women’s studies with interests in social policy. It will also appeal to the general reader interested in keeping abreast of the latest thinking about social policy.
Tables and Figures Contributors Preface Part I Introduction 1. Social Policy: subject or object? Part II Social Policy: Retrospect and Prospect 2. The Webbs, The Charity Organisation Society and the Ratan Tata Foundation: Social policy from the perspective of 1912 3. The academic tradition in social policy: The Titmuss years 4. Social work and social policy in the twentieth century: retrospect and prospect 5. Swimming against the tide: the prospects for social policy Part III Social Policy and the Family 6. Introduction 7. The construction of dependency 8. Social policy, social engineering and the family in the 1990s 9. Dependency in the welfare state 10. The social construction of dependency: comments from a Third World perspective Part IV Social Policy and the Community 11. Introduction 12. Social policy: the community-based approach 13. Community development and the underclass 14. Social polarization, the inner city and community 15. Only disconnect: law and order, social policy and the community 16. The underclass, empowerment and public Part V Social Policy and the Economy 17. Introduction 18. Social policy and the economy 19. Inequality in developing countries: a comment on Ferge 20. Can we afford to work? Part VI Conclusions 21. Concluding thoughts: an inside view 22. Concluding thoughts: an outside view Index
Martin Bulmer, Jane Lewis and David Piachaud
