Mary Daly is Professor of Sociology at Queen's University, Belfast.
This is a must-read book for those for whom welfare and social policy are, or should be, synonymous. Social Policy & Administration <p> Daly provides a philosophical and sociological overview that makes this little book the new touchstone for the study of social policy everywhere. Labour / Le Travail <p> Mary Daly's lucidly written book analyses the core ideological and philosophical debates about welfare and also explores 'welfare in practice' - how welfare policies are actually delivered through the different mediums of the state, the market and the family. This is a truly excellent introduction to a complex and contested concept, and student will benefit enormously from reading it. Nick Ellison, University of Leeds <p> The welfare state is everywhere under attack. Academics respond with new accounts of how welfare is to be understood in a world of migration, recession, escalating inequality, make-work-pay and volatile families. This book provides an energetic review of an exciting and uncertain world. Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent