This book re-evaluates the importance of social policies in shaping well-being and combating exclusion, and enhances understanding of how these policies are formed in a globalizing world. It emphasises the context- and path-dependence of patterns and policies of inclusion and exclusion, and provides a framework for supporting social policy making.
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 inequality and risk, the voluntary sector, and service-user involvement " examines values such as democracy, solidarity, accountability, participation, justice, equality, liberty and diversity " is written in an accessible style, drawing on diverse examples to illustrate theoretical concepts. Reclaiming Social Work is an accessible yet challenging book and will be essential reading for all social work students and practitioners wanting to think outside the boundaries of their profession. The book will be particularly helpful to students taking courses in anti-oppressive practice, social work values, social work theories and concepts, and international social work. Iain Ferguson is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Stirling. Previous publications include Rethinking Welfare: A Critical Perspective (SAGE, 2002, co-authored with Michael Lavalette and Gerry Mooney); Globalisation, Global Justice and Social Work (Routledge, 2004, co-edited with Michael Lavalette and Elizabeth Whitmore); and International Social Work and the Radical Tradition (Venture Press, 2007, co-edited with Michael Lavalette).
The rise of populism is usually attributed by commentators to either income inequality or culture wars. We are witnessing, they argue, either the displaced anger of the 99% or the revenge of the ‘deplorables’ against the ‘liberal elite’. They are wrong. In this forensic book, Eric Protzer and Paul Summerville argue that populism is actually a response to a profound sense that many of the world’s leading economies are unfair. They show that in meritocratic countries, such as Australia, Canada, Portugal, and Japan, populism has not taken root. In contrast, the countries that have been hit by the worst populist upheavals - like the US, UK, France, and Italy – have low social mobility. The way to address populism is to restore the connection between contribution and reward and craft a politics that reclaims the reasonable grievances that drive populism while discarding its false diagnoses and toxic ‘solutions’. Reclaiming Populism is a must-read for policy-makers, scholars and citizens who want to understand the crises of our age and bring disenchanted populist voters back into the fold of liberal democracy.
The authors of this book challenge prevailing ideas about free markets and globalization. They question whether globalization is a technological reality that cannot be stopped and ask if the US economy really outperformed its competitors in the 1990s. They show how in each key area--trade and industrial policy, privatization, intellectual property rights, investment and financial policies, exchange rate and currency policy, labour and social welfare --there are alternatives to neoliberal policies that the historical experience of particular countries prove really works.
Reclaiming Latin America is a one-stop guide to the revival of social democratic and socialist politics across the region. At the end of the Cold War, and through decades of neoliberal domination and the 'Washington Consensus' it seemed that the left could do nothing but beat a ragged retreat in Latin America. Yet this book looks at the new opportunities that sprang up through electoral politics and mass action during that period. The chapters here warn against over-simplification of the so-called 'pink wave'. Instead, through detailed historical analysis of Latin America as a whole and country-specific case studies, the book demonstrates the variety of approaches to establishing a lasting social justice. From the anti-imperialism of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas in Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, to the more gradualist routes being taken in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, Reclaiming Latin America gives a real sense of the plurality of political responses to popular discontent.
Reclaiming Knowledge asserts the necessity of a strong view of knowledge for a robust sociology of knowledge, for both researching the curriculum and developing policy. Divided into four sections or investigations, the central question underlying this book is how, in a world of uncertainty and challenge, do we develop a responsible knowledge practice?
This volume inserts the place of the local in theorizing about language policies and practices in applied linguistics. It is unique in focusing specifically on the outcomes of globalization in and among the communities affected by these changes.
Approximately 2.4 million Black youth participate in after-school programs, which offer a range of support, including academic tutoring, college preparation, political identity development, cultural and emotional support, and even a space to develop strategies and tools for organizing and activism. In Reclaiming Community, Bianca Baldridge tells the story of one such community-based program, Educational Excellence (EE), shining a light on both the invaluable role youth workers play in these spaces, and the precarious context in which such programs now exist. Drawing on rich ethnographic data, Baldridge persuasively argues that the story of EE is representative of a much larger and understudied phenomenon. With the spread of neoliberal ideology and its reliance on racism—marked by individualism, market competition, and privatization—these bastions of community support are losing the autonomy that has allowed them to embolden the minds of the youth they serve. Baldridge captures the stories of loss and resistance within this context of immense external political pressure, arguing powerfully for the damage caused when the same structural violence that Black youth experience in school, starts to occur in the places they go to escape it.
Reclaiming Chinese Society analyses the mechanisms, processes and actors producing a wide spectrum of social and cultural changes in reform China. Contrary to most literature that emphasizes economic and political processes at the expense of Chinese society, this volume argues for the centrality of the social in understanding Chinese development. Each of the eleven chapters addresses one type of grassroots activism, covering feminist activism, civic environmentalism, religious revival, violence, film, media, intellectuals, housing, citizenship and deprivation. The wide-range of research styles used in this collection, including ethnography, regional comparison, quantitative and statistical analysis, interviews, textual and content analysis, offers students a methodologically rich vista to China Studies. Written by subject experts and covering all aspects of Chinese Society, this book offers an authoritative overview of Chinese society. It is an invaluable resource for courses on Chinese Society and culture and will be of interest to students and scholars in Chinese and Asian studies.
The crisis of the neoliberal order has resuscitated a political idea widely believed to be consigned to the dustbin of history. Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, and the neo-nationalist, anti-globalisation and anti-establishment backlash engulfing the West all involve a yearning for a relic of the past: national sovereignty.In response to these challenging times, economist William Mitchell and political theorist Thomas Fazi reconceptualise the nation state as a vehicle for progressive change. They show how despite the ravages of neoliberalism, the state still contains resources for democratic control of a nation's economy and finances. The populist turn provides an opening to develop an ambitious but feasible left political strategy.Reclaiming the State offers an urgent, provocative and prescient political analysis of our current predicament, and lays out a comprehensive strategy for revitalising progressive economics in the 21st century.