Cutting-Edge Social Policy Research


Book Description

Apply knowledge from the latest research to urgent social problems and programs Cutting-Edge Social Policy Research is a careful selection of the finest papers from the 2004 Social Policy Conference held in Charleston, South Carolina. These presentations from respected experts spotlight the latest and best research on a wide variety of crucial social policy issues. Explanations are provided on how to use qualitative and quantitative methods to research social policy questions, with a clear view on how to apply research results to today’s social problems and programs. Cutting-Edge Social Policy Research discusses various social policy topics, approaches, and the latest high-quality research and findings. Students learn how others have researched the topics using different approaches, while practitioners gain important new information relevant to their jobs and practice areas. Chapters explore vital perspectives, such as how to link program evaluation to policy practice, how clients’ “in their own voices” views bring more convincing rationale to policymakers, and how the “trauma perspective” can spotlight the true effects of poverty, inequality, and oppression in our society. The text includes extensive up-to-date bibliographies and literature reviews. Topics in Cutting-Edge Social Policy Research include: measuring program implementation—to differentiate between theories that don’t work and programs that aren’t effective inclusion of qualitative methods into research in social policy the latest quality-of-life research for the elderly in nursing homes effective intervention practices for deaf and hard of hearing children susceptible to abuse in-depth analysis of the eight variables of the Section 8 Housing Program policy process trauma theory and its application to poverty policy the impact of work incentive policies examination of state and local governments granting large tax breaks to corporations—and the implications for social welfare practitioners Cutting-Edge Social Policy Research is stimulating, insightful reading for practitioners, educators, and students in social policy, social work, sociology, and political science.




Cutting-edge Technologies and Social Media Use in Higher Education


Book Description

"This book brings together research on the multi-faceted nature and overarching impact of social technologies on the main opportunities and challenges facing today's post-secondary classrooms, from issues of social capital formation to student support and recruitment"--




Women's History at the Cutting Edge


Book Description

This book considers the promise of women's and gender history for revolutionizing our understanding of the past while also acknowledging the current national political, financial, and other contextual realities that can (and do) constrain or promote the possibilities for researching and writing women's history. The editors assert that the promise of women's and gender history is a cutting edge field of research, "a revolutionary development in the politics of historical scholarship," essential for understanding the human past. Further, they argue for the inseparability of women's history and gendered analytical approaches. The contributors to the volume address questions including: what have been the achievements of women's and gender history over the past two decades? To what extent has it succeeded in making women's history an integral part of historical study rather than an optional specialist area? What impact has the study of manhood, masculinities, and men's gendered power had on our understanding of women's lives? What is the relationship between gender studies and new critical histories of colonialism and empire, contact zones, cross-cultural encounters, and racialization? How is new work on cultural geography and spatial categories impacting on our historical understandings of bodily difference? This book was originally published as a special issue of the Women’s History Review.




Rethinking Social Policy


Book Description

Rethinking Social Policy is a comprehensive introduction to, and analysis of, the complex mixture of problems and possibilities within the study of social policy. Contributors at the cutting edge of social policy analysis reflect upon the implications of new social and theoretical movements for welfare and the study of social policy. Topics covered include: criminology and crime control; race, class and gender; poverty and sexuality; the body and the emotions; violence; work and welfare in Europe. Examples are drawn from a variety of welfare sectors such as: social services and community care, health, education, employment, and criminal justice. This is a course reader for The Open University course (D860) Rethinking Social Practice.




Global Social Work


Book Description

This edited book, Global Social Work - Cutting Edge Issues and Critical Reflections, presents global social work expertise, practical tools, and an iterative and reflective process for developing a global social work pedagogy that advances deep disciplinary learning. The authors offer the specifics of a justice based, decolonizing global social work education and practice. This book will be an asset to faculty communities interested in specializing in global social work. The book offers hope that the faculty, students, and practitioners of social work develop an intercultural, international, cross-border critical approach that further prepares them to meet the global standards of social work education and research and at the same time skillfully act, advocate, and transform global communities and their role in a globalized world.




Social Policy for Children and Families


Book Description

In this book, the authors argue that a public health framework rooted in ecological theory and based on principles of risk, protection, and resilience is a useful conceptual model for the design of social policy across the substantive areas of child welfare, education, mental health, health, developmental disabilities, substance use, and juvenile justice. Recommendations for ways to advance a public health framework in policy design, implementation, and evaluation are offered.




Social Policy


Book Description

Welfare states face profound challenges. Widening economic and social inequalities have been intensified by austerity politics, sharpened by the rise in ethno-nationalism and exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, recent decades have seen a resurgence of social justice activism at the local and transnational level. Yet the transformative power of feminist, anti-racist and post/decolonial thinking has become relatively marginal to core social policy theory, while other critical approaches – around disability, sexuality, migration, age and the environment – have only selectively found recognition. This book provides a much-needed new analysis of this complex landscape, drawing together critical approaches in social policy with intersectionality and political economy. Fiona Williams contextualizes contemporary social policies not only in the global crisis of finance capitalism, but also in the interconnected global crises of care, ecology, and racialized borders. These shape and are shaped at national scale by the intersecting dynamics of Family, Nation, Work and Nature. Through critical assessment of these realities, the book probes the ethical, prefigurative and transformative possibilities for a future welfare commons. This significant intervention will animate social policy thinking, teaching and research. It will be essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the complexities of social policy for the years ahead.




Towards a Natural Social Contract


Book Description

This open access book is a 2022 Nautilus Gold Medal winner in the category "World Cultures' Transformational Growth & Development". It states that the societal fault lines of our times are deeply intertwined and that they confront us with challenges affecting the security, fairness and sustainability of our societies. The author, Prof. Dr. Patrick Huntjens, argues that overcoming these existential challenges will require a fundamental shift from our current anthropocentric and economic growth-oriented approach to a more ecocentric and regenerative approach. He advocates for a Natural Social Contract that emphasizes long-term sustainability and the general welfare of both humankind and planet Earth. Achieving this crucial balance calls for an end to unlimited economic growth, overconsumption and over-individualisation for the benefit of ourselves, our planet, and future generations. To this end, sustainability, health, and justice in all social-ecological systems will require systemic innovation and prioritizing a collective effort. The Transformative Social-Ecological Innovation (TSEI) framework presented in this book serves that cause. It helps to diagnose and advance innovation and spur change across sectors, disciplines, and at different levels of governance. Altogether, TSEI identifies intervention points and formulates jointly developed and shared solutions to inform policymakers, administrators, concerned citizens, and professionals dedicated towards a more sustainable, healthy and just society. A wide readership of students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in social innovation, transition studies, development studies, social policy, social justice, climate change, environmental studies, political science and economics will find this cutting-edge book particularly useful. “As a sustainability transition researcher, I am truly excited about this book. Two unique aspects of the book are that it considers bigger transformation issues (such as societies’ relationship with nature, purpose and justice) than those studied in transition studies and offers analytical frameworks and methods for taking up the challenge of achieving change on the ground.” - Prof. Dr. René Kemp, United Nations University and Maastricht Sustainability Institute




Understanding the Social World


Book Description

The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop. Understanding the Social World: Research Methods for the 21st Century is a concise and accessible introduction to the process and practice of social science research. Fast-paced and visually engaging, the text crosses disciplinary and national boundaries, pays special attention to concern for human subjects, and focuses on the application of results. As it rises to the requirements of a world shaped by big data and social media, Instagram and avatars, blogs and tweets, the text also confronts the research challenges posed by cell phones, privacy concerns, linguistic diversity, and multicultural populations. The Second Edition discusses newly-popular research methods, highlights the fascinating work being conducted by contemporary social researchers, and includes enhanced tools for learning in the text and online. Included with this title: The password-protected Instructor Resource Site (formally known as SAGE Edge) offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides.




Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health


Book Description

This book is a follow up to Social Capital and Health (2008), edited by Kawachi, Subramanian & Kim. Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health provides a timely update on emerging topics in a fast-growing field, and features contributions from an outstanding international team of scholars, selected from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds including: social epidemiology, medical geography, social psychology, social welfare and gerontology, pediatrics, political science, economics, and medical sociology. The book is organized in three parts: Part 1. Emerging directions in social capital research. This section highlights novel directions in social capital research. These include: a) novel settings for conducting research on social capital (workplaces, schools), b) new approaches for causal inference in social capital (instrumental variable analysis, twin fixed effects designs); c) cutting-edge directions for social capital research, including studies of the origins of community social capital, the use of social network analysis to investigate social capital, and novel methods for investigating the link between social capital and crime. Part 2. Social capital and health policy. The three chapters in this section highlight implications of social capital for interventions and health policy. Part 3. Social capital and health in global perspective The four chapters in this section look at research on social capital and health from a global perspective. The authors summarize the empirical studies on social capital and health conducted in each country/region, or each population group; discuss how the concept of social capital “translates” across different cultures; and identify challenges and future directions for research.