An introduction to Social Policy
The readings listed here have been chosen to complement the text of Social Policy: Theory and Practice.
Almost all the readings are PDF downloads.They have been selected to meet four basic criteria:
Students in universities will usually have a much wider range of options to choose from.The process of selection means that these are not necessarily the leading references in the field, but they are all worth reading, and they generally go further than the text alone.
Readings to accompany Social Policy: Theory and Practice
1. The nature of social policy
- What is Social Policy? – Youtube Lecture by Jonathan Bradshaw
- Hartley Dean: What is Social Policy? (Youtube interview)
- Richard Titmuss: The Role of Redistribution in Social Policy
Part 1: Social policy and society
- A Better Life - what older people with high support needs value
- ILO: Concepts and strategies for combating social exclusion
- Fiona Williams: Good enough principles for welfare (pp 675-684)
- Inequality org: Inequality and health
- OECD: Income related inequalities in health service utilisation
- Karen Rowlingson: Income inequality, health and social problems
- Pascall and Lewis: Emerging gender regimes and policies for gender equality in a wider Europe
- Noel: The new global politics of poverty
- Voices of the Poor
- Madden: The Heart of Poverty
- Van Domelen: Reaching the poor and vulnerable (World Bank)
- Paul Spicker: Needs as claims
- WHO: World report on disability
- Stockholm International Water Institute: The human right to water and sanitation
- United Nations: Guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights
- UNICEF: A human rights-based approach to education for all
6. Indicators - quantifying social issues
- UNICEF: The State of the World's Children
- UNDP: Poverty in focus
- United Nations: World Population to 2300
- United Nations Development Programme: Governance principles, institutional capacity and quality
- Centre for International Private Enterprise: Improving public governance
- Paul Spicker: The nature of a public service
- Mabbet and Bolderson: Theories and methods in comparative social policy
- Esping Andersen and Myles: The welfare state and redistribution
- ODI: Can there be a global standard for social policy?
- Paul Spicker: Principles of Social Welfare
- Swedish Social Democratic Party: Our principles and values
- John Veit-Wilson: States of welfare`
- Arthur Seldon: Introducing market forces into public services (pp 101-132)
- World Bank: Resilience, equity and opportunity (Social Protection Strategy)
- Sheila Shaver: Universality and selectivity in income support
- Cornia and Stewart: Two errors of targeting
- Kidd and Athias: Hit and miss
- Lucie Cerna: The nature of policy change and implementation
- Paul Cairney: Rationalism versus incrementalism
- Overseas Development Institute: Policy engagement
Part 3: Social administration: The organisation and delivery of welfare
- World Economic Forum: The future role of civil society
- Robert Goodin: Democratic Accountability: the third sector and all
- David Green: Reinventing civil society
13. The organisation of public services
- From Max Weber: Essays in sociology
- Julian Legrand: Knights, Knaves or Pawns?
- Legrand: Trust, mistrust, voice and choice (video)
- OECD: Outcome focused management and budgeting
- HM Treasury: The Green Book - Appraisal and Evaluation in Central ... - Gov.uk
- IMF: Unproductive public expenditures
- Osborne, Strokosch: It takes two to tango
- Thinking about rationing - The King's Fund
- Manitoba Ombudsman: Understanding fairness
- World Bank Group, 2020, Sourcebook on the foundations of social protection delivery systems (476 pages)
- Jonathan Bradshaw: A taxonomy of social need
- Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad): A framework for analysing participation in development
- Cornwall and Brock: Beyond Buzzwords
17. The administrative process
- World Bank: Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015 - a chance for every child
- OECD: Overcoming barriers to administrative simplification strategies
- HM Treasury: The Magenta Book
Part 4: The methods and approaches of social policy
- Gary Marx: Research As Social Criticism
- Piercy Smith: The impact of research
- Bennett and Roberts: From input to influence
Social Policy: Theory and Practice can be ordered from the Policy Press's website.
Paul Spicker's blog on social policy issues includes updates on social policy and comments on new developments; his open access page includes links to more than 100 published works, including seven full-length books.
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