International Encyclopedia of Social Policy

Edited by Tony Fitzpatrick, Huck-ju Kwon, Nick Manning, James Midgley, and Gillian Pascall

About the Editors Publication Details/Order Online

This milestone work is the first to offer in-depth treatment of all aspects of the discipline and practice of social policy globally. Supported by a distinguished international advisory board, the editors have compiled almost 900,000 words across 734 entries written by 284 leading specialists to provide authoritative coverage of concepts, policy actors, welfare institutions and services along a series of national, regional and transnational dimensions. Also included are biographical entries on major policy makers and shapers.

The editors have particularly striven to provide strong coverage of differing geographical and cultural traditions so that the variety of social policy, as both an academic discipline and a domain of governance, is reflected. Contributors draw in and make the necessary connections with social policy's associated disciplines to provide a rich picture of this vast and highly diverse field.

Comprehensive and authoritative, the Encyclopedia has sought to open up rather than to foreclose the numerous areas in which there is on-going research, debate and, sometimes, serious disagreement and divergence in theory and practice. To this end, entries attempt to introduce a core or common ground of understanding before moving on to a wider discussion of debates regarding different conceptual and geographical approaches. The whole is integrated by cross-referencing and each entry includes a bibliography for further reading. There is a full index.

The International Encyclopedia of Social Policy provides the most substantial mapping of the international study and practice of social policy to date and will stand as a vital storehouse of knowledge for many years to come.

Tony Fitzpatrick is Reader in Social and Political Theory, Nottingham University, UK. His recent publications include After the New Social Democracy (Manchester UP, 2003) and New Theories of Welfare (Palgrave, 2005).

Huck-ju Kwon was Research Coordinator at the United Nation's Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), 2002-05, and is now based at Sung Kyun Kwan University, Republic of Korea. His recent publications include Transforming the Developmental Welfare State in East Asia (Palgrave, 2004).

Nick Manning is Professor of Sociology and Social Theory, Nottingham University, UK. His recent publications include Social Policy (Oxford UP, 2006).

James Midgley is Professor and former Dead of the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, USA. His recent publications include Controversial Issues in Social Policy (Allyn and Bacom, 2003).

Gillian Pascall is Professor of Social Policy, Nottingham University, UK. Her recent publications include Social Policy: A New Feminist Analysis (Routledge, 1997).

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