Böcker utgivna av Bristol University Press

There is no shortage of political and moral commentary on family life. Frequently the underlying theme of these commentaries is the decline of contemporary family commitment, particularly when older people's family experiences are the focus. Family Practices in Later Life challenges many common stereotypes about the nature of family involvement as people age. The book explores diversity and change in the family relationships older people maintain, looking at how family relationships are constructed and organised in later life. It recognises that the emerging patterns are a consequence of the choices and decisions negotiated within family networks, emphasising older people's agency in the construction of their family practices. In exploring such themes as long-term marriage, sibling ties in later life and grandparenthood, the book highlights the continued significance of family connection and solidarity in later life, while recognizing that family relationships are inevitably modified over time as people's social and material circumstances alter. Family Practices in Later Life will be of interest to students, researchers and academics in the fields of social policy, family studies and social gerontology. It provides a valuable contribution to the developing field of critical social gerontology as well as to an understanding of family process.

What is it like to be a child growing up in Britain these days? Is it a happy or anxious time? What are the best and worst aspects of being a child today? This book draws on accounts of over two thousand children and five hundred adults, to examine the present day meaning of childhood and its implications for policy and practice.

This book is the first specifically to explore methodological issues relating to the involvement of refugees in both service evaluation and development and research. It builds on a two-year seminar series funded by the ESRC where the participants jointly drew up a set of good practice guidelines that are re-produced in the book for the first time.

From a campaigning concept in the 1970s, direct payments - the substitution of cash for services - have become a key part of UK government social care provision. This book charts the change, critically evaluating progress, take-up, inclusion and access to direct payments by different user groups.

Community safety emerged as a new approach to tackling and preventing local crime and disorder in the late 1980s and was adopted into mainstream policy by New Labour. This book provides the first sustained critical and theoretically informed analysis of the community safety agenda by leading authorities in the field.

This book is the first comprehensive exploration of an issue of growing importance to policy makers, academics, practitioners and students. It brings together contributions from prominent scholars to provide a range of theoretical perspectives, analysis and research about the role of housing and urban governance in addressing anti-social behaviour.

What is Professional Social Work? is a now classic analysis of social work as a discourse between three aspects of practice: social order, therapeutic and transformational perspectives. It enables social workers to analyse and value the role of social work in present-day multiprofessional social care.

This book provides a unique insider view on the impact of neighbourhood conditions on family life and explores the prospects for families from the point of view of equality, integration, schools, work, community, regeneration and public services.

Despite the improved supply and quality of housing in the UK and Europe, the future of housing remains uncertain. Is decent, affordable housing an achievable goal? How far will governments seek to shape the market and respond to demographic pressures? This book looks at the big questions housing as a key indicator of social and economic well-being.

In recent years, tackling health inequalities has become a key policy objective in the UK. However, doubts remain about how best to translate broad policy recommendations into practice. One key area of uncertainty concerns the role of local level initiatives. This book identifies the key targets for intervention through a detailed exploration of the pathways and processes that give rise to health inequalities across the lifecourse. It sets this against an examination of both local practice and the national policy context, to establish what works in health inequalities policy, how and why. Authoritative yet accessible, the book provides a comprehensive account of theory, policy and practice. It spans the lifecourse from the early years to old age and explores the links between biological, psychological, social, educational and economic factors and a range of health outcomes. In addition it describes key policy initiatives, assesses research evidence of 'what works' and examines the limitations of the existing evidence base and highlights key areas of debate. What works in tackling health inequalities? is essential reading for academics and students in medical sociology, social psychology, social policy and public health, and for policy makers and practitioners working in public health and social exclusion.

The Local Government Act 2000 has transformed the way in which local politics operates. Local councillors have had to adjust to the introduction of elected mayors, cabinet government and scrutiny committees, and cope with a range of new initiatives. This book is a unique attempt to provide a coherent analysis of the impact of these changes.

As children spend more time online there are increasing questions about its social implications and consequences. The risks they face and the proposed solutions are all subject to continual change. This book which reports on the findings of the EU Kids Online project is a vital resource in today's rapidly changing internet environment.

This original book provides an overview of changes in social and fiscal policy since the 1970s, using a unique lifetime simulation approach to analyse how changes in these policies would affect people of low median and high income living in 1979, 1997 and 2008 if they lived their whole lives under the policy rules in place in these years.

This reader provides two centuries of historical context to debates on health inequality. Extracts from classic texts, information about authors and an introduction draw together important themes of change and continuity. It is a key text for students on a range of policy courses and an excellent resource for anyone interested in poverty.

This book is about money. Not about how to make money, but how to use it and use it well. A range of stimulating articles from leading international thinkers and writers forms a thought-provoking collection on how we can all use money to achieve positive social change.

This book offers a new approach to scrutinising the co-existence of both care and abuse in relationships. Discourse analysis is introduced as a method of investigating relationships, policy and literature in informal care and analytic tools are considered alongside case-studies to illustrate how both parties construct their relationship.

The widespread popularity of evaluation is based on the need to provide evidence of the effectiveness of policies and programmes. This book sees evaluation as an inherently political activity, and using a wide range of examples it relates practical issues in evaluation design to their political contexts.

This book presents all seventeen chapters of evidence commissioned by the Acheson Inquiry to inform its work. It complements both the Acheson Inquiry report published by The Stationary Office and The widening gap (The Policy Press, 1999), which provides a broad overview and systematic interpretation of the Inequalities in Health debate.

This challenging book brings together contributions from leading poverty analysts on inequalities in income, wealth, standard of living, employment, education, housing, crime and health. It charts the extent of the growth in inequalities and offers a coherent critique of the New Labour government's policies aimed at those tackling this crisis.

This book, by examining the landmark scandals of the post-war period, including more recent ones, such as the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, reveals how scandals are generated, to what purposes they are used and whose interests they are made to serve.

The enduring and multi-faceted significance of families in society, and their value as a focus for the exploration of social change have ensured that families remain a prominent focus of academic enquiry. This book proposes a new conceptual framework that both challenges and attempts to reconcile traditional and contemporary approaches.

Working within the spirit of David Blunkett's visionary foreword to The learning age: A new renaissance for Britain, David H. Hargreaves' analysis challenges the myth that lifelong learning can or should be separated from school education. It asks what changes are needed for the culture and process of lifelong learning to become a reality?

This report explores the problems and opportunities presented for child protection workers responding to child abuse that occurred in the context of violence towards the child(ren)'s mother. It provides good practice examples for overcoming the traditional difficulties in this area.

This book examines the nature and meaning of 'empowerment' in the child welfare context using the family group conference approach to decision making in child welfare and protection. The authors evaluate the FGC approach so that current practice can be improved and lessons learned for other areas of work with children and families.

This report provides a summary of the results from a major international research project, funded by UNICEF, on child rights and child poverty in the developing world.

This book explores the Chinese and South-East Asian welfare systems, providing an up-to-date assessment of their character and development. In particular it examines their underlying assumptions and the impact of the processes of globalisation. As well as specific case studies, there is a comparative analysis of Eastern and Western welfare states.

This book is the most authoritative study of poverty and social exclusion in Britain at the start of the 21st century. It reports on the most comprehensive survey of poverty and social exclusion, ever to be undertaken in Britain: The Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey.

This book maps out the contours of the European 'social investment' strategy, both at the ideational level and in terms of the policies implemented throughout Europe. It will appeal to both social policy scholars and policy experts.

This report provides an in-depth study of factors that influence the effectiveness of urban regeneration partnerships, and how they work within the national policy context. It highlights the key lessons of partnership, exploring good practice in leadership, visioning and consensus building,and the translation of vision into workable objectives.

This book makes a distinctive contribution to the debate on housing policy. Bringing together leading scholars from the fields of housing law and housing policy, it engages with the central concerns of policy and demonstrates that the parallel debates of housing studies and socio-legal studies can be strengthened by a fuller exchange of ideas.