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This book examines absolute poverty in Europe, which is at the moment fairly neglected in academic and policy discourse. It opens with conceptual and methodological considerations that prepare the ground for an application of the concept of absolute poverty in the context of affluent societies and analyses shortcomings of social statistics as well as possibilities to include highly vulnerable groups. This includes thoughts on ethics of research in this particular field where people live under severe circumstances and research can make a difference. The book sheds light on crucial dimensions of deprivation and social exclusion of people in absolute poverty in affluent societies: access to health care, housing and nutrition, poverty related shame and violence. After conceptual and practical issues, the book investigates into different policy responses to absolute poverty in affluent societies from social policy concerns to civic organizations, e. g. food donations, and penalisation and “social cleansing” of highly visible poor. The book finally frames this discussion by profound ethical considerations and normative reasoning about absolute poverty and its alleviation, how it is related to concerns of justice/injustice as well as human dignity. Furthermore, it questions the power and importance of human rights and their judicial protection in regard of persons in absolute poverty.

The activation of social welfare recipients has been, and still is, a central issue in the development of social and employment policies in Europe. This book explores the employment effectiveness of minimum income schemes, and provides the first comprehensive examination of its dependency on how the rights and obligations of the recipients are defined. The book argues that the right to a minimum income can only be adequately justified with reference to the individual's right to personal development. Combining political theory and policy analysis, the author draws on evidence from eight different European countries to illustrate how it is possible to combine higher levels of employment effectiveness with the respect for recipients' right to personal development. The book explores the balance between fairness and effectiveness in the activation of minimum income recipients.

This highly topical book aims to undermine unsubstantiated myths by examining Muslim integration in Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, states which dominate the debate on minority integration and the practice of Muslim religious traditions. These nations have a range of alternative relationships between religion and the state, as well as strategies for coordinating individuals' ethnic and state identities. Using the European Parliament's benchmarking guidelines, surveys and other non-official data, the authors find that in some areas Muslims are in fact more integrated than popularly assumed and suggest that, instead of failing to integrate, Muslims find their access to integration blocked in ways that reduce their life chances in the societies in which they are now permanent residents.

This book explores equality, discrimination, and human rights in relation to employability and ‘welfare-to-work’ policies. It draws extensively on new research from the SEQUAL Project, undertaken for the European Social Fund, which investigated seven dimensions of discrimination in a labour market that is theoretically ‘open to all’. The book provides an overall analysis of policy shifts and presents a wide and distinctive range of illustrative studies that give voice to a variety of potentially marginalised groups. Chapters deal with obstacles to labour-market access around each of the following themes: gender and class; disability; race and ethnicity; geographical exclusion; sexual orientation; the problems of old and young people; and refugees. The authors draw attention to localised examples of promising practice, but also connect these to a broader ‘human rights’ agenda, linking them to changing legislative and governance frameworks. The book's scope covers the whole of Great Britain and shows how devolution in Scotland and Wales, and at the regional level in England, is creating new possibilities for mainstreaming good practice in this key area.

What would it take to make society better? For the majority, conditions are getting worse and this will continue unless strong action is taken. This book offers a wide range of expert opinions outlining what might help to make better societies and which mechanisms, interventions, and evidence are needed when we think about a better society. The book looks at what is needed to prevent the proliferation of harm and the gradual collapse of civil society. It argues that social scientists need to cast aside their commitment to the established order and its ideological support systems, look ahead at the likely outcomes of various interventions and move to the forefront of informed political debate. Providing practical steps and policy programmes, this book is ideal for academics and students across a wide range of social science fields and those interested in social inequality.

Changing social equality through state policies was perhaps the greatest legacy of the twentieth century. The Nordic countries in particular have been able to raise living standards and curb inequalities without compromising economic growth. But with social inequalities on the rise, how do they fare when compared with countries with alternative welfare models, such as the UK, the Netherlands and Germany? Taking a comparative perspective, this book casts light on the changing inequalities in Europe. Contributions from experts in a range of fields examine the causes, direction and impact of changes, investigating whether support for egalitarian policies is diminishing and whether policies are becoming less effective at reducing inequalities. The book demonstrates how the Nordic countries seem to be on a track that will eventually lead to a welfare model where ‘some are more equal than others’.

Japanese youth and foreign migrants face stringent institutionalised controls in Japan. This book questions the efficacy of such social controls, focusing on the interrelation of inequality (powerlessness, discriminate controls and class inequality) and deviance (largely derived from power and the violation of informal and formal norms). It provides a detailed description and explanation of inequality and deviance of Japanese youth and seventeen foreign migrant groups.

Combining critical policy analysis with biographical accounts, this book provides a socio-historical account of the changing treatment of disabled people in Britain from the 1940s to the present day. It asks whether life has really changed for disabled people and shows the value of using biographical methods in new and critical ways to examine social and historical change over time.

Over the past two decades, there has been increasing recognition of the ways in which disabled children and adults have been denied human and civil rights that others take for granted. In the year 2000, the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force in the United Kingdom. This book reviews the implications of the Act for disabled people. It provides a clear and accessible account of the potential of the Human Rights Act to make a positive difference in relation to issues that have been identified through research, policy development, and political debate as significant in the lives of disabled people.

This book provides an investigation of housing issues for disabled people from a social model perspective. Documenting historical and current trends, it looks at policy, barriers to housing options and meanings of ‘home’. Such a review is crucial to understanding the varying housing needs and desires of disabled people, particularly in the current economic climate.

This landmark study provides the first comprehensive assessment of the nature and associations between the three main forms of social disadvantage in Australia: poverty, deprivation, and social exclusion. Drawing on the author's extensive research expertise and his links with welfare practitioners, it explains the limitations of existing approaches and presents new findings that build on the insights of disadvantaged Australians and views about the essentials of life, providing the basis for a new deprivation-based poverty measure.

In many countries the school curriculum oscillates between focusing on traditional subjects and focusing on skills that are linked to the needs of the 21st-century digital age. Rosamund Sutherland argues against such a skills-based curriculum, maintaining that, from a social justice perspective, the priority of schools should be to give young people access to the knowledge that they are not likely to learn outside school. She draws on the work of Michael Young, Lev Vygotsky, Amartya Sen and David Olson to develop new theoretical and practical insights that offer ways of changing policy and practice to improve equality and life chances for young people, while acknowledging the potential transformative role of digital technologies. This timely book will be invaluable to teachers, academics, students and policy makers interested in the ways in which the digital landscape transforms the nature of the debate about equity and social justice in education.

This book addresses issues around elective home education (EHE- also known as home schooling) discovery, which for too long have been unnecessarily problematic. Three theoretical frames using Kuhn, Foucault and Hirschman, and a policy framework for assessing discovery motivations, are offered to contribute to increased understanding of the difference of EHE. An educational philosophy of EHE is developed. “Educationism” is presented as a term describing a widespread form of educational prejudice operating against the marginality of alternatives such as EHE and thorough-going democratic schooling. Empirical data extracts are used from a street survey and from in-depth interviews with adults who have discovered an educational alternative to mainstream schooling attendance. These show surprising insights into the extent to which education is blindly conflated with schooling: finding out that schooling is not the only pathway for education to occur can cause wholesale revelation and personal transformation of the social, political, familial, financial and ethical. The unmet need for parents to have information about alternative educational pathways is highlighted. The ignorance of professionals about EHE difference and a need for greater training is raised. This has wide ranging implications for the concept of education and for the conduct of educational studies around the world. A reconfiguration is suggested of how education is structurally organised: from one field with educational marginalia to multiple equal paradigms of practice. The rise of technology is seen as a key factor in a reconfigured educational studies and increased discovery of EHE as option.

Disability is an increasingly vital contemporary issue in British social policy, especially in education. This book brings together perspectives from leading thinkers including senior academics, opinion formers, policy makers, and school leaders. Key issues covered include law and international human rights frameworks, policy developments for schools and school leaders, educational inequalities for disabled children and young people, and curriculum design and qualification changes for children who are being failed by the current education system.

In recent years, across Europe, North America and the Antipodes, a significant number of countries, states and regions have devised strategies that aim to end long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough. Long considered an intractable or ‘wicked’ social problem, the notion that homelessness could be ended represents a significant sea change in conceptualising and responding to homelessness. A key driver for states, regions and municipalities to devise plans to end homelessness, and an optimism that this policy objective can be achieved, is that there is an increasing research evidence base on what works to end homelessness. This increasingly sophisticated research evidence covers both the prevention of homelessness in the first instance and the support mechanisms that can ensure sustainable exits and stable, secure accommodation for people who have experienced homelessness. This book explores these issues through a detailed comparison of the experiences of Denmark, Finland and Ireland over the past decade. From 2008 to the end of 2018, the numbers living rough and in temporary and emergency accommodation showed a decline of 72 per cent in Finland, while the number of households in emergency accommodation increased by 300 per cent in Ireland; in Denmark, the number of adults in emergency accommodation increased by 12 per cent over the shorter time period of 2009–17. The purpose of this book is to offer explanations for stark variations in these outcomes despite similar starting points.

Reconceptualising Family: Everyday Life on a Low Income provides major new insight into contemporary family life, particularly under conditions of poverty and low income. Based on the findings of a major study of everyday life and family relationships carried out in Northern Ireland, and including powerful verbatim accounts of conversations with family members, the book develops and applies a theoretical framework of the relationship between family and poverty/low income. This conceives of the relationship in structural, cultural, relational and representational terms. Applying this framework makes for a rich conceptual and empirical analysis. Among the main findings are the significance of factors relating to familial structure and composition for poverty and low income; the interweaving of norms and values around family relationships with patterns of resources access and use; the towering significance of children in their parents’ decisions orientations, and the constraints imposed by low income on people’s chances to realise the kind of life they would wish for their children and themselves; the varied nature and importance of support received through family relations; the localness of people’s lives although this does not necessarily mean engagement with the local community; the regularity to which they are exposed to situations in which they feel embarrassed and shame.

This book makes a vital academic and political statement in the cause of social justice. It begins with an appreciation of the seminal contributions of Peter Townsend (1928–2009), and applies them to contemporary policy debates. The book brings together many of the leading contributors to current debates in this field and provides a manifesto for change for students and researchers in the social sciences, policy makers and practitioners, and everybody with an interest in creating a more equal and socially just society.