Description
Book SynopsisThis book brings together leading international researchers to discuss governmental approaches to analysing social policies.
Analysing Social Policy expands the scope of social policy analysis using the insights from post-Foucauldian scholarship on the art of governing in liberal democracies. One of the main conclusions reached is that policy researchers need to pay much greater attention to the minutiae of policy reform, and to the discursive and material ways in which power operates in policy change. The chapters comprising this book are purposefully written in a clear, accessible and reflective manner, with each of the contributions empirically grounded, drawing on social policy problems and practices in many countries, ranging from North America to Europe to Australasia. The editors address key concerns of both policy analysts as well as academic researchers attempting to locate appropriate theoretical frameworks to make sense of welfare state restructuring in the 21st century.
This book will appeal to researchers and research students in political science, social policy, social work and sociology through its demonstration of how to apply contemporary social theory to research problems. It will also be of interest to policy scholars around the world who are involved in analysing the intersections of power, politics and policy.
Table of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction: Reframing Social Policy Analysis Greg Marston and Catherine McDonald PART I: GOVERNING SPACES AND PLACES 2. Governmentality and Powers of Life and Death Mitchell Dean 3. Global Governance and Local Policy Partnerships Wendy Larner 4. Governing the Spaces on the Margin of Society Jørgen Elm-Larsen PART II: GOVERNING OTHERS AND GOVERNING SELVES 5. Consumerism and the Remaking of State-Citzen Relations in the UK John Clarke 6. The Politics of Subject Formation: Welfare-Reliant Women’s Response to Welfare Reform in the United States and the Netherlands Anna C. Korteweg 7. Governing Men and Boys in Public Policy in Australia Bob Pease 8. Activating Child and Youth Welfare – A Case of the Neo-Social Re-arrangement of German Social Policy Fabian Kessl PART III: GOVERNING THROUGH NEW TECHNOLOGIES 9. ‘The End of the Passing Past’: Towards Polytemporal Policy Studies William Walters 10. Governing the Mother: Access to Reproductive Technologies Jennifer Smith 11. Segmentation and Conditionality: Technological Reconfigurations in Social Policy Paul Henman 12. Conclusion: A Conversation Worth Continuing? Greg Marston and Catherine McDonald Index
