Social Justice, Equality and Human Rights
As part of our mission to make a difference, Policy Press has a strong commitment to social justice and to publishing work on poverty and inequality.
In fact, issues of equality and diversity run through most of our publications, but we also publish books which focus on core topics, including gender, disability, race and ethnicity, faith and religion, migration, and equality and diversity policies.
Social Movements and Referendums from Below
Direct Democracy in the Neoliberal Crisis
Social movements formed in response to austerity measures have played an increasingly important role in referendums. The book uses unique case studies to illustrate the ways the social movements have affected the referendums’ dynamic and results. It also addresses the way in which participation from below has had a transformative impact.
Hungry Britain
The Rise of Food Charity
Drawing on empirical research with the UK’s two largest Food Banks, this book explores the prolific rise of food charity over the last 15 years and its implications for overcoming food insecurity.
Development in Africa
Refocusing the Lens After the Millennium Development Goals
This important book looks beyond the Millennium Development Goals to highlight 12 major public policy conversations about the continent post-2015, arguing that Africa as a continent must work on developing a society that is socially, economically and politically inclusive.
Veiled Threats
Representing the Muslim Woman in Public Policy Discourses
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence
Uses original scholarship and empirical research to examine how Muslim women are represented in social policy discourse and situated within national debates about Britishness, the death of multiculturalism and international terrorism.
Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK
Volume 1 - The Nature and Extent of the Problem
This text provides insights into the nature and extent of poverty and social exclusion in the UK today for different social groups: older and younger people; parents and children; ethnic groups; men and women; disabled people; and across regions through the recent period of austerity.
The Impact of Co-production
From Community Engagement to Social Justice
This text brings together academics, artists, practitioners and ‘community activists’ to explore the possibilities for and tensions of social justice work under the contemporary drive for community-oriented ‘impact’ in the academy.
Challenging the Myth of Gender Equality in Sweden
This is the first book to explode the myth of Swedish gender equality, offering both a new perspective for an international audience, and suggesting how equality might be re-thought more generally.
Police Diversity
Beyond the Blue
Providing a unique ‘insider’ perspective on police diversity, this book reveals the current tensions between the police and diverse populations in the UK and US. It demonstrates the obstacles to progress, revealing how championing diversity as part of police reform efforts can positively impact the lives of policed communities.
Understanding Mental Distress
Knowledge, Practice and Neoliberal Reform in Community Mental Health Services
This timely analysis sets out the full impacts of policy reform, austerity and marketisation on our country’s mental health services. Rooted in the experiences of service users and providers, it provides valuable perspectives on our evolving practical and organisational responses to mental distress.
The Impacts of Welfare Conditionality
Sanctions Support and Behaviour Change
This book uses qualitative longitudinal data, from repeat interviews with people subject to compulsion and sanction in their everyday lives, to analyse the effectiveness and ethicality of welfare conditionality in promoting and sustaining behaviour change in the UK.
Disproportionate Minority Contact and Racism in the US
How We Failed Children of Color
Drawing on original data, this book addresses the issue of color-blind racism through an examination of the circular logic used by the juvenile justice system to criminalize non-White youth. It calls for a need to understand racial inequality in the justice system from a structural perspective rather than simply at the level of individual bias.
Sustainable Human Development Across the Life Course
Evidence from Longitudinal Research
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book presents impactful findings from international longitudinal studies that responded to the Agenda 2030 commitment to “leave no-one behind”.It provides actionable strategies for policy makers and practitioners to strengthen the global Sustainable Development Goals framework.