Policy Press

Social Work and Community Development

Policy Press is committed to ‘making a difference’ in social work and community development, with a list that aims to take forward academic thinking, and raise challenging questions for policy and practice.

Showing 25-36 of 253 items.

Child Sexual Exploitation: Why Theory Matters

Edited by Jenny Pearce

The issue of Child Sexual Exploitation is firmly in the public spotlight, but how well is it understood? This much-needed book makes the case for a more thoughtful approach to CSE prevention and a greater use of different theoretical perspectives in the development and delivery of strategies and interventions.

Policy Press

Social Work and Society

Political and Ideological Perspectives

This valuable book provides a comprehensive introduction to politics in social work, unifying the themes of political ideology and social construction across several areas of social work practice, including emerging areas of practice.

Policy Press

What Is the Future of Social Work?

This book offers a unique analysis of the challenges facing contemporary social work that considers the multi-faceted threats to the profession. It provides in-depth reflections on the future of social care practice and solutions for students and practitioners.

Policy Press

The Well-Connected Community

A Networking Approach to Community Development

There is a growing recognition of the importance of networking for the vitality and cohesion of community life. Now in its third edition, and substantially updated, this textbook combines practical experience and theory for people working with and for communities.

Policy Press

Pathways to Recovery and Desistance

The Role of the Social Contagion of Hope

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Using case studies and a strengths-based approach Best puts forward a new recovery and reintegration model for substance users and offenders leaving prison which emphasizes the importance of long-term recovery and the role that communities and peers play in the process.

Policy Press

Living Data

Making Sense of Health Biosensing

This book critiques the popular claim that ‘more information’ equates to ‘better health’ and explores the potential challenges related to people’s changing relationships with traditional health systems as access to, and control over data shifts.

Bristol Uni Press

Social Work and the Making of Social Policy

Bringing together international case studies, this book offers theoretical and empirical insights into the interaction between social work and social policy.

Policy Press

Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth Century

Transnational Perspectives on People, Policy, and Practice

Bringing together accounts of how intellectual disability was viewed, managed and experienced in countries across the globe, the book examines the origins and nature of contemporary attitudes, policy and practice and sheds light on the challenges of implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPRD).

Policy Press

Ethics, Equity and Community Development

Drawing on theory and a range of cross-disciplinary and international perspectives, this book examines the place of ethics and ethical practice in community and development across a global spectrum of political, ecological and economic contexts.

Policy Press

Women and Community Action

Local and Global Perspectives

This third edition looks at how several decades of feminist social action have changed women’s place in the world today and updates some of the perennial challenges facing women globally to engage with new issues, including digital exclusion, sustainable development and environmental justice.

Policy Press

Multi-Agency Working in Criminal Justice

Theory, Policy and Practice

Fully revised and expanded to encompass the most up-to-date theory, policy and practice, this comprehensive text considers the different aspects of multi-agency working within criminal justice, bringing together probation, policing, prison, social work, criminological and organizational studies perspectives.

Policy Press

Mental Health Social Work Reimagined

This much-needed book calls for a return to mental health social work that has personal relationships and an emotional connection between workers and those experiencing distress at its core.

Policy Press