Policy Press

Poverty, inequality and social justice

The issues involved in poverty, inequality and social justice are many and varied, from basic access to education and healthcare, to the financial crisis and resulting austerity, and now COVID-19. Addressing Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, our list both presents research on these topics and tackles emerging problems. A key series in the area is the SSSP Agendas for Social Justice.

This area has always been at the heart of our publishing with the view to making the research in this area as visible and accessible as possible in order to maximise its potential impact. 

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In Poverty, inequality and social justice, we aim to address the following goals:

SDG Publishers compact logoSDG 1: No povertySDG 5: Gender equalitySDG 10: Reduced inequalitiesSDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Showing 157-168 of 694 items.

Social Policy Review 33

Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2021

Published in association with the Social Policy Association, this volume addresses current issues and critical debates throughout the international social policy field with a key focus on migration, the impact of COVID-19 and global policy responses.

Policy Press

Forgotten Wives

How Women Get Written Out of History

Forgotten Wives examines how marriage has contributed to the active ‘disremembering’ of women’s achievements. Ann Oakley uses case studies of four women married to well-known men to ask questions about gender inequality and contributes a fresh vision of how the welfare state developed in the early 20th century.

Policy Press

A Watershed Moment for Social Policy and Human Rights?

Where Next for the UK Post-COVID

This book demonstrates that an alternative approach to social policy, based on human rights and social justice, is necessary to tackle the existing systemic inequalities brought to the foreground by COVID-19.

Policy Press

Socially Distanced Activism

Voices of Lived Experience of Poverty During COVID-19

Drawing on case studies from APLE Collective groups, this book interrogates the term ‘lived experience’. It critically investigates how knowledge gained from lived experiences of poverty is integral to developing effective COVID-19 policies.

Policy Press

The Unequal Pandemic

COVID-19 and Health Inequalities

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC- ND This accessible, yet authoritative book shows how the pandemic is a syndemic of disease and inequality. It argues that these inequalities are a political choice and we need to learn quickly to prevent growing inequality and to reduce health inequalities in the future.

Policy Press

Ability, Inequality and Post-Pandemic Schools

Rethinking Contemporary Myths of Meritocracy

Alice Bradbury discusses how the meritocracy myth reinforces educational inequalities and analyses how the recent educational developments of datafication and neuroscience might challenge how we classify and label children as we rebuild a post-pandemic schooling system.

Policy Press

Lived Experiences of Ableism in Academia

Strategies for Inclusion in Higher Education

Edited by Nicole Brown

Embedded in personal experiences, this collection explores ableism in academia. Through theoretical lenses including autobiography, autoethnography, embodiment, body work and emotional labour, contributors explore being ‘othered’ in academia and provide practical examples to develop inclusive universities and a less ableist environment.

Policy Press

Living Wages and the Welfare State

The Anglo-American Social Model in Transition

Addressing the rapidly shifting politics of the minimum wage in six English-speaking countries, Shaun Wilson analyses minimum wage policies within a political-economy narrative. Topical and poignant, this book identifies the success of living wage campaigns as central to both welfare state change and alternatives to the Basic Income.

Policy Press

Varieties of Austerity

Identifying continuity and variety in crisis-driven austerity restructuring across Canada, Denmark, Ireland and Spain, this important book uncovers how austerity can be categorized into different dynamic types, and exposes the economic, social, and political implications of the varieties of austerity.

Bristol Uni Press

The Struggle for Social Sustainability

Moral Conflicts in Global Social Policy

Leading interdisciplinary scholars focus on the ‘social’ of social policy. This ground-breaking volume tackles pressing ‘social questions’ and critically engages with contested conceptions of ‘the social’ which are increasingly deployed by international institutions and policy makers.

Policy Press

What Have Charities Ever Done for Us?

The Stories Behind the Headlines

What Have Charities Ever Done for Us? uses case studies and interviews to illustrate how charities support people and communities, foster heritage and culture and pioneer responses to crucial social, ethical and environmental questions.

Policy Press

Interprofessional Collaboration and Service User Participation

Analysing Meetings in Social Welfare

This book examines how interprofessional collaboration and service user participation are challenged in multi-agency meetings, demonstrating how collaborative and integrated welfare policy is contingent on the interactional practices of professionals and service users and providing examples of best practice.

Policy Press


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Journal of poverty and social justice cover

Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

Welfare regimes in the global South: does the capability approach provide an alternative perspective?
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Basic income and a public job offer: complementary policies to reduce poverty and unemployment
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Monitoring progress towards sustainable development: multidimensional child poverty in the European Union
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Much ado about poverty: the role of a UN Special Rapporteur
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Including services in multidimensional poverty measurement for SDGs: modifications to the consensual approach
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For better or for worse: does the UK means-tested social security system encourage partnership dissolution?
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CCTs and conditionalities: an exploratory analysis of not meeting conditional cash transfer conditionalities in Chile's Families Programme
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Is there evidence of households making a heat or eat trade off in the UK?
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Leaving no one behind? Reaching the informal sector, poor people and marginalised groups with Social Health Protection
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Gender, ethnicity and activism: 'the miracle is when we don't give up...'
Anna  Daróczi, Angela Kocze et al.

‘We are constantly overdrawn, despite not spending money on anything other than bills and food’: a mixed-methods, participatory study of food and food insecurity in the context of income inequality [Open Access]
Katie Pybus, Madeleine Power, and Kate E. Pickett

A consequence of a tragedy: nowcasting poverty rate in Syria
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Retheorising the relationship between electricity scarcity and social injustice: evidence from Zimbabwe
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Exploring child poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa: a multidimensional perspective
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‘To tell you the truth, no job is legit’: an exploration of justice for Hanoi’s marginalised urban migrants
Jonathan De Luca