Politics and Public Policy

A compelling new approach to public policy-making as problem processing, bringing together aspects of puzzling, powering and participation and relating them to cultural theory, issues about networks, models of democracy and modes of citizen participation.

A timely consideration of the development and content of the Conservatives' approaches to social policy and how they inform the Coalition's policies.

Published to coincide with the first anniversary of the election, this book looks at the Coalition government in the context of conservative ideas and seeks to assess what, if anything, is new about it.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This important book explores the values of equality and diversity as promoted across liberal societies, drawing on various traditions of political and social philosophy, and applying them to policy and practice debates.

This book focuses on how personalisation - the idea that public services should be tailored to the individual, with budgets devolved to the service user or frontline staff - evolved as a policy narrative and has mobilised wide-ranging political support.

This book critically explores the urban governance of healthy lifestyles and the contemporary problematisations of the obesity, sedentarism and alcohol "epidemics". 

The appeal of voluntary action as a solution to growing welfare needs in advanced capitalist countries raises important questions about the social impacts and spatial equity of such provision. For the first time, these issues are addressed within a single book, exploring the complex relationship between voluntary action, society and space.

What does it mean to be a volunteer in the UK today? This book adds new insights into volunteering from the perspective of the individual, the organisation and the community .

Bringing together a range of expert contributions, this book is the first to address the relationship between the economic crisis and social policy within an international context. The key lesson to emerge is that 'the crisis' is better understood as a variety of crises, each mediated by national context.

This topical book takes a critical look at contemporary governance theory, arguing that there are structural impediments to achieving an ideology of networks and reconsidering it from Marxist and Gramscian perspectives. 

Offering insight into the key debates on services for young children, this book tells how Sure Start was set up, the numerous changes it went through, and how it has changed the landscape of services for all young children in England.

'Where next for criminal justice?' considers the criminal justice policies which should be adopted, how they should be formed, and the principles and values which should be used.