Social Policy in Challenging Times

by Farnsworth, Kevin; Irving, Zoe

• ISBN13: 9781847428271
• ISBN10: 1847428274
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-15
• Publisher: Policy Pr

Summary

The 2008 economic crisis destabilized the world's financial centers and ushered in a global economic slowdown, but the effects of the recession have not been uniform. As Social Policy in Challenging Times skillfully reveals, the "global crisis" can be better understood as a variety of crises, each mediated by its national context. Employing a fruitful international approach, the contributors to this timely book examine the recession's effects on social policy at different levels in different countries, illuminating the forces reshaping welfare system under radically altered circumstances.

Author Biography

Kevin Farnsworth is Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Sheffield, UK. His primary research interests concern power and politics, class struggle and public policy, and the political economy of welfare systems. His first book was entitled Corporate power and social policy (2004), published by The Policy Press. Zo Irving is Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Sheffield. Her current research interests focus primarily on social policies in small states and the changing patterns of men's employment. She has previously published in the areas of gender and employment, and social policy in small island states.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	p. v
Notes on contributors	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Varieties of crisis	p. 1
The economic crisis and paradigm change	p. 31
From financial crisis to fiscal crisis	p. 49
Credit crunch, inequality and social policy	p. 65
Global social policy responses to the economic crisis	p. 81
Poverty, the crisis and social policy responses in developing countries	p. 101
South Korea after the 1997 economic crisis: a'paradigm shift'?	p. 119
China's response to crisis: what role for social policy?	p. 139
Tiptoeing through crisis? Re-evaluating the German social model in light of the global recession	p. 159
Ireland and the impact of the economic crisis: upholding the dominant policy paradigm	p. 181
Waving not drowning: Iceland, kreppan and alternative social policy futures	p. 199
Experiences from two financial crises in the Nordic welfare states: 1990-93 and 2008-10 compared	p. 219
Social policy and the recent economic crisis in Canada and the United States	p. 231
From economic crisis to a new age of austerity: the UK	p. 251
Responding to the challenges: some concluding remarks on welfare futures in changed circumstances	p. 271
Bibliography	p. 279
Index	p. 323
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