Social Work Policy: Background Information

The American welfare state has long been a source of political contention and academic debate. This Oxford Handbook pulls together much of our current knowledge about the origins, development, functions, and challenges of American social policy. After the Introduction, the first substantivepart of the handbook offers an historical overview of U.S. social policy from the colonial era to the present. This is followed by a set of chapters on different theoretical perspectives available for understanding and explaining the development of U.S. social policy. The three following parts ofthe volume focus on concrete social programs for the elderly, the poor and near-poor, the disabled, and workers and families. Policy areas covered include health care, pensions, food assistance, housing, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, workers' compensation, family support, and programsfor soldiers and veterans. The final part of the book focuses on some of the consequences of the U.S. welfare state for poverty, inequality, and citizenship. Many of the chapters comprising this handbook emphasize the disjointed patterns of policy making inherent to U.S. policymaking and thepublic-private mix of social provision in which the government helps certain groups of citizens directly (e.g., social insurance) or indirectly (e.g., tax expenditures, regulations). The contributing authors are experts from political science, sociology, history, economics, and other socialsciences.

Available in paperback for the first time, this milestone work offers an in-depth treatment of all aspects of the discipline and practice of social policy globally. Supported by a distinguished international advisory board, the editors have compiled almost 900,000 words across 734 entries written by 284 leading specialists to provide authoritative coverage of concepts, policy actors, welfare institutions and services along a series of national, regional and transnational dimensions. Also included are biographical entries on major policy makers and shapers. The editors have particularly striven to provide strong coverage of differing geographical and cultural traditions so that the variety of social policy, as both an academic discipline and a domain of governance, is reflected. Contributors draw in and make the necessary connections with social policy's associated disciplines to provide a rich picture of this vast and highly diverse field. Comprehensive and authoritative, the Encyclopediahas sought to open up rather than to foreclose the numerous areas in which there is on-going research, debate and, sometimes, serious disagreement and divergence in theory and practice. To this end, entries attempt to introduce a core or common ground of understanding before moving on to a wider discussion of debates regarding different conceptual and geographical approaches. The whole is integrated by cross-referencing and each entry includes a bibliography for further reading. There is a full index. The International Encyclopedia of Social Policyprovides the most substantial mapping of the international study and practice of social policy to date and will stand as a vital storehouse of knowledge for many years to come.