This book compares workfare policies in the United States and 'active labor policies' in Western Europe that are aimed primarily at the long-term unemployed, unemployed youth, lone parents, immigrants and other vulnerable groups often referred to collectively as the 'socially excluded'. The Europeans maintain that workfare is the best method of bringing the socially excluded back into mainstream society. Although there are differences in terms of ideology and practice, Joel F. Handler argues that there are also significant similarities, especially field-level practices that serve to exclude those who are the least employable or lack other qualifications that agencies favor. The author also examines strategies for reform, including protective labor legislation, the Open Method of Coordination, the reform of social and employment services, and concludes with an argument for a basic income guarantee, which would not only alleviate poverty but also provide clients with an exit option.

Work and the Welfare State places street-level organizations at the analytic center of welfare-state politics, policy, and management. This volume offers a critical examination of efforts to change the welfare state to a workfare state by looking at on-the-ground issues in six countries: the US, UK, Australia, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. An international group of scholars contribute organizational studies that shed new light on old debates about policies of workfare and activation. Peeling back the political rhetoric and technical policy jargon, these studies investigate what really goes on in the name of workfare and activation policies and what that means for the poor, unemployed, and marginalized populations subject to these policies. By adopting a street-level approach to welfare state research, Work and the Welfare State reveals the critical, yet largely hidden, role of governance and management reforms in the evolution of the global workfare project. It shows how these reforms have altered organizational arrangements and practices to emphasize workfare’s harsher regulatory features and undermine its potentially enabling ones. As a major contribution to expanding the conceptualization of how organizations matter to policy and political transformation, this book will be of special interest to all public management and public policy scholars and students.

Rethinking the American understanding of poverty, welfare, and the language used to describe them.

There is no one in this world who would deny the importance of access to adequate food for every human being. In fact, access to food has been declared a human right in 1948 with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In spite of the right to food to be more than half a century old, many are not aware, misunderstand or even marginalize this human right. This book serves two purposes and many audiences. First, it is meant for those who want to get a better understanding of the right to food and how this right has been developed in international law. Second, it also explains why this human right has been marginalized by one of the richest countries in the world: the Netherlands. As such this unique collection of articles provides an exciting view on the making of law and policy, with contributions from lawyers, sociologists and human rights defenders.

"A thorough and absorbing tour of the sub-discipline... An essential acquisition for any scholar or teacher interested in geographical perspectives on political process." - Sallie Marston, University of Arizona "This unique book is a true encyclopedia of political geography." - Vladimir Kolossov, Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Vice President of the IGU The SAGE Handbook of Political Geography provides a highly contextualised and systematic overview of the latest thinking and research in the field. Edited by key scholars, with international contributions from acknowledged authorities on the relevant research, the Handbook is divided into six sections: Scope and Development of Political Geography: the geography of knowledge, conceptualisations of power and scale. Geographies of the State: state theory, territory and central local relations, legal geographies, borders. Participation and representation: citizenship, electoral geography, media public space and social movements. Political Geographies of Difference: class, nationalism, gender, sexuality and culture. Geography Policy and Governance: regulation, welfare, urban space, and planning. Global Political Geographies: imperialism, post-colonialism, globalization, environmental politics, IR, war and migration. The SAGE Handbook of Political Geography is essential reading for upper level students and scholars with an interest in politics and space.

Humorous and witty recollections of the author's journey from insecure graduate student to noted activist/scholar.

Public social services are increasingly being individualised in order to better meet the differentiated needs of competent and independent citizens and to promote the effectiveness of social interventions. This book addresses this development, focusing on a new type of social services that has become crucial in the 'modernisation' of welfare states: activation services. The book discusses and analyses the individualisation of activation services against the background of social policy reforms on the one hand, and the introduction of new forms of public governance on the other. Critically discussing the rise of individualised social services in the light of various theoretical points of view, it analyses the way in which activation and the 'active subject' are presented in EU discourse. It compares the introduction of individualised activation services in five EU welfare states: the UK, Germany, Italy, Finland and the Czech Republic, focusing on official policies as well as policy practices. The book provides original insights into the phenomenon of the individualised provision of activation services. It is useful reading for policy makers as well as for students and researchers of welfare states, social policies and public governance.