The opening chapters suggest that transitions in welfare capitalism can be understood in terms of shifts in dominant 'corporeal' discourses. The body as a focus for power and resistance in differing welfare regimes is further explored in individual contributions on health and social care, bodily metaphors in social policy and the relationship between animal and human welfare. In highlighting the significance of the body in social policy, the book opens up a novel, and potentially rich, vein of academic enquiry.

Britain's New Labour government claims to support the cause of human rights. At the same time, it claims that we can have no rights without responsibility and that dependency on the state is irresponsible. The ethics of welfare offers a critique of this paradox and discusses the ethical conundrum it implies for the future of social welfare.The book: explores the concepts of dependency, responsibility and rights and their significance for social citizenship;draws together findings from a range of recent research that has investigated popular, political, welfare provider and welfare user...

Present day policy makers endorse the cause of human rights, yet they tell us we can have no rights without responsibility and that dependency is irresponsible. This book offers a critique of this paradox and discusses the ethical conundrum it implies for the future of social welfare. It explores the extent to which rights to welfare are related to human inter-dependency on the one hand and the ethics of responsibility on the other. Its intention is to kick start a new debate about the moral foundations of social policy and welfare reform.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Social advantage and disadvantage are potent catch-all terms. They have no established definition but, considered in relation to one another, they can embrace a wide variety of more specific concepts that address the ways in which human society causes, exacerbates or fails to prevent social divisions or injustices. This book captures the sense in which any conceptualisation of disadvantage is concerned with the consequences of processes by which relative advantage has been selectively conferred or attained. It considers how inequalities and social divisions are created as much by the...

Social advantage and disadvantage are potent catch-all terms. They have no established definition but, considered in relation to one another, they can embrace a wide variety of more specific concepts that address the ways in which human society causes, exacerbates or fails to prevent social divisions or injustices. This book captures the sense in which any conceptualisation of disadvantage is concerned with the consequences of processes by which relative advantage has been selectively conferred or attained. It considers how inequalities and social divisions are created as much by the...

The emphasis of this work is placed on a critique of victim-blaming terms such as "dependency culture" and "underclass", the relevance of recent social security reforms to current social trends and an alternative approach to welfare dependency.