Contemporary social policy has never been more vigorously contested. Issues range from single-issue campaigns over housing, social care, and hospital closures, on through more organized movements around disability, environment, health, and education. Howe

Contemporary social policy has never been more vigorously contested. Issues range from single-issue campaigns over housing, social care, hospital closures through to organised movements around disability, environment, health and education. However, the historical and contemporary role played by social movements in shaping social welfare has too often been neglected in standard social policy texts. "Understanding social welfare movements" is the first text to bring together social policy and social movement studies. Using actual case studies and written in an accessible and engaging style, it...

There are an increasing number of studies devoted to an examination of New Labour's social policies. However, thus far there has been little in the way of substantive discussion of opposition to and conflict around key elements of New Labour's agenda for the welfare state and public sector, from those who are involved in the frontline implementation and delivery of welfare policies. Since the mid to late 1990s, there have been continual and recurring episodes of industrial action of various kinds involving social workers, teachers, lecturers, nurses, hospital ancillary staff, nursery nurses,...

"This book is distinctive for extending the usual sociological reach, reopening territory that has lain fallow, set aside from the well-ploughed fields of orthodox social theory. In doing so, Law not only produces fresh insight into familiar theorists but guards against collective forgetting of the sociological canon."
- Professor Bridget Fowler, University of Glasgow

"An excellent book, it will be welcomed and read widely by advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars in sociology, cultural studies, social theory and beyond."
...