Changing Directions of the British Welfare State

Edited by Gideon Calder, Jeremy Gass, and Kirsten Merrill-Glover

With a Foreword by Huw Edwards

Distributed for University of Wales Press

Changing Directions of the British Welfare State

Edited by Gideon Calder, Jeremy Gass, and Kirsten Merrill-Glover

With a Foreword by Huw Edwards

This is a unique and timely survey of the evolving priorities of the British welfare state since its inception in the late 1940s, with an emphasis on how current and future aims and features of welfare provision compare with the ambitions of its original architects. In this book, fifteen commentators, including prominent academic experts in the field as well as members of think tanks, charities, and campaigning organizations explore themes such as health, education, housing, gender, disability, and ethnic diversity. The result is a rich, critical, and thought-provoking exploration of the legacy and prospects of the welfare state that will appeal to anyone with an interest in how a modern society should meet the needs of its citizens.

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Reviews
Table of contents
Excerpt
Gallery
Awards
Author Events
Related Titles

Reviews

“A valuable, wide-ranging assessment of where Beveridge’s welfare state stands in the early years of the twenty-first century. . . . [It will be] of interest to both students of social policy and a wider readership.”

Ruth Lister, Loughborough University

“The authors cast a committed but critical eye over the past performance of the British welfare state in relation to Beveridge’s ‘5 Giants’ over the seventy years since his 1942 report, and examine current issues that are key to its future. The combination of its grounding in the specific context of Wales on the one hand and its wide range of topics on the other gives this volume a unique and valuable perspective.”

Fran Bennett, University of Oxford

Table of Contents

Foreword
      Huw Edwards
Acknowledgements
List of figures and tables
Notes on contributors
Introduction
      Gideon Calder, Jeremy Gass and Kirsten Merrill-Glover
Timeline

Part 1: The ‘five giants’
1. Want: ‘What the British people desire’: the rise and fall of insurance-based social security
      Peter Kenway
2. Disease: Social Democracy, health inequalities and the welfare state
      Michael Sullivan
3. Ignorance: Combating ignorance: education, social opportunity and citizenship in Wales
      Gareth Rees
4. Squalor: Shifting boundaries: people, homes and the state since 1945
      John Puzey
5. Idleness: ‘No longer a problem of industry’? Principles, practice and policy in the early twenty-first century
      David Byrne
Part 2: Five challenges
6. Gender: Continuity and change: gender and welfare
      Sandra Shaw
7. Race: A very ‘British’ welfare state? ‘Race’ and racism
      Charlotte Williams
8. Disability: What rights for disabled people in a welfare state? Need-fulfilment versus identity-assertion and the ‘problem of dependency’
      Steven R. Smith
9. Devolution: Devolution and the welfare state: the case of Wales
      Mark Drakeford
10. The start and end of life
Part 1: The welfare of children since 1948
      Ian Butler
Part 2: The welfare of older people since 1948
      Liz Lloyd
Conclusion: Taking Stock
      Victoria Winckler

References
Index

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