Policy Press

Austerity

Touted as a short, sharp adjustment to the economy in the wake of the financial crisis, the cuts and slashing of the welfare state has caused a multitude of harms to individuals, communities and society as a whole as a result.

As a publisher who has had tackling inequality at its heart for 25 years, we have published many research outputs that tackle the topic of austerity, including many articles in our Journal of Poverty and Social Justice.

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In this cross-cutting theme, we aim to address the following goal:

SDG Publishers compact logoSDG 1SDG 2SDG 10

You may also be interested in our Global Social Challenges on hunger, food, water and shelter, poverty, inequality and social justice and democracy, power and governance.

Showing 109-120 of 150 items.

For Whose Benefit?

The Everyday Realities of Welfare Reform

'For whose benefit?' explores how those at the sharp end of welfare reform experience changes to the benefit system. It looks at how the rights and responsibilities of citizenship are experienced on the ground, and whether the welfare state still offers meaningful protection and security to those who rely upon it.

Policy Press

Good Times, Bad Times

The Welfare Myth of Them and Us

This revised edition uses extensive updated research and survey evidence to challenge the view of 'skivers versus strivers', showing how much our lives vary not just as we age, but from week-to-week and year-to-year.

Policy Press

The New Social Mobility

How the Politicians Got It Wrong

Geoff Payne considers a wide range of dimensions of mobility and life chances to assess the causes and consequences of mobility as social and political processes and challenges well-established opinions of politicians, pressure groups, the press, academics and the public.

Policy Press

Delivering Social Welfare

Governance and Service Provision in the UK

Drawing on examples across a range of policy areas, this important new book examines the radically changing system of governance and delivery of social welfare in the UK and assesses how changes in social policy and governance interact in the delivery of social welfare.

Policy Press

How Inequality Runs in Families

Unfair Advantage and the Limits of Social Mobility

In the UK, as in other rich countries, the ‘playing-field’ is anything but level and the family plays a surprisingly crucial part in maintaining inequality. This book explores how seemingly mundane aspects of family life raise fundamental questions of social justice and calls for a rethink of what equality of opportunity means.

Policy Press

Class, Inequality and Community Development

Edited by Mae Shaw and Marjorie Mayo

This book, the second title in the Rethinking Community Development series, argues for the centrality of class analysis and its associated divisions of power to any discussion of the potential benefits of community development.

Policy Press

Hunger Pains

Life inside Foodbank Britain

We know the statistics, but what does it feel like to be forced to turn to foodbanks for help? What does it take to get emergency food, and what's in the food parcel? This is a powerful insight into the harsh reality of foodbank use from the inside.

Policy Press

Education Systems and Inequalities

International comparisons

EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Education systems and inequalities compares different education systems and their impact on creating and sustaining social inequalities.

Policy Press

Justice and Fairness in the City

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to 'Ordinary' Cities

This book examines the theory and practice of justice in and of the city through a multi-disciplinary collaboration, which draws on a wide range of expertise. It will be a valuable resource for academic researchers and students across a range of disciplines including urban and environmental studies.

Policy Press

A Sharing Economy

How Social Wealth Funds Can Reduce Inequality and Help Balance the Books

A Sharing Economy proposes radical new ways to close the UK’s growing income gap and spread social opportunities. A new social wealth fund would boost economic and social investment and simultaneously strengthen the public finances and offer a powerful antidote to austerity.

Policy Press

All Our Welfare

Towards Participatory Social Policy

This unique book is the first to critique the past, present and future welfare state from a participatory perspective. Peter Beresford demonstrate the value of ‘user knowledge’ by challenging orthodox social policy and the limitations of both Fabian and Neo-liberal perspectives drawing on service users ‘ own ideas and experience.

Policy Press

Studying Health Inequalities

An Applied Approach

Through the framework of understanding health inequalities as a 'wicked problem' the book develops an applied approach to researching, understanding and addressing these by drawing on complexity theory.

Policy Press