Over recent years it has become increasingly clear that the European Union is falling short of its promise to enhance social cohesion across the continent. Welfare state modernization has been at the centre of divisive debates over the redistribution of wealth and imbalances between a wealthy European core and its peripheries. Some see the policies and governance of the EU as part of the problem, others rather as the solution. This book examines...

Political commentator and public policy analyst Gilles Paquet examines the benefits and drawbacks of Canada's multiculturalism policy. He rejects the current policy which perpetuates difference and articulates a model for Canadian transculturalism, a more fluid understanding of multiculturalism based on the philosophy of cosmopolitanism which would strengthen moral contracts and encourage the social engagement of all Canadians.

When Andrea Louise Campbell's sister-in-law, Marcella Wagner, was run off the freeway by a hit-and-run driver, she was seven-and-a-half months pregnant. She survived-and, miraculously, the baby was born healthy. But that's where the good news ends. Marcella was left paralyzed from the chest down. This accident was much more than just a physical and emotional tragedy. Like so many Americans-50 million, or one-sixth of the country's population-neither...

Equality of opportunity is a contested concept. It evokes strong emotions from proponents and opponents alike. Enduring issues of inequality and discrimination mean that it remains at the forefront of political priorities in the twenty-first century. Traditional analyses tend to focus on developments at the level of the unitary state or European Union. In contrast, this book underlines the salience of multi-level governance and offers the first detailed...

"While it's important to understand how economic systems affect the homeless, it's equally important to learn about day-to-day realities faced by those who rely on public policies. Drawing on the author's experience working in the homeless community, this book presents some of their stories of loss, abuse, addiction and marginalization through interviews, observations and ethnographic research"-- Provided by publisher.

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2007" Christopher Howard is the Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of The Hidden Welfare State (Princeton). The Welfare State Nobody Knows challenges a number of myths and half-truths about U.S. social policy. The American welfare state is supposed to be a pale imitation of "true" welfare states in Europe and Canada. Christopher...

Iris Marion Young is Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her previous books include Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton) and Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory. Iris Marion Young is known for her ability to connect theory to public policy and practical politics in ways easily understood by a wide range of readers. This collection of essays, which...

Understanding crime and social policy explores the interface between crime and social policy, drawing upon international theoretical developments and empirical research from within Criminology and Social Policy. Written by an experienced author, it uses analysis of policy-making under the New Labour and Conservative-Liberal Democrat governments to reflect upon the multiplicity of influences which shape the formulation and delivery of crime control...

Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography, or perhaps ignorance of the right policies? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. In this book the authors show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Based on fifteen years of original research, they marshall...

Mine Ener was Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History and Islamic Civilization at Villanova University. She was a coeditor of Poverty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts. This richly textured social history recovers the voices and experiences of poor Egyptians--beggars, foundlings, the sick and maimed--giving them a history for the first time. As Mine Ener tells their fascinating stories alongside those of reformers, tourists, politicians,...