Despite their long history and growing influence, social work professional organisations (SWPOs) remain underexplored in social work research. Created and fully or partly governed by professionals for professionals, SWPOs comprise millions of practitioners worldwide – some groups having existed for around 100 years – to develop activities that are increasingly relevant for practitioners, users, schools of social work and policy makers.This edited volume provides the first comprehen...

Rather than being seen simply as social policy implementors, in recent decades there has been increasing recognition of social workers as professionals with unique knowledge and insights to contribute to policy formulation and social justice.This book offers a path-breaking, evidence-based theoretical framework for understanding why social workers engage in policy, both as professionals and citizens, and the impact of their actions. Drawing on concepts from social work and the poli...

This handbook initiates fresh debates on poverty and its impact in a constantly changing Global South society. It studies the concept, theories, and causes of poverty, as well as the design and delivery of social welfare policies related to specific groups, such as women, children, and the elderly. The chapters are theoretical, evidence-based, and empirical in nature and bring together a holistic understanding of social problems and issues in developing countries. The volume brings togethe...

Bringing together international case studies, this book offers theoretical and empirical insights into the interaction between social work and social policy.Moving beyond existing studies on policy practice, the book employs the policy cycle as a core analytical frame and focuses on the influence of social work(ers) in the problem definition, agenda setting, policy formulation and implementation of social policy. Twenty-three contributors offer examples of policy making from seven ...

Furthering social justice and human rights is a fundamental principle underlying the social work profession. Engaging in social policy formulation processes is a major route through which social workers can realise this goal. This type of social work activity has been termed ‘policy practice’.The aim of this book is to shed light on policy practice in social work discourse, education and practice in eight liberal democracies. This is the first effort to undertake a cross-national s...

Based on data from 12 diverse societies, this is the first cross-national comparative study on academic engagement in social policy formulation.The chapters present survey data on the policy involvement of social work academics in different countries and an analysis of this data by country experts. The findings relate to the levels and types of policy engagement of the social work academics, their perceptions regarding this type of activity and the factors associated with this....

This book explores the role and impact of the settlement house movement in the global development of social welfare and the social work profession.It traces the transnational history of settlement houses and examines the interconnections between the settlement house movement, other social and professional movements and social research.Looking at how the settlement house movement developed across different national, cultural and social boundaries, this book show that by unde...

countries in this region have been particularly limited (for an exception to this, see Petmesidou & Papatheodorou, 2006). The underlying assumption in this volume is that despite the diversity of welfare states bordering the Mediterranean Sea, some interesting commonalities are shared by these nations. Indeed, in his contribution to this volume Gal has described these nations as belonging to an extended family of welfare states that share some common characteristics and outcomes, one of wh...

Available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.One of the most significant ways that social workers can engage with policy is by holding elected office. How and why do social workers transition into political roles? And what impact do they have on policy making once they get there?This book is the first systematic, comparative study of social workers in electoral politics across liberal democracies. Drawing on a common conceptual framework, leading scholars analyse the rec...

Education is a thoroughly political enterprise. The process of determining the purpose of education has always been highly controversial. It has resulted in disputes that have not only divided people philosophically, but also on the basis of religion, region, class, race, and ethnicity. As a result, education provides us with a spectacular arena in which to explore the tensions inherent in European and North American societies, as well as an understanding of how current politics shape educ...

This collection addresses the complexity of care arrangements in contemporary Europe, developing new insights into debates about the care crisis, gender equality, the division of work and the reconciliation of care and work.

This first full account of curriculum policy formulation in 1990s Ontario helps readers understand the real-life experiences of policymakers both within the province and internationally.Having worked as a policy analyst for the Government of Ontario, a public school teacher, and a university professor, author Laura Elizabeth Pinto is uniquely positioned to tackle the key issues of policy formulation: the politics and tensions among different policy actors; the relationships between...