The field of social policy has a rich history but policies on the ground are undergoing intensive change. Governments around the world are responding to political, economic and financial pressures, many of them linked to the global economic crisis. National agendas typically have social policy at or close to the centre. This latest edition of Social Policy Review presents an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship. It brings together research by an exciting range of internationally renowned authors and examines important debates in British and international social policy. This edition includes a special focus in the third part on work, employment and insecurity. Social Policy Review is essential reading for social policy academics and students and for anyone who is interested in the social and economic implications of government policy.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Contemporary debates and developments in the UK Introducing Universal Credit ~ Paul Spicker Reconciling fuel poverty and climate change policy under the Coalition government: Green Deal or no deal? ~ Carolyn Snell and Harriet Thomson Doctors in the driving seat? Reforms in NHS primary care and commissioning ~ Elke Heins Financing later life: pensions, care, housing equity and the new politics of old age ~ Debora Price and Lynne Livsey Part Two: Contributions from the Social Policy Association/East Asian Social Policy Research Network Conference of 2012 It’s time to move on from ‘race’? The official ‘invisibilisation’ of minority ethnic disadvantage ~ Gary Craig and Maggie O’Neill Corporations as political actors: new perspectives for health policy research ~ Ben Hawkins and Anne Roemer-Mahler Square pegs and round holes: extending existing typologies fails to capture the complexities of Chinese social policy ~ Dan Horsfall and Sabrina Chai The Earned Income Tax Credit as an anti-poverty programme: palliative or cure? ~ Phyllis Jeroslow Social policy and culture: the cases of Japan and South Korea ~ Nam K. Jo Load-shedding and reloading: changes in government responsibility – the case of Israeli immigration and integration policy, 2004–10 ~ Ilana Shpaizman Part Three: Themed section: work, employment and insecurity ‘What unemployment means’ three decades and two recessions later ~ Adrian Sinfield Precarious employment and EU employment regulation ~ Julia S. O’Connor How do activation policies affect social citizenship? The issue of autonomy ~ Silke Bothfeld and Sigrid Betzelt Modernising social security for lone parents: avoiding fertility and unemployment traps when reforming social policy in Northern Europe ~ Anders Freundt, Simon Grundt Straubinger and Jon Kvist Women, families and the ‘Great Recession’ in the UK ~ Susan Harkness