„This is a must-read book for those for whom welfare and socialpolicy are, or should be, synonymous.“
Social Policy & Administration
„Daly provides a philosophical and sociological overview thatmakes this little book the new touchstone for the study of socialpolicy everywhere.“
Labour / Le Travail
"Mary Daly's lucidly written book analysesthe core ideological and philosophical debates about welfare andalso explores 'welfare in practice' - how welfare policies areactually delivered through the different mediums of the state, themarket and the family. This is a truly excellent introduction to acomplex and contested concept, and student will benefit enormouslyfrom reading it.„
Nick Ellison, University of Leeds
“The welfare state is everywhere under attack. Academics respondwith new accounts of how welfare is to be understood in a world ofmigration, recession, escalating inequality, make-work-pay andvolatile families. This book provides an energetic review of anexciting and uncertain world."
Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent
Welfare
von Mary DalyThe book connects theory and practice. Tracing the concept's background in economics, political science and social policy, the book juxtaposes welfare with newer approaches, such as subjective well-being, capabilities, care, social exclusion and social capital. The links between welfare and political ideas are also elaborated. The welfare state, as it developed historically in Europe and as it is changing in different countries, is given an important place in the analysis. Drawing on a range of empirical work, the book in its final part considers how individuals and groups attain welfare and how this shapes people's decisions and actions in their everyday lives.
Written in a lively style, the book provides students of sociology, social policy and political science with a valuable point of access to a range of debates and thinking in the field of welfare and related concepts.
