The welfare state reader / edited by Christopher Pierson, Francis G. Castles, Ingela K. Naumann.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Welfare State Reader has established itself as a vital source of outstanding original research since its original appearance in 2000. In the third edition, Pierson, Castles and Naumann have comprehensively overhauled the content, bringing it wholly up to date with contemporary discussions about this most crucial area of social and political life.

The book includes seventeen new selections, all reflecting the latest thinking and research in welfare state studies. These readings are organized around contemporary debates, such as the current trajectories of, constraints on and challenges to contemporary welfare regimes, as well as evolving ideas and emergent forms that constitute the future of welfare. In particular, new readings focus on issues such as ageing populations and low fertility, climate change and global financial uncertainty, and nascent 'politics of happiness'. As in previous editions, the volume begins with a collection of readings that provide a grounding in core approaches to welfare, and each section is set in context by a new editorial introduction.

As well as bringing together classic debates, The Welfare State Reader represents an invaluable guide to what is happening at the cutting edge of welfare research, giving the reader an unrivalled overview of debates surrounding the welfare state.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Editors' Note (p. viii)
• Editors' Introduction to the Third Edition (p. 1)
• Part I Approaches to Welfare (p. 3)
• The First Welfare State? (p. 7)
• 'Classical' (p. 13)
• The Welfare State in Historical Perspective (p. 14)
• Citizenship and Social Class (p. 28)
• Universalism versus Selection (p. 38)
• Perspectives on the Left (p. 47)
• What is Social Justice? Commission on Social Justice (p. 48)
• Some Contradictions of the Modern Welfare State (p. 60)
• Responses from the Right (p. 71)
• The Meaning of the Welfare State (p. 72)
• The Two Wars against Poverty (p. 78)
• The New Politics of the New Poverty (p. 89)
• Feminism (p. 101)
• The Patriarchal Welfare State (p. 102)
• The Welfare State and Women Power (p. 120)
• Part II Welfare Regimes Under Threat (p. 129)
• Trajectories (p. 135)
• Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (p. 136)
• Religion and the Western Welfare State (p. 151)
• The New Politics of the Welfare State (p. 164)
• Constraints (p. 175)
• Globalization, the Welfare State and Inequality (p. 176)
• The Europeanization of Social Protection: Domestic Impacts and National Responses (p. 192)
• Explaining Convergence of OECD Welfare States: A Conditional Approach (p. 203)
• Breaking with the Past? Why the Global Financial Crisis led to Austerity Policies but not to Modernization of the Welfare State (p. 214)
• Challenges (p. 227)
• Ageing and the Welfare State: Securing Sustainability (p. 228)
• Very Low Fertility: Consequences, Causes and Policy Approaches (p. 244)
• Migration, Minorities and Welfare States (p. 254)
• The Politics of the New Social Policies: Providing Coverage against New Social Risks in Mature Welfare States (p. 273)
• Part III Emerging Ideas, Emergent Forms (p. 291)
• Emerging Ideas (p. 295)
• The Big Society: A New Policy Environment for the Third Sector? (p. 296)
• Diffusing Ideas for After Neoliberalism: The Social Investment Perspective in Europe and Latin America (p. 309)
• The Governance of Economic Uncertainty: Beyond the 'New Social Risks' Analysis (p. 326)
• How Climate Change Will Shape the Social Policy Framework (p. 338)
• Basic Income and the Two Dilemmas of the Welfare State (p. 342)
• Emergent Forms (p. 347)
• What Adult Worker Model? A Critical Look at Recent Social Policy Reform in Europe from a Gender and Family Perspective (p. 348)
• Beyond Modernization? Social Care and the Transformation of Welfare Governance (p. 361)
• Assessing the Welfare State: The Politics of Happiness (p. 377)
• Europe's Post-Democratic Era (p. 388)
• Index (p. 392)

Author notes provided by Syndetics