‘John Clarke brings a fresh, critical, idiosyncratic eye to the task of thinking about the ways in which states do welfare. He paints a rich and broad canvas, using a palette that blends social, cultural, political and economic perspectives. Changing Welfare, Changing States is an important addition to the welfare state literature’ - Ruth Lister, Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough University. What has happened to welfare states? Are we witnessing the end of welfare, the survival of the welfare state, or welfare states in transition? Changing Welfare, Changing States disentangles the various answers to these questions, inviting us to think differently about the remaking of the relationships between welfare, state and nation. Informed by the ‘cultural turn’ in the social sciences, the book reflects a commitment to the importance of rethinking social policy at a time when social, political and intellectual certainties have been profoundly unsettled.Key features of the book include: a thought-provoking approach - encourages students to ‘rethink’ welfare states; broad coverage - engages with a range of approaches to the study of welfare states, drawing on social policy, politics, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies; and, contribution to key debates on: globalization, neo-liberalism, changing forms of governance and conflicts over citizenship in the contemporary remaking of welfare states. Written by a leading academic in the field, the book has a flowing narrative and clear structure that makes it accessible to and popular with students and academics alike. It is an invaluable resource for undergraduates and postgraduates in the field of social policy and will also be of interest to students and researchers in related disciplines such as sociology, politics, anthropology and cultural studies.
