ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4825-1373
Current Organisation
University Of Strathclyde
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 10-2005
DOI: 10.1017/S0047279405009189
Abstract: Britain's New Labour government will spend some 133 billion this year on social protection for vulnerable groups with low incomes such as pensioners, disabled people, and working families with and without children. It also regularly reviews the National Minimum Wage for workers. Although its intentions are laudable, the government can be criticised for setting income floors with little or no grounded assessment of in idual welfare requirements. Budget standards, originating in Rowntree's work on poverty at the close of the nineteenth century, offers an alternative for setting minimum incomes. Used by Beveridge in 1942 to rationalise the proposal for social security levels, they have largely been neglected by successive governments and were recently rejected by New Labour in its review of child poverty measures. Academic research, however, continues to identify non-arbitrary income thresholds. The transparency of evidence to maintain a defined standard of living along with the minimal personal costs involved are key attractions. The challenge remains to find a generally acceptable standard. How much emphasis should be given to scientific prescriptions for health compared to popular cultural practices captured by national surveys of poverty and social exclusion or agreed by the consensus of ordinary citizens in focus groups? This article considers the current debate within UK social policy.
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 04-0002
DOI: 10.1332/030557315X14271297530262
Abstract: The UK is committed to a sharp reduction of greenhouse gases. Progress towards its goal will depend on whether the public can be persuaded to change their travel behaviour. Using British Social Attitudes 2011 survey data, analyses show that the majority of adults – especially the young and better-educated – believe that climate change is occurring but even concerned believers appear reluctant to modify their behaviour. Policies designed to alter transport habits and induce behaviour change need to take that clear conclusion into account. Without a strong political commitment, substantial change that will significantly mitigate the processes appears unlikely.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 18-07-2012
DOI: 10.1017/S0047279412000499
Abstract: Social scientists in the comparative policy tradition have long argued that welfare systems in modern capitalist societies can be broken down into ideal types. The idea of different worlds of welfare capitalism has an enduring appeal and growing practical policy relevance as governments seek to enhance population wellbeing. In this paper, we explore the worlds of welfare theory from the perspective of happiness. Drawing on data from the World Values Survey , we examine how welfare regimes may contribute to wellbeing and we consider the significance of our findings for the development of social policy. By using multilevel models, it is possible to separate out effects due to observed and unobserved, as well as both in idual-level and country-level, welfare state characteristics and we can make inferences to the distribution of social wellbeing across welfare typologies. We find that respondents living in liberal and conservative countries experience at least twice the odds of unhappiness of those living in social democracies, after controlling for in idual- and country-level explanatory variables. The observed differences between the worlds of welfare were found to be highly statistically significant.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-08-2018
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12323
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 24-04-2080
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-07-2017
Abstract: This article attempts to forge new links between social attitudes and social policy change in Australia. Drawing on four survey waves of international social survey data and using multivariable regression analysis, this article sheds new light on the determinants of Australian attitudes towards the welfare state in a comparative perspective. It examines their variations across time and social groupings and then compares Australian welfare attitudes with those found in other leading western economies. While there is popular support for government actions to protect Australian citizens in old age and sickness, views about social protection and labour market policy for the working-age population are ided. The comparative analysis and the focus on class-attitude linkages allows for further critical reflection on the nature of social relations and recent social reforms enacted by the Liberal-National coalition government.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-09-2015
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12096
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 08-07-2020
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 20-05-2015
DOI: 10.1017/S1474746415000147
Abstract: Political and administrative processes are leading to collectively undesirable and intolerable societal outcomes in the advanced liberal democracies, as policymakers seek to address social issues in the design and implementation of new social policies that actively govern conduct. Behavioural regulation is the order of the day. For scholars interested in the development of social policy and the idea of a society as a whole, it is timely to begin the revaluation of the very notion of social policy and society beyond the ‘active’ neoliberal policy paradigm. Here we are particularly concerned with the ends and means of the coercive policy instruments and the active ethical issues arising from their use.
Publisher: Policy Press
Date: 15-11-2018
DOI: 10.1332/POLICYPRESS/9781447332497.003.0001
Abstract: Neoliberalism, based on laissez-faire market ideas, had reached its social policy limits long before the financial crises of 2008. The ‘new social risks’ faced by citizens in post-industrial society led policymakers to rethink what social and economic relations should look like in the 21st century. In this volume we argue that new ideas about social investment and inclusive growth could mark a turning point in social policy.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-10-2016
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 06-10-2011
DOI: 10.1017/S004727941000070X
Abstract: Securing adequate food and nutrition is essential for the maintenance of our health and function in society. This article examines the household characteristics associated with food and nutrition security in the United Kingdom population aged 60 years and over. Data are taken from the Expenditure and Food Survey, a continuous cross-sectional survey of household expenditure, food consumption and income. Survey data for 2002–05 provided a total s le of 5,600 households. Household food consumption is evaluated using national Dietary Reference Values recommended by the Department of Health. A multivariate logistic regression model examines the risk of being food and nutrition insecure by in idual and household characteristics. The results suggest that certain sections of the older population are significantly more at risk of food insecurity than others: low-income households, the oldest-old, elderly from black and minority ethnic groups, those with a disability and men living alone. Influencing nutrition of elderly people in the home is complex and poses a major challenge to social policy. Coordinated activity at national and local levels will be required to help ensure that some of the most vulnerable members of society achieve healthy balanced diets.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-11-2004
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 26-07-2011
DOI: 10.1108/01443331111149914
Abstract: Peter Townsend is one of the greatest social scientists of the twentieth century and best known for his pioneering research into poverty. This paper aims to revisit Townsend's early work discussing the measurement of poverty and attempts to operationalise his ideas for determining minimum income standards for healthy living. The article is based upon a secondary analysis of data taken from the UK Expenditure and Food Survey, a continuous cross‐sectional survey of household income, expenditure, and food consumption. Here, the s le has been restricted to an older population and the authors observe the relationship between household income and a healthy standard of living (indicated by diet) for people aged 60 years and over. Minimum income requirements for healthy living, for this population in the UK, are 37 per cent greater than the British state pension for single pensioners and 37 per cent for pensioner couples. It is also appreciably greater than the official minimum income safety net (after means testing), the pension credit guarantee. Objective evidence‐based assessment of living standards are practicable but do not presently provide a basis for social policy in the UK or elsewhere apparently. Such assessment could provide a credible basis for helping to establish minimum income standards in official policy. Recent developments in the design of a British social survey have made it possible to operationalise Townsend's ideas for establishing minimum income standards over half a century after he proposed them.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 15-07-2022
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 19-01-2009
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 10-2003
DOI: 10.1332/030557303322439335
Abstract: The government has made nursing care in England and Wales free, while continuing to means-test personal care. This policy contrasts with the recommendation for free personal care made by the Royal Commission on Long-term Care in 1999. This article reports on a survey of attitudes towards financing care in old age from a representative s le of men and women in England aged 25 years and over. The majority of people feel that the state should finance care for older people. The article discusses the extent to which this is consistent with the government’s position and the competing notions of equity that recent debate entails.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-05-2009
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 19-11-2015
DOI: 10.1017/S0047279414000828
Abstract: The concept of the ‘social investment state’ refocuses attention on the productive function of social policy eclipsed for some time by the emphasis on its social protection or compensation roles. Here we distinguish between different social investment strategies, the Nordic ‘heavy’ and the Liberal ‘light’, with particular reference to the inclusive growth approach adopted in Australia. In 2007, social democrats in Australia returned to government with a clear mandate to reject the labour market deregulation and other neoliberal policies of its predecessor, and to tackle entrenched social and economic disadvantage in Australian society. For the last five years, social investment and inclusive growth has been at the centre of the Australian social policy agenda. Against this background, the article examines and critically assesses the (re)turn to ‘social investment’ thinking in Australia during Labor's term in office (2007–13). Analysis focuses not just on what was actually achieved, but also on the constraining role of prevailing economic and political circumstances and on the processes that were used to drive social investment reform. In many ways, the article goes some way to exposing ongoing tensions surrounding the distinctiveness of ‘social investment’ strategies pursued by leftist parties within the (neo)liberal state.
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 29-11-2017
DOI: 10.2307/J.CTT1ZKJZQG
Publisher: Policy Press
Date: 28-05-2020
DOI: 10.2307/J.CTV125JSBV
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 20-12-2013
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-12-2011
Abstract: In Australia, sociological research into household budgets and standards of living has long provided a firm basis for policy-makers interested in creating a more inclusive society. The budget approach is, in essence, a simple and intuitive methodology for defining minimum income standards these include ‘poverty’ thresholds. The budget methodology provides an explicit framework for selecting personal requirements deemed necessary to maintain a particular predefined standard of living. Components are translated through prices into budgets required to purchase them. The last programme of research into household budget standards in Australia is now over a decade old and the work needs to be updated. This is due in part to people’s living standards changing over time, as do their needs. Debates about how best to set minimum social standards are once again popular among social scientists. This article reviews recent methodological developments and issues in budget standards research.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 09-03-2017
DOI: 10.1017/S1474746415000676
Abstract: Celebrating the 25th birthday of Gøsta Esping-Andersen's seminal book The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (1990), this article looks back at the old ‘liberal world’ and examines the new. In so doing, it contributes to debates and the literature on liberal welfare state development in three main ways. First, it considers the concept of ‘liberalism’ and liberal ideas about welfare provision contained within Three Worlds . Here we are also interested in how liberal thought has conceptualised the (welfare) state, and the class-mobilisation theory of welfare-state development. Second, the article elaborates on ‘neo-’liberal social reforms and current welfare arrangements in the English-speaking democracies and their welfare states. Finally, it considers the extent to which the English-speaking world of welfare capitalism is still meaningfully ‘liberal’ and coherent today.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 08-04-2013
DOI: 10.1017/S0047279413000202
Abstract: The idea that the happiness and wellbeing of in iduals should shape government policy has been around since the enlightenment today such thinking has growing practical policy relevance as governments around the world survey their populations in an effort to design social policies that promote wellbeing. In this article, we consider the social determinants of subjective wellbeing in the UK and draw lessons for social policy. Survey data are taken from the ‘Measuring National Wellbeing Programme’ launched by the UK's Office for National Statistics in 2010. For the empirical strategy, we develop bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models, as well as testing for interaction effects in the data. The findings show that wellbeing is not evenly distributed within the UK. Socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, employment, household composition and tenure all matter, as does health status. Influencing population wellbeing is inherently complex, though, that said, there is a clear need to place greater emphasis on the social , given the direction of current policy.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 30-07-2013
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 02-2010
DOI: 10.1093/IJE/DYP403
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-11-2016
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12265
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-06-2013
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12024
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 13-10-2005
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 10-06-2004
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-2015
Abstract: Thirty-five years ago Pierre Bourdieu asserted that food preferences, as much as any other element of culture, are distributed within a space of difference more or less homologous with the social space of class positions. Plumbing data on annual spends on all manner of food items, he detected two key oppositions – a taste for the light versus a taste for the heavy on the one hand and a taste for rich foods versus a taste for healthy and exotic foods on the other – and located their generative principles in differences of volume of capital and composition of capital respectively. Deploying a correspondence analysis of similar data using the 2010 Living Costs and Food Survey, supplemented by data from the 2008 British Social Attitudes survey and the 2003 Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion Survey, we seek to examine whether comparable differences in expenditure and preferences are observable in contemporary Britain and, consequently, to illuminate the current structure of the food space and its homology with class. Ultimately, we conclude that Bourdieu's general model is essentially transposable from 1960s France to the UK at the dawn of the 21st century, though we put additional emphasis on the ethical dimension of food consumption, and reflect on the prevalent instances of symbolic violence it underpins.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 19-08-2017
DOI: 10.1017/S147474641500041X
Abstract: Minimum income protection is gaining new significance in European social policy. In an effort to promote social inclusion, the European Parliament has called on the European Commission and EU Member States to guarantee the minimum right to social safety nets. The Commission has been considering, in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy, the possibility of setting minimum standards for social protection. It is timely then to survey the debates surrounding minimum income standards for Europe and some of the different technologies available for setting reference budgets. A European needs-based (minimum) social protection floor should help guard against poverty and exclusion, but there can be no ‘one size fits all’ in Europe. For it is equally clear that higher social standards of protection may be required by citizens in more affluent parts of Europe. How can such distinctions be made, and what are the challenges arising from doing so?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.2139/SSRN.2014423
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 10-04-2015
Abstract: Debate over the measurement of global poverty in low- and middle-income countries continues unabated. There is considerable controversy surrounding the ‘dollar a day’ measure used to monitor progress against the Millennium Development Goals. This article shines fresh light on the debate with new empirical analyses of poverty (including child poverty), inequality and deprivation levels in the Pacific island state of Vanuatu. The study focuses not only on economic and monetary metrics and measures, but also the measures of deprivation derived from sociology in relation to shelter, sanitation, water, information, nutrition, health and education. Until recently, there had been few, if any, attempts to study poverty and deprivation disparities among children in this part of the world. Different measures yield strikingly different estimates of poverty. The article, therefore, attempts to situate the study findings in the broader international context of poverty measurement and discusses their implications for future research and the post-2015 development agenda.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 08-07-2014
DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-03-2013-0039
Abstract: – Our attitudes, values and tastes are shaped by our position in social space. At least, that was the argument Pierre Bourdieu set out in his seminal work, La Distinction . The purpose of this paper is to consider Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction and his argument that working-class families exhibit cultural attitudes and tastes for social necessity. – Attitudinal data relating to social necessity are taken from a national social survey of the British population. The results provide a rich source of data for exploring classed attitudes towards necessity in contemporary Britain. – Bourdieu's original claims for working-class “choice of the necessary” and working-class “taste for necessity” are based on his observations grounded in social survey evidence drawn from 1960s French society. Analysis of contemporary British social survey and attitudinal data also reveals sharp contours and differences in attitudes and tastes according to class fractions. These are evident in classed tastes and preferences for food, clothes, the home and social life. – Within the Bourdieusian theoretical framework, we understand that the tastes of necessity are preferences that arise as adaptations to deprivation of necessary goods and services. La Distinction and Bourdieu's approach to unmasking inequalities and structures in social space continue to be relevant in contemporary Britain. More generally, study findings add to the growing evidence that casts some doubt on current arguments concerning “in idualisation”, claiming that social class has ceased to be significant in modern societies. – This paper sheds fresh light on the empirical validity and continuing theoretical relevance of Bourdieu's work examining the role of social necessity in shaping working-class culture. Bourdieu argues that the real principle of our preferences is taste and for working-class families, this is a virtue made of necessity.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-04-2014
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12051_3
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 10-2004
Abstract: Research worldwide is establishing basic needs for personal health and well-being. Official acceptance of this consensual evidence into policy tends to be slow, partial and unsystematic, resulting in avoidable health deficits, waste of human potential and costs to society. Minimum personal costs of meeting these basic needs can be assessed, together with costs of the popular consensus on other requirements for healthy decent participatory living. UK policy could next aim to provide for these costs generally, including the social security and anti-poverty programmes that determine minimum living standards, and so life chances, of increasing millions of people.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 21-06-2016
DOI: 10.1017/S1474746416000233
Abstract: The notion of building welfare around work poses fresh challenges from a life-course perspective, where the situation of older workers has largely been neglected by policymakers committed to the ‘social investment perspective’ – typically constructed as a policy paradigm for ‘human capital’ development in children and young adults (Esping-Andersen, 2002). This article seeks to re-focus attention on the policy challenges relating to the needs of older workers within the new ‘inclusive growth’ agendas that seek to advance equitable opportunities for all. Social investment policies pose a range of issues and challenges for ageing populations that are discussed and examined in detail in this article. If social investment policy is to succeed in ageing OECD societies, it will mean broadening the investment perspective to include the (neglected) education and training needs of older workers to ensure that everyone can contribute to and share in economic prosperity.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-07-2013
Abstract: This article considers the path of social policy and democracy in Australia and the latest set of welfare reforms under Labor. The reforms can be seen to mark a reaction to the excesses of neoliberal government on the one hand, but they also represent continuity in neoliberal thought and policy on the other. As we shall see, engrained ideas about in idualist wage-earning welfare, that were established during the formative years of the 20th century, continue to shape, if not constrain collectivist solutions to some of the inherent social risks faced by Australian citizens today. In this light, efforts to create a welfare state geared towards meeting the needs of ‘hard-working’ Australian families appear much sharper.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-03-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2002
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12110
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 31-03-2017
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-10-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-10-2013
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12037
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-11-2010
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-06-2011
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-08-2015
DOI: 10.1111/SPOL.12156
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 12-07-2007
DOI: 10.1093/IJE/DYM129
Abstract: Worldwide biomedical and social research is providing evidence on the personal requirements for health and well-being. Assessment of the minimum personal costs entailed in meeting these requirements is important for the definition of 'poverty'. Barriers to health must arise if income is below this level. We demonstrate the principle of such assessment for people aged 65 years plus without significant disability living independently in England. Current best evidence on the needs for healthy living was derived for nutrition, physical activity, housing, psychosocial relations/social inclusion, getting about, medical care and hygiene. We used conclusions of expert reviews, published research and where necessary, our judgement. This knowledge was translated into presumptively acceptable ways of living for the specified population. Current corresponding minimal personal costs were assessed from familiar low cost retailers/suppliers or, where unavoidable, from national data on the expenditure of low-income older people. Minimum income requirements for healthy living, MIHL, for this population in England is 50% greater than the state pension. It is also appreciably greater than the official minimum income safety floor (after means testing), the Pension Credit Guarantee that will also have to meet any extra costs of disability. Objective evidence-based assessment of MIHL now is practicable but not presently as a basis of health and social policy in the UK or elsewhere apparently. Such assessment could also be an operational criterion of poverty and society's minimum income standards. The results suggest that inadequate income currently could be a barrier to healthy living for older people in England.
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 24-04-2007
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Start Date: 2016
End Date: 2016
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2018
End Date: 2023
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2012
End Date: 2015
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2011
End Date: 2011
Funder: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2009
End Date: 2010
Funder: UNICEF
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2012
End Date: 2012
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded Activity