Rethinking Welfare

Introduction PART ONE: THE RELEVANCE OF MARX `Was he right all along?' Classical Marxism and Social Policy `Incentives and Punishments' Capitalism and Welfare PART TWO: MARXISM AND WELFARE `We are all Classless Nowadays' The Class Structure Today `A Deplorable Concession to the Shade of Karl Marx' Class as Agency `People have Become Objects' The Roots of Alienation `The Complexities of Social Differentiation' Explaining Oppression `The Bedrock of a Decent, Civilised and Stable Society' Capitalism and the Family PART THREE: THE NEO-LIBERAL ASSALT `Apocalypse Now' Globalization, Welfare and the State `A System Designed not for Yesterday, but for Today' New Labour and Welfare `...Waiting for Something Else' Welfare Futures

`I would encourage undergraduates students to read it, for it does summarise well a classical Marxist analysis of social policy and welfare' - Social Policy "Rethinking Welfare provides researchers and practitioners a compelling reminder of the largely structural and material forces that shape our welfare states. Rethinking Welfare provides a thoughtful and emerging resistance to the identity politics and vulgar social constructionism that has pervaded the academic world and also taken hold in many professional social work schools. The book provides a convincing caveat to the alleged success stories of free markets, structural adjustments and globalization." -- JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL WELFARE