Summary
Contents
Subject index
`I would encourage undergraduates students to read it, for it does summarise well a classical Marxist analysis of social policy and welfare' - Social Policy The anti-capitalist movement is increasingly challenging the global hegemony of neo-liberalism. The arguments against the neo-liberal agenda are clearly articulated in Rethinking Welfare. The authors highlight the growing inequalities and decimation of state welfare, and use Marxist approaches to contemporary social policy to provide a defence of the welfare state. Divided into three main sections, the first part of this volume looks at the growth of inequality, and social and environmental degradation. Part Two centres on the authors' argument for the relevance of core Marxists concepts in aiding our understanding of social policy. This section includes Marxist approaches to a range of welfare issues, and their implications for studying welfare regimes and practices. Issues covered include: · Class and class struggle · Opression · Alienation and the family The last part of the book explores the question of globalization and the consequences of international neo-liberalism on indebted countries as well as the neo-liberal agenda of the Conservative and New Labour governments in Britain. The authors conclude with the prospect of an alternative welfare future which may form part of the challenge against global neo-liberalism.
‘The Complexities of Social Differentiation’: Explaining Oppression
‘The Complexities of Social Differentiation’: Explaining Oppression
So far we have argued that class and class struggle are central to an understanding of the formation of welfare policy under capitalism. Class runs like a fault line through every aspect of daily existence, determining life chances in a wide variety of areas such as health, housing, education and occupation. That said, class is clearly not the only division within capitalism. Other divisions, such as gender, ‘race’, sexual orientation, disability and age also form a basis for discrimination and oppression.
Three examples demonstrate the continuing reality of such oppression. In respect of women's oppression, despite repeated claims over the years by the right-wing media on the one hand and ‘post-feminists’ on the ...
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