Rethinking Welfare

`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.

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