Since the global financial crisis in 2008, an ‘austerity consensus’ has emerged across many advanced capitalist economies (Farnsworth and Irving, 2012). Despite differing institutional settings, there has been a notable degree of convergence on fiscal consolidation (Farnsworth and Irving, 2012; Taylor-Gooby, 2012). Alongside this, political administrations have repeatedly claimed that welfare profligacy and dependency are key causes of public sector debt and economic stagnation. On this basis, political leaders have cultivated a policy mandate to re-configure working-age welfare and constrain public social expenditure in this domain. Taken together, these reforms represent a ‘new, more constrained and qualitatively different deal for citizens’ (Dwyer and Wright, 2014: 33). The central objective of this themed section is to explore the impact of these developments and their significance for the shifting character and operation of social citizenship in countries pursuing a similar strategy of ‘welfare austerity’ (MacLeavy, 2011: 360).

Drawing on current debates in social policy, this paper considers the extent to which social justice has and is informing social policy making in devolved Scotland. Relating to the work of social justice theorists Young, Fraser and Lister in particular, it critically examines some key Scottish social policy measures since 1999, considering some of the ways in which these have been constructed in terms of social justice and which make claims to the Scottish national. Through a focus on the issue of anti-poverty policies, the paper explores the ways in which the dominant policy approaches of the Scottish Government have reflected an uneven and tension-loaded balance between the enduring legacies of Scottish social democracy and the influences of neoliberal economics.

The analysis of EU level social and gender policies highlights uneven developments and concerns over the EU as not (always) beneficial to social progress and gender equality. The EU, although primarily market driven, has developed a range of social policies, with gender equality enjoying a long-standing status as EU's founding value, dating back to the 1957 principle of equal pay for equal work. Yet, sixty years later, social justice objectives and equality between women and men remain to be realised. Social and gender themes have been revived by the proposal to develop the European Pillar of Social Rights, the shaping and implementing of which post-Brexit UK will not take part in. This initiative entails some meaningful developments for social and gender progress. However, its current form and content represents an adjustment to, rather than a transformation of, the unequal European economy and society.

The concept of evidence-based policy and practice has many origins but its relation to the growth of the social sciences is arguably the most important. The uses of the social sciences for both understanding and transforming social policies and political systems has come to be assumed – complex and problematic though these may be. The concept is also closely linked with the concepts of globalisation, technological developments, and the ‘knowledge economy’. Thus the notions of ‘evidence’ and social science research have often been elided with political movements for social and economic change. In other contexts, these notions have been contextualised, so that ‘evidence’ and research are not deemed to be the same. Indeed, it is possible to argue that the notion of legal ‘evidence’ illustrates just how ideological it can be, how it can be used to marshal particular arguments and sustain a specific case rather than present it in a dispassionate manner.

There has been considerable attention on Brazil’s experience in applying the right to the city, influencing the urban reform movement and subsequent legislation including the 1988 Constitution and the 2001 Statute of the City. While much is known about Brazil’s urban transformations, this article views this trajectory within debates on social citizenship, expanding the focus to show that property is integral to this debate. Through the lens of social citizenship, property rights and insurgency, this article traces Brazil’s right to the city debate through a focus on three issues: (1) the rights dimension of such debates; (2) the role of the social function of property in urban legislation; and (3) the role of insurgent planning evident in urban social movements. While property rights and land rights are often distanced from debates on social citizenship, the Brazil case provides evidence in which the two are clearly intertwined.

This paper addresses the question of how families are changing in the context of transformed policies on divorce in England and Wales. However, rather than painting a picture of change through the use of statistical data, the argument will be based on qualitative data which focuses on the interiority of family and kin relationships and on the principles and reasonings that individuals give for their actions. This provides more of a ground-up perspective on social change, and prioritises the actions of parents, grandparents and children rather than focusing on the consequences of policies. It is argued that we need to recognise that the changing nature of family life pushes people to negotiate new moral codes or principles, and that this in turn is generating new ways of ‘doing’ post-divorce family life.

This article aims to open up debate on the policy implications of ageing sexualities. The article begins by discussing the heteronormative perspective that frames current discourse on older people's needs and citizenship. It then presents data from an empirical study to highlight the concerns that older lesbians and gay men have about housing, health and social service provision, work and job security, and relationship recognition. The article illustrates how the heterosexual assumption that informs policy making can limit the development of effective strategies for supporting older lesbians and gay men; and raises broader questions about policy making, social inclusion and citizenship.

Discussion of welfare regimes and welfare state ideal types continues to dominate comparative social policy analysis, but the focus of the debate has expanded considerably since the publication of Esping-Andersen's (1990) groundbreaking The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Shifts in this debate have been prompted by a mixture of theoretical and empirical concerns raised by comparative social policy scholars, but they have also resulted from a more general internationalisation of social policy research agendas within the academy too. In particular, there has been a strong desire to expand the scope of the debate to encompass nations and regions not included in Esping-Andersen's initial study of just eighteen high income OECD states.

The UK's national population structure, in line with most Western societies, is ageing rapidly. The combination of falling fertility and increasing longevity is having an impact on family structures and resultant relationships, with the emergence of long vertical multi-generational families replacing the former laterally extended family forms. This is occurring at a time when UK government policy is placing increasing reliance on families to provide health and social care and support for the growing number of frail older people. While there has been extensive research on family care within the majority white population, there is less understanding of the elder family care provision for the UK's growing older ethnic population. This paper discusses the changing demographics, new government policy on promoting independent living and its implications for family care provision, and reviews our current understanding of family care and support for older people within the UK’s varied ethnic minority families.

Physical, sexual, verbal and economic abuse, also known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), comprise a major public health problem. IPV risk factors include poverty, stress, substance use, depression, and history of child maltreatment. Protective factors include human capital (functional health and work competencies/qualifications), social capital (formal/informal relationships and resources) and financial capital (income and assets). Traditional IPV initiatives focus on increasing social capital by changing the cognition and/or behaviour of victims or perpetrators and increasing legal sanctions and supportive resources. The proposed Asset Model of IPV Resolution extends the current model to include an ecological approach to the prevention and resolution of IPV. In addition to human and social capital development, the authors suggest financial capital development through Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) as one social policy initiative to support women at risk of or women who experience IPV.

Northern Ireland has witnessed significant political progress with devolution and a power sharing Executive in place since May 2007. These political achievements, however, conceal a highly polarised society characterised by sectarianism and community divisions, the legacy of a protracted conflict. This paper is located in the theoretical discourse between consociationalists who argue that antithetical identities cannot be integrated and advocates of social transformation who support greater cross-community peace-building initiatives through the involvement of civil society. This theoretical debate is taking place in a policy vacuum. The Northern Ireland Executive has abandoned its commitment to the previous (direct rule) administration's A Shared Future policy and is now considering alternatives broadly described as community cohesion, sharing and integration. Using a case study of a Protestant/Catholic interface community, this paper offers empirical evidence of the effectiveness of one social transformation initiative involving community groups in a highly segregated area of West Belfast.

Housing is a platform of wealth accumulation in many home-owning societies. Ownership of assets often contributes to help people build social capital, influence their social participation and helps them access increasingly privatised goods and services. Such ‘asset-based welfare’ has been fashionable in Western academic circles, considering the ways in which housing could become a real or potential welfare resource. It may not, however, be such a novel idea from an East Asian perspective since the promotion of home ownership has always been embedded in the wider context of welfare provision in many parts of the region. Despite the argument that an increasing level of home ownership could potentially compensate for the erosion of family support, the sustainability of a home-ownership-based welfare approach has been questioned. At the forefront of ‘post-growth’ societies with societal ageing, recession, housing price volatility and neoliberal policy reforms, using Japan as a case study, this article examines the reasons and conditions behind the lack of success in commonly identified strategies of asset-based welfare in a regional context. The policy-driven market failures which supersede the cultural obstacles require re-examination.

This paper explores the role of conditionality in policies targeting the poor. By requiring beneficiaries to send their children to school and to undertake regular health visits, proponents argue, conditionalities improve human capital outcomes, promoting resilience. This widespread perception has led to the adoption of conditional cash transfers in many countries. Yet policy debate on conditionality does not always reflect a full appreciation of how behavioural, administrative and political economy variables influence outcomes. This paper identifies the multiple channels through which conditionality determines human capital outcomes and reviews the evidence on linkages between conditionality and processes of resilience.

J. Le Grand (2003), Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

R. Lister (2004), Poverty, Polity Books, Cambridge.

L. Mead (2004), Government Matters: Welfare Reform in Wisconsin, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford.

The food bank has become a charitable safety-net for those who have been failed by the social security system in times of austerity and during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article we evidence the rise of food banking in the context of declining social security, examining the decade of austerity in the UK and the Covid-19 period. We also contextualise the process of normalisation of food banks as a new safety-net in a reduced welfare state. We argue that the welfare state has failed to address a fundamental ‘Want’ – namely, food security.

Debates about the ban on smoking in public places have centred on the right to self-determination and privacy versus the right to health. This paper addresses the issue of smoking in relation to mental health and focuses on the right to dignity and respect. The public health agenda on smoking has involved the mobilisation of stigma to persuade people to give up. The paper argues that this strategy risks adding to the stigma and process of ‘othering’ that many mental health service users already experience and is also likely to be ineffective in reducing smoking rates, particularly among heavy smokers.

Social workers all around the world work with families and family complexity in their everyday practice. In this article, we present findings from a cross-national study exploring how social workers in child welfare conceptualise ‘family’, and how they relate to ‘family’ in their practice. Data presented is taken from focus groups with twenty-eight social workers from Chile, Mexico and Norway. The findings reveal that in Chilean, Mexican, and Norwegian social work, the conceptualisation of family has expanded over time, acknowledging various family forms and displays, and an increased orientation towards networks regardless of biological ties. However, differences were found, particularly in the way professionals view extended family, perspectives on family intervention, and the position of children in the family. Practical implications will be discussed.

Based on qualitative research completed in the United States on pathways into and out of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), this article focuses on themes of harm, resilience and survival-focused coping by prostituted teens and makes recommendations for policy and practice. The research on which it is based takes a life-course perspective on pathways into and out of CSEC. Analyses of the narratives of homeless, runaway and sexually victimised (prostituted and trafficked) teens suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding of both harm and survival that has important implications for practice and policy communities responding to human trafficking within and across borders.

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?

‘Parent abuse’ is the most under-researched form of family abuse and the research that exists is characterised by diverse and discrete methodological approaches which have produced somewhat inconsistent findings. This critical review examines these different research approaches and discusses the methodological challenges which they present. The review concludes by suggesting how research might develop to produce a more coherent and contextual methodology which does justice to the complexities of the topic.