Addressing the Social Determinants of Subjective Wellbeing: The Latest Challenge for Social Policy?

The idea that the happiness and wellbeing of individuals 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

Guy Standing (2011), The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class

The historic trade-off between 'capital' and 'labour' in the industrialised world was, arguably, the 'welfare state'. The emphasis of social policy throughout much of the twentieth century was placed on the protection of working-class families within the capitalist state. Ongoing structural changes in society, a result of Global Transformation, continue to facilitate the mobilisation of wage-earners for collective action (Standing, 2009 ). However, it is no longer the old 'working class' (which has been in decline) that poses the real threat to society, but the growing 'precariat' according to Guy Standing in his latest work

<i>Policy Targets and Ethical Tensions: UK Nurse Recruitment</i>

Abstract In July 2000 Britain's New Labour government set a target of 20,000 extra nurses for the NHS by 2004. In February 2002, two years ahead of schedule, the target was achieved. The government is to be congratulated on meeting its target but ethical questions over recruitment practices remain. Nurse registrations to the UK from the (then) fifteen EU countries remain flat despite government guidance making this the first priority for international recruitment. Registrations from developing countries with nursing shortages continue despite repeated guidance discouraging this. The government appears to have been caught in a policy bind. On the one hand it needed to be seen to be acting to prevent “poaching” while waiting for fresh intakes of trainees to come through; on the other, if it had succeeded it would have struggled to meet a key policy pledge and certainly not ahead of schedule. New Labour's stated commitment to an ethical foreign policy seems more apparent than real. The paper reports a clear dissonance between the thrust of national policy on nurse recruitment and current employment practices within the UK

The lost and the new 'liberal world' of welfare capitalism : a critical assessment of Gøsta Esping-Andersen's the three worlds of welfare capitalism a quarter century later

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

Measurement of brood patch temperature of British passerines using an infrared thermometer

Capsule An infrared ear thermometer can be easily used to measure brood patch temperature in passerines caught on the nest or in mist-nets

Foundations of the workfare state : reflections on the political transformation of the welfare state in Britain

The British ‘welfare state’ has been transformed. ‘Welfare’ has been replaced by a new ‘workfare’ regime (the ‘Work Programme’) defined by tougher state regulatory practices for those receiving out-of-work benefits. US-style mandatory community work programmes are being revived and expanded. This article, therefore, considers shifting public attitudes to work and welfare in Britain and changing attitudes to working-age welfare and out-of-work benefits in particular. It also considers the extent to which recent transformations of the state may be explained by declines in traditional labourist politics and class-based solidarity. Thus, we attempt to develop a richer understanding of changing public attitudes towards welfare and the punitive regulatory ‘workfare’ practices engaged by the modern state in the liberal market economy; reflecting on the nature of the relations between ideology, party policies, popular attitudes and their political impact

Use and misuse of evaluation in social policy

A basic question within the social sciences, which is rarely addressed directly or well, is to ask whether the ends of social welfare can ever justify their means. This chapter sheds new light on this issue by examining the relationship between evidence and evaluation in social policy in both the Global North and Global South, as policy-makers 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 re-evaluation of the very notion of active social policy and society beyond the behavioural policy paradigm. Here we are particularly concerned with the ends and means of the coercive, regulatory policy instruments seeking to control behaviour and the active ethical issues arising from their ‘use’ – and ‘misuse’

Rethinking social policy and society

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

Classed attitudes and social reform in cross-national perspective : a quantitative analysis using four waves from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)

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 multivariate regression analysis, this article sheds new light on the determinants of Australian attitudes towards the welfare state. It examines their variations across time and compares them with 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 divided. 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

R. Wilkinson and K. Pickett 2010, The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London: Penguin. £9.99, pp. 347, pbk

Over half a century ago, social policy research clearly demonstrated the problem of poverty in an unequal society, a problem that has never really gone away (Titmuss, 1938). More recently, one particular book has done much to champion the cause for greater equality. In so doing, it has reignited old debates about poverty and inequality in new and important ways. That book is of course The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett – a book that has made a rare transfer from the academic world into the public domain, selling over 200,000 copies and with translations in more than twenty languages. The Spirit Level (currently) has over 2,000 citations on Google scholar and Richard’s TED talk has over 1.6 million viewings, making the importance of this work beyond question. In fact, The Spirit Level is probably the most influential book in social policy published in the last decade