Developing The Equality Measurement Framework

When New Labour came to power in 1997, its leaders asked for it to be judged after ten years on its success in making Britain 'a more equal society'. As it approaches the end of an unprecedented third term in office, this book asks whether Britain has indeed moved in that direction. The highly successful earlier volume A more equal society? was described by Polly Toynbee as the LSE's mighty judgement on inequality. Now this second volume by the same team of authors provides an independent assessment of the success or otherwise of New Labour's policies over a longer period. It provides: · consideration by a range of expert authors of a broad set of indicators and policy areas affecting poverty, inequality and social exclusion; · analysis of developments up to the third term on areas including income inequality, education, employment, health inequalities, neighbourhoods, minority ethnic groups, children and older people; · an assessment of outcomes a decade on, asking whether policies stood up to the challenges, and whether successful strategies have been sustained or have run out of steam; chapters on migration, social attitudes, the devolved administrations, the new Equality and Human Rights Commission, and future pressures. The book is essential reading for academic and student audiences with an interest in contemporary social policy, as well as for all those seeking an objective account of Labour's achievements in power.

This is an important and timely text that provides a unique overview of contemporary quantitative approaches to gender research. The contributors are internationally recognised researchers from the UK, USA and Sweden who occupy a range of disciplinary locations, including historical demography, sociology and policy studies. Their research includes explorations of heterosexual and same sex violence, media responses to feminist research, data sources for the study of equalities, approaches for analysing global and local demographic change and intersectional concerns in respect of work and employment. Through detailed, sophisticated and thoughtful considerations of the place of quantification within gender studies, and the place of feminist approaches to quantification, each contributor overturns the stereotype that quantitative research is antithetical to feminism by demonstrating its importance for challenging continuing global inequalities associated with gendered outcomes. An introductory chapter illustrates the significance of geography and discipline in the take-up of methodological preferences. Feminism Counts: Quantitative Methods and Researching Gender makes an important contribution to the ways in which feminists respond to contemporary methodological and interdisciplinary challenges, and is essential reading for all research students in gender studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology.

Among several contesting views about the purpose of development and how progress should be evaluated, human rights and capabilities (or human development) stand out as two approaches that are concerned first and foremost with the well-being of individuals, their freedom, dignity and empowerment. These two approaches contrast sharply with the dominant development frameworks that emphasize economic growth as the essential objective. Though human rights and capabilities share these common commitment to human priorities, they are distinct concepts and fields that have developed separately. The aim of this volume is to explore the relationship between them in order to enhance the understanding of both as theoretical paradigms, as public policy frameworks and as approaches to development. The book includes contributions from some of the leading scholars in the two fields of capabilities approach and human rights. It covers the essential aspects of this relationship: addressing the complementarities between human rights and capabilities as theoretical concepts; how the concept of capabilities can contribute to resolving some key theoretical issues in human rights; how the social science analysis and methods of the capabilities approach can clarify human rights concepts and strengthen human rights advocacy; and how human rights norms can strengthen public policy and mobilize collective action to demand greater accountability in placing human priorities first in public policy. Human Rights and the Capabilities Approach raises many questions for further inter-disciplinary conversation and further research. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, and has been expanded with two additional articles from this journal and a new foreword by Professor Amartya Sen.

Key Themes in Social Policy provides an accessible and authoritative introduction to the key concepts used in social policy, from autonomy to wellbeing. With over 100 ideas discussed, this is a comprehensive student guide and is designed to help readers to gain a deeper understanding of major debates and issues. Each entry: explains the origin of the word discusses its relationship to the social sciences describes its relevance to social policy and how widespread its use is outlines some of the key thinkers and research on the topic and gives suggestions for further reading. Making it easy to understand and use the most important ideas in the area, this is an essential companion for all students taking social policy courses.

The Handbook of Local and Regional Development provides a comprehensive statement and reference point for local and regional development. The scope of this Handbook’s coverage and contributions engages with and reflects upon the politics and policy of how we think about and practise local and regional development, encouraging dialogue across the disciplinary barriers between notions of ‘local and regional development’ in the Global North and ‘development studies’ in the Global South. This Handbook is organized into seven inter-related sections, with an introductory chapter setting out the rationale, aims and structure of the Handbook. Section one situates local and regional development in its global context. Section two establishes the key issues in understanding the principles and values that help us define what is meant by local and regional development. Section three critically reviews the current diversity and variety of conceptual and theoretical approaches to local and regional development. Section four address questions of government and governance. Section five connects critically with the array of contemporary approaches to local and regional development policy. Section six is an explicitly global review of perspectives on local and regional development from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. Section seven provides reflection and discussion of the futures for local and regional development in an international and multidisciplinary context. With over forty contributions from leading international scholars in the field, this Handbook provides critical reviews and appraisals of current state-of-the-art conceptual and theoretical approaches and future developments in local and regional development.

This book situates the complexity of violence within its broader context and covers a wide span of sexual violence including sexual harassment, bullying and murder as well as domestic violence.

​The outcome of the first Italian National Conference on Quality of Life, this volume is full of cogent analysis of topics and issues related to well being and quality of life, including focused papers on specific population groupings and discrete themes. Held in Florence in September 2010, the conference saw the creation of the Italian Association of Quality of Life Studies, devised as a forum for this varied field of research with a rapidly expanding profile in the context of the continuing financial crisis. The papers address a number of recognized quality-of-life concerns, including public health, wealth distribution, employment, political participation and the perception of crime. Contributors deploy innovative methods of analyzing official statistics that result in more complex and multidimensional indicators. Some papers provide data on other European nations that allow for comparative assessment, while others set out fresh approaches to evaluating quality of life itself. Highly relevant not just to academics, but to policy makers and practitioners in a range of sectors, this publication explores important aspects of a crucial contemporary subject.