The Cup The Gun And The Crescent

This edited collection explores contemporary developments in social and welfare policy in Islamic countries from an indigenous and academic perspective, rather than through the hegemonic lens of Western social policy frameworks. The importance of this book lies in the diversity of insights and case studies drawn from a wide range of societies in the Islamic world, demonstrating how local services are responding to changing needs under the impact of globalisation, socio-religio-political developments, and often significant levels of civil conflict. This is the thrid in the new series 'Critical Studies in Socio-cultural Diversity'.

Social services have typically addressed equality and diversity issues through the lens of race and ethnicity, while the faith identities of minority ethnic communities have been largely bypassed. But in our contemporary world, there is a strong need for policies and services that are sensitive to faith in general and to Islam in particular. This unique book enables social work practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of how Islamic principles inform and influence the lives of Muslim populations. Designed to support work with families and faith communities, it examines religious precepts, cosmologies, philosophies, and daily practices, while acknowledging cultural variants and population heterogeneity. The second edition includes a comprehensive update of the research literature; detailed description and explanation of contemporary social work practice with Muslim service users, using an updated and expanded collection of international case studies; and new sections on religious extremism, aging, and end-of-life care. The only book specifically addressing social work with Muslim communities, Islam and Social Work provides an essential toolkit for culturally sensitive social work practice.

Why have social spending levels and social policy trajectories diverged so drastically across labour-abundant Middle Eastern and North African regimes? And how can we explain the marked persistence of spending levels after divergence? Using historical institutionalism and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods Social Dictatorships: The Political Economy of the Welfare State in the Middle East and North Africa develops an explanation of social spending in authoritarian regimes. It emphasizes the importance of early elite conflict and attempts to form a durable support coalition under the constraints imposed by external threats and scarce resources. Social Dictatorships utilizes two in-depth case studies of the political origins of the Tunisian and Egyptian welfare state to provide an empirical overview of how social policies have developed in the region, and to explain the marked differences in social policy trajectories. It follows a multi-level approach tested comparatively at the cross-country level and process-traced at micro-level by these case studies.

For decades, political observers and pundits have characterized the Islamic Republic of Iran as an ideologically rigid state on the verge of collapse, exclusively connected to a narrow social base. In A Social Revolution, Kevan Harris convincingly demonstrates how they are wrong. Previous studies ignore the forceful consequences of three decades of social change following the 1979 revolution. Today, more people in the country are connected to welfare and social policy institutions than to any other form of state organization. In fact, much of Iran’s current political turbulence is the result of the success of these social welfare programs, which have created newly educated and mobilized social classes advocating for change. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Iran, Harris shows how the revolutionary regime endured through the expansion of health, education, and aid programs that have both embedded the state in everyday life and empowered its challengers. This focus on the social policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran opens a new line of inquiry into the study of welfare states in countries where they are often overlooked or ignored.

A data-driven explanation of when successful religious parties reduce the civil liberties of their citizens in Muslim-majority countries and when they don't. Religious parties are increasingly common across the world. More and more, they participate in elections, win legislative seats, and join governments, particularly in Muslim-majority countries. Since they are often founded on orthodox principles that are inconsistent with liberal democracy, their rise potentially holds consequences for the prospects of liberal democratic values and practices-and this risk has inspired much heated debate. In Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties, the award-winning political science scholar Vineeta Yadav considers a question that has been central to the discussion: Will the success of religious parties lead to declines in the civil liberties of their citizens? Yadav summarizes the popular and academic sides of the conversation and addresses the weaknesses of both by presenting an original empirical analysis of religious parties' actual relationship to civil liberties. Many believe that if religious parties come to power, they will curb civil liberties in order to realize their religious visions. Academic research on religious parties, however, claims that the need to compete in elections incentivizes religious parties to moderate their behaviors and policies, including on civil liberties. Neither of these assertions has been systematically tested until now. With this book, Yadav adjudicates the debate using systematic data that covers all Muslim-majority countries for a period of almost forty years. She highlights the role that religious lobbies play in this issue and goes on to identify the specific conditions under which religious parties do or don't curb civil liberties. A sweeping comparative account that combines large-N analysis with focused studies of Turkey and Pakistan, this book will reshape our understanding of the relationship between religious party strength and the preservation of civil liberties.

This handbook addresses the issues and challenges of the delivery of social work education in the contemporary world. It provides an authoritative overview of the key debates, switching the lens away from a Western-centric focus to engage with a much broader audience in countries that are in the process of modernization and professionalization, alongside those where social work education is more developed. Chapters tackle major challenges with respect to curriculum, teaching, practice, and training in light of globalization, providing a thorough examination of the practice of social work in diverse contexts. This handbook presents a contribution to the process of knowledge exchange which is essential to global social work education. It brings together professional knowledge and lived experience, both universal and local, and aims to be an essential reference for social work educators, researchers, and students.

This international volume provides a comprehensive account of contemporary research, new perspectives and cutting-edge issues surrounding religion and spirituality in social work. The introduction introduces key themes and conceptual issues such as understandings of religion and spirituality as well as definitions of social work, which can vary between countries. The main body of the book is divided up into sections on regional perspectives; religious and spiritual traditions; faith-based service provision; religion and spirituality across the lifespan; and social work practice. The final chapter identifies key challenges and opportunities for developing both social work scholarship and practice in this area. Including a wide range of international perspectives from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and the USA, this Handbook succeeds in extending the dominant paradigms and comprises a mix of authors including major names, significant contributors and emerging scholars in the field, as well as leading contributors in other fields of social work who have an interest in religion and spirituality. The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Spirituality and Social Work is an authoritative and comprehensive reference for academics and researchers as well as for organisations and practitioners committed to exploring why, and how, religion and spirituality should be integral to social work practice.

This volume draws on a trove of unpublished original material from the pre-1940s to the present to offer a unique historiographic study of twentieth-century Methodist missionary work and women’s active expression of faith, practised at the critical confluence of historical and global changes. The study focuses on two English Methodist missionary nursing Sisters and siblings, Audrey and Muriel Chalkely, whose words and experiences are captured in detail, foregrounding tumultuous socio-political changes of the end of Empire and post-Independence in twentieth century Kenya and South India. The work presents a timely revision to prevailing postcolonial critiques in placing the fundamental importance of human relationships centre stage. Offering a detailed (auto)biographical and reflective narrative, this ‘herstory’ pivots on three main thematic strands relating to people, place and passion, where socio-cultural details are vividly explored. The book will appeal to a wide range of readers, both the interested public and the academic alike, where a lively, entertaining, literary style introduces readers to the politics of women’s lives, and principle and professional service foreground ethno-class-caste oppression, emancipation, conflict, commitments and religious tensions. It reveals the human, vulnerable qualities of these women, illuminating their stories and courageous choices.