The Routledge Handbook Of Social Care Work Around The World

The Routledge Handbook of Social Care Work Around the World provides both a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of the current research in this subject. It is the first handbook to cover social care work research from around the world, including both low- and middle-income countries as well as high income countries. Each of the 22 chapters are written by experts on long-term care services, particularly for older people and cover key issues and debates, based on research evidence, on social care work in a specific country. They look at perspectives of social care work from the macro level: the structural conditions for long-term care, including demographic challenges and the long-term care policy, the meso level: the level of provider organizations and intermediaries, and the micro level: views of care workers, care users, and unpaid informal carers. Furthermore, they discuss a number of topics central to discussions of care work including marketization, personalization policies, policy implementation under austerity, the provision of social care work whether through public services, or private arrangements, or mixed types, funding, the feminization of social care and the new role that technology, and robots can play in care work. By drawing together leading scholars from around the world, this book provides an up to the minute snapshot of current scholarship as well as signposting several fruitful avenues for future research. This book is both an invaluable resource for scholars and an indispensable teaching tool for use in the classroom and will be of interest to students, academics, social workers, social policy-makers and human service professionals.

The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Theory provides an interdisciplinary and international introduction to social work theory. It presents an analytical review of the wide array of theoretical ideas that influence social work on a global scale. It sets the agenda for future trends within social work theory. Separated into four parts, this handbook examines important themes within the discourses on social work theory, as well as offering a critical evaluation of how theoretical ideas influence social work as a profession and in practice. It includes a diverse range of interdisciplinary topics, covering the aims and nature of social work, social work values and ethics, social work practice theories and the use of theory in different fields of practice. The contributors show how and why theory is so important to social work and analyze the impact these concepts have made on social intervention. Bringing together an international team of leading academics within the social work field and newer contributors close to practice, this handbook is essential reading for all those studying social work, as well as practitioners, policymakers and those involved in the associated fields of health and social care.

This is the comprehensively-revised second edition of a volume that was welcomed at its first appearance as 'the most authoritative survey and critique of the welfare state yet published'. Its fifty-one chapters have been written by acknowledged experts in the field from across Europe, Australia, and North America. Some chapters are brand new; all have been systematically revised, and they are right up to date. The first seven sections of the book cover the themes of Ethics, History, Approaches, Inputs and Actors, Policies, Policy Outcomes, and Worlds of Welfare. A final chapter is devoted to the future of welfare and well-being under the imperatives of climate change. Every chapter is written in a way that is both comprehensive and succinct, introducing the novice reader to the essentials of what is going on while providing new insights for the more experienced researcher. Wherever appropriate, the handbook brings the very latest empirical evidence to bear. It is a book that is thoroughly comparative in every way. The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, second edition, is a comprehensible and comprehensive survey of everything that it is important to know about the welfare state in these troubled times. It is an indispensable source for everyone who wants to know what is really going on now, and what is likely to happen next.

The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Practice Research is the first international handbook to focus on practice research for social work. Bringing together leading scholars in the field from Europe, the USA and the Asia Pacific region, it provides an up-to-the minute overview of the latest thinking in practice research whilst also providing practical advice on how to undertake practice research in the field. It is divided into five sections: State of the art Methodologies Pedagogies Applications Expanding the frontiers The range of topics discussed will enhance student development as well as increase the capacity of practitioners to conduct research; develop coordinating and leadership roles; and liaise with multiple stakeholders who will strengthen the context base for practice research. As such, this handbook will be essential reading for all social work students, practitioners and academics as well as those working in other health and social care settings.

Published ten years after the first edition, this new Handbook offers topical, and comprehensive information on the welfare systems of all 28 EU member states and their recent reforms, giving the reader an invaluable introduction and basis for comparative welfare research. Additional chapters provide detailed information on EU social policy, as well as comparative analyses of European welfare systems and their reform pathways. For this second edition, all chapters have been updated and substantially revised, and Croatia additionally included. The second edition of this Handbook is most timely, given the often-fundamental welfare state transformations against the background of the financial and economic crises, transforming social policy ideas, as well as political shifts in a number of European countries. The book sets out to analyse these new developments when it comes to social policy. In the first part, all country chapters provide systematic and comparable information on the foundations of the different national welfare systems and their characteristics. In the second part, using a joint conceptual foundation, they focus on policy changes (especially of the last two decades) in different social policy areas, including old-age, labour market, family, healthcare, and social assistance policies. As the comparative chapters conclude, European welfare system landscapes have been in constant motion in the last two decades. While austerity is not to be seen on the aggregate level, the in-depth country studies show that all policy sectors have been characterised by different reform directions and ideas. The findings not only reveal both change and continuity, but also policy reversal as a distinct type that characterises social policy reform. The book provides a rich resource to the international welfare state research community, and is also useful for social policy teaching.

This Handbook provides a thorough discussion of the most recent wave of technological (and organisational) innovations, frequently called “smart” and based on the digitisation of information. The acronym stands for "Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology". This new wave is one in a row of waves that have shaken up and transformed the economy, society and culture since the first Industrial Revolution and have left a huge impact on how we live, think, communicate and work: they have deeply affected the socioeconomic metabolism from within and humankind’s footprint on our planet. The Handbook analyses the origins of the current wave, its roots in earlier ones and its path-dependent nature; its current forms and actual manifestations; its multifarious impact on economy and society; and it puts forward some guesstimates regarding the probable directions of its further development. In short, the Handbook studies the past, the present and the future of smart technologies and digitalisation. This cutting-edge reference will appeal to a broad audience, including but not limited to, researchers from various disciplines with a focus on technological innovation and their impact on the socioeconomic system; students across different fields but especially from economics, social sciences and law studying questions related to radical technological change and its consequences, as well as professionals around the globe interested in the debate of smart technologies and socioeconomic transformation, from a multi- and interdisciplinary perspective.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. This thoroughly original book provides a comprehensive overview of the development of welfare arrangements and their wider context in Western Europe. Using the concept of social modernity, Ingo Bode investigates current challenges to these arrangements and examines prospects for progressive welfare reform.

The Routledge Social Science Handbook of AI is a landmark volume providing students and teachers with a comprehensive and accessible guide to the major topics and trends of research in the social sciences of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as surveying how the digital revolution – from supercomputers and social media to advanced automation and robotics – is transforming society, culture, politics and economy. The Handbook provides representative coverage of the full range of social science engagements with the AI revolution, from employment and jobs to education and new digital skills to automated technologies of military warfare and the future of ethics. The reference work is introduced by editor Anthony Elliott, who addresses the question of relationship of social sciences to artificial intelligence, and who surveys various convergences and divergences between contemporary social theory and the digital revolution. The Handbook is exceptionally wide-ranging in span, covering topics all the way from AI technologies in everyday life to single-purpose robots throughout home and work life, and from the mainstreaming of human-machine interfaces to the latest advances in AI, such as the ability to mimic (and improve on) many aspects of human brain function. A unique integration of social science on the one hand and new technologies of artificial intelligence on the other, this Handbook offers readers new ways of understanding the rise of AI and its associated global transformations. Written in a clear and direct style, the Handbook will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience.