Understanding The Environment And Social Policy

"Tony Fitzpatrick has assembled a very thoughtful collection of chapters which examine the various ways in which social and environmental concerns intersect with one another. At a very general level, sustainability offers a neat and tidy way to reconcile them. But as this book, sustainability offers neat and tidy way to reconcile them. But as this book usefully revels, in practice they interact in ways that are far from straightforward. "Professor Andrew Jordan, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia "The intersection of social policy and environmental policy is strategically and morally vital yet has remained a strangely neglected area. No longer. This comprehensive book covers real world challenges, sustainable ethics, a host of applied policy issues, and some bigger questions about the possibility of a green welfare state." Ian Gough, Emeritus Professor, University of Bath Environmental issues are central to the social and political reforms of the 21st century. Bringing together leading experts, this textbook explorers the social, political, economic and moral challenges that environmental problems pose for social policy in a global context. Combining theory and practice with an interdisciplinary approach, the book reviews the current strategies and provides a critique of proposed future developments. Understanding the environment and social policy guides the reader through the subject in an accessible way using chapter summaries, further reading, recommended websites, a glossary and questions for discussion. Providing a much-needed overview of environmentalism and social policy, the book will be invaluable reading for students, teachers, activits, practitioners and policy markers.

This book demonstrates how environmental concerns are becoming increasingly central to social policy and discusses the roles of central and local government in realtion to environmental issues.

​ ​This book argues that social and environmental policy should be synthetically treated as one and the same field, that both are but two aspects of the same coin – if sustainability is the goal. Such a paradigm shift is indicated, important, and timely to effectively move towards sustainability. This book is the first to take this approach and to give examples for it. Not to synthetically merge the two fields has been and will continue to be highly insufficient, inefficient and contradictory for policy and public administration aiming for a transformation towards a sustainable world. In general, social problems are dealt with in one “policy corner” and environmental problems in another. Rarely is social policy (at large) concerned with its impact on the environment or its connection with and relevance to environmental policy. Equally, environmental problems are generally not seen in conjunction with social policy, even though much environmental policy directly relates to health, nutrition, migration and other issues addressed by social policy. This book intends to correct the pattern to separate these very significant and large policy fields. Using examples from diverse academic and applied fields, it is shown how environmental policy can (and should) be thought of as social policy – and how social policy can (and should) simultaneously be seen as environmental policy. Tremendous benefits are to be expected.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

Environmental change is central to the global social policy challenges of the twenty-first century. This comprehensive Handbook brings together leading experts from around the world to address the most important questions and issues we face. How should

Building on the successes of Understanding Global Social Policy (Yeates ed. 2008) and its companion text, the Global Social Policy Reader (Yeates and Holden ed. 2009), the second edition of this leading textbook in social policy identifies and reviews the key issues, debates and priorities for action in global social policy as a field of academic study and research and as a field of political practice and action. All first edition chapters have been systematically revised and updated to reflect major developments in the fast-paced area of global social policy making over the past five years, and include new material on the Millennium Development Goals, the Social Protection Floor and the ‘greening’ of global social policy. This much-needed second edition includes new chapters on global poverty and inequality, social protection, criminal justice and education. Written by an international team of leading social policy analysts , Understanding Global Social Policy is the leading textbook in the field and provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of international actors and social policy formation in global context. It is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners seeking to identify key issues in contemporary social policy and locate them within a global framework of analysis and action.

Conversations about climate change are filled with challenges involving complex data, deeply held values, and political issues. Understanding Climate Change examines climate change as both a scientific and a public policy issue. Sarah L. Burch and Sara E. Harris explain the basics of the climate system, climate models and prediction, and human and biophysical impacts, as well as strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The second edition has been fully updated throughout, including coverage of new advances in climate modelling and of the shifting landscape of renewable energy production and distribution. A brand new chapter discusses global governance, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, as well as mitigation efforts at the national and subnational levels. This new chapter makes the book even more relevant to climate change courses housed in social sciences departments such as political science and geography. An effective and integrated introduction to an urgent and controversial issue, this book is well-suited to adoption in a variety of introductory climate change courses found in a number of science and social science departments. Its ultimate goal is to equip readers with the tools needed to become constructive participants in the human response to climate change.

Focusing on human welfare and the environment from a social policy perspective, this text shows how environmental concerns are becoming increasingly central to policy-making and discusses the roles of central and local government in relation to environmental issues. The Environment and Social Policy covers the following contemporary topics: sustainability, Local Agenda 21, green ideas, environmental health, housing and urban development, food, work, globalisation. Each chapter starts with an overview of the topics and ends with a list of key points and a guide to further reading. Core concepts are clearly explained and illustrated throughout this text which provides students with a concise and up-to-date summary of what they need to know.