Understanding the environment and social policy: (Understanding Welfare: Social Issues, Policy and Practice)

Bringing together leading experts, this textbook explores the key 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 policies and provides a critique of proposed future developments in the field. Understanding the environment and social policy guides the reader through the subject in an accessible way using chapter summaries, further reading, recommended webpages, a glossary and questions for discussion. Providing a much-needed overview, the book will be invaluable reading for students, teachers, activists, practitioners and policymakers.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction; Part One: Challenges: The environmental challenge; The challenge to society; The challenge to governance; The challenge to social policy ~ Tim Doyle; Part Two: Responses: Environmental ethics and philosophies; Mainstream environmental politics; Assessing social democratic and free market capitalisms ~ Lorraine Elliott; Radical environmental politics ~ Tony Fitzpatrick; Part Three: Policies: Poverties and inequalities ~ Elizabeth Stanton; Planning and the urban environment ~ Stephen M. Wheeler; Health and quality of life ~ Glenda Verrinda; Employment and income; Citizenship and social care ~ Sherilyn MacGregor; Transport and infrastructure ~ Michael Cahill; Administration and policy-making ~ Peter Christoff.

About the Author :
Tony Fitzpatrick is Reader at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the co-editor of the journal Policy & Politics and was the principal editor of the three-volume International Encyclopaedia of Social Policy (2006). His other recent books include Voyage to Utopias (Policy Press, 2010) and the second edition of Welfare Theory (2011).

Review :
"This book does exactly what it sets out to do. It offers us understanding of the environment and social policy, and it does it well." Citizen's Income Newsletter, Issue 1, 2012 "..this book is extremely helpful in providing a comprehensive introduction to environmental policy to first-year undergraduate and masters students, as well as future environmental policy makers." Maria Carvalho in Environment & Planning C "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 usefully reveals, in practice they interact in ways that are far from straight forward." 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 'This book does exactly what it sets out to do. It offers us understanding of the environment and social policy, and it does it well.' Citizen's Income Newsletter