Overview

John Welshman's new book fills a major gap in social policy: the history of debates over 'transmitted deprivation', and their relationship with current initiatives on social exclusion. The book explores the content and background to Sir Keith Joseph's famous 'cycle of deprivation' speech in 1972, examining his own personality and family background, his concern with 'problem families', and the wider policy context of the early 1970s. Tracing the direction taken by the DHSS-SSRC Research Programme on Transmitted Deprivation, it seeks to understand why the Programme was set up, and why it took the direction it did. With this background, the book explores New Labour's approach to child poverty, initiatives such as Sure Start, the influence of research on inter-generational continuities, and its new stance on social exclusion. The author argues that, while earlier writers have acknowledged the intellectual debt that New Labour owes to Joseph, and noted similarities between current policy approaches to child poverty and earlier debates, the Government's most recent attempts to tackle social exclusion mean that these continuities are now more striking than ever before. Making extensive use of archival sources, private papers, contemporary published documents, and oral interviews with retired civil servants and social scientists, ""Policy, Poverty and Parenting"" is the only book-length treatment of this important but neglected strand of the history of social policy. It will be of interest to students and researchers working on contemporary history, social policy, political science, public policy, sociology, and public health.

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9781861348357

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Reviews

John Welshman's book is a thorough and fascinating study of the history of poverty and policy from the mid-twentieth century to the early twenty-first...contains a wealth of empirical detail... This book is enormously valuable to a range of potential readers... Twentieth Century British History, Vol 19: 2, 2008 John Welshman's focus is on the origins of Keith Joseph's analysis in the 1970s, the direction of the government-funded research program that followed it and on the connections between ideas in the 1970s and New Labour's approach to tackling poverty, social exclusion and anti-social behavior. He takes the perspective of a social historian, relying primarily on published documents, extensive archival research and interviews. He provides an in-depth case study of the political process from a variety of perspectives. Nick Axford, Prevention Action website Welshman's book is a fascinating account of a hitherto largely neglected topic and the author is to be commended for the breadth of his investigation and the relevance of the lessons he draws from it from today. British Journal of Social Work, Vol 38, 2008. This is an absorbing book. Using archive material well, it throws light on the relationship between social research, its funding and its use by politicians. It also shows the continuity of ideas in social policy - though new terms like social exclusion may come into vogue, the thread of ideas over time remains. Howard Glennerster, London School of Economics and Political Science WELMAN WANTS GLENNERSTER'S QUOTE ON BACK COVER

This is an absorbing book. Using archive material well, it throws light on the relationship between social research, its funding and its use by politicians. It also shows the continuity of ideas in social policy - though new terms like social exclusion may come into vogue, the thread of ideas over time remains. --Howard Glennerster, London School of Economics and Political Science. John Welshman's book is a thorough and fascinating study of the history of poverty and policy from the mid-twentieth century to the early twenty-first...contains a wealth of empirical detail... This book is enormously valuable to a range of potential readers... Twentieth Century British History, Vol 19: 2, 2008 John Welshman's focus is on the origins of Keith Joseph's analysis in the 1970s, the direction of the government-funded research program that followed it and on the connections between ideas in the 1970s and New Labour's approach to tackling poverty, social exclusion and anti-social behavior. He takes the perspective of a social historian, relying primarily on published documents, extensive archival research and interviews. He provides an in-depth case study of the political process from a variety of perspectives. --Nick Axford, Prevention Action website Welshman's book is a fascinating account of a hitherto largely neglected topic and the author is to be commended for the breadth of his investigation and the relevance of the lessons he draws from it from today. British Journal of Social Work, Vol 38, 2008.

This is an absorbing book. Using archive material well, it throws light on the relationship between social research, its funding and its use by politicians. It also shows the continuity of ideas in social policy - though new terms like social exclusion may come into vogue, the thread of ideas over time remains. Howard Glennerster, London School of Economics and Political Science

Author Information

John Welshman is Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the Institute for Health Research, Lancaster University, UK.

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