Social Justice and Social Policy in Scotland

✍ Scribed by Gerry Mooney (editor); Gill Scott (editor)

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 293
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Social justice and social policy in Scotland offers a critical engagement with the state of social policy in one of the devolved nations of the UK, a decade after the introduction of devolution. Promoting greater social justice has been held up as a key vision of successive Scottish administrations since devolution began. It is argued throughout this important book that the analysis of Scottish social policy must therefore be located in wider debates around social injustice as well as about how the devolution process affects the making, implementation and impact of social policy. Social justice and social policy in Scotland focuses on a diverse range of topics and issues, including income inequalities, work and welfare, criminal justice, housing, education, health and poverty, each reflecting the themes of social inequality and social justice. This book will be essential reading for academics, researchers, policy makers and practitioners as well as students of social policy and of society in Scotland and other devolved nations.

✦ Table of Contents

Social justice and socialpolicy in Scotland
Contents
List of figures and tables
Figures
Tables
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
1. Devolution, social justice and social policy: the Scottish context
Introduction
Setting the scene: the policy making landscape in 2012
The UK Coalition government and the Scottish Parliament
Social policy divergence within the UK
Why does devolution matter for social justice?
Remaking of social justice and social democracy in Scotland
Structure of social justice and social policy in Scotland
2. Between autonomy and dependency: state and nation in devolved Scotland
Introduction
Stateless in Scotland
Liminal state–nation relationship
Legitimacy and territorial justice
Autonomy and dependency
Conclusion
3. Income and wealth inequalities in Scotland since 1997
Introduction
Counting inequality
Costs of inequality
Conclusion: policy proposals for a more egalitarian Scotland
4. From social inclusion to solidarity: anti-poverty strategies under devolution
Introduction
Scotland’s track record on poverty
Social inclusion policy in Scotland, 1999–2007
Scottish government social inclusion policy since 2007: solidarity and cohesion?
Conclusion: social inclusion policy since devolution
5. Regeneration policy and equalities issues
Introduction
Time for change
Is Scotland going in the right direction?
Equality, equity and regeneration
The picture in Scotland
Conclusion
6. Migration, ‘race’ equality and discrimination: a question of social justice
Introduction
Population trends, the Scottish economy and emerging policy
Legislative and policy context
Migration and demographic trends: minority ethnic groups
Conclusion: continuities and changes
7. Health policy and health inequalities
Introduction
Persistence of health inequalities in Scotland
Tackling health inequalities: elevating the role of the NHS and health policy in political discourse
The NHS in Scotland
Tackling health inequalities: the medical model, individual responsibility and health service ‘solutions’
Beyond the NHS: health contexts and policy frameworks
Conclusion
8. The coming of age of Scottish social services?
Introduction
Changing lives report of the 21st-century social work review
A pivotal child abuse inquiry
Exploitation of a woman with learning disabilities
Birth of social work and social care in Scotland?
The international and UK context of Scottish social services
Devolution as an ongoing process: social services with children and young people
Devolution as an ongoing process: social services with people with learning disabilities
Conclusion: have Scottish social services come of age?
9. Education policy and social justice
Introduction
Education as a policy field in the contemporary context
Education policy and the devolved government since 2007
Education policy and the ‘learning government’
National outcomes
Conclusion
10. Policies for young people in contemporary Scotland: a ‘lost generation’?
Introduction
Youth labour market transitions in Scotland
Young people NEET in Scotland: a changing picture
Underlying structural problems affecting NEET levels
Policy response
Operational response to the NEET issue
Conclusion: a lost generation?
11. Criminal justice, social inequalities and social justice
Introduction
Crimes and social inequalities
Criminalisation, criminal and social justice
Criminal justice in Scotland: devolution and ‘detartanisation’
Youth justice
Corporate and environmental crime
Conclusion
12. Working Scotland
Introduction
Paid work in Scotland
Transforming work
Urban and rural dimensions
Education and skills
Hard-to-fill jobs and skills gaps
Labour market inequalities: a gender case study
Childcare
Being ‘out of work’
Conclusion
13. Social housing and homelessness policies: reconciling social justice and social mix
Introduction
Social housing in Scotland: policy context since 1999
A progressive homelessness agenda?
Social housing and social mix
From social to affordable housing
Conclusion
14. Environmental justice: a question of social justice?
Introduction: locating Scottish environmental policy
Justice and the environment in Scotland
Political ecology of Scotland
Environmental policy
Development planning policy
Climate change policy
Waste policy
Conclusion
15. Conclusion: towards a new phase of devolution?
Social justice: still a matter for concern?
Social justice, social welfare and nation building
Changing UK context: welfare cuts and the Scotland Bill
European context
Imagining a different future
Looking ahead
Index
Untitled