Full Description
Published in 1998, this volume consists of 16 edited papers presented at an Anglo-French conference on inequality in France in March 1997. The purpose of this book is to bring together ideas and perceptions of inequality in the two countries across several areas including multi-ethnicity, education, social work, housing and health, presented by experts in these fields and in cultural studies. The purpose is not comparative in the traditional sense, but rather to analyze the different meanings amd conceptions that apply to inequality in France and Britain and to demostrate how these differences affect policies as well as what is considered to be legitimate grounds for policy intervention. This approach to social policy in Europe pays attention to the cultural meanings of concepts like inequality and demonstrates that comparative social policy can only be properly productive when it acknowledges that key words like poverty, inequality, citizenship, social rights and insertion/exclusion carry with them quite different ideological, moral and social meanings in two countries such as Britain and France.
Contents
1. Introduction, John Edwards Part 1: Theory Discourse 2. Dimensions of Inequality in French and British Political Discourses Since the Early 80s, Gilles Leydier 3. The Promise of Proceduralism - Is Democracy a Defence Against Poverty?, Michael Saward 4. Depoliticizing Inequality: Exclusions and Discrimination in French, British and European Discourses, Jean-Paul Rèvauger 5. Dimensions of Inequality in Britain and France, Dave Edye 6. Concepts of Welfare and Solidarity in Britain and France, Paul Spicker 7. Inequality, Property and Community, Francois Poirier Part 2: Ethnic Minorities 8. The Theory and Practice of 'Positive Discrimination', Elaine Dubourdieu 9. Ethnic Equality in Britain: Progress and its Limits, Tariq Modood 10. Inequality and Difference in a Multi-Culturalism Society, John Edwards Part 3: Social Work, Poverty and Race 11. Do the Poor Need Social Work?, Monica Dawling 12. Race and Racism: Can Minority Ethnic Groups Benefit from Social Work?, Ravinder Barn Part 4: Welfare and Conceptions of Poverty 13. Beveridge's Egalitarian Legacy and Revisionist Critique, Antoine Capet 14. Perspectives on the Idea of an 'Underclass', John Macnicol 15. The National Minimum Wage: Pride or Prejudice?, Timothy Whitton 16. Conclusion, Jean-Paul Rèvauge.
