Kirjahaku

This book, which draws from fieldwork research and evidence, is provided to suggest a sense of emotional anxiety among social workers and case managers working on the front-line' within local authority social service departments in England. This is taking place within British Prime Minister David Cameron's government agenda of "personalization of care". This new emphasis places the onus on the client rather than the gaze of the social worker. Yet, there are contradictions that lie at the heart of social work, social care and personal care. Theories have attempted to detangle these contradictions. There have been a number of theoretical approaches that have attempted to ground the concept of power' to understand organisational practice though significant Foucauldian insights that have been most captivating in illuminating power relations and subject positioning. This book is the first of its kind to explore the impact on 'performativity' of social workers and governance (governmentality) of workers and clients in the personalisation policy process.

This book assesses the historical and modern significance and emergence of global forces and its impact on nation states. In particular, the power of globalisation comprises two inter-locking factors: economic power and the hegemony of neo-liberalism. Drawing on a range of examples, the book assesses the legacy of globalisation and its impact on the disciplinary development of social science and its enduring impact on the contemporary social world.

As we enter 2014, an accelerating interest in abuse has arisen due to the implementation of community care policies relying upon informal care and a relentless political campaign to legitimise an enforced obligation to care. The use of care management technologies that focus on assessment and inspection, can, in this policy climate, become a means of surveillance and enforcement of informal caring. It is argued that Michel Foucault offers a set of strategies (Foucault 1977: 205) for understanding how the discourses on community care construct older people's experiences and their identities, as constructed subjects and objects of managerial knowledge. This book examines this and the dystopian implications for older people. The book attempts to move beyond such fatalism by introducing governmentality and the possibilities through social policy for older people. Finally, the book examines the emergence of personal care and the implications for personalization and tailored care services for older people.

Health, care and welfare have emerged as key vehicles used to legitimise and position the identities that older people adopt in contemporary modernity. Both contain continually changing technologies that function to mediate relations between older people and the state. Medico-technical, victimisation policies and care management discourses, have been presented as adding choice and reducing limitations associated with adult ageing. However, they also represent an increase in professional control that can be exerted on lifestyles in older age and thus, the wider social meanings associated with that part of the life-course. This book presents a theoretical analysis based on a critical reading of the work of Michel Foucault. It identifies the inter-relationship between managers and older people in terms of power, surveillance and normalisation. The book highlights how and why older people are the subjects of legitimising professional gazes through the dark side of modernity: being managed, being victimised and asking the existential questions of death.

This book examines the rise and consolidation of feminist insights into contemporary social theory. The book begins by providing an historical backdrop that led to the emergence of women's experiences starting to be seen on an equal footing to those of men. The book explores the problems of sexism and gender bias that have prevented full access to equality from materialising drawing upon key thinkers of feminist social theory.

This book focuses on the implications of population ageing in Asia. The book discusses the differences in the magnitude of the aged population in different parts of Asia and highlights the perennial concerns of care and support facing older people and their families as Asian societies grapple with the ageing population. The array of chapters in this book substantiates these challenges and opportunities afforded to different countries in Asia in light of demographic shifts, which range from an examination of broad issues of support for the aged and policy directions in East and Southeast Asia, to specific concerns relating to older people in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Pakistan, Korea, Bangladesh and Nepal. Population ageing across these countries are experiencing increased longevity and a declining birth rate, which is becoming more prevalent. The book explains how, due to changes in population structure, ageing will alter trends in the decades ahead in Asia. This book is unique in that the research cited is not only rich on ageing experiences across Asia but is an important process in bringing together evocative, engaged and comparative insights as to how we understand complex ageing and welfare issues.

Social Welfare, Aging and Social Theory explores how we can understand the changing relationship between social welfare and human aging. The book begins by reviewing how historical changes in society impacted on shaping emergence of scientific approaches to understand and problematize and bio-medicalize aging as akin to an illness and disease. The discussion moves to trace how particular social science theories were developed to reinforce negative perceptions of aging. The book also develops its own reflexive approach with in-depth examples of social welfare in national, international and global contexts in how aging is theorized in the postmodern world were alternative possibilities can be encountered.

Social Welfare, Aging and Social Theory explores how we can understand the changing relationship between social welfare and human aging. The book begins by reviewing how historical changes in society impacted on shaping emergence of scientific approaches to understand and problematize and bio-medicalize aging as akin to an illness and disease. The discussion moves to trace how particular social science theories were developed to reinforce negative perceptions of aging. The book also develops its own reflexive approach with in-depth examples of social welfare in national, international and global contexts in how aging is theorized in the postmodern world were alternative possibilities can be encountered.

This book has two main parts, one that examines what the world has learned so far in dealing with ageing and another which discusses how such a country as China has kept up with that learning. By combining general reviews with case studies in a comparative context, the book illustrates the "state of the art" via a multidisciplinary approach to understanding Western and non-Western experiences. The book is a must-have for students and researchers interested in social, behavioural, and humanistic inquiry as well as public policy analysis related to ageing with some of the leading experts that helped to define or redefine the fields.