Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

Extensively updated, this second edition of the Advanced Introduction to Social Policy provides a concise overview of the field that takes newer realities into account as well as taking insights from the traditional social policy canon. Daniel Béland and Rianne Mahon draw on both classic and contemporary theories to illuminate the broad processes that are putting pressure on existing social policy arrangements and raising new research questions.



Key Features:







Assesses the social policy implications of changing gender relations and the increasing salience of ethnic diversity


Focuses on both the advanced industrial world and the growing significance of the Global South as a site of social policy innovation


Provides a global perspective on social policy that features systematic attention to transnational actors, moving beyond the methodological nationalism that has traditionally marked the field



Presenting a lucid and up-to-date overview of comparative and global social policy, this thoroughly revised second edition will prove vital to researchers, university students, and university instructors of social policy, political science, sociology, public policy, and social work.