This is an important introduction to a range of issues and questions studied throughout the social sciences. It examines the changes that have taken place in the areas of work, the family, the environment, crime and social division in Britain during the past twenty years. It explores the explanations for these changes and a range of policy responses to them, including the policies pursued by governments during the 1980s and 1990s, those advocated by conventional and radical approaches, and those proposed by the authors in the interests of creating a sustainable welfare society in Britain.