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The absurdity of bureaucracy offers an ethnographic portrayal of an attempt to make and implement evidence-based policy set in the Danish labour market system in 2009. It departs from the author’s puzzlement that the civil servants she met during her research would maintain a double stance towards their work; they were convinced they were in the process of constantly improving the welfare system while at the same time they found the outcome of their decisions and the system they constructed in the process deeply absurd. The main protagonist of the book is the randomized controlled trial Active – Back Sooner which was a central component of the Danish Government’s Action Plan on Sickness Benefit meant to reduce to the cost of sickness benefit and to secure the ‘active labour force’. It is the continuous planning and disintegration of this effort and the myriad of decisions made in relation to it that is the primary object of empirical portraiture and theoretical discussion. Based on 12 months of participant observation and ethnographic interviewing in the Danish Ministry of Employment and one of the implementing municipalities the book documents how rejected reasons and alleyways of action return to haunt the decision-makers (be they caseworkers, the government administration, or politicians) creating an absurd world of contradictions and dilemmas. The book documents how ‘going wrong’ is built into the very nature of decision-making and suggests that the analysis of absurdity is central to any understanding of how policy develops and how implementation works.

Between ‘two worlds’ of father politics represents the USA and Sweden as two ends on an international continuum in ways of thinking about fatherhood. The ‘two worlds’ model locates the decline of patriarchal male-breadwinning fatherhood as a core concern of comparative welfare state and gender studies. It offers historical accounts of the development of ‘father-friendly’ parental leave policies in Sweden and child support enforcement policies in the USA. The book brings together, major debates from child development psychology, ethology, sociology, gender studies and comparative social policy. In this way, the book synthesizes a wide breadth of comparative and inter-disciplinary analysis into a new typology or model for interpreting welfare regime approaches to contemporary fatherhood. It provides comparative analysis for students, scholars and social policy makers in the United States and Nordic countries, the UK, Ireland, Japan, China and the European Union. Overall, the book locates concepts of fatherhood, the decline of patriarchy, shared parenting and the de-commodification of parents as critical to ongoing debates about individualisation, internationalisation and the dawn of post-patriarchal welfare arrangements for the 21^st century.

This book explores the relationship between public administration and social justice in Ireland. It argues that public administration, at a variety of levels, is challenged to consider its unique and potentially far reaching role in designing and delivering social justice outcomes. Locating this discussion within recent social and economic events in Ireland, it draws on a variety of historical and contemporary sources to stimulate reflection on social justice and its relationship with public administration and public policy. Building on this, the book explores some of the recent policy and practice of public administration institutions, presenting the views of those within the administrative system as well as those who closely engage with it on issues of justice, poverty and social inclusion. From this it concludes that while some isolated examples of good practice exist, there is little evidence to indicate that the public administration system, now or in the past, sees social justice as one of its central responsibilities. This book is original in focusing on the role of the administrative system as a social justice actor in its own right, with its own dispositions and value systems. In taking this approach the book establishes a conceptual and practical justification for public administration to be proactive in pursuing social justice outcomes and presents a series of conclusions pointing towards ways in which a more active, justice oriented, public administration could be fostered.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a policy-support instrument and approach that seeks to assess the health impacts of projects, programmes and policies on population health. It has been endorsed at national policy levels in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the early 2000s. This book examines how and why Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) conducted in both jurisdictions have informed policy development. The book explores how HIA knowledge and evidence was used, or not used, in the development of local policies. This text is based on original explorative research involving a qualitative longitudinal study, investigating four HIAs conducted in both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. An original conceptual lens was used in the analysis for this exploration, drawing primarily from political science. The four HIAs were conducted on traffic and transport, Traveller accommodation, urban redevelopment and air quality. The conduct of HIAs in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is set within the context of the health and local government systems, and the reform processes both systems are going through. The impact of these reform programmes on the development of intersectoral action for health, and on the progress of HIA in particular, is explored within the text. This conceptually-grounded guide draws from the disciplines of the political and social sciences and public health, and will appeal to academics, students and practitioners in these fields as well as policy-makers and planners at local and national government levels.

From 1926 onward, Sinn Féin, which had been instrumental in the revolutionary period of 1919-23, faded into oblivion as a result of its intransigent and doctrinaire stance. This books unravels a chapter of history that has not been dealt with in detail until now, although the operation of the party raises fundamental questions on issues such as democracy and the role of history in the construction of a national narrative. Through a close analysis of newspaper reports, of the fortnightly Standing committee minutes, and through various interviews carried out by the author, it looks at the manner in which Sinn Féin operated and put itself forward as the guardian of republicanism in Ireland. Sinn Féin's strategic journey was a lonesome one, but the party showed sufficient resilience to survive in a context that was made hostile to its very existence by the very nature of the policies and strategies it put forward. The type of political nationalism that it advocated offers a valuable insight into the meaning of Republicanism. Its narrative represents an integral part of the political and social fabric of contemporary Irish society.

The politics of old age in the twenty-first century is contentious, encompassing ideological debates about how old age is conceptualised and the rights and welfare entitlements of individuals in later life. Synthesising key theoretical writings in political science, social/critical gerontology and cultural sociology, the book provides an insight into the complexity of older people’s identity politics, its relationship with age-based social policy and how the power of older people’s interest organisations, their legitimacy and existence remain highly contingent on government policy design, political opportunity structures and the prevailing cultural and socio-economic milieu. The book situates the discussion in the international context and outlines findings of an Irish case study which explores the evolution of older people’s interest organisation in Ireland from their inception in the mid-1990s to the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. The book is essential reading for policymakers and organisations interested in ageing, policy and the political process and for students of ageing, social policy and political sociology.

East Manchester was the site of one of the most substantial regeneration projects internationally. Urban regeneration was a central plank of New Labour policy and the approach radically altered with the election of the Coalition Government in 2010. East Manchester was one of the most deprived areas of Britain in 1997, referred to as a ‘basket case’ in dire need of regeneration. This book explores the role of Manchester City Council and other public agencies in the regeneration of the area such as New East Manchester, NDC/Beacons and the Housing Market Renewal Programme; the Manchester voluntary sector and the private sector including the major investments linked to Manchester City Football Club and the Etihad Campus. While the book focuses on a single regeneration initiative, it has wider relevance to national and international regeneration processes. The book assesses the outcome of the regeneration initiative although it demonstrates the difficulties in producing a definitive evaluation. It has a political focus and illuminates and challenges many assumptions underpinning three major current academic debates: governance, participatory democracy and ideology.

Capitalism in Europe is transformed as a result of liberalisation, privatisation and regulatory reform. Unravelling the state as service provider and employer has posed significant social policy challenges to the emerging regulatory state. The book confronts these challenges, and addresses questions concerning regulation and capitalism: How does the regulatory state protect consumers and employees? Do varieties of capitalism translate into varieties of social regulation? The book examines the transformation of public services in different varieties of capitalism. It compares postal reform in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, takes stock of the postal reform movement in Europe and internationally, and discusses policy approaches in telecoms and electricity. It pays special attention to postal reform deadlock in liberal market economies, falling mail volumes as a driver of change, and a new wave of privatisation triggered by the European sovereign debt crisis. The analysis reveals whether and how social policy goals have been addressed by means of regulation and redistribution. The findings show that redistributive policies form an integral part of regulatory reform, which makes it hard to compensate reform losers in a context of austerity policies. In their regulatory practice independent agencies integrate consumer protection as a core business, but are reluctant to tackle employment related issues. The delay of liberal regimes in reforming their postal sectors is explained by a limited capacity to accommodate social policy goals.