Ian Gough

Armando Barrientos

Graham Room

Peter Davis

Geof Wood

Philippa Bevan

Written by a team of internationally respected experts, this book explores the conditions under which social policy--defined as the public pursuit of secure welfare--operates in the poorer regions of the world. Making an important contribution by breaking away from the traditional focus on Europe and North America, it develops a new conceptual framework for understanding different types of welfare regimes in a range of countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Social Policy in Development Contexts

Insecurity and Welfare Regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America

n Gough

I think this is a very important book. Very few people in the social sciences write books on this topic and really do justice to complexity theory. Professor Room gives a very detailed, accurate and accessible review of complexity theory as it applies to social policy. His link with institutional theory is very appropriate and his discussion on the need for regulation (a link with complexity theory that many people would never reach) is really important and well grounded. It would be of interest to academics who really want to understand the implications of complexity theory for policy making in complex and fast-changing situations and to those undertaking advanced courses in politics, economics and sociology. - Jean Boulton, University of Cranfield, UK Graham Room argues that conventional approaches to the conceptualisation and measurement of social and economic change are unsatisfactory. As a result, researchers are ill-equipped to offer policy advice. This book offers a new analytical approach, combining complexity science and institutionalism. It also provides tools for policy makers in turbulent times. Part 1 is concerned with the conceptualisation of socio-economic change. It integrates complexity science and institutionalism into a coherent ontology of social and policy dynamics. Part 2 is concerned with models and measurement. It combines some of the principal approaches developed in complexity analysis with models and methods drawn from mainstream social and political science. Part 3 offers empirical applications to public policy: the dynamics of social exclusion; the social dimension of knowledge economies; the current financial and economic crisis. These are supplemented by a toolkit for the practice of agile policy making.

Agile Decision-making in a Turbulent World

Complexity, Institutions and Public Policy

Graham Room

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