Introducing global social policy

Abstract

Global social politics, policies and programmes of social action have a potent influence on domestic social policy, the terms of social development and the condition of human welfare around the world. They affect the everyday lives of billions of people in myriad ways, impact on individual and collective subjectivities, shape major social institutions, frame policy responses and influence welfare outcomes in ways that, although not always immediately perceptible, are nevertheless highly significant. Building on the successes of the first and second editions of Understanding global social policy (Yeates, 2008, 2014), this third edition provides an up-to-date, comprehensive and accessible collection of research-based student-facing chapters that bring alive and illuminate key issues, themes and debates in contemporary global social policy (GSP). This edition, like previous ones, provides an introductory overview of GSP as a field of academic study and as a political practice of social actors. It is concerned with the ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of GSP. The chapters span a wide range of areas and issues, uncovering the multifaceted scope of GSP, why it is needed, what and who is involved in making it, how it is enacted, what its consequences and impacts are, and what challenges lie ahead. This edition contains a mix of updated chapters from previous editions as well as newly commissioned ones, written by world-leading scholars in GSP. The remainder of this chapter introduces the book as a whole. It discusses the significance of the prefix ‘global’ and what this implies. It distinguishes key features of GSP as a field of academic study and research and as political practice.