Conventional methods of analysis of poverty assume resources are shared so that each individual in a household/family has the same standard of living. This article measures differences between spouses in a large sample in indicators of deprivation of the type used in recent studies of poverty at household level. The quite limited overall imbalance in measured deprivation in favour of husbands suggests that applying such indicators to individuals will not reveal a substantial reservoir of hidden poverty among wives in non-poor households, nor much greater deprivation among women than men in poor households. This points to the need to develop more sensitive indicators of deprivation designed to measure individual living standards and poverty status, which can fit within the framework of traditional poverty research using large samples. It also highlights the need for clarification of the underlying poverty concept.

The pervasive sense of crisis in Japan over the falling birth rate and aging society issues is generating an active public debate about gender, the family, the organization of the workplace and the policy approaches best able to cope with these problems. This article considers explanations for demographic change, then turns to current Japanese family policy, focusing on the contradiction between formal laws and policies which aim at supporting families and informal practices which make domestic responsibilities more burdensome. It attempts to provide insight into these policies by focusing on the policy process, identifying characteristic patterns and approaches, strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese political system.

There is an emerging interest within social and policy studies in the potential connections between linguistic practices and broader social processes. It is, however, difficult to find examples of research which take a fully discursive approach to policy analysis. Such a discursive approach might focus on how the use of language in the policy process is involved with social practices, such as the legitimisation of social relations or the construction of ‘knowledge’ of social reality. The article begins by exploring theoretical and methodological issues in relation to connecting micro aspects of language use, such as grammar and lexis, with the social construction of knowledge. It then uses discourse analysis to explore how the linguistic resources of a key British urban policy document, New Life for Urban Scotland, are involved with reproducing and sustaining a particular ‘knowledge’ or discourse about the causes of urban decline.

Bourdieu conceptualises most aspects of social life in terms of fields, which constitute sites of struggle over a central stake. The resources which are used in these struggles, and whose appropriation is at stake, are defined as types of capital: economic, cultural, social and symbolic. Each field involves a set of players, of agents who are engaged in practices and strategies on the basis of an habitus. It is contended in this article that such an approach can be usefully mobilised to develop a sociological analysis of welfare. The model has to be slightly altered to make it more adequate for the study of the welfare field. First, what Bourdieu calls political capital is given a more prominent place. Secondly, the focus is more definitely set on the rates at which types of capital are converted in the welfare field. It is argued that such a model satisfies the central requirements of a sociology of welfare, in that it places welfare activities within the wider social context while grasping their internal dynamic. It provides an effective framework for addressing the main questions which are raised by a sociology of welfare.

This article reviews the issues involved in policy choices with respect to universality and selectivity in income support to older people. It considers four questions: the practical meaning of universality and selectivity in the income support systems of various countries, the effectiveness of universal and selective arrangements in the alleviation of poverty among this group, the role of universal and selective arrangements in redistributing income among elderly people and the relative generosity of universal and selective arrangements. The article draws on data from the ‘second wave’ of the Luxembourg Income Study for six countries: Australia, (West) Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, concerning the incomes of elderly couples and single (non-married) women. It concludes that while selective income support arrangements achieve greater redistribution in favour of low income elderly people for the same expenditure than do universal ones, selective arrangements do not necessarily perform better in other respects, and, in particular, are associated with low levels of benefit income.

Contents

1 Social security and income maintenance

2 Health care

3 Education

4 Housing and environment

5 Personal social services

6 Law and the treatment of the offender

7 Unemployment and the labour market

8 Race relations

9 The voluntary sector

10 Local government

11 Gender

12 Demography