/* 3763L-5, Gilbert, Neil, Dimensions of Social Welfare Policy, 5/e*/ This social welfare policy book provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for the analysis of social welfare policy. The book illustrates theoretical points by offering examples from a cross-section of program areas including income maintenance, child welfare, model cities, day care, community action, and mental health. The book also shows how social theories and individual versus collective value orientations influence policies. For social workers, or students studying social welfare policy.
This is a good book that I read for one of my social work courses. I do recommend it if you are interested in learning more about policy in relation to social work practice.
This book covers an advanced area of social work. If focuses on political considerations in social welfare, and how policy affects the practice of social work. The authors balance many viewpoints on the issue. This version of the text is out of date. Even though the historical development of social welfare policy is interesting for its own purpose, the text could be improved by showing how things have changed recently. Otherwise, it is left to the reader to do their own research on this. The writing is often cumbersome. The writing is in an academic style that could be simplified. Often introductions of new sections dance around the concepts until finally making a thesis statement for the section. Also, the section titles are overly long.
This book's pretty dense but presents a useful framework for analyzing policy in an effective and understandable way... once you get your mind wrapped around it and understand the complex examples presented.