Work: Personal lives and social policy

Description

This title explores some of the diverse ways in which work helps to structure the relations between social policy and personal lives, and considers how the dominant constructions of work as paid employment impact on the personal lives of individuals and different constituencies of people. The book is also concerned to transcend the boundaries and dualities of work and personal lives, exploring through a number of different case studies and diverse forms of research evidence some of the ways in which these overlap and interrelate. Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches, the authors explore questions that are central to our understanding of how the personal not only is shaped in and through work, but also contributes to social relations at work. Among the issues considered are: that emotional labour is increasingly central to the labour process of welfare work; the changing relationship between ageing, work and personal lives; the ways through which welfare-to-work policies seek to regulate personal lives. The book seeks to further our understanding of the complex links between social policy and work in its different forms as well as highlighting that the dominant discourses of

Dr Gerry Mooney is staff tutor in Social Policy at The Open University. He has published widely on issues relating to developments in social policy and in the field of urban studies.

"This book draws out the complex and dynamic relationships between work - in all its manifestations - and social policy. It is thoughtful, provocative and a much-needed contribution - one which, I hope, will be read by both students and their teachers." Chris Jones, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Liverpool