Living in Dangerous Times

Through a series of essays by leading social public policy experts, Living in Dangerous Times analyzes the impact of fear on the development of social policy in the UK in the post 9-11 - and 7/11 - world.

• Incorporates an approach that pushes back traditional views of what the study of social policy should be about
• Features essays by leading scholars that combine original theories with empirical data
• Analyzes the complexities of policy development and governance in a world suffused with fear and uncertainty
• Addresses critical contemporary questions for policy makers and policy analysts

Notes on Contributors

1. Editorial Introduction (David Denney).

2. Fear, Human Rights and New Labour Policy Post-9/11 (David Denney).

3. Does Difference Make a Difference in Financial Planning for Risk? (Deborah Quilgars, Anwen Jones and David Abbott).

4. The Great Cut: The Support for Private Modes of Social Evasion by Public Policy (Rowland Atkinson).

5. Risk and Public Protection: Responding to Involuntary and ‘Taboo’ Risk (Hazel Kemshall and Jason Wood).

6. Social Policy beyond Fear: The Globalization of Strangeness, the ‘War on Terror’ and ‘Spaces of Wonder’ (Chris Rumford).

7. Fear and Security: A Vulnerability-led Policy Response (Frank Furedi).

8. Child Protection Social Work: Risks of Fears and Fears of Risks – Impossible Tasks from Impossible Goals? (Brian Littlechild).

9. Fear of Others: Social Exclusion and the European Crisis of Solidarity (Gerard Delanty).

10. ‘We Don’t Have to Take This’: Zero Tolerance of Violence against Health Care Workers in a Time of Insecurity (Jonathan Gabe and Mary Ann Elston).

11. Afterword: Risk and Welfare (Bent Greve).

Index

David Denney is Professor of Social and Public Policy, Royal Holloway, University of London. Living in Dangerous Times analyses the impact of the pervasive fear experienced in our lives on the development of social policy in the UK. A series of original essays by a distinguished team of social and public policy analysts reveals the complexities of policy development and governance in a post-9/11 – and post-7/11 – world gripped by uncertainty and fear. These thought-provoking essays illustrate how public policies are simultaneously centred around notions of public resilience and vulnerability; and show how the perceived erosion of social securities has given rise to policies that are often implemented at the expense of human rights. Other areas explored are the impact of faith, sexuality and ethnicity on attitudes to risk and uncertainty; fear in urban spaces; and fear and its impact on public health, on child protection workers and on our perceptions of high-risk criminals.

This book provides an authoritative analysis into the increasing complexities of public policy development against the sobering backdrop of fear that permeates today’s world.