Social Policy and Social Work: Books & eBooks
Information about books, journals, databases and other useful social policy and social work resources.
Where in the Library?
Most print material related to Social Policy and Social Work is held on level 4 of the James Joyce Library.
Books on community health and practice can also be found in the Health Sciences Library.
Finding Books using OneSearch
Watch a short tutorial on how to find print books and ebooks using OneSearch:
Short Loan & 4-Hour Collections
Short Loan Collection
The Short Loan Collection (SLC) contains multiple copies of books in demand, or on reading lists and can be borrowed for 7 days.
4-Hour Collection
The 4-Hour Loan collection contains items that are in very high demand at certain times of the year. You can borrow and take these books anywhere in the Library, but they cannot be taken out of the Library building.
Books for Social Policy and Social Work
Books and eBooks are listed in OneSearch, our resource discovery service. You can also browse the collection to find books for your research. The relevant shelf marks include, but are not limited to:
- 304 Factors affecting social behavior
- 305 Social groups
- 306 Culture and institutions
- 307 Communities
- 361 Social problems and social welfare
- 362 Social welfare problems and services
- 363 Other social problems and services
- 364 Criminology
- 365 Penal and related institutions
A selection of useful book titles available via UCD Library include:
The Student's Companion to Social Policy by Call Number: 361.610941 ALCPublication Date: 2022This authoritative textbook covers all the perspectives, debates, issues and challenges in both the theory and practice of social policy. The latest edition reflects the most recent developments in the discipline and in social policy-making.
Black in America by Call Number: 305.896073 BRAPublication Date: 2020At the start of the twentieth century, the pre-eminent black sociologist, W.E.B. DuBois, identified the color line as America's great problem. While the color line is increasingly variegated beyond black and white, and more openly discussed than ever before as more racial and ethnic groups call America home, his words still ring true.
Social Justice Theory and Practice for Social Work by Call Number: 361.301 WATPublication Date: 2019This book offers a much-needed critical overview of the concept of social justice and its application in professional social work practice. Social justice has a rich conceptual genealogy in critical theory and political philosophy. For students, teachers and social workers concerned with empowerment, social change and human rights, this book provides a guide to the key ideas and thinkers, crucial historical developments and contemporary debates about social justice.
Irish Social Policy by Call Number: 361.6109415 CONPublication Date: 2017This volume provides an accessible, critical overview taking account of significant changes over recent years. The book is organised across four key sections:1: Traces the emergence and development of Irish social policy from its origins to the present 2: Situates the Irish case in the wider context of the politics, ideology and socio-economic factors relevant to the development and reform of welfare states 3: Analyses core social service areas with specific reference to the contemporary Irish context 4: Explores how social policy affects particular groups in Irish society including children, older people, people with disabilities, carers, new immigrant and minority ethnic groups, and LGBT people.
Rethinking Social Work in a Global World by Call Number: 361.3 HARPublication Date: 2010This text offers a comprehensive overview of the key aspects of globalisation, their impact on social work and the resulting challenges in practice. The authors draw on post-colonialism to consider the global issues facing social work, such as mass migration, and the ways in which social workers can respond to such difficulties.
Care and Social Change in the Irish Welfare Economy by Call Number: 361.6109415 FANPublication Date: 2006The book's focus is on the implications for Irish social policy of social change including the need to respond to changes resulting from immigration and shifts within the Irish welfare economy that have created new needs for social care. Many of the chapters locate Irish debates about care in a broader social policy context. This is a companion volume to "Contemporary Irish Social Policy and Theorising Irish Social Policy".
Books and eBooks are listed in OneSearch, our resource discovery service. Useful ebook titles and ebook databases available via UCD Library include:
An Introduction to the Policy Process by Publication Date: 2020An Introduction to the Policy Process provides students at all levels with an accessible, readable, and affordable introduction to the field of public policy.
Mental Health in Later Life by Publication Date: 2020Focusing on mental health rather than mental illness, this book adopts a lifecourse approach to understanding mental health and wellbeing in later life. Well-respected author and scholar Alisoun Milne explores the influences of lifecourse experiences, structural inequalities, socio-political context, history, gender and age related factors and engages with new ways of thinking about preventing mental ill health and promoting mental health in later life.
Social Work, Cats and Rocket Science by Publication Date: 2020This book tells stories of just how powerful social work can be. At its heart are stories drawn from frontline practice, ranging from first interviews through to complex decision-making.
Continuity and Change in the Welfare State by Publication Date: 2019This book offers an analysis of social security in Ireland from 1981 to 2016 - a period of immense economic and social change during which social provisions such as pensions and family benefits were downsized or diluted in many countries.
Governance and the European Social Dimension by Publication Date: 2019Combining original empirical material and uses a unique theoretical approach to analyse the issue of EU governance and reveal that 'progress' under such conditions has its consequences; notably a strengthened Brussels-led neoliberal prescription for EU social and employment policy problems.
Local Social Innovation to Combat Poverty and Exclusion by Publication Date: 2019Based on more than 30 case studies in eight different countries, this book explores the governance dynamics of local social innovations in the field of poverty reduction. The diverse team of contributors reflects on the trajectory of social innovation in European governance.
Social Work with Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants by Publication Date: 2019Mass-migration, conflict and poverty are now persistent features of our globalised world. This reference book for social workers and service providers offers constructive ideas for practice within an inter-disciplinary framework.
Welfare and the Welfare State by Publication Date: 2019The welfare state is still very much central in people's everyday lives. The welfare state is at the same time contested and debated, and has often been argued to be in a crisis not only in the wake of the financial crisis. Welfare and welfare states used to be a national issue and prerogative.
Counselling Skills for Social Workers by Publication Date: 2018This book provides a theoretically informed understanding of the core skills required to provide counselling interventions that work. It provides detailed discussion of three core skills which are identified as: talking and responding, listening and observing and thinking.
Handbook on Gender and Social Policy by Publication Date: 2018The Handbook on Gender and Social Policy provides a comprehensive introduction to this field with up-to-date accounts of debates and innovative original research by leading international authors. The Handbook covers the key areas of social policy that relate to the inequalities between men and women in the developed and developing world.
The Investment State by Publication Date: 2018Social investment is a strategy that addresses neoliberal austerity by putting private capital to public purpose. An investment state serves as a sequel to the welfare state by maximizing capability, expanding employee benefits, implementing evidence-based policy, democratizing polity and commerce, and advancing social and institutional inclusion.
Responding to Domestic Violence by ISBN: 9781784505493Publication Date: 2018This book offers a critical overview of established and emerging manifestations of domestic violence across Europe. It describes how countries within and outside the EU are responding to the problem in policy, practice and research. Eminent academics and professionals from a range of European countries share their findings from new groundbreaking victim surveys, and weigh up the legal, social and healthcare challenges.
Property, Family and the Irish Welfare State by ISBN: 9783319445663Publication Date: 2017This book examines the long-term development of the Irish welfare state since the late nineteenth century. It contests the consensus view that Ireland, like other Anglophone countries, has historically operated a liberal welfare regime which forces households to rely mainly on the market to maintain their standard of living.
Research Design in Social Work by Publication Date: 2017Social work research often focuses on qualitative designs and many students believe that the quantitative research pathway is either too complicated or is beyond their grasp. This book outlines how social work students can undertake a research project from either a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methodological approach. The authors introduce key concepts in an accessible and structured manner and go on to demonstrate each of the approaches from inception of research idea, to realisation of methodological approach, to research process, to data analysis and conclusion.
The Routledge International Handbook to Welfare State Systems by Publication Date: 2017Developing countries may not have full-fledged welfare states like those we find in Europe, but certainly they have welfare state systems. For comparative social policy research the term "welfare state systems" has many advantages, as there are numerous different types/models of welfare state systems around the world.
Welfare Words by Publication Date: 2017Welfare Words provides a critical analysis of social work and social policy in its articulation and discussion of a number of significant words and phrases. Paul Michael Garrett makes sense of complex theories which codify everyday experience, giving students and practitioners vital tools to better understand and change their social worlds.
Introduction to Social Policy Analysis by Publication Date: 2016This book illuminates the subject of Social Policy by showing readers how Social Policy analysts think about welfare issues and policies. From what influences the decision to have children to how everyday terms such as 'youth crime' or 'poverty' reveal the structural processes shaping society, the book illustrates the insights which Social Policy analysis offers to understanding the social world and its problems. Written by an academic with extensive experience of teaching Social Policy analysis to new audiences, the book provides a stimulating introduction to the study of the factors and polices shaping wellbeing.
Practice Learning in Social Work by Publication Date: 2015Learning through practice lies at the heart of social work education, providing the opportunity for students to develop and employ the skills, experience and knowledge they need to become effective social workers.
Skills for Social Work Practice by Publication Date: 2015Skills lie at the heart of all actions of a social worker, and inform all aspects of practice - from drawing on vital theoretical and ethical frameworks to applying the law and research findings to particular situations.
Social Policy in the European Union by Publication Date: 2015Social policy has become an increasingly prominent component of the European Union's policy-making responsibilities. Today, for example, a highly developed body of law regulates equal treatment in social security and co-ordinates national security schemes; national health services have opened up to patients and service providers from other states; and rules govern the translation of educational and vocational certificates across member states.
Understanding and Using Research in Social Work by Publication Date: 2015By using the examples drawn from evidence-based practice (e.g. what is known to work and what we know about social work processes), the authors deliver a text that will help support students to appraise and then integrate research into both their daily practice decisions and their assignments and assessments.
Childhood, Youth and Violence in Global Contexts by Publication Date: 2014This edited collection shows how violence enters into ordinary, routine practices of childhood and children's experiences. The contributing authors seek to understand how violence is enacted against children in infancy, adolescence, in school, in care, at home and on the street.
Developing Resilience for Social Work Practice by Publication Date: 2014Developing Resilience for Social Work Practice provides social workers with a tool-box of strategies to help them enhance their resilience and protect their wellbeing. Written by experienced practitioners in the field, the book draws on key research to present a series of evidence-based interventions. These strategies are designed to help social work students and practitioners develop important qualities that underpin resilience, such as self-awareness, time management, relaxation skills and empathy as well enable them to gain support from their personal and professional networks.
Global Childhoods by Publication Date: 2014The book critically demonstrates how following from the modern construction of childhood which emerged unevenly from the late eighteenth century, the twentieth century saw the emergence of the conception of the normative global child, a figure finally enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Nonprofit Organizations by Publication Date: 2014The text takes on an international and comparative dimensions perspective, detailing the background and concepts behind these organizations and examining relevant theories and central issues. Anheier covers the full range of nonprofit organizations - service providers, membership organizations, foundations, community groups - in different fields, such as arts and culture, social services and education.
Protecting Children in the Age of Outrage by Publication Date: 2013This book proposes what, to many professionals in the child welfare field, will appear a radically different explanation for our society's decisions to protect children from harm and for the significant drop in substantiated child abuse numbers. At the center of this conceptual and analyticapproach is the contention that social outrage emanating from horrific and often sensationalized cases of child maltreatment plays a major role in CPS decision making and in child outcomes.
Sustainable Practices by Publication Date: 2013Climate change is widely agreed to be one the greatest challenges facing society today. Mitigating and adapting to it is certain to require new ways of living. Thus far efforts to promote less resource-intensive habits and routines have centred on typically limited understandings of individual agency, choice and change.
Racism and Social Change in the Republic of Ireland by Publication Date: 2012Racism and Social Change in the Republic of Ireland provides an original and challenging account of racism in twenty-first century Irish society and locates this in its historical, political, sociological and policy contexts. It includes specific case studies of the experiences of racism in twenty-first century Ireland alongside a number of historical case studies that examine how modern Ireland came to marginalize ethnic minorities.
Qualitative Research Skills for Social Work by Publication Date: 2012This clear text takes the reader through the process of beginning and developing a research problem or question, defining their objectives and undertaking empirical or literature-based research that involves data collection, analysis, writing up and dissemination. The book also highlights and details potential obstacles, essential techniques and methods, types of theory and methodology used, and presents case studies and ongoing debates involved in qualitative social work research.
The Varieties of Pension Governance by Publication Date: 2011The ongoing privatization of pensions - the shift from state to private responsibility for old age retirement income - raises fundamental issues of social and participatory rights. The recent financial market crisis makes the problematic nature of funded private pensions that fall short of expected returns dramatically clear.
Anti-Oppressive Practice by Publication Date: 2007The authors challenge the notion that anti-oppressive practice has lost its potency or become commodified into a professional response to inequalities. Retaining a commitment to the principles and values of anti-oppressive practice, discussion about contemporary practice is guided by a critical understanding of personal values and the context of practice.
- Academic CompleteA multidisciplinary collection of over 180,000 scholarly titles from hundreds of leading academic publishers. eBooks are made available on ProQuest's eBook Central platform. Offers unlimited, multi-user access.
Reference items are helpful for finding background information; definitions and spelling; facts and figures; translations; statistics and topical overviews of subjects. Reference books can be found both in print and online. See here for further information
Useful online reference material for Social Policy and Social Work include:
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences by Publication Date: 2015The second edition of the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, first published in 2001, discusses history, current trends and future directions. Topics are cross-referenced with related topics and each article highlights further reading.
International Encyclopedia of Social Policy by Publication Date: 2013This title offers an in-depth treatment of all aspects of the discipline and practice of social policy globally. Supported by a distinguished international advisory board, the editors have compiled almost 900,000 words across 734 entries written by 284 leading specialists to provide authoritative coverage of concepts, policy actors, welfare institutions and services along a series of national, regional and transnational dimensions.
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences by Publication Date: 2007Covers scholarship and fields that have emerged and matured since the publication of the original international edition. Highlights the expanding influence of economics in social science research and features new articles and important biographies contributed by thousands of scholars from around the world on a wide array of global topics in the Social Sciences.
- Sage Knowledge
Covering the social and behavioural sciences, SAGE Knowledge provides access to thousands of scholarly eBooks published by SAGE. The collection also includes hundreds of award-winning reference titles including subject encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks which provide students with the perfect place to start their research. - Oxford Bibliographies Online: Sociology
A great starting point for research in sociology, this scholar-curated reference tool combines the best features of an annotated bibliography with a high-level encyclopedia. Articles provide authoritative guides to the key literature and current scholarship of core sociology topics. Includes annotated listings of the best articles and books in each area.
Reference items are helpful for finding background information; definitions and spelling; facts and figures; translations; statistics and topical overviews of subjects. Reference books can be found both in print and online. See here for further information
Useful online reference material for Social Policy and Social Work include:
Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others. (source: UNESCO)
- Directory of Open Access BooksDOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available.
- OER CommonsOER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum
- Pressbooks DirectoryPressbooks Directory is a free, searchable catalog that includes 5,387 open access books published by 157 organizations and networks using Pressbooks. It's easy to copy, revise, remix, and redistribute any openly licensed content found here using Pressbooks' publishing platform. Nearly all books are highly accessible, and many include interactive H5P learning activities to engage learners.
- Social Problems: Continuity and ChangeSocial Problems: Continuity and Change is a realistic but motivating look at the many issues that are facing our society today. As this book’s subtitle, Continuity and Change, implies, social problems are persistent, but they have also improved in the past and can be improved in the present and future, provided that our nation has the wisdom and will to address them.
- Social Services DisruptedThis book revives the discussion on public social services and their redesign, with a focus on services relating to care and the social inclusion of vulnerable groups, providing rich information on the changes that occurred in the organisation and supply of public social services over the last thirty years in different European places and service fields.
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