This ‘state-of-the art’ article on the role of deservingness in governing migrants’ access to social services situates our themed section’s contribution to the literature at the intersection between the study of street-level bureaucracy and practices of internal bordering through social policy. Considering the increasing relevance of migration control post-entry, we review the considerations that guide the local delivery of social services. Among others, moral ideas about a claimant’s worthiness to receive social benefits and services guide policy implementation. But while ideas of deservingness help to understand how perceptions of migrants’ claiming play out in practice, we observe limited use of the concept in street-level bureaucracy research. Drawing on theorisations from welfare attitudinal research, we demonstrate the salience of deservingness attitudes in understanding the dynamics of local social service delivery to migrant clients.

Combating long-term unemployment remains a central strand of policies to promote social and labour market inclusion. One area of increasing concern is that the long-term unemployed (and especially those residing in disadvantaged communities) can find themselves isolated from the diverse social networks that can contribute to effective job seeking. This article draws on interviews conducted with 220 job seekers in two areas of high unemployment within the city of Glasgow to investigate: whether long-term unemployed people in these areas struggle to access social networks for job search; and the extent to which long-term unemployment is in itself associated with a more general erosion of social/community relations and a withdrawal from what has been termed the ‘tertiary sphere of sociability’. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential role for social policy in seeking to help the long-term unemployed and other job seekers to develop and broaden social networks and activities.

Evidence from two studies of social exclusion based in England are drawn on to suggest that responsible agency can be seen as a feature of resilience. I argue that this agency, or capacity to act effectively in the world, is developed relationally and is evident in people's thoughtful actions in their worlds, but is also contingent on the affordances for such action in any environment. That is, resilience can be seen as responsible engagement with one's world as well as a capacity to withstand difficulties. The theoretical basis of this argument is Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) which proposes that we are shaped by but also shape our worlds. The implications for professional practices are discussed.

In recent years there have been significant advances in our understanding of the dynamics of poverty, social exclusion and labour market transitions through the analysis of large-scale panel studies. This article examines the particular contribution that longitudinal qualitative research might additionally make in these areas, illustrated by evidence from an ongoing longitudinal qualitative study of lone mothers and their children, following the families as they leave income support for employment.

This article describes the contested and underdeveloped backdrop to ‘“whole family” approaches’, whereby families with care and protection needs are caught in a conflicting set of policy and practice expectations concerning responsibility to care whilst being positioned as families that fail. Questions are raised about how supported families are to navigate their way through these permissive and punitive policies and practices. We suggest that there is an urgent need for more ‘bottom–up’ research informed by the ethic of care to develop the kinds of policies and practices that might make it more possible for them to do so.

This article presents a review of relevant literature on the issue of the governance of activation. The article starts with some general comments on the state of the art of research on the governance of activation. Putting governance into practice in new service provision models in the policy areas of activation and social policy, the review continues with a discussion of publications on some of the characteristics of these models: marketisation, decentralisation, inter-agency cooperation and individualisation of service provision. It also looks at literature on the implementation of activation, as this provides insight into governance issues from an organisational and street-level perspective.

Since 2003 the rapid development of China's social policy has aroused much academic interest. This research places the development of social policy in China's political and economic context, focusing on the changing role of the state in making and implementing social policy. Based on the policy paradigm theory, this article builds up a framework to analyse the shift of social policy paradigms in post-Mao China, examining the changing role of the Chinese state in social welfare and social development. It argues that China's latest round of social policy expansion was driven by the social problems accumulated during the economic reforms, with change triggered by the SARS crisis, and its shape finally determined by the central political leadership led by Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao in a top-down manner.

This article employs Michael Lipsky's street level bureaucrat conceptual framework to explore the exercise of discretion in frontline homelessness service delivery. It is the first to apply Lipsky's model to English homelessness services at the outset, and builds on earlier investigations which have uncovered how the use of illegitimate discretion can potentially lead to detrimental outcomes for service users affected by homelessness. This topic is particularly salient in light of the current politically austere climate, whereby statutory homelessness services have experienced an increase in service users, yet resources, if anything, are declining. Interview findings from twelve local authorities found evidence of unlawful discretion, which was attributed to a complex mesh of individual, intersubjective, organisational and central-led factors. However, the use of negative discretion was chiefly underpinned by higher level pressures around resource scarcity and strict targets.

This article provides empirical results on food consumption patterns of German low-income households and those living under conditions of welfare as defined by Social Code II (Sozialgesetzbuch II). We focus on nutritional consumption patterns, strategies of food choices and typologies of coping with alimentary exclusion in Germany. Quantitative data from SILC/Eurostat are examined alongside qualitative data derived from a longitudinal study composed of more than 450 biographical interviews, conducted over a period of five years. The quantitative data reveal that food poverty and alimentary participation in German households is severe compared to the European average, the UK and even to Greece. The qualitative data give insight into a broad variety of individual coping strategies, eliciting evidence of the essential role of alimentary participation, as well as its tight restrictions.

The roles that older workers play in labour markets has received a great deal of policy and academic scrutiny in response to economic crises and demographic change. As a starting point, this focus has paradoxically resulted in insufficient attention to older workers themselves. The article is thus concerned with refocusing the agenda for research onto the older worker. Building on an extensive literature review, four gaps in knowledge are identified: who might be researched; what the focus of that research might be; the role of theory informing the research; and how the research might be conducted. The article identifies a particular need for research on ‘work’ as opposed to ‘retirement’ and how the changing nature of work may influence future patterns of later life labour market engagement and retirement. It is argued that better public policy will result from more critical and socially embedded research that recognises the heterogeneity of ‘older workers’ and their motivations.

This review builds on issues raised in the themed section relating to household level food insecurity, and the food charity response specifically. It looks at key elements in the development of this body of work and at some of the evidence gaps which remain. In particular, it engages with literature on determinants of household food insecurity with relevance to social policy (for example sufficiency of income), and on research which has examined charitable food responses through the lens of food insecurity. The review is necessarily limited in scope and therefore does not cover other elements of household food insecurity and food charity, including research on nutrition or food skills, or work on food charity operation, food sourcing and reach, for example.

Building on Stimson's (2000) analysis, this paper examines the shift from a focus on health towards one of crime within UK drug policy. The increased use of coerced or compulsory treatment of drug users is discussed with reference to harm reduction theory and the question of whose harm is prioritised in shaping drug services. We also identify mechanisms by which the efficacy of treatment approaches based on coercion may be lessened or reduce the efficacy of other existing services. Failure to consider these may be an important omission in any appraisal of the impact of policies that increasingly prioritise crime prevention and coercion over heath and voluntarism.

The question of how best to account for the multidimensional character of welfare states has become an integral part of discussions on the so-called dependent variable problem within comparative welfare state research. In this paper, we discuss challenges from an attempt to capture productive and protective welfare state dimensions by means of several methodological techniques, namely Z-score standardisation, cluster analysis, factor analysis and fuzzy-set ideal type analysis. While we illustrate that a decision to use any one of these techniques has a substantial bearing on the produced findings, we specifically argue that fuzzy-set ideal type analysis offers considerable advantages over more traditional, statistically rooted approaches. This is particularly true if the observed dimensions are conceptually distinct and ‘antithetical’.

This article examines the development of the EU's gender equality framework of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law, including the incomplete gender mainstreaming of the European Employment Strategy. It highlights contradictions, rooted in political tensions between the social democratic principles which underpin the European Social Model, and the promotion of neo-liberal economic policies. It assesses the UK's role in shaping this European framework, and the framework's impact on the UK's employment policy. It concludes that Brexit will harm the pursuit of gender equality in the UK due to decoupling from the EU's equality framework and policy pathway. An additional risk is greater insularity in UK policy making through reduced exposure to the Open Method of Coordination. Brexit may, however, help progress gender equality in the rest of the EU if the outcome is greater unity focussed on an inclusive employment policy without the UK dragging its heels in favour of deregulated flexibility.

This article is based on the findings of research undertaken towards a doctoral thesis funded by the University of Leeds. The research focuses upon the actions and experiences of women asylum seekers and refugees living in West Yorkshire. While acknowledging that the context in which women find themselves can present a number of barriers, this paper looks at their actions and practices at the individual and collective levels. It illustrates that some women are able to draw on the resources available, and are engaged in activities that not only assist their own settlement in the host society but also assist the development of support structures for future arrivals of asylum seekers and refugees.

There is an emerging consensus that new approaches are needed to take account of the impact of social conditions on young people's lives. We argue that an approach informed by the sociology of generations can highlight the interrelationships between changing social context and life patterns. This approach enables policies that aim to enhance the social inclusion of youth at risk to recognise the intersections between individual and social transitions that shape the changing experience of youth. We argue that social change needs to be recognised in order to ensure that policies are based on a sound understanding of new patterns in young lives.

Interventions framed through a behavioural lens, particularly ‘Nudge’, are gaining credence in US and UK policy circles, not least around healthcare. Key tenets of this ‘libertarian paternalist’ approach are discussed and related to sociological theory. The influential position of nudge begs sociological engagement, indeed its recognition of ‘choice architecture’ is partially congruent with sociological conceptions of structure-embedded agency. Though recognising the significance of norms, the analysis of nudge fails to appreciate their depth in terms of time, materiality and the socio-cultural. The potency and variable consequences of these social factors are emphasised through Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field. This framework alongside various sociological approaches to risk and uncertainty are proposed as potentially fruitful paths of critical engagement.

This article explores the gendered nature of the process of withdrawing from the European Union. Considering the EU is widely accepted as a gender actor, particularly in the context of employment policy, the marginality of these issues in current debates reflects a hierarchy in the value attributed to different policy areas that crystallizes the high-low politics binary. European led initiatives have undoubtedly changed the nature of equality policies in the Member States. Recent studies have also outlined how, and to what extent, EU policy contributes to shifts in gender regimes, gender policy and gender relations at the national level. Women in the UK have benefited greatly from membership of the EU/EEC; thus, looking at Brexit as a process provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the relationship, and patterns of influence, between European and national legislation.

Falling welfare rolls in the US has focussed attention on those remaining on the caseload, variously termed the ‘hard to serve’ or ‘difficult to employ’. Using data from the first three years of the Women's Employment Study, a sample of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients drawn in an urban county in Michigan, this article examines the barriers that inhibit people moving off welfare. The analysis indicates that the kinds of skill deficits and other personal problems experienced by welfare recipients are not frequently and systematically addressed within the rapid-employment, welfare to work models widely implemented across the USA.

This article develops an analytic framework for parenting support, treating it as both a form of social policy and a measure that intervenes more broadly in politics and society. It is suggested that, as a form of social policy, parenting support can be examined through analytical categories that are classic to social policy, such as: the nature of the offer or ‘good’ to parents, the modality of provision, conditions of access and operation, the policy setting and linkages to other policies, the unfolding of the policy over time and historical roots, philosophical underpinnings and dominant professional influences. In a second layer, the social and political roots and orientations of parenting support have to be investigated. When one does this by, for example, identifying the main actors involved in parenting support and the rationales and claims made for parenting support as a policy response, it becomes obvious that parenting support can be either a benign project of support or part of a more controlling educative or retraining exercise.