From a welfare state to a welfare society : the changing context of social policy in a postmodern era

"From a Welfare State to a Welfare Society" situates its analysis of the welfare state in what the author calls the modernity debate: the conflict between ideas from the "present" and the "past" about the future. The clash between "modernism, anti-modernism" and "postmodernism" as "ways of seeing" and approaching social policy questions is a theme which runs through the text. The relevance of concepts such as "post-Fordism, postemotionalism. communitarianism, stakeholding, globalization," and"social exclusion" for understanding the contemporary welfare debate is demonstrated in a very integrated analysis.