This volume draws together an impressive series of papers that explore enduring and new problems in the construction and analysis of social policy. Critical but accessible, the various chapters cover: methodological issues and the nature of competing claims about social policy 'knowledge'; racism and health services; citizenship and access to housing and other amenities; and the importance of the environment as an emerging area for social policy debate.

This collection appears at a time when it is widely recognised that whichever political party is in power in the late 1990s, the familiar model of the 'classic' British welfare state is increasingly distant. Domestic issues and local contexts are linked to broader global changes and different chapters engage in theoretical debate and empirical analysis in ways which make this a strong contribution to work defining the 'new social policy'.

The editors describe the agenda of this new social policy and introduce the collection, identifying the key themes of the volume as 'citizenship', 'exclusion' and 'difference'.