Written from a distinctly Canadian point of view, Understanding Social Problems, Fourth Canadian Edition, examines how the structure and culture of societies contribute to social problems and their consequences. This text has strong pedagogical features and is comprehensive in its coverage, progressing from micro to macro levels of analysis. It focuses first on problems of health care, drug use, and crime, and then broadens to the widening concerns of population, health and welfare, science and technology, large-scale inequality and environmental problems. Known for its inclusive approach, Understanding Social Problems, Fourth Canadian Edition, explores powerful stories of real life people struggling with the challenges society and its problems have thrust upon them.

PRODUCT ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN CENGAGE UNLIMITED. UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL PROBLEMS, progresses from micro to macro analysis, focusing first on health care, drugs and alcohol, families, and crime and then looking at the larger issues of poverty and inequality, population growth, aging, environmental problems, and global conflict.

"Understanding Social Problems, Policies, and Programs offers a comprehensive analysis of policies used in the United States to address social problems and to develop social programs. Leon Ginsberg, a respected authority in the field of social work policy, provides a framework for understanding some of the most controversial issues facing the nation, including welfare assistance, food stamps, and health care reform. In this timely volume, he defines the components of social welfare policy and illuminates the complex issues encountered by helping professionals." "Intended for practitioners, educators, administrators, and students, Understanding Social Problems, Policies, and Programs focuses on the history and analysis of social welfare policies as well as the political process of policymaking. Ginsberg describes social problems as their inevitable result of people living together in complex societies, and he traces society's desire to help its most vulnerable members - the children, the elderly, the homeless, and the poor. By explaining how policies and programs are developed, Ginsberg offers insight into the ways that individuals and groups might initiate, modify, and implement improved programs for the disadvantaged."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Adopting an interactive workbook format, this book introduces students to topics such as female juvenile delinquency, and AIDS. Students are asked to think about how these problems impact society and themselves. These questions show that issues are not made up of abstract concepts.

An introduction to how social psychological theories, methods and interventions can be applied to manage real-world social problems.

This up-to-date and accessible text fills an important gap in the market by introducing students to social policy perspectives on social problems. Written in an accessible, student-friendly style, using subheadings, boxed material, tables, and up-to-date examples Each chapter includes a brief outline of the issues to be explored and question sections to help learning, develop evaluative skills and encourage project work Includes an annotated guide to further reading, helpful internet addresses, and a bibliography of sources cited Chapters can be used independently or in conjunction with others addressing related questions

This engaging and accessible reader takes a social problems approach to health and medicine, providing a broad and critical lens on contemporary health problems. Designed for courses on social problems and on medical sociology, the volume embraces two fundamental principles: that health and illness are at least partly socially produced, and that health care is not an unfettered good and often brings with it serious social problems. The volume is organized into six sections, addressing the medicalization of human problems; the social construction of health problems; social movements; gender; race and class and the provision of health care; and medical accountability. Taken together, the essays demonstrate the depth and richness of a social problems approach to health and medicine, and the critical perspective it brings to our understanding of health and illness in U.S. society.

This book is an economical introduction to social problems with a built-in study guide, emphasizing an applied approach that looks at the interplay between research and policy in finding solutions. This book explores the nature and extent of social problems, documents the advances and setbacks that we as a society have made, and analyzes what works and what doesn't work regarding solutions to todays problems. This straightforward book helps readers study this constantly changing field by applying social science research to the solutions of some of the most difficult and controversial problems confronting the United States and the world today. Designed for those interested in social problems, sociology or social sciences.

Building on the successes of Understanding Global Social Policy (Yeates ed. 2008) and its companion text, the Global Social Policy Reader (Yeates and Holden ed. 2009), the second edition of this leading textbook in social policy identifies and reviews the key issues, debates and priorities for action in global social policy as a field of academic study and research and as a field of political practice and action. All first edition chapters have been systematically revised and updated to reflect major developments in the fast-paced area of global social policy making over the past five years, and include new material on the Millennium Development Goals, the Social Protection Floor and the ‘greening’ of global social policy. This much-needed second edition includes new chapters on global poverty and inequality, social protection, criminal justice and education. Written by an international team of leading social policy analysts , Understanding Global Social Policy is the leading textbook in the field and provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of international actors and social policy formation in global context. It is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners seeking to identify key issues in contemporary social policy and locate them within a global framework of analysis and action.