Austerity’s impacts on the healthcare, social care and education professions are under the spotlight in this important book. From scarcer resources to greater stresses, and falling training budgets to rising risks, it charts how policies and cuts have compromised workers’ ability to undertake their professional roles. It combines research and practice experience to assess the extent of de-professionalisation in recent years and how workers have responded. This book is a vital review of how austerity has resculpted our notions of professionalism.

Austerity’s impacts on the healthcare, social care and education professions are under the spotlight in this important book. From scarcer resources to greater stresses, and falling training budgets to rising risks, it charts how policies and cuts have compromised workers’ ability to undertake their professional roles. It combines research and practice experience to assess the extent of de-professionalisation in recent years, and how workers have responded. This book is a vital review of how austerity has resculpted our notions of professionalism.

Professionalism is a complex and highly disputed idea of crucial importance in a range of fields, not least health and social care. It can inspire people by reminding them of workplace ideals and the value of occupational expertise. But it can also feel threatening and de-motivating; for example, if it is used to demand ever more from people working in very challenging circumstances. The language of professionalism can evoke a special relationship of trust between service users and practitioners. But it can also suggest a social distance between two classes of people; high status professionals and their lower status 'non-professional' clients. This book is an original and accessible guide to these ambiguities and complexities. Cribb and Gewirtz clarify the nature of professionalism and explain and defend its importance, providing an understanding of, and an analytical engagement with, both idealistic and critical perspectives. In addition, the authors assess the implications of contemporary policy trends for professional work, showing how they may be radically altering our understanding of the 'good' professional. This inviting and reflective study draws upon examples and case studies and weaves in a range of relevant theoretical concepts and perspectives. Written in a style that encourages and supports further reflection on this complex topic, Professionalism is the only book of its kind for practitioners, researchers and students in health and social care.

This book, the first comprehensive overview of housing policy in Australia in 25 years, investigates the many dimensions of housing affordability and government actions that affect affordability outcomes. It analyses the causes and implications of declining home ownership, rising rates of rental stress and the neglect of social housing, as well as the housing situation of Indigenous Australians. The book covers a period where housing policy primarily operated under a neo-liberal paradigm dominated by financial de-regulation and fiscal austerity. It critiques the broad and fragmented range of government measures that have influenced housing outcomes over this period. These include regulation, planning and tax policies as well as explicit housing programs. The book also identifies current and future housing challenges for Australian governments, recognizing these as a complex set of inter-connected problems. Drawing on its coverage of the economics, politics and administration of housing provision, the book sets out priorities for the transformational national strategy needed for a fairer and more productive housing system, and to improve affordability outcomes for the most vulnerable Australians.

This timely book critically examines the European Social Model as a contested concept and concrete set of European welfare and governance arrangements. It offers a theoretical and empirical analysis of new economic models and existing European investment strategies to address key issues within post-Covid-19 Europe.

Professions and professionalism have played an integral part in business and society. In this book, Mike Saks provides a thorough overview of this field through an analysis of a range of professions, including, amongst others, accountants, doctors and lawyers. The book offers a critical analysis of such privileged occupational groups in modern societies. Anticipating a positive if changing role for such groups in the years ahead, the book outlines conflicting theoretical perspectives on professions and discusses current developments in an accessible, multi-disciplinary style. The book documents their evolution and contemporary transformation from medieval guilds to fully-fledged professions and international professional service firms, while pointing a path towards their future in the world of work and beyond. With insights into the recent challenges provided by clients, citizens, the state and corporations in neo-liberal societies, Professions provides a concise overview that will be essential reading for students, academics and others interested in the operation of these key occupational groups in business and society.