Social Policy and Social Justice: Meeting the Challenges of a Diverse Society

“This book has helped students to connect their experience in clinical practice to their responsibility for involvement in policy advocacy. Reisch provides a text with diverse perspectives, which assists students in thinking beyond their own experience when considering aspects of polices which affect clients and communities.” 
— Amy L. Pérez, Eastern University

“Reisch, a leader in the field of social work and policy practice, with co-authors offer a broad policy practice critical pedagogy to democracy and social justice. He and co-authors carefully analyze policies, realities and barriers to and resources to influence and transform social work policy practice, suggesting ways for social workers, students and advocates to impact traditional approaches into critical and democratic experiences.” 
— Eva M. Moya, LMSW, Ph.D., Department of Social Work, College of Health Sciences, The University of Texas at El Paso

“The ample coverage of policy history, analysis, and current issues, analytical depth, and orientation to social workers and social work practice of this book make it an indispensable textbook for teaching social policy and social welfare policy at the MSW level.” 
— Jacob Lesniewski, Dominican University Graduate School of Social Work

Combining the best features of a standard text with those of an anthology, Social Policy and Social Justice: Meeting the Challenges of a Diverse Society is built on a clear, conceptual social justice framework and provides up-to-date analyses of contemporary social policy issues, written by experts in their particular areas of research and practice. 

The book uses case studies and rigorous analysis to explore the relationship of social policy to economic, social, and culture transformation and the ongoing conflict between universal and population-specific conceptions of social welfare. This updated 2nd edition addresses recent dramatic changes in social policy and the environment that shapes it. These include implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Black Lives Matter movement, and Supreme Court decisions on issues such as voting and reproductive rights, marriage equality, and the limits of executive authority. 

Social Policy and Social Justice is ideal for undergraduate and graduate social work courses, as well as classes in cognate fields such as nursing, public policy, and political science.

Michael Reisch earned his Ph.D. in modern European history and the history of ideas at the State University of New York, Binghamton and his M.S.W. from Hunter College of the City University of New York. Dr. Reisch is now the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where he also serves on the school’s Diversity and Anti-Oppression Committee. He has written extensively, with his work being featured in numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed journals including Social Work, Social Service Review, the British Journal of Social Work, the Journal of Social Work Education, and Social Work Education: An International Journal. His most recent book (co-authored with Charles Garvin, Oxford, 2016) is Social Work and Social Justice: Concepts, Challenges, and Strategies.