Social policy and risk / Ian Culpitt.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [166]-175) and index.

Welfare Hazard, Social Policy and Risk: An Introduction -- Following Foucault: Governance, Security and Risk -- Welfare Obligations and Safety Nets: The Lessening of Risk -- Contract, Freedom and Choice: The Rediscovery of Risk -- The Risk Arena: Citizenship, Rights and the Marketplace -- Avoidance of Bads: Beck's New Ubiquity of Risk? -- The Radical Rupture of Risk Society: A Critical Review -- Risk and Recognition: A View Forward? -- The Welfare Gaze: Risk and the Dilemmas of Dependency.

"This book examines the notion of risk in relation to social policy. It takes ideas about risk - as expressed by sociologists such as Ulrich Beck in Risk Society - and applies them to recent changes in welfare. The author shows neo-liberals have used various aspects of risk to attack welfare dependency, and how various rhetoric's of risk have been used to reshape contemporary politics. The author explores the ways, applying a philosophy of risk, that we might challenge the apparently common sense dominance of neo-liberal arguments in social policy. He argues that the organizing philosophy of neo-liberalism is based on a valorization of contract and risk. He draws on Foucault to critique this neo-liberal perspective." -- BOOK JACKET.