Read more
The Covid-19 pandemic has tragically exposed how today's welfare state cannot properly protect its citizens. Despite the valiant efforts of public sector workers, from under-resourced hospitals to a shortage of housing and affordable social care, the pandemic has tragically shown how decades of neglect has caused hundreds to die. In this bold new book, leading policy analyst Ursula Huws shows how we can create a welfare state that is fair, affordable, and offers security for all.
Huws focuses on some of the key issues of our time - the gig economy, universal, free healthcare, and social care, to criticize the current state of welfare provision. Drawing on a lifetime of research on these topics, she clearly explains why we need to radically rethink how it could change. With positivity and rigor, she proposes new and original policy ideas, including critical discussions of Universal Basic Income and new legislation for universal workers' rights.
She also outlines a 'digital welfare state' for the 21st century. This would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernize and expand public services, and improve accessibility.
List of contents
Series Preface
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. What Has Happened to the Twentieth-century Welfare State?
3. What Has Happened in the Labour Market?
4. What Has Happened to Gender Equality?
5. Recalibrating the Mechanisms of Redistribution
6. A Universal Basic Income that is Genuinely Redistributive
7. A New Deal for Labour
8. Digital Platforms for Public Good
9. The Way Forward
Notes
Index
About the author
Ursula Huws is Professor of Labour and Globalisation at the University of Hertfordshire. Her most recent book is Labour in Contemporary Capitalism: What Next? (2019). She has been carrying out pioneering research on the economic and social impacts of technological change, the restructuring of employment and the changing international division of labour, for many years. She lectures, advises policy-makers, and has written numerous books.
Summary
The welfare state is unfit for purpose – how can we transform it into a force for equality and social justice?
