Böcker utgivna av Agenda Publishing

This frank and uncompromising account gives the inside view from the EU side of what it was really like to negotiate the Brexit agreement with the UK.

This book examines the failures of mainstream politics, and in particular the inability of the centre-left - the UK Labour Party and France's Parti Socialiste - to respond to the Great Recession more effectively.

Poverty in modern-day Britain looks different to the form it took in Beveridge's day but it has not disappeared. For 14 million people across the UK the lack of access to the goods and services necessary to live a decent life and to participate fully in society remains a grim reality. Despite rising standards of living, social and economic structures continue to trap those at the bottom in constant job insecurity, ill-health, overcrowded housing and educational disadvantage. Helen Barnard considers what it might take to finally slay the giant of poverty in Britain. She examines how we might build a fairer, more equal society, and what a modern welfare state should aim to achieve, including an honest appraisal of the trade-offs and choices involved in creating it.

UK workers are stuck in a low-pay, low-productivity rut, with far too many people working in poor quality, insecure jobs, with little training or chance of getting on. Katy Jones and Ashwin Kumar question the mantra that "e;work is the best way out of poverty"e; and examine the in-work poverty that now defines employment for many.The state's engagement with people out of work is shown to ignore the needs of lone parents and disabled people, and has little concern for skills and career progression. When coupled with the degradation of social infrastructure, such as child care and transport, the barriers to quality work can become insurmountable. Jones and Kumar's insightful analysis reveals the need to move away from positioning unemployment as a "e;behavioural problem"e; to be corrected by coercive labour market policies to one that considers the wider obstacles to better paid, quality jobs.

As a universal experience school provokes strongly-held opinions. The views of teachers, parents, pupils compete with those of educational theorists, social engineers and ideologues. Although undoubtedly much improved since the time of Beveridge, the provision of education remains beset with challenges. Sally Tomlinson's engaging, and at times personal, journey through Britain's postwar experience of schooling and education reform draws on her many years of working in the sector. She explains how legacies of different systems and countless policy initiatives have led to the persistence of social inequalities, entrenching them in society and perpetuated by the power dynamics that they create between class, race and gender. Furthermore, she shows how the increasing mania for testing, targets, choice and competition, which has made schools into a marketplace and young people into consumers, threatens to undermine schools as a place where citizens can share learning and the democratic values that are needed as much today as they were in Beveridge's time.

British society is increasingly divided into the haves and the have-nots. Housing epitomizes this division with spiralling rents, exorbitant prices, lack of council provision, poorly maintained stock, and polluted cities with ever decreasing green space. Daniel Renwick and Robbie Shilliam provide a recent history of squalor culminating in the Grenfell Tower fire. In doing so they reveal a profound political failure to provide fair and just solutions to shelter - the most basic of human needs. Renwick and Shilliam argue that agents of change exist within those populations presently damned by a racist and class-riven system of housing provision.

In 1942 life expectancy at birth was 66 for women and 60 for men. Death was usually due to degenerative and infectious diseases. The greatest postwar success in the fight against disease was the establishment of the NHS and care that was free at the point of delivery. Life expectancy rose dramatically, but since 2011 incremental improvements have stalled and even, in some regions, begun to reverse. Infant mortality rates have crept up and the postcode lottery of health provision underscores the level of social inequality in the UK. Good health is not simply the absence of disease. It is the collective of physical, social and mental well-being. It is the product of nutrition and genetics, of healthy lifestyles and preventative health interventions. It is the interaction between the conditions in which we live, work, play and age. Yet access to many of the things that make and keep us healthy are not evenly distributed in the population. Achieving good health is then deeply entwined with all aspects of society and cannot simply be solved by policies in one area alone.In our rediscovery of Beveridge, the shadow of the pandemic looms large. It is has never been more urgent to address the underlying causes of Disease. And it has never been clearer that these determinants are not only social or physiological, but also political.

An authoritative desk-top reference work for students of geography, the environment and sustainability, which through a series of 101 interconnected questions and answers spanning ten thematic sections, provides a comprehensive survey of humankind's impact on the global environment from the Late Stone Age to the present day.

Suitable for students of business and finance, the book offers readers a balanced and considered guide to the economics of the fund management industry and a critical appraisal of the sector's future.

A clear and rigorous survey of terrorist financing and the international efforts to combat it suitable for a range of courses in international relations, politics and global political economy.

Nick O'Donovan tells the story of how the techno-optimism once associated with the rise of the knowledge economy came to be supplanted by widespread anxiety about technological progress, and how the political consensus that formed around a knowledge-driven growth agenda has unravelled.

Privately-held property (land and buildings) and the growth of the propertied middle class presents an anomaly in authoritarian states. This book unravels the puzzle that is the growth of private property in tandem with political support for authoritarian regimes.

Mexico City is the second largest city on the American continent, the most populous Spanish-speaking city in the world and the richest city, in terms of GFP, in Latin America. The authors explore the political structures, demography, economy, social issues and public administration that make this megacity distinctive.

An accessible and authoritative overview of the role of inflation in the modern economy, from its place in monetary policy and in money supply to its effects on everyday business.

How has the Chinese government dealt with unequal development and how and why has Chinese society accepted such high levels of inequality? In exploring these questions, this book considers what the Chinese social model is all about, showing how it goes beyond ideas about capitalism and socialism.

A compelling analysis of political racism in the Brexit campaign and in UK post-Brexit politics.

Examines the nature of European welfare provision and the untruths that surround it. They examine the impact of the austerity measures that followed the Great Recession, and consider its future design to equip European societies to face social change, global competition and external shocks.

Using case studies to understand the different forms of corruption (bribery, political corruption, kleptocracy and corrupt capital) the book builds a picture of the global threat that corruption poses and the responses that have been most effective.

Fully revised and updated introduction to the music industry, including an analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on live performance.

Oonagh McDonald examines the challenges, opportunities and threats that cryptocurrencies pose to cash and to existing fiat currencies and their potential to change how global finance operates.

An introdution to one of the key areas of behavioural economics - social preferences - which explains in clear, untechnical language how experimental research in this area has provided economists with much greater understanding of economic behaviour.

A concise and up to date analysis of Mexico's economic development and the country's political economy suitable for a range of courses in Latin American studies and Development Studies.

An impassioned defence of the role of philanthropy in society.

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most talked about and little understood policy initiatives of China. This short book offers a comprehensive, balanced and policy-oriented analysis of the BRI and what it means for western businesses and polities.

An incisive discussion of the development of this class of investor, how they have become legitimate actors in global financial markets, and their role as providers of capital and in economic development at home and abroad.

An economic history of postwar South Africa, with particular focus on the modern post-apartheid period.