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This chapter addresses the question of how and when ‘justice’ morphed into ‘social justice’. It reviews the central elements of current debates about ‘social justice’ in light of the pressing global social policy imperative, reflected in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to integrate economic, social and environmental needs for a more just and sustainable world. The chapter then examines how should the conception of global social justice be formulated where most states are increasingly multicultural. It seeks to understand the underlying questions like: Can we rely on an almost exclusively Eurocentric or Anglo-American, not to say Judaeo-Christian, understanding of the meaning of social justice? What might a global social justice framework look like in theory and how might it work in practice, and what are some of the likely political consequences if it is accepted by mainstream political and cultural groups? By discussing the demands for stronger global social justice, the chapter unfolds many challenges ahead on this long and winding road, if the idea of global social justice can be turned into a reality for all.

Tononi et al. claim that their integrated information theory of consciousness makes testable predictions. This article discusses two of the more startling predictions, which follow from the theory’s claim that conscious experiences are generated by inactive as well as active neurons. The first prediction is that a subject’s conscious experience at a time can be affected by the disabling of neurons that were already inactive at that time. The second is that even if a subject’s entire brain is “silent,” meaning that all of its neurons are inactive (but not disabled), the subject can still have a conscious experience. A few authors have noted the implausibility of these predictions—which I call the disabling prediction and the silent brain prediction—but none have considered whether they are testable. In this article, I argue that they are not. In order to make this case, I first try to clarify the distinction between active, inactive (i.e. silent), and inactivated (i.e. disabled) neurons. With this clarification in place, I show that, even putting aside practical difficulties, it is impossible to set up a valid test of either the disabling prediction or the silent brain prediction. The conditions of the tests themselves are conditions under which a response from the subject could not reasonably be interpreted as evidence of consciousness or change in consciousness.

This chapter discusses the key analysis and messages from the Social Policy Association (SPA) race audit, looking at the challenges facing the discipline. The report was tasked with looking at social policy in terms of student composition, staff composition, conference/journal content, and curriculum content. Social policy has treated debates on ‘race’ and racism as marginal for too long, as reflected in the relative absence of ‘race’ from the major social policy journals. An important issue that has arisen is that the SPA has never made use of ethnic monitoring in membership applications, making it impossible to assess the representativeness or otherwise of its membership. The SPA clearly has some way to go to persuade social policy academics of the importance of confronting this challenge, and this is unlikely to happen without a major cultural shift within higher education institutions (HEIs) and the discipline more broadly.

The distinction between occurrent and non-occurrent mental states is frequently appealed to by contemporary philosophers, but it has never been explicated in any significant detail. In the literature, two accounts of the distinction are commonly presupposed (and occasionally stated explicitly). One is that occurrent states are conscious states. The other is that non-occurrent states are dispositional states, and thus that occurrent states are manifestations of dispositions. I argue that neither of these accounts is adequate, and therefore that another account is needed. I propose that occurrent states are active states.

Recent major political developments, including Brexit and the US presidential elections, have been strongly associated with public concerns around levels of immigration. Much of this has centred on the role of migrants in the low-skilled sectors of the economy and concerns that they have displaced members of local communities from jobs and depressed wage levels. This is despite compelling evidence that immigrants rarely take jobs from native workers in OECD countries (Constant, 2014) and that in the long run, the wage and employment effects of immigration in the 1990s and in the 2000s were small and always positive for less educated workers of all OECD countries (Docquieret al., 2014). Recent UK specific studies have found that the impact on wages is considered to be relatively small (Dustmannet al., 2013; Nickell and Salaheen, 2015). Notwithstanding this evidence, hostility to migrants and migration more generally has become increasingly overt, as reflected in a substantial rise in ‘race’ hate crimes before and following the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU in 2016 (Burnett, 2017).

Extensive research in a number of disciplines, including economics, social policy, sociology, geography and management have been undertaken relating to migrant participation in the labour market. Given the highly topical nature of migrant employment in Western Europe and the US, the aim of this brief review is to draw together some of the more recent attempts to theorise on the presence of migrants in the labour market, discuss some of the recurrent themes that have emerged from empirical research in this area, consider some of the main implications for policy-making in what now seems likely to be known as the post-Brexit era and outline areas for future research. In doing so, the intention is to contribute to further inter-disciplinary theory-building and to a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of this highly politicised area and the implications of migrant employment for policy and future research.

Purpose The 2015 Modern Slavery Act focusses attention forms of modern slavery (human trafficking and forced labour), within the UK. The contemporaneous 2014 Care Act, identifies modern slavery as a new form of risk within adult social care, listing forms of abuse and vulnerability. However, it does not consider whether those providing care may themselves be vulnerable to forms of modern slavery. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors describe the history of the development of modern slavery legislation in the UK, outline key provisions of the Care Act, illustrated with real-life cases. The analysis suggests that adult social care – characterised by informality, fragmentation and vulnerability – is one where instances of modern slavery may be more common than considered to date. Findings The data collected, though relatively modest, suggests that a thorough investigation should be undertaken into the possibility of modern slavery taking place within the realm of adult social care. Research limitations/implications Data have been collected through a snowball process, rolling out a survey to relevant groups of individual and organisations. A more rigorous investigation is required to examine the extent of modern slavery within adult social care. Practical implications The training of those responsible for the regulation/management of adult social care needs to ensure that they are fully equipped to understand the nature of modern slavery and how to identify its symptoms and victims. Social implications There is also a need for heightened awareness of those close to people being cared for that they may also identify the symptoms of modern slavery. Originality/value This area has not been explored to date.