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The Covid-19 pandemic has seen emerging debate about a possible shift in 'anti-welfare commonsense' i.e. the orthodoxy previously described in this journal as solidifying negative public attitudes towards 'welfare'. While a shift in attitudes might be ascribed to the circumstances of the crisis it would still be remarkable for such a strongly established orthodoxy to have changed quite so rapidly. It is appropriate, therefore, to reflect on whether the 'anti-welfare' orthodoxy was in fact as unequivocal as claimed? To address this question, challenges to the established orthodoxy that were emerging pre-pandemic are examined along with the most recently available survey data. This leads to discussion of broader issues relating to understanding attitudes: methodology; 'messiness' and ambivalence of attitudes; attitudes and constructions of deservingness; and following or leading opinion. It is argued that the 'anti-welfare' orthodoxy has always been far more equivocal than claimed, with consequent implications for anti-poverty action and re-setting debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of economic resources in society is a central concern for social policy. But research in this area has primarily concentrated on the bottom of the economic distribution, namely 'the poor'. In this article, we argue that it is time for social policy to move away from a narrow focus on poverty to consider the broader issue of inequality between different groups in the economic distribution and, by implication, the position of better-off citizens. This raises a number of conceptual challenges due to the current lack of consideration of wealth and inequality at a political, theoretical or empirical level. The article discusses the challenges and concludes by outlining a possible research agenda. However, the underpinning argument is that social policy needs to develop a broader understanding of the economic distribution.

In 2003 the UK government set an objective that in ten years' time Britain's minority ethnic groups should not face disproportionate barriers in the labour market. A key 'barrier' is discrimination by employers. This article examines one potential way forward: the use of contract compliance. First, the article presents findings from the authors' study of an innovative use of contract compliance by a group of local authorities in the West Midlands. If contract compliance can be made to work and New Labour is committed to addressing racial inequality in employment, this suggests that contract compliance is an approach that the government should be seeking to develop. The second part of the article therefore considers New Labour's stance on contract compliance, which can be seen to be highly ambiguous. It is argued that if contract compliance is located within the broader context of New Labour policy development, what is apparent is that the professed aspiration for social change is compromised by a dominant commitment to the maintenance of neo-liberal economic policies. The conclusion is that it is likely that only limited progress will be made in achieving racial equality in employment.

Covid‐19 has highlighted the inadequacy of UK social security but also the lack of consensus among progressive actors about what would be a better system. One way forward is to focus on the principles that should underpin social security. We present outcomes from a project in which principles were considered by a panel of Expert by Experience benefit claimants. We argue that while scholars often engage in descriptively identifying social security principles in existing policy, the bottom‐up approach presented here offers a way of generating normative principles to guide an improved future system. We identify key contributions of this bottom‐up approach relating to: the critical importance of principles as a guide to the fundamental purpose of social security, and policy making; the relationship between the treatment of claimants and benefit levels as co‐dependent; and how a bottom‐up process can produce results that engage with and contribute holistically to the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) are the subject of ongoing interest, which has included the framing of ALMPs as the re-commodification of labour. It has also been argued that Sen's Capability Approach (CA) offers the potential to reconsider ALMPs from a more progressive viewpoint – so, is this the case and to what extent is, or can, the CA be a helpful research and analytical tool with which to study ALMPs? These questions are addressed through a reflexive examination of a study of Danish ALMPs, which utilized the CA and key themes of capabilities promotion, voice and choice. The CA influenced all aspects of the research design, methods and analysis. It is argued that the CA is a helpful methodology in bringing a new perspective to studying ALMPs. Additionally, the study raised concerns about the trajectory of the Danish ALMPs studied and possible alternatives to current approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active labour market policy (ALMP) is a well-established strategy but one aspect is greatly neglected – employer participation – about which there is a lack of systematic evidence. The question of why and how employers participate in ALMP, and whether there may be some shift from employers solely being passive recipients of job-ready candidates to having a more proactive and strategic role, is addressed by drawing on new research into Talent Match, a contemporary UK employability programme which places particular emphasis on employer involvement. The research findings point to a conceptual distinction between employers' roles as being reactive gatekeepers to jobs and/or being proactive strategic partners, with both evident. It is argued that the Talent Match programme demonstrates potential to benefit employers, jobseekers and programme providers, with devolution of policy to the local level a possible way forward. The conclusion, however, is that the barrier to wider replication is not necessarily a problem of practice but of centralised control of policy and, in particular, commitment to a supply-side approach. Empirical, conceptual and policy contributions are made to this under-researched topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retheorisation of citizenship since the 1980s has been marked by an emphasis on responsibility over rights, and a focus on poor citizens. The article discusses why an interest in wealthy citizens is timely, including the argument in the UK that the citizenship responsibilities of those with high incomes should be expressed through the notion of active citizenship, not solely by paying tax. Findings are presented from empirical research in the UK, based on in-depth interviews with better off citizens. It is argued that wealthy citizens have benefited from a reduced obligation to pay taxation but there has not been a corresponding acceptance of active citizenship. Moreover, respondents' actual engagement with active citizenship and the expression of responsibility through an essentially individual ethos of economic independence promote a conception of citizenship that is exclusionary rather than inclusive. The research does not lead to an argument for the diminution of citizenship responsibility, but that there is a need for greater interest in the position of wealthy, not just poor, citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern of this article is with action at the local level to combat racial inequality in employment. It draws on the authors' evaluation of the 'West Midlands Common Standard', an innovative policy introduced by a consortium of West Midlands councils to ensure their contractors have, and implement, an equal opportunities in employment policy. The article assesses the impact of the initiative and its potential transferability. It is argued that the Common Standard provides a highly promising model for other local authorities to adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]