Critical Social Policy

Critical Social Policy provides a space for critical approaches to the production, development and receipt of social policy and welfare. By engaging with issues rooted in political, economic, social and cultural power the journal interrogates conventional approaches to social policy and offers alternative and critically informed perspectives. In keeping with the commitment to confronting hierarchical ways of functioning that inevitably lead to unequal power positions, Critical Social Policy operates as a collective.

From the moment of inception, Critical Social Policy has been a political project confronting orthodox and traditional approaches to social policy, welfare and the state, seeking to put people before profit. Its original aims were, and continue to be, grounded in socialist, feminist, anti-racist and radical perspectives relating to the experiences of people struggling within or against the state. The journal continues to evolve, therefore, by engaging with questions of identity, position and power such as class, gender, ‘race’, disability, sexuality and age, so as to try and counteract exclusion, subordination and domination. The journal aims to interrogate critically social policy within the context of national and global social change.

The Critical Social Policy editorial collective welcomes contributions from activists, advocates, academics, practitioners, policy-makers, and users of services who are engaging with perspectives on power, resistance, emancipation, social justice and political transformation. We also welcome debate on how to initiate, engender and support struggles within the sphere of social policy.