Drawing on a wide array of policy domains and events, this book provides an innovative account of social control and behaviourism within welfare systems and social policies, and the implications for disadvantaged groups. This accessible collection reviews the controls, assumptions and persuasions applied to individuals and households and explores broader themes, including how 'new behaviourism' was consolidated during the New Labour and Cameron periods. Social policy and social control offers timely engagements with key issues for researchers and policy makers, and is relevant for students in social policy, sociology, socio-legal studies, social work and social care, disability studies, human geography, politics and public policy, and gender, family and life course studies.

Malcolm Harrison is an Emeritus Professor at the School of Sociology and Social Policy in the University of Leeds, and has published widely on social policy, housing, urban issues and difference.

Teela Sanders is a Reader in Sociology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Leeds, with extensive research, publishing and teaching experience related to gender, regulation, the sex industry and social control.

Part 1: Setting the scene;

Introduction ~ Malcolm Harrison and Teela Sanders;

Social policy and the new behaviourism: towards a more excluding society ~ Malcolm Harrison with Laura Hemingway;

Beyond protection: 'the vulnerable' in the age of austerity ~ Kate Brown;

Part 2: Policies, practices and implications in specific domains;

Welfare reform and the valorisation of work: is work really the best form of welfare? ~ Ruth Patrick;

Sanctuary or sanctions: children, social worth and social control in the UK asylum process ~ Ala Sirriyeh;

New Labour, the coalition government and disciplined communities ~ Andrew Wallace;

Young people, education, families and communities: marginalised hopes and dreams? ~ Doug Martin;

Choice, control and user influence in health and social care ~ Gabrielle Mastin;

Patient responsibilities, social determinants of health and nudges: the case of organ donation ~ Ana Manzano;

Nudged into employment: lone parents and welfare reform ~ Laura Davies;

Welfare reform and drug policy: coalition, continuity and change ~ Mark Monaghan;

Regulating social housing: expectations for behaviour of tenants ~ Jenny McNeill;

Part 3: Conclusions;

Concluding thoughts: the consequences of a 'not-so-big society' ~ Teela Sanders.