Welfare Words

‘Systematically exposes the neoliberal myths in unequal societies’ - Niels Rosendal Jensen

'A call to arms to challenge inequality and social exclusion.' - Lel Meleyal

‘An impassioned dissection of the highly coded lexicon of so-called welfare reform…get reading, get angry, get ready’. - Gargi Bhattacharyya



Welfare Words analyses the keywords and phrases commonly used by policy-makers, news-outlets and wider society, when referring to social policy, welfare reform and social work in the present-day culture of neoliberal capitalism. Examining how power relations operate through language and culture, it encourages readers to question how welfare words fit within a wider economic and cultural context riven with gross social inequalities; to disrupt taken-for-granted meanings within mainstream social work and social policy, and to think more deeply, critically and politically about the incessant usage of specific words and phrases. Written by an authoritative voice in the field, Paul Michael Garrett makes sense of complex theories which codify everyday experience, giving readers vital tools to better understand and change their social worlds.