Contemporary social evils / [electronic resource]
Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Utting, David,editor.
Which underlying problems pose the greatest threat to British society in the 21st century? A hundred years after its philanthropist founder identified poverty, alcohol, drugs and gambling among the social evils of his time, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation initiated a major consultation among leading thinkers, activists and commentators, as well as the wider public. The findings have now been brought together in this fascinating book.  Individual contributors range across the political spectrum but the book also reports the results from a web survey and consultation with groups whose voices are less often heard. The results suggest that while some evils - like poverty - endure as undisputed causes of social harm, more recent sources of social misery, such as an alleged rise in selfish consumerism and a perceived decline in personal responsibility and family commitment, attract controversy.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
'Social evils' and 'social problems' in Britain since 1904 / Jose Harris -- Uneasy and powerless: views from the online consultation / Beth Watts and David Utting -- Truncated opportunities: eliciting unheard voices on social evils / Alice Mowlam and Chris Creegan -- Living with social evils: further views from people in disadvantaged groups / Chris Cregan, Martha Warrener and Rachel Kinsella -- Has there been a decline in values in British society? / Anthony Browne -- Social evils and social good / A.C. Grayling -- Unkind, risk averse and untrusting: if this is today's society, can we change it? / Baroness Julia Neuberger -- What and who is it we don't trust? / Shaun Bailey -- Fear and distrust in 21st-century Britain / Anna Minton -- The absence of society/ Zygmunt Bauman -- A wrong turn in the search for freedom? / Neal Lawson -- Individualism and community: investing in civil society / Stephen Thake -- Opportunity and aspiration: two sides of the same coin? / Chris Creegan -- Five types of inequality / Ferdinand Mount -- The poor and the unequal / Jeremy Seabrook -- Reflections on social evils and human nature / Matthew Taylor.
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 26 Jan 2022).
Which underlying problems pose the greatest threat to British society in the 21st century? A hundred years after its philanthropist founder identified poverty, alcohol, drugs and gambling among the social evils of his time, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation initiated a major consultation among leading thinkers, activists and commentators, as well as the wider public. The findings have now been brought together in this fascinating book.  Individual contributors range across the political spectrum but the book also reports the results from a web survey and consultation with groups whose voices are less often heard. The results suggest that while some evils - like poverty - endure as undisputed causes of social harm, more recent sources of social misery, such as an alleged rise in selfish consumerism and a perceived decline in personal responsibility and family commitment, attract controversy.
Social problems