Edward Elgar Publishing Creative Social Policy: The Collective Emancipation of Human Potential

Innovative and forward-thinking in its approach, this book advocates for the liberation of people’s creative potential through the systematic transformation of work and capital. Providing a detailed account and analysis of current social policy, Johannes Kananen envisions an emancipatory societal development that prioritises fulfilling human need as opposed to the accumulation of private capital. Creative Social Policy argues that recent strands of academic social policy have contributed to economics imperialism and that practical social policy has become subordinate to the functions of capitalist production. In order to address this, Kananen makes crucial strategic proposals as a means of creating sustainable economic opportunities for all, including Universal Seed Money and Universal Basic Income. Given the instabilities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, European war, austerity, the rise of right-wing populism and the climate crisis, Kananen highlights the urgent need to challenge the existing foundations of current policy making, and advocates for both emancipatory societal development and a cycle of co-creation of social policy knowledge to build a more sustainable future. This novel approach will make essential reading for students, scholars and academics specialising in social policy, political economy, political theory and sociology. Offering a unique outlook on social policy as we understand it, this book will also be of value to professionals and policy makers working in social, economic and ecological sustainability.