Tony Fitzpatrick - A Green History of the Welfare State

A Green History of the Welfare State

Environmental problems particularly climate change have become increasingly important to governments and social researchers in recent decades. Debates about their implications for social policies and welfare reforms are now moving towards centre stage. What has been missing from such debates is an account of the history of the welfare state in relation to environmental issues and green ideas.

A Green History of the Welfare State fills this gap. How have the environmental and social policy agendas developed? To what extent have welfare systems been informed by the principles of environmental ethics and politics? How effective has the welfare state been at addressing environmental problems? How might the history of social policies be reimagined? With its lively, chronological narrative, this book provides answers to these questions. Through overviews of key periods, politicians and reforms the book weaves together a range of subjects into a new kind of historical tapestry, including: social policy, economics, party politics, government action and legislation, and environmental issues.

This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of environmental policy and history, social and public policy, social history, sociology and politics.

Tony Fitzpatrick is a Reader at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies

Peak Energy Demand and Demand Side Response

Jacopo Torriti

The Green Economy in the Gulf

Edited by Mohamed Abdelraouf and Mari Luomi

Ecology, Sustainable Development and Accounting

Seleshi Sisaye

Environmental Change and the Worlds Futures

Ecologies, ontologies and mythologies

Edited by Jonathan Paul Marshall and Linda H. Connor

Environmental Adaptation and Eco-cultural Habitats

A coevolutionary approach to society and nature

Johannes Schubert

Complexity and Creative Capacity

Rethinking knowledge transfer, adaptive management and wicked environmental problems

Kelly Chapman

Contemporary Perspectives on Ecofeminism

Mary Phillips and Nick Rumens

Culture and Conservation

Beyond anthropocentrism

Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet and Helen Kopnina

The Governance of Sustainable Rural Renewal

A comparative global perspective

Rory Shand

Disasters and Social Resilience

A bioecological approach

Helen J. Boon, Alison Cottrell and David King

Fairness and Justice in Natural Resource Politics

Edited by Melanie Pichler, Cornelia Staritz, Karin Kblbck, Christina Plank, Werner Raza and Fernando Ruiz Peyr

Environmental Justice in India

The National Green Tribunal

Gitanjali Nain Gill

Socioeconomic Evaluation of Megaprojects

Dealing with uncertainties

Edited by Markku Lehtonen, Pierre-Benot Joly and Luis Aparicio

High Speed Rail and Sustainability

Decision-making and the political economy of investment

Edited by Blas Luis Prez Henrquez and Elizabeth Deakin

Rawls and the Environmental Crisis

Dominic Welburn

A Green History of the Welfare State

Tony Fitzpatrick

First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 Tony Fitzpatrick

The right of Tony Fitzpatrick to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Fitzpatrick, Tony, 1966 author.
Title: A green history of the welfare state / Tony Fitzpatrick.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Routledge explorations in environmental studies
Identifiers: LCCN 2016042583| ISBN 9781138781887 (hbk) |
ISBN 9781315769547 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Great BritainSocial policy. | Welfare stateGreat
Britain. | Environmental policySocial aspectsGreat Britain. |
Great BritainPolitics and government1945
Classification: LCC HN390 .F57 2017 | DDC 306.0941dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016042583

ISBN: 978-1-138-78188-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76954-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Goudy
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

What remains conjectural is whether this concern for the quality of the human environment ... is leading (or will lead to) a reappraisal and a rethinking of the role of social welfare in our societies.

Richard Titmuss, International Conference on Social Welfare, 1972

Its a poor sort of memory that only works backwards, the Queen remarked.

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1871

Contents