Publisher's Synopsis
A critical re-evaluation of Australian social policy and welfare both past and present. The author synthesizes the "old" disciplines of history and sociology into a new discipline, historical sociology, which aims to put an end to atheoretical history and ahistorical sociology, using the modes of comparison, interpretation and advocacy.;The social criticism is directed against three ultimate targets: against failures in the Australian welfare state; against the contradictions in the world capitalist economy; and against the doctrines of economic rationalism echoed by the Australian government. Above all the writers ask: what is the social research for, and whom does it benefit? They project an alternative vision of Australian's potential future as a just and compassionate society.
