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The contributors to this special issue have listed a number of important references in the main articles presented. China's social policy transformation is a burgeoning research area and available literature becomes outdated quickly. The sources in this section identify the most relevant current and past information relating to social policy and human rights in China. Some publications in this section are in Chinese as noted.

THE AUTHOR DISCUSSES HOW THE NATURE OF CONTEMPORARY CONSERVATIVE RADICALISM HAS FORCED THE OPPOSITION PARTIES INTO THE ROLE OF DEFENDING A BROAD UNDERSTANDING OF THE STATE'S SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. TWO PROBLEMS ARE EXAMINED: ARE LABOR AND THE ALLIANCE PARTIES IN BRITAIN LIKELY TO PRESENT CONGRUENT SOCIAL POLICIES TO THE ELECTORATE, AND WOULD THERE BE ANY POSSIBILITY OF AGREEMENT ON A COMMON PROGRAMME OF ACTION AFTER THE NEXT ELECTION.

This article proposes that theories of 'new' social movements (NSMs) may illuminate contemporary welfare struggles and inform research into collective action in social policy. NSM theory is relevant because it focuses on social movement cultures, identity politics and symbolic struggles for the recognition of difference. However, it does this to the exclusion of 'traditional' issues such as material redistribution and inequality. A critical social policy, on the other hand, has retained a regard for these issues, but is also concerned with struggles for recognition. It is argued that all social movements raise issues about redistribution and recognition, although these will coexist to varying degrees. Using work carried out in the United States into women's self-help movements, this article shows how movements that are largely cultural may change social policy by posing symbolic challenges.

The article reviews the limited existing social policy literature on taxation and sets out a case for the incorporation of the study of taxation into the accepted remit of social policy. Social policy has historically been concerned with the services and benefits which flow from public expenditure, and people's experiences of them, rather than with taxation, and the contributions by individual researchers have tended to remain marginal to the main focus of social policy. The article offers a speculative account as to why taxation has remained peripheral to social policy and presents three arguments for the mainstreaming of tax in social policy's domain of study. These concern the role of taxation in shaping the distribution of resources, a fundamental pre-occupation of social policy; the contribution social policy scholars can make to shaping a new discourse surrounding taxation, foregrounding issues of equity and need; and how social policy's engagement with taxation can influence the politics of the welfare state.