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2. Conceptualising the relationship between religion and social policy II: theoretical perspectivesIntroduction; Thinking theoretically about religion and social policy: macro-institutional processes; 'Faith-based' welfare organisations in the Anglo-Saxon countries: a rethinking of definitions and functions?; Micro-normative perspectives; Conclusion; Questions for discussion; 3. The contemporary British context: social and policy profiles in relation to religion; Introduction; Religious profile of contemporary Britain

A critical and theoretically sensitive overview of the role of religious values, actors and institutions in the development of state and non-state social welfare provision in Britain.

This title presents a framework which examines the complex social and political dynamics shaping social welfare and religion in the Middle East.

Nations in the Middle East and North Africa have traditionally seen the primary function of social policy as serving the goal of economic growth. But the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for a more balanced approach to make societies more resilient, with social protection policies that provide citizens with basic security throughout their lives. Beyond cash transfer programs and other emergency measures, governments should recognize the need for universal provision of health care and other essential assistance. Otherwise they risk leaving the Arab Spring's popular demands for dignity unheeded.

Nations in the region have subordinated social policy to economic growth. The pandemic has demonstrated the need for universal provision of health care and other essential assistance.

This paper advocates for a new generation of social protection (SP) research that takes seriously the analysis of political and policy-making processes in the Global South. Based on qualitative research funded by the ESRC and Carnegie Corporation, it combines theoretical insights from social policy and critical policy analysis to highlight the importance of policy framing in shaping development and social welfare outcomes. Empirically, the broader research upon which the paper is based covers the broad range of social policy changes that have happened in the Middle East and North Africa region over the last decade. The critical policy approach adopted in this paper is important because of the endurance of SP as a global orientation in international development interventions at a time when its operationalisation in policy terms appears to be narrower than its professed goals. The paper categorises SP according to three orders of discourse: social risk management, social justice/social contracts, ("ex ante") institutionalisation of social protection (specifically social assistance), in order to address areas of "discourse closure" (Veit-Wilson, 2000) in the conceptualisation of SP. On the basis of this categorisation, the paper proposes a framework for analysing SP that highlights the importance of three elements to aid SP policy operationalisation: (1) state-civil society relations in the provision of services; (2) the ethical and not only legal parameters of SP; (3) the enhancement of social cohesion as a final SP outcome. These three elements support a process-oriented analysis of SP encompassing policy actors, principles and goals that can better ascertain the long-term impact of SP on social policy agendas in the Global South.

Governments and international development agencies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are taking a greater interest in issues of social welfare and social protection. The turbulent events of the "Arab spring" have only served to heighten the need for this. Yet, there is little clarity as to what social protection might mean or how it might be organised in a region which has, so far, not developed a clear political rationale for equality and social rights. This policy brief presents research undertaken by Dr Rana Jawad (University of Bath) which began in 2000 into the social welfare systems in the MENA region. It offers a broad mapping of the institutional structures that underpin social policy there. In addition to long-standing programmes of universal food and fuel subsidies, the research highlights the complex interplay of informal social assistance for vulnerable groups who cannot work and employment-based welfare provision which gives preference to male and public sector workers. In consequence, welfare systems in the region primarily address the symptoms rather than the causes of poverty. The current policy move in MENA is towards unconditional cash transfers for the poor. However, this offers only a limited solution to the social issues facing the region. The emerging social protection discourse, led by various international development agencies (including, the World Bank, the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Development Programme), must avoid becoming a catch-all umbrella term for targeted social assistance programmes which are more focused on short term consumption smoothing. It is argued that there is an urgent need to develop comprehensive and integrated social policies which promote social cohesion and equality. A number of recommendations are made for the development of new social policies in the region, and the role civil and religious activism can potentially play.

Social science researchers in the UK now accept that religion has returned to public life (Spalek and Imtoual, 2008; Dinham and Lowndes, 2009), after what has been described by Gorski (2005) as a considerable period of 'intellectual and political repression' that began in the post-World War II era. This lasted until around the beginning of the 1980s when political events such as the 1979 Iranian revolution, the rise of the 'moral majority' in North America and the spread of religious political mobilisation across the world, forced social scientists to recalculate their predictions about the effective demise of religion which had been considered to be a direct consequence of processes of modernisation (Casanova, 1994; Gorski, 2005; Habermas, 2006).

The role of religion in social welfare provision, and more broadly in shaping the development of state social policy in the UK, has become an issue of increasing prominence in the last decade raising both new challenges and opportunities. This article brings together new and existing research in the field of religion and social action/welfare in the British context to present a preliminary discussion of how and why religion, as a source of social identity and moral values, matters for social policy. The key argument is that religious welfare provision goes beyond the mixed economy of welfare paradigm and has the capacity to challenge the Utilitarian underpinnings of mainstream social policy thinking by giving more relative importance to ethical issues such as self-knowledge and morality, in addition to the more conventional concepts of wellbeing or happiness. The article proposes the concept of ways of being in order to bring together these moral ideational factors that underpin social welfare.

Religion appears as a dormant actor in British social policy, yet since the early 1990s its role in public service provision has become more prominent. What can a religious perspective bring to our understanding of human wellbeing – especially as the idea of the Big Society opens up new normative landscapes? In response, this article outlines some policy and practice issues, namely that religious welfare provision: is key to a more historically accurate account of British social policy; challenges utilitarian notions of wellbeing; is a potentially good example of the Big Society; and is able to reconcile its secular public service provision role with its religious identity and mission to serve the public.