It is over 20 years since the publication of The Social Dimensions of Development
(London: John Wiley, 1982), written by Margaret Hardiman and James Midgley
as the first basic textbook to systematically consider the development of social
policy outside of the industrialized nations. That volume was aimed at students
of social policy and planning in developing countries at the London
School of Economics and elsewhere, on postgraduate programmes that by then
had already existed for almost a decade. Since those pioneering days, courses
in social policy, social planning and social development have multiplied. In
parallel, development organizations at all levels, from the grassroots to the
global, have steadily expanded their professional capacity to deal with these
social dimensions, many having sought training for their staff in UK academic
institutions. There has also been a wealth of literature on specific social sectors
that has played a key role in sensitizing development policy-makers and practitioners
to these issues. However, we felt that at this juncture there was the
need for an updated core text for students that would review rapidly evolving
theoretical and practical debates on social policy in the context of the South.
Although this volume is aimed primarily at students of social policy, we
hope that it will have a much broader appeal. We would like to think that it will
serve as a reference point for academics in related disciplines as well as policymakers
and practitioners in government, international and non-governmental
organizations. Thanks are due to several cohorts of students at the London
School of Economics on the MSc Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries
who have acted as sounding boards for many of the ideas expressed in these
pages. Thanks also to Jo Beall, Mrigesh Bhatia and Elias Mossialos for authoring
two of the book’s chapters. We are grateful to everyone at Sage Publications
who worked on the book; and particularly to Lucy Robinson and David
Mainwaring, who supported the project from the beginning; and to Fabienne
Pedroletti who saw the book through production. We hope that the book will
make a modest contribution towards consolidating the evolution of social
policy as a central concern of development organizations around the globe, to
be placed on an equal footing with economic and environmental policy in the
continuing struggle to promote people’s well-being.