The Web offers a growing range of on-line resources in Social Policy, but they are not always easy to access or to use. This section offers a brief guide, with links to key sources. Following the external links on this site will open a new window in your browser, so that you will still have access to this page.
Many of the sites referred to here are meta-links: they offer a gateway to a large number of connected sites.
The links on this page should all open new windows in your browser. This allows you to review the material without leaving this site.
If you have problems with any of the links, please let me know. I have to run a special programme to check links, but sites change their addresses and content so frequently that it is difficult to be certain.
Postgraduate students at the University of Birmingham have prepared a list of connections to new media, including blogs and Twitter feeds.
These sources offer guides to virtually every country in the world.
Several international organisations produce cross-national statistics. They include:
The World Health Organisations's World Health Report.
This is, disappointingly, not as well covered as one might hope; the placing of European documentation online is still intermittent.
is the subject of a wide range of sites. Many are politically charged, and not very well informed about welfare issues.
This is one of the best served fields. In addition to the World Bank and UNDP, try:
Sites dealing with national social policies include:
Japan: Social Security in Japan: towards a Japanese model of the Welfare State, by Naomi Maruo.
British government reports are now being produced on the web - unfortunately, their location is not always obvious. They are usually produced as House of Commons (HC) or Command (Cm) papers. Most searches begin with the list of British Government agencies; central departments like the Department of Health or the Department of Work and Pensions can be relied on to post or link to recent publications and reports in their field.
Historical sources include:
These resources have been referred to in some of the sections of these pages. They include:
Apart from government publications, the quality of on-line documentation is mixed: much of what is available are conference papers and occasional papers posted prior to conventional publication. Most documents on-line are versions of printed material; they tend to be large, and they take a long time to download. This is a fairly miscellaneous list; suggestions would be welcome.
The International Social Security Association posts papers from its research conferences.