Paul Spicker

Professor Paul Spicker holds the Grampian Chair of Public Policy at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, and is the Director of the Centre for Public Policy and Management. He has written widely in the field of social policy, having published thirteen books, several shorter works and over 70 academic papers. His research has included studies related to benefit delivery systems, the care of old people, psychiatric patients, housing management and local anti-poverty strategy. He has experience of housing and welfare rights work, and has also been a consultant on social welfare in practice, having done work for a range of agencies at local, national and international levels.

His published work includes:

• Stigma and social welfare, Croom Helm 1984; Seishinshobo (Tokyo) 1987
• Principles of social welfare, Routledge 1988
• Social housing and the social services, Longman 1989
• Poverty and social security, Routledge 1993
• Social policy: themes and approaches, Prentice-Hall 1995; Yuhikaku (Tokyo) 2001; Policy Press 2008
• Planning for the needs of people with dementia, (with D S Gordon) Avebury 1997
• Social protection: a bilingual glossary, (co-edited with J-P Révauger) Paris: MIRE 1998
• Social policy in a changing society, (with Maurice Mullard) Routledge 1998
• The international glossary on poverty (co-edited with David Gordon), Zed 1999; Poverty: an international glossary (second edition), co-edited with Sonia Alvarez Leguizamon and David Gordon, Zed 2007.
• The welfare state: a general theory, Sage 2000.
• Policy analysis for practice: applying social policy, Policy Press, 2006
• Liberty, equality, fraternity, Policy Press, 2006
• The idea of poverty, Policy Press, 2007 and Seikatsushoin 2008

Click on the links, or on book images, for more details.

Recent publications and papers

Some of these papers have been made available on the internet by their publishers; click on the link to load them.

2007

1. The idea of poverty, Policy Press, 175 pp.

2. The ethics of policy research, Evidence and Policy 3(1) pp 99-118.

3. Poverty: an international glossary, co-edited with S Alvarez Leguizamon and D Gordon, Zed Books, 246 pp.

4. Myths of absenteeism mask the true issues to be addressed on incapacity, The Scotsman 27th November pp 50-1.

5. Research without consent, Social Research Update no. 51, 4 pp

Paul Spicker was also a Special Adviser to the Work and Pensions Committee for their seventh report, Benefits simplification, 2007.

2008

1. Social Policy: Themes and Approaches, Policy Press 307 pp. Second, revised edition.

2. Government for the people: the substantive elements of democracy, International Journal of Social Welfare 17(2) pp 251-9

3. Generalising from policy research, Social Policy Association Conference, Edinburgh 23-25th June.

4. Reforming welfare: the earliest studies in Social Policy, Social Policy Association Conference, Edinburgh 23-25th June.

5. The idea of poverty (Japanese edition), trans Akutsu Yoichi, Seikatsushoin (Japan) 326 pp.

6. Submission to the Scottish Parliament's Local Government and Communities Committee: Child Poverty, Scottish Parliament 6 pp.

7. Taking forward the Government's Economic Strategy: response to the discussion paper,Scottish Government, 6 pp.

8. Evidence to the Local Government and Communities Committee, Local Government and Communities Committee Offical Report, Scottish Parliament 26th November 2008

2009

1. Welfare reform has the makings of a nightmare as jobs disappear, Scotsman 15th January.

2. What is a priority?. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 2009 14(2) 112-6

3. The foundations of welfare: Bruges and Ypres, Social Policy Association conference, Edinburgh 30th June.

4. D Byrne, P Spicker, Ethical principles in social policy research and practice, Social Policy Association conference, Edinburgh 1st July.

5. The nature of a public service, International Journal of Public Administration 2009 32(11) pp 970-991.

6. Benefits have far wider role than helping the jobless, Scotsman 8th October p 45.

Also available

Earlier material by Paul Spicker still available on the Web includes

• The prospect for European laws on poverty, in A Kjonstad, J Veit Wilson (eds) Law, power and poverty, Bergen: CROP, 1997
• Dundee Council, Anti-poverty Strategy, 1999
• The rights of the poor, in P Robson, A Kjonstad, Poverty and the Law, Oxford: Hart, 2001
• Poor areas and the ecological fallacy, Radical statistics 76, 2001
• Child Poverty, in F Bennett, J Ginn, J Grieve Smith, H Land, R Madeley, P Spicker, A West, Budget 2002: a Catalyst response, London: Catalyst, pp 20-26.
  
• P.Spicker, S Morris, V Strachan, Consultation on the review of Scottish charity law, Scottish Executive Central Research Unit 2002, 85pp.
• Poverty and the Welfare State: dispelling the myths, London: Catalyst, 2002, 44 pp.
• Continental shifts on exclusion, Inside Housing 11.10.02 pp 28-29.
• Paul Spicker talks to the BBC about poverty
• Solidarity between generations, paper presented to the International Social Security Association research conference, Antwerp, May 2003.
• Dundee Anti Poverty Forum, with Paul Spicker, 2003, No room for dreams: poverty in Dundee, Dundee: DAPF, 124 pp
• V Strachan, P Spicker, S Morris, T Damjanovic, 2004, The consultation on Civil Partnership Registration: analysis of the responses, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive
• Foreword to Moray against Poverty Network, Voices from the edge: poverty in Moray, 2004, 81 pp.
• Spicker, P., McLaverty, P., Strangward, L., & Grampian Racial Equality Council, 2004, Community safety for minority ethnic groups in Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen: Aberdeen Community Safety Partnership.
• Schools in Aberdeen: responses to the 3Rs consultation, Aberdeen City Council 2005, 46 pp.
• Understanding incentives, Annexure 1 of M Steele (ed), Report on incentive structures of social assistance grants in South Africa, South Africa: Republic of South Africa Department of Social Development, 2006.