Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T10:21:07.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Equality and Human Rights in Britain: Principles and Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2011

Sheila Riddell  and
Nick Watson
Sheila Riddell
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity, University of Edinburgh E-mail: shelia.riddell@ed.ac.uk
Nick Watson
Affiliation:
Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research, University of Glasgow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the UK and many other European countries, there continue to be concerns about a range of social issues including the position of immigrants, the educational attainment of marginalised groups and the persistence of the gender pay gap. Increasingly, governments and NGOs assert that the promotion of equality and human rights policies are central to addressing these issues, with a view to creating societies which are both more equitable and more efficient. Over the past decade and a half, a period of economic growth followed recently by a major recession, the equality and human rights agenda enjoyed a high political profile. However, as we discuss in this review article, the social and economic optimism of the late nineties and early to mid noughties has been followed by economic retrenchment, a commitment to the shrinking of the state and the public sphere across Europe and a general move to the political right. In this article, we first review the political context which led to the rise of the equality and human rights agenda. Subsequently, we examine competing conceptualisations of equality and their operationalisation within British social policy. Finally, we assess the progress which has been made towards achieving a more equal society in the UK over recent years drawing on data gathered and analysed by the National Equality Panel (NEP, 2010).

Type
Themed Section on Equality and Human Rights in Britain
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 193 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akire, S., Bastagli, F., Burchardt, T., Clark, D., Holder, H., Ibrahim, S., Munoz, M., Terrazas, P., Tsang, T. and Vizard, P. (2009), Developing the Equality Measurement Framework: Selecting the Indicators, Manchester: EHRC.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D. (2002), ‘The politics of self-advocacy and people with learning difficulties’, Policy and Politics, 30, 3, 333–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, J., Lynch, K., Cantillon, S. and Walsh, J. (2004), Equality: From Theory toAction, London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banks, J. and Tetlow, G. (2009), The Distribution of Wealth in the Population Aged 50 and Over in England, London: IFS Briefing Notes BN86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, M. (2002), ‘Bringing difference into deliberation? Disabled people, survivors and local governance’, Policy and Politics, 30, 3, 319–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berthoud, R. (2007), Work-rich and Work-poor: Three Decades of Change, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Burchardt, T. and Vizard, P. (2007a), Developing a Capability List: Final Recommendations of the Equalities Review Steering Group on Measurement, London: Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion.Google Scholar
Burchardt, T. and Vizard, P. (2007b), Definition of Equality and Framework for Measurement: Final Recommendations of the Equalities Review Steering Group on Measurement, London: Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office (2007), Fairness and Freedom: The Final Report of the Equalities Review, London: Cabinet Office.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office (2010), The Coalition: Our Programme for Government, London: Cabinet Office.Google Scholar
David, H. (1980) The State, The Family and Education, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Dean, H. (2009), ‘Critiquing capabilities: the distractions of a beguiling concept’, Critical Social Policy, 29, 2, 261–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, N. (1997), Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the ‘Postsocialist’ Condition, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fraser, N. (2001), ‘Recognition without ethics?’, Theory, Culture and Society, 18, 2–3, 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredman, S. (2000), ‘Equality: a new generation?’, Industrial Law Journal, 30, 2, 145–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Home Office (2006), Rebalancing the Criminal Justice System in Favour of the Law-Abiding Majority, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Honneth, A. (1995), The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts (trans. Joel Anderson), Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
House of Commons (2006), Review of the Operation of the Human Rights Act, London: House of Lords and House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights.Google Scholar
Hughes, B., McKie, L., Hopkins, D. and Watson, N. (2005), ‘Love's labours lost? Feminism, the disabled people's movement and an ethic of care’, Sociology, 39, 2, 259–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kittay, E. F. (1999), Love's Labour, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Land, H. (1978), ‘Who care for the family?’, Journal of Social Policy, 7, 357–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, J. (1993), Community Care and Disabled People, Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
National Equality Panel (2010), An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK, London: NEP.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (2001), Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. and Clarke, H. (2002), ‘Making the ends meet: do carers and disabled people have a common agenda?’, Policy and Politics, 30, 3, 347–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, A. (1998), The Politics of Presence, Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Priestley, M. (1999), Disability Politics and Community Care, London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1999), A Theory of Justice, Revised edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, T. (1998), Mainstreaming Equality in the European Union, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rutter, J. and Lattore, M. (2009), Social Housing Allocation and Immigrant Communities, Manchester: EHRC.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1985), Commodities and Capabilities, Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1992), Inequality Re-examined, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, T. (2000), Help, Birmingham: Venture Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, C. (1999), Female Forms: Experiencing and Understanding Disability, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Ungerson, C. (1997), ‘“Give them the money”: is cash a route to empowerment?’, Social Policy and Administration, 31, 1, 45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walby, S., Armstrong, J. and Humphreys, L. (2008), Review of Equality Statistics, Manchester: EHRC.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2009), The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Young, I. M. (1990), Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar