During the recession of the early 1980s unemployment emerged as the dominant economic social policy issue. The recession put increased pressure on social workers and other human services. Social work case loads increased and joblessness, marginal employment, and poverty drove families and single people to the doors of welfare departments, family service agencies, and food banks.

This increased polarization of rich and poor brought on by the re-structuring of capitalism meant that unemployment and underemployment remained high during the latter two thirds of the 1980s in spite of the general upturn in the economy.

At a time, in the early 1990s, when yet another recession is forecast, the indepth analysis of social policy issues and their implications for social work practice provided in this book will be a vital tool both for those involved in social work practice and those studying and implementing social policies to meet the new crisis.

GRAHAM RICHES is co-founder of the Canadian Review of Social Policy . He has also co-authored Spending is Choosing: Restraint and Growth in Saskatchewan\s Personal Social Services 1966-77 .'

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Gordon Ternowetsky is a Research Associate in the Social Administration Research Unit and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Regina.

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