Susan Goodwin Livres

The evolution of social services in Australia highlights a shift towards private sector involvement, with governments opting to subsidize private provisions rather than expanding the public sector. This approach includes contracting both non-profit and for-profit agencies to deliver essential services, alongside various subsidies and vouchers. The book explores the implications of these changes on service delivery and the broader social landscape.

Focusing on the critical examination of public policy, the book introduces the "What's the Problem Represented to be?" (WPR) approach, encouraging readers to analyze how policies define and shape societal issues. It emphasizes the importance of questioning the underlying assumptions of policies, their creation, and their consequences. Through diverse examples, including obesity, economic policy, migration, and gender equality, the authors illustrate the practical application of this poststructural analysis, promoting a deeper understanding of the political implications of policy-making.

Incorporating diary entries and reflections, this personal account of one mother's struggles during the first 12 months of her son's life to get him to eat openly confronts the social challenges mothers encounter, including insensitive doctors, the marketing of maternity in the media, postpartum depression, and social isolation. The stinging question What if I don't love my child enough? is explored in this highly personal and moving story that argues mothers must speak out about the challenges and traumas they face in order to be understood.