Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Ciarini, Andrea (ed.), Social Investment and Institutional Change. (Social Welfare Around the World) 168 pp. 2023:4 (Routledge, UK) <695-554>
ISBN 978-1-03-243976-1 hard ¥14,406.- (税込) GB￡ 49.99 *

This book focuses on the main institutional changes affecting the Social Investment approach as the framework for the European social agenda. The contributions gathered address these issues from different angles, placing two fundamental issues at the centre of the analysis. The first concerns the promotion of the strategic actions of European institutions and the national governments aimed at making social investment a recovery priority in the Eurozone. The second aims to make the social investment approach compatible not only with a high road to growth, as it is in the Stock-Flow-Buffer scheme, but also with the right to balance market and non-market activities as a universal right linked to a different combination of working and living time. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social policy and European politics.

B.グリーヴ著　幸福
Greve, Bent, Happiness. (Key Ideas) 176 pp. 2023:6 (Routledge, UK) <695-555>
ISBN 978-1-03-238446-7 hard ¥25,070.- (税込) GB￡ 86.99 *
ISBN 978-1-03-238444-3 paper ¥5,760.- (税込) GB￡ 19.99 *

This fully revised and updated edition of Happiness provides an accessible introduction to the concept of happiness and how it can be applied to public policy in order to help citizens achieve the good life.Countries around the globe want to ensure the best for their citizens. They want them to be happy, have a good life and improve their well-being. It follows that, whilst happiness is based upon individuals' subjective perception of their own situation, it is important to understand the concept of happiness in order to form policies that might help individuals to achieve what they believe will make them happier. Applying approaches from disciplines across the social sciences, this book explores varying notions of happiness and how these can be applied to create a theoretical understanding of happiness as a concept. The book then demonstrates how the concept of happiness can be used to analyse social policy in welfare states in areas including work, health and migration, as well as to evaluate everyday life and social relationships.This book will be essential reading for students and instructors in a range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the concept of happiness and/or welfare states.

関水徹平著　ひきこもりの社会学－現代日本における孤立の経験、家族の依存、社会政策
Sekimizu, Teppei, A Sociology of Hikikomori: Experiences of Isolation, Family-Dependency, and Social Policy in Contemporary Japan. 186 pp. 2022:7 (Lexington Books, US) <695-556>
ISBN 978-1-66690-094-1 hard ¥24,908.- (税込) US$ 111.00 *

Hikikomori, which literally means "withdrawal," is considered an increasingly prevalent form of social isolation in Japanese society. This issue has been attracting worldwide attention for two decades and is now recognized as a problem for the youth as well as for middle-aged and older adults. Based on interviews with people who have experienced it, Teppei Sekimizu explores what the hikikomori experience is like from a sociological perspective. He also examines the characteristics of four decades of hikikomori discourse by governments, professionals, and mass media; the difficulties faced by parents with hikikomori children; and the social policy which has relegated most provision of welfare for citizens to the private sector. Through these examinations, the author illustrates how the exclusive labor market and familial social policies create masses of family-dependent and isolated individuals in contemporary Japan. The Sociology of the Hikikomori Experience leads the reader to understand the manifold hikikomori phenomenon in a wider social context and also to a deeper understanding of Japanese society itself, which has regarded not the government, but corporations, families, and communities responsible for individual well-being.