Critical social psychology of social class

butions. Over the years, capitalist systems have tried to mitigate poverty by providing ‘safety nets’ of social security and national insurance – e.g. welfare capitalism (see Esping-Anderson, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press), but these modifications are not explained. A historic example is the American response to the USWall Street crash of 1929, which caused wide-spread poverty. The federal government’s response introduced as part of President Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ a modified welfare capitalist system that included social security providing unemployment benefits and old age pensions (see Ditch, J. (ed) (1999) Introduction to Social Security: Policies, Benefits and Poverty. London: Routledge), thus mitigating the impact of pure capitalism. Most western countries now practice forms of modified welfare capitalism, but the book does not inform readers about these. The lack of research evidence is more evident in some chapters than others. Dawn Belkin Martinez’ Chapter 6 ‘Social work and the COVID-19 crisis in the United States’ contains ample references; Nicos Trimikliniotis’ Chapter 19 ‘Re-racialisation of migrants and the ‘refugee crisis’ during COVID-19’ demonstrates creative reasoning, and Sarah Banks’ Chapter 20 ‘Rethinking right and wrong. Social work, COVID 19 and the crisis of ethics’ is well argued and supported. The book’s references are presented at the end, but may have been more effective if placed after each Chapter’s conclusion.