This volume explains the significance of postmodernism for understanding social welfare. The author provides readers with a relevant and authoritative guide to postmodern welfare since the last two decades have witnessed a sustained assault on the Keynesian "welfare state". Throughout the West governments have sought to replace the post-war welfare compact with neo-conservative individualism which has championed reduced taxation, increased profitability, market competitiveness and minimal residual public services. The alternatives for the Left - for feminists, socialists, those struggling against racism and for minority cultural rights - look bleak. Postmodernism appears to have compounded the problem by questioning the validity of a mass politics of emancipation based upon universal values of justice, reason and progress. Leonard develops a particular reading of the impact of postmodernism in a number of areas of social theory and political practice. His aim is to consider how positive and creative thinking about welfare can be reconstructed.