Profile

Areas of expertise

• The policy-making process
• Comparative social policy analysis
• Political economy of welfare
• E-government
• Social policy and the knowledge economy
• Fuzzy set social science
• Global cities and social policy

Biography

John’s research and teaching covers three key themes: (1) the policy process; (2) comparative social policy analysis; (3) government in the ‘information age’. He has published widely in these areas, including articles in leading journals such Journal of European Social Policy, Policy Studies, Policy & Politics, Journal of Social Policy and Social Policy & Society. Together with Stuart Lowe he is author of Understanding the Policy Process, and with Stefan Kühner and Stuart Lowe author of The Short Guide to Social Policy.

John has worked at the University of York since 1998. He was Visiting Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in 2005; in 2007 visited the University of Sydney on a Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) International Researcher Mobility Scheme award; and, in 2008 was Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Public Administration Research, Sun Yat-Sen University, China.

Professional activities

John is currently a member of both the East Asian Social Policy (EASP) research network Executive Committee and UK Social Policy Association (SPA) Executive Committee. He is the lead organiser for the 2012 Joint Annual Conference of the EASP & SPA, which will take place at the University of York in July 2012 (see: http://www.social-policy.com/).

Research

John is currently working on research projects examining:

• the move towards productive welfare in high income countries
• the potential for using fuzzy sets in comparative social policy analysis and
• social policy in global/mega cities
• the path dependency of social policy

John is co-leader of a Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) research collaboration on social policy in global/mega cities.

PhD supervision

John is interested in supervising PhDs on any of the research topics cited above.

Recent PhDs supervised include:

• Gyu-Jin Hwang ‘The Possibility of Social Policy: The Political Construction of State Welfare in the Republic of Korea’ (now Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Sydney, Australia)
• Stefan Kühner ‘Welfare State Change and its Determinants: a Critical Evaluation of Macro-Quantitative Approaches to Model Institutional Constraints on Welfare Reform in Advanced Industrialised Democracies’. (now Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of York)
• John Holmes. ‘Potential Futures: A Latent Class Analysis of Young People’s Use of the Internet’ (now Research Fellow at University of Sheffield).
• Nam-Kyoung Jo ‘A Study of the Cultural Explanation of Welfare: the Effect of Values on Social Policy within the Welfare States’ (now Lecturer in Social Welfare at Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, South Korea).
• Dan Horsfall ‘From Competition State to Competition States? An Empirical Exploration’ (now Teaching & Research Fellow at University of York)

John received the University of York/York University Student Union Supervisor of the Year Award in 2009. Three of his supervisees have been awarded prizes for their doctoral research: Stefan Kühner won the 2007 European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAnet) doctoral researcher prize for best paper presented by a PhD candidate at an ESPAnet event in 2006 and Nam Jo won this prize in 2009. Dan Horsfall won the 2008 Public Administration Committee (PAC) postgraduate prize for the best paper presented by a PhD candidate at the 2008 PAC conference.

Publications

Journal articles

Hudson, J. & Kühner, S. (2011) 'Analyzing the Productive and Protective Dimensions of Welfare: Looking Beyond the OECD', Social Policy & Administration. 

Hudson, J. & Kühner, S. (2010) ‘Beyond the Dependent Variable Problem: The Methodological Challenges of Capturing Productive and Protective Dimensions of Social Policy’, Social Policy & Society, 9, 167-179.

Hudson, J (2009) 'The Challenges of Reconciling Efficiency and Equity in Information Age Government Agendas: Lessons from the United Kingdom', Journal of Public Administration, 98-117 [in Chinese]. 

Hudson, J. and Kühner, S. (2009) ' Towards Productive Welfare? A Comparative Analysis of 23 Countries ', Journal of European Social Policy, Vol 19, 1, 34-46

Hudson, J. Hwang, J, and Kühner, S (2008) ' Between Ideas, Institutions and Interests: Analysing Third Way Welfare Reform Programmes in Germany and the UK ', Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 37, No 2, p207-230.

Hudson, J, Lowe, S, Oscroft, N and Snell, C (2007) ' Activating Policy Networks: a case study of local environmental policy-making in the United Kingdom ', Policy Studies, Vol. 28, No 1, 55-70.

Hudson, J (2006) ' Inequality and the Knowledge Economy: Running to Stand Still? ', Social Policy & Society, Vol 4 (2), 207-222.

Dornan, P & J Hudson (2003) ' Welfare Governance in the Surveillance Society: a Positive-Realistic Cyber Criticalist View ', Social Policy & Administration, Vol 37, Issue 5, 468-482.

Hudson, J (2003) ' E-Galitarianism? The Information Society and New Labour's Repositioning of Welfare ' , Critical Social Policy , Vol 23, Issue 2, 276-298.

Hudson, J (2002) ' Digitising the Structures of Government: The UK's Information Age Government Agenda ', Policy & Politics , Vol 30, Issue 4, pp 515-31

Hudson, J (2001) ' Critically Examining the Commercialisation of English Football: A Case for Government Intervention? ', Sociology of Sport Online , Vol 4, Issue 1.

Hudson, J (1999) ' Informatization and Public Administration: A Political Science Perspective ', Information, Communication & Society, Vol. 2, 3, p318-339.

Selected Books, Book Chapters and Reports

Hudson, J. & Kühner, S. (2011) ‘Tiptoeing Through Crisis? Re-evaluating the German Social Model in Light of the Global Recession’ in Farnsworth, K. & Irving , Z. (eds.) Social Policy in Challenging Times: Economic Crisis and Welfare Systems. Bristol: The Policy Press, pp163-183.

Hudson, J. & Kühner, S. (2011) ‘Analysing the Productive Dimensions of Welfare: Looking Beyond East Asia’, in Hwang, G. (ed.). New Welfare States in East Asia: Global Challenges and Restructuring. London: Edward Elgar, pp35-60.

Hudson, J. R. & Kühner, S. (2011) ‘Analyzing the Productive and Protective Dimensions of Welfare: Looking Beyond the OECD’ Compasss Working Paper WP2011-63, pp35.

Hudson, J., Lowe, S. and Kühner, S. (2010) The Short Guide to Social Policy, Seoul, South Korea: Press of Sharing House. (Korean Translation)

Hudson, J. and Lowe, S. (2009) Understanding the Policy Process: Analysing Welfare Policy & Practice (Second Edition) . Bristol: The Policy Press.

Hudson, J and Lowe, S (2009) Understanding the Policy Process: Analysing Welfare Policy and Practice [Chinese Translation]. Beijing: Peking University Press.

Hudson, J. (2009) 'Information Technology and Social Security' in Millar, J. (ed) Understanding Social Security (Second Edition) . Bristol: The Policy Press.Hudson, J., Lowe, S. and Kühner, S. (2008) The Short Guide to Social Policy, Bristol: The Policy Press, pp295-311.

Hudson, J., Lowe, S. and Kühner, S. (2008) The Short Guide to Social Policy , Bristol: The Policy Press.

Hudson, J & Kühner, S (2008) 'The Challenges of Classifying Welfare State Types: Capturing the Productive and Protective Dimensions of Social Policy' in Gerovska Mitev, M. (Ed.) Reframing Social Policy: Actors, Dimensions and Reforms . Friedrich Ebert Stiftung: Skopje.

Hudson, J (2008) 'E-Government in the United Kingdom' in Anttiroiko, A (Ed) Electronic Government: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications . London: Information Science Reference.

Hudson, J (2008) 'Social Policy and the Political Process' in Alcock, P, May, M and Rowlingson, K (Eds) The Student's Companion to Social Policy . Oxford: Blackwell.

Hudson, J (2007) 'Learns Lessons' in Bochel, H and Duncan, S (Eds) Making Policy in Theory and Practice , Bristol: Policy Press.

Hudson, J (2006) 'e-government in the UK' in Anttiroiko, Ari-Veikko and Mälkiä, Matti (Eds) The Encyclopedia of Digital Government . IGI: PA, USA

Hudson, J & Lowe, S (2004) Understanding the Policy Process: Analysing Welfare Policy and Practice . Bristol: Policy Press.

Hudson, J, Hwang-G and Kühner, S (2004) Comparative Social Policy. York: e-Universities UK/University of York. [commissioned online text]

Hudson, J (2001) 'Community Care in the Information Age' in B Bytheway et al (Eds) Understanding Care, Welfare and the Community . London: Routledge.

Hudson, J (2000) 'The Prospects for Information Age Government' in Burrows, R and Pleace, N (Eds) Wired Welfare: Essays on the Rhetoric and Reality of e-Social Policy. CHP Discussion Paper: York, p1-18.

Hudson, J (1999) 'Rational Actors, Sub-Rational Organisations: A Rational Choice Perspective on the Barriers to the Informatization of Public Administration' in J Armitage and J Roberts (Eds) Exploring Cybersociety, UNN: Newcastle.

Bolderson, H and D Mabbett with J Hudson, M Rowe and P Spicker (1997) Delivering Social Security: A Cross-National Study , Department for Social Security Research Report No 59. The Stationery Office: London

Selected Short Articles, Book Reviews, Newsletters

Hudson, J (2008) 'Book Review: Chan, Ngok and Phillips - Social Policy in China; Walker and Wong - East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition: From Confucianism to Globalisation' Journal of Public Administration

Hudson, J (2007) 'Book Review: Spicker - Policy Analysis for Practice', Public Administration, 85, p561-563.

Hudson, J (2007) 'Book Review: Dean - Social Policy', Social Policy & Administration, 41, 1, pp 109-11.

Hudson, J (2007) 'What Happened to the Third Way?', Policy World, Issue 7, p10-14.

Hudson, J and Bochel, H (2006) 'Social Policy Association Annual Conference Report', Policy World, Issue 6, p26-29

Hudson, J and Chen, J (Eds) (2006) 'Social Policy in East Asia', Policy World, Issue 6, p11-24

Kühner, S and Hudson, J (2006) 'A Divided Germany?', Policy World, Issue 5, p11-15

Hudson, J (2006) 'The New SPA Website', Policy World, Issue 5, p8-9

Hudson, J (2006) 'Workshop Report: Richard Titmuss Conference', Policy World, Issue 5, p20

Hudson, J (2006) 'Book Review: Dorey - Policy Making in Britain', Political Studies Review, 4, 190-191.

Hudson, J (2005) 'SPA on the Web', Policy World, Issue 4, p9-11

Hudson, J (2005) 'Thatcher's Children', Policy World, Issue 4, p14-17

Hudson, J (Ed) (2005) 'New Labour's Third Term', Policy World, Issue 3, p8-13

Hudson, J (2005) 'Conference Report: SPA Annual Conference', Policy World, Issue 3, p14-18

Hudson, J (2005) 'Conference Report: Australian Social Policy Conference', Policy World, Issue 3, p20-21

Hudson, J (Ed) (2005) 'Making Poverty History', Policy World, Issue 2, p8-21.

Hudson, J (2005) 'Conference Report: Make Poverty History Rally', Policy World, Issue 2, p26

Hudson, J (2005) 'Conference Report: IPPR North Social Mobility Seminar', Policy World, Issue 2, p22

Hudson, J (2005) 'Book Review: Pierson: Politics in Time', Policy World, Issue 2, p30

Hudson, J (2004) 'Conference Report: SPA Annual Conference', Policy World, Issue 1, p23

Hudson, J (Ed) (2004) 'Where Next for Social Policy?', Policy World, Issue 1, p8-13

Hudson, J (2004) 'In Defence of Social Policy', Policy World, Issue 1, p11

Hudson, J (2003) 'Book Review: Milner - Delivering the Vision; Mackay - Investigating the Information Society', Health and Social Care in the Community, 11, 183-184.

Hudson, J (2002) 'Social Policy on the Web', SPA News, October/November, p14-16

Hudson, J (2002) 'Policy Networks and Network Organising: a Review of the Literature', Commissioned Literature Review for PCT Research Team, Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds. pp30

Hudson, J (2001) 'Book Review: Hill - Understanding Social Policy; Lewis et al - Rethinking Social Policy', Health and Social Care in the Community, 9, pp 509-510

Hudson, J (1999) 'Book Review: Blakemore - Social Policy; Ellison and Pierson - Developments in British Social Policy, Health and Social Care in the Community, 7, 307-309.

Hudson, J (1998) 'Book Review: Becker - Responding to Poverty; May et al - Social Policy Review 9', Health and Social Care in the Community, 6, 290-292.

Data Sets

Hudson, J. and Kühner, S. (2009) Towards Productive Welfare?

Teaching

All BA programmes in the department, all social policy Masters/MRes programmes

Modules

• Introducing Social Policy (Year One Undergraduate)
• Ways of Knowing (Year One Undergraduate)
• The Policy Process (Year Two Undergraduate)
• Comparative Social Policy (Year Two Undergraduate)
• Advanced Policy Analysis (Year 3 Undergraduate)
• Social Policy Analysis (Postgraduate)
• Comparative Social Policy: Theories and Methods (Postgraduate)
• Globalisation and Social Policy (Postgraduate)
• Graduate Research Workshops (Postgraduate)

Recommended resources for students

With University of York colleagues Stefan Kühner and Stuart Lowe I have written a short introduction to some of the key issues and dilemmas social policy addresses: Hudson, J., Lowe, S. and Kühner, S. (2008) The Short Guide to Social Policy, Bristol: The Policy Press. Naturally we think this offers a good introduction to the subject! Paul Spicker’s ‘An Introduction to Social Policy’ website provides a very good web based alternative.