This book is both a sequel to and expansion of Community Psychology, published in 1992. It serves as a textbook for courses on community psychology but now also includes material on inequality and health, since both are concerned with the way an individual's social setting and the systems with which they interact affect their problems and the solutions they devise. Part 1 sets the scene by locating community psychology in its historical and contemporary context. In Part 2, disempowered groups and their physical and mental health are considered. Finally in Part 3 the application of community psychology is discussed, and the ways in which marginalised people can be helped by strengthening their communities highlighted.

Jim Orford is Professor Emeritus and Head of the Alcohol, Drugs, Gambling and Addiction research Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham, England. He trained in clinical psychology in the 1960s and since the has worked in Manchester, London, Exeter and Birmingham in positions that have always straddled the National Health Service and the university Sector. He is committed to public service provision. Through his writings and in other ways he has been an enthusiastic promoter of community psychology in the UK and in the rest of Europe. This is his second book on the subject. The first, Community Psychology: Theory and Practice, was published by Wiley in 1992. Other Wiley books include Excessive Appetites: A Psychological View of Addictions (second edition 2001). Among his other books, the  most recent are Gambling and Problem Gambling in Britain (with K. Sproston, B. Erens, C. White and L. Mitchell, 2003) and Coping with Alcohol and Drug Problems: The Experiences of Family Members in Three Contrasting Cultures (with G. Natera, A. Copello, C.Atkinson, J. Mora R. Velleman, I. Crundall, M. Tiburcio, L. Templeton and G. Walley, 2005).