Politics Of Social Policy

Competing visions of social policy in Ethiopia

by Tom Lavers

The politics of social policy in Africa is an under-researched area, with limited existing analysis of social policy... more The politics of social policy in Africa is an under-researched area, with limited existing analysis of social policy choices highlighting the influence of IFIs or the ideological orientation of African leaders. This neglects the importance of national politics in policy formation. This study starts to fill the gap in the literature by taking a discourse analytical approach to the study of the politics of Ethiopian social policy, using discourse employed in policy statements as the primary lens for understanding the construction of social policy in Ethiopia and how this relates to changing power relations. The study finds that the Ethiopian Government is pursuing a social policy strategy which provides limited and problematic protection to the majority of the rural population and which is intertwined with the government’s fundamental objective of political control. This strategy is based on a rural social protection system of which a restrictive land policy, at odds with the market-led ‘poverty reduction’ approach, is the central component. This reflects the nature of the GoE’s overall development strategy which involves the state taking a leading role in managing economic and social processes.

TOURISM AND SOCIAL POLICY:: The Value of Social Tourism

by Lynn Minnaert

Social Tourism for low-income groups forms part of social policy in several countries of mainland Europe, but little... more Social Tourism for low-income groups forms part of social policy in several countries of mainland Europe, but little research evidence of its benefits exists. This study empirically examines these benefits in terms of increases in social and family capital. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with participating families and their support workers, in a semi-longitudinal research design. Social Tourism was found to increase family capital in the short term, and social capital—in terms of social networks, related pro-active behavior and self-esteem—in the medium term. These increases can be seen as beneficial for the participants and to wider society. Consequently it is suggested that Social Tourism may be a cost-effective addition to social policy.

Citizens and/or Consumers: Mutations in the Construction of Meanings and Practices of School Choice

by Andrew Wilkins

Wilkins, A. 2010. Citizens and/or Consumers: Mutations in the Construction of Meanings and Practices of School Choice. Journal of Education Policy, 25 (2), pp. 171-189

Recent research on school choice highlights the tendency among some White, middle-class parents to engage with... more Recent research on school choice highlights the tendency among some White, middle-class parents to engage with discourses of community responsibility and ethnic diversity as part of their responsibility and duty as choosers and who therefore exercise choice in ways that undercut the individualistic and self-interested character framing governmental discourses and rationalities around choice. This paper contributes to these debates through making visible the ways in which some mothers articulate and combine meanings and practices of choice that register contrasting and sometimes contradictory notions of active and responsible parenting. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, I explore how some mothers negotiate their school choice around a number of intersecting positions and relations that work across, as well as within, formulations of public-private, collective-individual, citizen-consumer, political-commercial. Through a consideration of the relationships in practice between these diverse elements, this paper questions the analytic value of distinctions between citizen and consumer, community and individual as framings for understanding the motivations and aspirations shaping some mothers’ school choices.

Telling Policy Stories: An Ethnographic Study of the use of Evidence in Policy Making in the UK

by Alex Stevens

Published in the Journal of Social Policy.

Based on participant observation in a team of British policy-making civil servants carried out in 2009, this article... more Based on participant observation in a team of British policy-making civil servants carried out in 2009, this article examines the use that is made of evidence in making policy. It shows that these civil servants displayed a high level of commitment to the use of evidence. However, their use of evidence was hampered by the huge volume of various kinds of evidence and by the unsuitability of much academic research in answering policy questions. Faced with this deluge of inconclusive information, they used evidence to create persuasive policy stories. These stories were useful both in making acceptable policies and in advancing careers. They often involved the excision of methodological uncertainty and the use of ‘killer charts’ to boost the persuasiveness of the narrative. In telling these stories, social inequality was ‘silently silenced’ in favour of promoting policies which were ‘totemically’ tough. The article concludes that this selective, narrative use of evidence is ideological in that it supports systematically asymmetrical relations of power.

QUESTIONING THE NOTION OF A “DECENT WORK” AS A RIGHT IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE DISABLED PEOPLE

by Serhat Ozgokceler

Işığıçok, Ö. & Özgökçeler, S. (2011). "Özürlü İstihdamında Bir Hak Olarak 'İnsan Yakışır İş'i Sorgulamak", İş Dünyası ve Hukuk [Prof. Dr. Tankut Centel'e Armağan], İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Yayınları, No: 5006/720, ss. 270-99.

The Mainstreaming of the Third Sector Into Public Policy In England In the Late 1990s: Whys and Wherefores

by Jeremy Kendall

The Voluntary Sector: Comparative Perspectives In the UK

by Jeremy Kendall

Network Structures of Evolving Income Maintenance. An Agent based Experiment on the Emergence of Common Goods

by Manfred Füllsack

Working paper

Researching governmentalities through ethnography: the case of Australian welfare reforms and programs for single parents

by Brady Michelle

5th International Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis conference, Grenoble
Critical Policy Studies Vol. 5 Issue 3. 2011

In this article I argue that the spaces of freedom and constraint that personalized planning programs targeted at... more In this article I argue that the spaces of freedom and constraint that personalized planning programs targeted at Australian single parents open up and close down are distinctly different when viewed from a top-down perspective of governmental rationalities as compared to a bottom-up perspective, or what Foucault referred to as the ‘witches’ brew' of actual practices. Around 90% of single parents with dependent children in Australia are single mothers, and around 80% of these single mothers receive single rate Parenting Payment. Changes to this payment (and its precursor, Sole Parent Pension) over the last 25 years have recognized this gendered composition by focusing on issues of mothering and the intensive activities of care that continue to be carried out most commonly by mothers. While the existing literature argues that the 2005 Welfare to Work package sharply broke with this practice by not focusing on gender and the unique features of mothers' life courses, I find that these considerations have remained a key part of the ‘witches’ brew' of actual practices. Given this finding, a key argument is that studies of governmentalities which combine sociologies of actual practices together with studies of official governmental rationalities can make important critical contributions to understanding the heterogeneous logics and practices through which welfare reform policies occur.