Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Michael Hill is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Visiting Professor at Queen Mary College, University of London and the University of Brighton. He is the author of numerous books on Social Policy and the study of policy processes.

Zoë Irving is lecturer in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Sheffield. She is co-editor of Policy Reconsidered, Meanings Politics and Practices (2007) and has published in the areas of gender and employment and learning and teaching Social Policy.

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In the eighth edition of this highly successful text, the authors seek to develop readers’ appreciation of the key substantive areas of social policy but also the context and processes which surround their development.

With case studies reviewing contemporary topics and examples, new chapters, and a greater emphasis on key principles, themes, and issues within the policy areas, this revised and updated edition combines an assessment of the breadth of social policy study and considers policy changes since the previous edition.

Written for people who have had no previous training in the social sciences, with the needs of social workers, nurses, health visitors, and other social policy ‘practitioners’ very much in mind, as well as those studying social policy, the eighth edition of Understanding Social Policy brings a classic textbook right up to date.

Aus dem Klappentext

In the eighth edition of this highly successful text, the authors seek to develop readers’ appreciation of the key substantive areas of social policy but also the context and processes which surround their development.

With case studies reviewing contemporary topics and examples, new chapters, and a greater emphasis on key principles, themes, and issues within the policy areas, this revised and updated edition combines an assessment of the breadth of social policy study and considers policy changes since the previous edition.

Written for people who have had no previous training in the social sciences, with the needs of social workers, nurses, health visitors, and other social policy ‘practitioners’ very much in mind, as well as those studying social policy, the eighth edition of Understanding Social Policy brings a classic textbook right up to date.

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Understanding Social Policy

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

Introduction

Many students come to social policy with a rather sketchy idea of what it entails. Some may have covered particular aspects of welfare such as 'education' or 'the family' as part of previous sociological studies, while others may have engaged with some of the more applied areas within a health and social care framework. Others still, with no previous experience of the subject may embark on courses either because social policy study is a requirement of their particular course of study (for example on a health studies degree) or because it sounded like an interesting option. The range of directions from which students arrive at the study of social policy is illustrative of the beauty of the subject. You can be sure that even if the term 'social policy' has never previously crossed your academic radar, that you have been exposed to it throughout your entire life. From Child Benefit to GCSEs, GP services to the care of elderly relatives, social policy impacts on our security, development and happiness. However, social policy also touches our lives in more unexpected ways such that areas as diverse as food consumption, discipline within families and global economic competitiveness are all matters of social policy. This chapter will examine further some of the issues, concerns and topics with which a student of social policy can expect to become acquainted in the course of her or his studies. Rather than beginning with an excursion into the 'meaning' or 'definition' of social policy, which tends to construct artificial and restrictive subject boundaries, the aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the depth and breadth of enquiry, what is possible rather than what the limitations or boundaries are.

The Individual and Society

What should be done with or about a boy like Daniel? At a personal level it might be hard to find the desire to do anything for him since his behaviour might suggest that he is not a particularly sympathetic character. However, his actions clearly have an impact on the lives and well-being of those with whom he comes into contact as well as affecting his own future. Popular and ideological responses to a 'problem' like Daniel can be found in the pages of newspapers and in the speeches of politicians. There are regular calls for the reintroduction of national service in the tabloid press for example, while the present Labour government has embarked on a project of 'responsibilization' though various educational, family and criminal justice policy measures. In a rather unlikely contrast, David Cameron, as Leader of the Conservative Party, once advocated a more understanding and caring approach towards young people, which was captured in the sound bite 'hug a hoody'. In considering Daniel and the challenges he represents for social policy, it is helpful to separate considerations into different levels of analysis which in some ways correspond to a timeframe - what should be done in the short, medium and long term, but also illustrate the depth and breadth of the issues that arise in relation to a single individual's place in society. In this way it is possible to examine the relationship between 'subjects' of social policy (as both individuals and members of social groups), the institutions and policy measures set up to respond to them and also how these fit into a wider picture of human development.

At the meta or macro level, the framework for a societal response to any particular problem, and in fact the ways in which issues come to be seen as problems in the first place, depends very much on underlying visions of the 'good society', the kind of social world we aim to shape. These visions also reflect our beliefs in relation to human nature, whether we view humans as essentially good, or altruistic, but corrupted by circumstance, or whether we are essentially bad or self-interested and restrain our unpleasant tendencies due to the existence of social sanctions. This of course also requires consideration of the relationship between structure and agency in human action. Debate around the relative importance of environment and our 'place' in the social structure (our class, gender or ethnic group for example) and our capacity to determine our own progress (our individual agency) within the social world, is not necessarily polarized into an argument that we are either passive victims of circumstance or free agents. Even Marx, concerned to stress the impact of social structure, recognized that as individuals we 'act', but not, he suggested, in circumstances of our own choosing. At the individual or micro level, it is impossible to measure accurately the extent to which level of income or education, or standard of housing or health influence what a person chooses to do with her or his life, but there is plenty of evidence to show that these factors do influence the scope of choices to be made - people's life chances. Poor health measured as lower life expectancy for example, is more likely to be found amongst people with low incomes. At one level, lower life expectancy amongst one social group as compared to another is itself an effect of structural conditions (social stratification in this case). However, once analysis shifts to the specific causes of poor health and early death (environmental factors, diet, smoking and so on) the debate between those who emphasize 'structure' in the form of unequal access to the labour market, health services and education for example, compared to those who prefer more individualized explanations around health behaviour, becomes much more complex and heated. Headlines such as 'Obese told: "it's up to you"' (Observer 18.01.04) reflect the increasing dominance of individualized explanations of social problems and their influence on government responses. At the same time however, the tacit recognition that humans (especially children) are not necessarily free agents is also clear in more recent moves to ban the television advertising of junk food during the hours when children could be watching. Thus in this example where social class differences in obesity can be demonstrated, there is a clear case for examining the relevance of food consumption under advanced capitalism (at the macro level) rather than simply opting to shift the blame for ill-health onto sufferers themselves (focusing on the micro level).

A second point to make in relation to the significance of macro and micro level questions around structure and agency relates to one of the core considerations in the study of social policy which is the distribution of resources or 'who gets what'. David Donnison, an important contributor to social policy, has suggested that this distributional concern, with resources, opportunities and life chances, is, in fact, what makes a policy 'social'. At the macro level again, analysis concerns the principles which underpin the patterns and processes of distribution and of course, questions of 'fairness' are at the centre of debate. Views on the fairness of inequalities depend very much on the extent to which these inequalities are considered to be the products of individual choices or to result from forces beyond individual control. For example, a person may have sufficient command over resources to participate in the property market but rather than buying a house may choose to rent a caravan because she or he prefers a more transient lifestyle. Most...