Social Policy

• Social problems vs sociological problems

  worsley

  - a social problem is 'a piece of social behaviour that causes public friction and/or private misery and calls for collective action to solve it'

  - a sociological problem is 'any pattern of relationship that calls for an explanation' eg. why people commit crime but also why people follow laws
• What are the 5 factors that affect whether or not sociology research influences policy?

  - electoral popularity

  - ideological & policy preferences of governments

  - interest groups

  - cost

  - funding sources
• mainstream thinking

  social scientists' ideas can become part of mainstream culture and influence the way people view social problems

  eg. bowlby's monotropic theory that emphasises the importance of a young child's relationship with their mother is now widely accepted which has led to an impact on policies eg. on nursery
• the power to define the problem

  burden - social policies can't be investigated when viewed as neutral responses to problems, as the government in power are the ones able to define what are problems and what should be done to fix issues
• What are my 3 policies/research?

  - Paul Willis - Learning to labour (1978)

  - The Black Report (1980)

  - The Macpherson Report (1999)
• What were the impacts of Willis' learning to labour?

  Led more focus to be put on working class & anti-school subcultures
• The Black Report

  - Looked at differences between the poor & rich

  - Deliberately published on a bank holiday by the government so less people would read it
• What were the impacts of the Black Report?

  The Report showed in great detail the extent of which ill-health and death are unequally distributed among the population of Britain, and suggested that these inequalities have been widening rather than diminishing since the establishment of the NHS
• What were the impacts of the Macpherson Report?

  Recommendations made which helped to change the police force like the response to institutional racism and the treatment of racist crimes
• positivism/functionalism

  eg. comte + durkheim - as part of the enlightenment project view sociology as able to identify and fix all social problems through policy and legislation

  society is based on value consensus so see the state as serving the interests of society as a whole, so introduce policies to benefit society

  equates sociology to medical research as the researcher can determine and solve social problems

  favour a cautious approach that tackles one specific problem at a time
• criticisms of positivism/functionalism

  marxism - social problems are part of larger issues that can't be tackled one specific problem at a time
• social democrat

  the social democrat perspective favours a major distribution of wealth from the rich to the poor

  townsend - sociologists should be involved in researching to eradicate social problems through policy recommendations

  eg. black report - made 37 far-reaching policy recommendations that solved deep-rooted issues like free school meals and improved working conditions, but the thatcher government in power when it was completed refused to put the recommendations in place
• criticisms of social democrat

  marxism - class-based inequalities are so far-reaching that even the policies suggested in the black report are insufficient to solve them

  the capitalist governments are also unlikely to implement the policies suggested so it is ultimately useless

  postmodernism - it is impossible to discover ultimate truths so sociological findings can't be used as an objective basis for policies
• marxism

  the state represents the ruling class and serves the interests of capitalism through

  policies provide ideological legitimisation to mask capitalist exploitation

  maintains the labour force for further exploitation

  prevent revolution

  social policies sometimes provide benefits to the working class, but these gains are constantly threatened by capitalism's regular recessions that lead to welfare cuts
• marxism and research

  research into the unpleasant truths of social problems rooted in capitalism won't be used to solve problems as the policymakers are ultimately there to protect the system the research aims to expose

  eg. the black report recommendations being rejected by the thatcher government

  for marxists the sociologist's role is to criticise social policy rather than offer recommendations
• criticisms of marxism

  social democrats - pessimistic view that ignores the positive effects sociologists can have on policy
• feminism

  the state is fuelled by patriarchy and perpetuates women's subordination through social policy

  eg. nuclear family policies

  feminist policies have impacted society eg. training teachers to avoid gender bias, and often reflect the liberal feminist view

  radical feminist views have also impacted society eg. refuges for women escaping domestic abuse

  however marxist and radical feminists suggest that the far-reaching change needed to demolish patriarchy isn't achievable through policy
• the new right

  the state should have minimal influence over society, in particular they should offer no support through welfare

  murray - benefits offer an incentive for people to be dependent on the state and create dysfunctional family structures

  are highly critical of many existing policies, but are accepting in theory of social policy, which they suggest should restore individual responsibility

  eg. breakdown britain suggested new social policies aimed at the family that emphasised parental responsibility
• influence of the new right

  new right thinking has had specific influence over social policy due to the attractiveness of their ideas to the conservative party

  some labour policies have also shown the influence of new right views eg. the view that a married heterosexual couple are the best people to raise children

  also support the zero tolerance crime policies that have been popular since thatcher thanks to wilson + kelling's article broken windows

  however the research used has been questioned eg. the validity of the link between lone-mother families and criminality
• Social Policy - any government action aimed at addressing social need, such as issues of employment, education, healthcare, housing and sustenance