吉登斯第三条道路福利思想与第三条道路下的社会工作

从20世纪社会工作发展轨迹来看,专业社会工作的发展曾先后受到社会民主主义和新自由主义两种价值体系的影响。随着第三条道路福利思想的提出及其在西方国家的政策实践,专业社会工作开始受到了第三条道路福利思想的启发,在社会工作价值基础、受助者与工作者关系、社会工作功能和过程模式上都出现了新的反思和发展。     

嵌入社会框架的社会福利模式：理论与政策反思*

20世纪90年代，在福利国家危机重重的背景下，吉登斯的第三条道路的超越构想理论应运而生。该理论首先解构了后传统社会，由此而提出了六个面向社会框架的超越构想；其次，吉登斯将社会福利模式的超越构想嵌入到社会框架中，界定了外部风险和人为风险，由此而提出了消极福利转化到积极福利的超越构想。借鉴嵌入社会框架的社会福利模式的超越构想，本文反思中国社会政策，提出了中国社会政策的新社会框架，即责任提倡、多元部门发展、社会政策议题对话等，提出了中国社会福利模式转化与社会政策改革的原则。     

The Third Way and Social Welfare: The Myth of Post-emotionalism

The “passive” welfare state was accused of promoting a dependency culture. “Active” welfare and the “what works?” approach of Britain's New Labour government is allegedly implicated in an age of post‐emotionalism, in which people are largely indifferent to the needs of others and committed primarily to their personal well‐being. This article, first, seeks to extend recent debates about agency and motivation in social policy and relate them to the notion of post‐emotionalism. Second, it draws on a recent empirical study of popular and welfare provider discourses, which suggests that popular opinion can accommodate an appreciation of human interdependency, while welfare providers remain committed to a public service ethos. None the less, Third Way thinking is associated with a narrowing of solidaristic responsibilities. The problem for the future of health, social care and state welfare policies lies not with the imagined consequences of post‐emotionalism, so much as with an ideological context that perpetuates a distorted ethic of responsibility.     

Tough Love: Social Work, Social Exclusion and the Third Way

Summary This article argues that New Labour's priorities for socialinclusion through employment, and for strenthening civil society,have relegated public-sector social work to a limited role inassessing and managing risks. However, as failures in the government'stop-down, regulatory approach emerge, there will be new opportunitiesfor a broader-based version of the profession to contributeto a more progressive programme.     

New Policy Spaces: The Impact of Devolution on Third Sector Policy in the UK

The development of third sector policy in the UK since 1997 has seen changes which have been of significance both for analysts and practitioners. This period has seen government engagement with and support for the sector extend far beyond the levels found throughout much of the last century. This has led to a growth in the size and scale of the sector and a closer involvement of sector representatives in political debate and policy planning. These changes have taken place at the same time as third sector policy has been devolved to the new administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This article explores the impact of devolution on these policy developments and assesses the extent to which political devolution has led to policy divergence across the four countries in the UK. The conclusion is reached that policy devolution has created important new space for policy development for the third sector across the UK, but that the direction of travel in all four regimes has remained remarkably similar.     

Social development and the status quo: professionalisation and Third Way co‐optation

Gray M. Social development and the status quo: professionalisation and Third Way co‐optation Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 463–470 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. Social development is a massive undertaking that has spawned a multitude of organisational forms. It nevertheless remains an ambiguous term and ill‐defined area of work, though some social development practitioners have succeeded in making small‐scale local differences in particular situations. While largely a tool of the status quo, some believe that social development has transformative potential and provides valuable space to confront inequalities and deprivation. In this article, I argue that in contemporary neoliberal environments social development is being co‐opted by Third Way politics and professionalisation processes. As it professionalises through the creation of professional structures and educational systems, it is becoming increasingly like social work, despite arguments that it is as an alternative approach to poverty and social exclusion. In the process, it is losing its transformative, critical edge, and morphing into a neoliberal, social investment approach that absolves government of its responsibility for the welfare of citizens.     

Poverty, Social Exclusion and Social Policy in the Czech Republic

This article analyses the pattern of poverty and social exclusion in the Czech Republic and the impact of social policy on this pattern. The analysis is mostly based on data from the Czech Survey on Social Conditions of Households (2001; 27,000 respondents); Eurostat data provide a benchmark for making international comparisons. The poverty rate in the Czech Republic is among the lowest in Europe. On the other hand, material deprivation, as well as concentration of poverty within specific population groups, is high, with the unemployed facing the highest risk of poverty. Social policy measures in effect reinforce this pattern: while the benefit system is highly redistributive and effectively eliminates income poverty among households of employed persons and among pensioners, incomes of persons outside paid employment are protected less effectively. Labour market policy measures are insufficient in scope and inadequate in targeting groups which are facing the highest risk of labour market exclusion and poverty. We argue that although this practice is effective at present, it is not sustainable in the long term.     

"文明祭扫"新风尚在鄱阳悄然兴起

又是一年清明节,细心的人们不难发现,在江西省鄱阳县,一种新的祭奠方式正在这里悄然兴起.家住南昌的鄱阳人陈阿姨4月1日一大早就手捧菊花到墓园祭扫.陈阿姨说,往年她是带着纸钱来公墓祭扫的.她看见周围的人都用鲜花或是绢花进行祭扫,觉得用花代替纸钱的方式既环保又安全,而且故去的母亲也喜欢花,于是今年她也在街上买了一束绢花.     

论社会工作在老年思想政治教育中的应用

随着我国人口老龄化的发展,老年人群体的思想政治教育是政府和社会面临的现实课题。传统老年思想政治教育的管理取向和社会本位,使其难以有效回应社会发展与老年人发展的双重诉求。借鉴和吸纳社会工作的理念和方法,是创新老年思想政治教育的现实路径。     

Globalization, Regionalism and Social Policy

This paper explores the implications of globalization for social policy, and teases out those elements of globalization which have impinged most on it. Then it explores the most important ways in which globalization has had an effect on social policy. Seven issues are explored—the way in which globalization has highlighted and/or created new problems, its contribution to hollowing out the state, the way in which it has altered the balance of power between capital and labour, its contribution to stimulating an ideology of competitiveness, its re-establishing of the importance of trade in discussions about social policy and, finally, the way in which it has helped to make the maintenance of social order a new priority. The paper then explores the possibilities for supranational or regional social policy. It examines the case for moving towards such a policy and the problems of so doing.     

Envisioning the Third Sector's Welfare Role: Critical Discourse Analysis of ‘Post‐Devolution’ Public Policy in the UK 1998–2012

Welfare state theory has struggled to come to terms with the role of the third sector. It has often categorized welfare states in terms of the pattern of interplay between state social policies and the structure of the labour market. Moreover, it has frequently offered an exclusive focus on state policy – thereby failing to substantially recognize the role of the formally organized third sector. This study offers a corrective view. Against the backdrop of the international shift to multi‐level governance, it analyses the policy discourse of third sector involvement in welfare governance following devolution in the UK. It reveals the changing and contrasting ways in which post‐devolution territorial politics envisions the sector's role as a welfare provider. The mixed methods analysis compares policy framing and the structural narratives associated with the development of the third sector across the four constituent polities of the UK since 1998. The findings reveal how devolution has introduced a new spatial policy dynamic. Whilst there are elements of continuity between polities – such as the increasing salience of the third sector in welfare provision – policy narratives also provide evidence of the territorialization of third sector policy. From a methodological standpoint, this underlines the distinctive and complementary role discourse‐based analysis can play in understanding contemporary patterns and processes shaping welfare governance.     

Risk, Contingency and the Third Way: Evidence from the BHPS and Qualitative Studies

New Labour's "Third Way" in welfare derives its intellectual underpinning from "risk society" theory as developed in the UK by Anthony Giddens. The theory suggests that the crucial changes affecting citizens of modern societies are globalization, the post-traditional social order and social reflexivity. These changes lead people to question authority and to wish to take greater responsibility for meeting their needs. Applied to welfare, the analysis suggests a diminution in the role of government, greater proactivity by citizens and subsidiarity favouring community groups and also the private sector. It buttresses Third Way calls for "no rights without responsibility" and "equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome". This paper reports qualitative and quantitative research which indicates that the risks of modern social life are experienced differently by different social groups. Risk society theories assume value consensus. They understand social change to have a common impact across society, leading to a common response, and direct attention away from the particular needs and aspirations of more vulnerable groups. The risk society thesis is class ideology masquerading as social theory: it serves the interests of those already privileged in a more flexible society by obscuring the needs and aspirations of the more vulnerable, who already bear most of the burdens of social change.     

Electoral Politics, Ideology and American Social Policy

This article addresses the politics of social policy in the context of the 2004 American presidential election. It examines the divisions in American society and their distinctive agendas. It also explores the record of the Bush administration on key social policy issues and shows how it relates to the broader conservative tradition as well as to the Clinton administration's reform of welfare. Finally, it examines the election results. The article argues that the Bush administration has a distinctive agenda on social policy issues and that its approach is likely to reduce further the role of the social government in the provision of social policy, by emphasizing market forces and philanthropy as well as cutting taxes. It also notes, however, that the Bush administration has taken a strong stance on traditional moral values and that its opposition to abortion and homosexuality is an important part of its political strategy.     

Knowledge Communities, Spatial Theory and Social Policy

This paper uses the concept of knowledge communities to account for the relatively low impact of spatial perspectives on welfare policy (marginalization in the economic sphere; limited uptake in the social sphere). However, recent developments in the social sciences include a growing recognition of relationships between discourse, knowledge and power. Central to this work is a recognition of the territorialized nature of knowledge. These developments suggest that social policy has the potential to be reconfigured in a much more geographically sensitive manner.     

Developmental Social Policy,Social Welfare Services and the Non‐profit Sector in South Africa

The potential and challenge of constructing a democratic developmental welfare state through synergistic state‐civil society relations is the focus of this article. The author argues that while South Africa's pluralist approach, involving a leading role for the state in partnership with voluntary organizations, is a viable policy option to address the country's developmental challenges, anomalies between policy proclamations and actual practice raises questions about the efficacy of the partnership model and the gendered nature of welfare provision. Key governance issues and challenges, namely financial policies and institutional capability, underlie current failures in the delivery of welfare and care services, resulting in the non‐realization of these constitutionally guaranteed social rights. Further public action is needed to remedy the situation. Non‐profit organizations can advocate for policy reforms and challenge the instrumental nature of state‐civil relations and the abrogation of state responsibility for welfare services in contemporary South Africa.     

Social Policy, Feminism, and Research on Violence in Close Relationships

The history of research on intimate partner violence is reviewed, with a special focus on how my own work in this area has evolved. The role of researcher values in the research process is highlighted. Some of the issues emerging from this review are the need for better measures of intimate partner violence, reasons why women's violence has been ignored by many researchers, and a discussion of the conditions under which women display violence. Policy implications of this research are discussed .     

Exit, Voice and Quality in the English Education Sector

The use of choice as a mechanism to improve public service delivery is now well established in the UK. Current policy discourse additionally considers voice as a further, complementary, user-driven mechanism. In this article I scrutinize the assumption that choice (exit) and voice complement each other in creating user-driven incentives to increase quality for all consumers in the context of education. I do this by going back to Hirschman's thesis on 'Exit, Voice and Loyalty', focusing in particular on the definitions of quality put forward by him. I apply his analysis to the English education sector and show that, while the current policy discourse evokes the language of Hirschman, it doesn't follow through on the actual implications of his analysis. In particular, I argue that in the current system, choice and voice may complement each other for only a subset of consumers.     

Root and Branch Restructuring to Achieve Major Cuts: The Social Policy Programme of the 2010 UK Coalition Government

The 2010 Coalition has set itself the challenge of combining an unprecedentedly rapid and profound retrenchment with a fundamental restructuring of the public sector, both to be accomplished within five years. The immediate justification is a presumed need to reduce national indebtedness. The longer‐term goal is to shrink the state, free up the market and set British political economy on a new course. The programme has encountered a number of set‐backs and some elements appear more likely to be realized than others. This article considers the objectives of the Coalition programme and the likely outcomes, using evidence from a number of sources including comparisons with the experience of retrenchment elsewhere and analysis of previous rounds of public spending cut‐backs.     

Conservative Ideas and Social Policy in the United States

This article explores social policy development in the United States since the beginning of the George W. Bush presidency. Starting from an analysis of the discourse about compassionate conservatism at the centre of the 2000 presidential campaign and proceeding to a discussion of the meaning of the more recent ownership society blueprint, it underlines the fragmented nature of the conservative policy agenda in the United States. Yet, the article suggests that, despite this fragmentation, the ideological dominance of the right and the related absence of needed reform in key policy areas are of great significance for the future of federal social policy. Overall, the article shows how paying close attention to the nature of conservative ideas improves our understanding of social policy development in the United States. As argued, the old liberal and the traditionalist sides of American conservatism have inspired distinct yet related blueprints and reform proposals that both promote a scaling-down of existing federal social programmes and a return to traditional forms of economic security (i.e. charity and personal savings). The article underlines the relationship between these blueprints and policy drift.     

从社会建构主义的视角看我国社会工作与社会政策的相互作用

在我国,社会工作和社会政策进行着有中国特色的社会建构,在此过程中,两者之间存在着相互的作用,本文旨在探索这种相互作用。把握这种相互作用,有助于我们更好地增强它,并利用它为解决社会问题、建设和谐社会服务。