A University-Community Partnership to Change Public Policy

Abstract

This paper describes a project aimed at promoting major change in government policy toward the growing problem of food insecurity in Israel. The project was initiated by Ben-Gurion University in collaboration with community service and social advocacy organizations. This joint action led to a dramatic change in government activity. The problem of food insecurity moved from a state of obfuscation to the establishment of a special ministerial committee mandated to develop policy guidelines for a national school lunch program. For higher education to contribute to the community, necessary preconditions must exist: Is the faculty committed to promotion of social change? Do the organizational and community environments legitimize university-sponsored activity for such purposes? Is the faculty competent to act effectively in the community and adopt strategies for political influence? Are there organizational mechanisms, action frameworks, and community contacts that enable collaboration for the purposes of social change? This case discussion uses the analytical framework developed by Taylor (1985) to evaluate the preconditions for action and the processes involved in facilitating university-community collaboration for promoting policy change.     

The Double Challenge of Market and Social Incorporation: Progress and Bottlenecks in Latin America

Has the past decade of sustained economic growth and political transformations reversed Latin America's historical failure to secure market and social incorporation? To address this question this article draws on the experiences of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay by distinguishing between short‐term outcomes – which may depend on benign international conditions – and policy changes, which are more important for long‐term performance. It highlights the overall success of both Brazil and Uruguay and shows that the other countries have made more progress in terms of social than market incorporation.     

Commitment to Social Change:

The purpose of this paper is to examine commitment as it relates to the pursuit of social change. This is done through the analysis of accounts by veterans of their involvement in feminist social movement organizations (FSMOs). They convey their stories of commitment to the feminist movement with language that one might use to describe an intimate relationship. The collective voice suggests considerable sacrifice and dedication. It also reveals a deep belief that they were betrayed by movement beneficiaries. This sense of betrayal is rooted in the expectation that movement commitment would increase as attacks by the New Right on the FSMOs rose. The paper concludes with discussion of the relevancy of studying commitment to social change for both micro and macro social work theory and practice.     

Meeting the Needs of the Growing Very Old Population: Policy Implications for a Global Challenge

ABSTRACT

Very old adults are one of the fastest-growing age groups worldwide. Yet they rarely constitute a targeted group for public policies. Drawing on the results of the centenarian studies presented in this special issue, we highlight major challenges that arise from the increase of this population. We outline several promising approaches for policy makers and professionals to develop evidence-based policies and programs that are tailored to the needs of very old adults and their families. We focus our discussion on three key topics essential to life care: the importance of integrated care to meet the complex care needs of the very old; the balance between formal and informal care; and the development of suitable places for living. Besides more specific measures, we propose that policies promoting the social integration of very old adults in their communities would be particularly helpful, as these may benefit not only the very old and their families but also individuals of all ages. We conclude that the development of suitable policies addressing the needs of the very old will benefit from future investigation of cross-cultural similarities and differences in centenarians’ characteristics, available services, as well as life conditions they encounter in communities and institutional contexts.     

Social Justice,Social Policy,and Social Work

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the models underlying the conceptualization of social work functions affect the costs of integrating policy issues into practice, and, therefore, the probability that social justice goals will be pursued. An inclusive approach to policy design is seen as lowering those costs. The nature of the costs and how they vary between the models is discussed.     

A Comparative Study of Social Policy Transfer

Abstract

Both the United Kingdom and Australia engaged in social policy transfer of anti-discrimination policy for people with disabilities in the 1990s with the adoption of new legislation whose structure and approach originated in the United States a decade earlier. This paper focuses on the extent of the convergence of disability policies between each country and the USA, and the variables that affected social policy transfer in each nation. By using a comparative approach, this paper allows for a better understanding of the processes and constraints involved in transferring social policy across nations.     

The Good Society: Core Social Values,Social Norms,and Public Policy

This essay is an attempt to transcend the contentious political environment by offering a conceptual framework for discussing the outlines of a “good society” and its constituent elements. We offer an argument that is grounded in social theory that identifies a way to develop public policies to remedy long‐standing economic and social problems in American society. The development of public policies that can unify individuals and groups to provide their support depends upon the existence of core social values and shared social norms to realize those values. We proceed by first identifying a set of core social values that we believe most Americans would endorse, and then present a set of guides for behavior that would advance those values. Finally, we propose a series of public policies that are consistent with the core values and social norms and that would help to create what we have called the “good society.” Our assumption is that when a citizenry endorses a set of core values and acts in a fashion that supports those values, the usually divided political factions will be compelled to respond with real solutions.     

The Shelf Life of a Disaster: Post‐Fukushima Policy Change in The United States And Germany

How can large‐scale disasters prompt policy change beyond the local environment in which they occurred? Working at the intersection of political sociology, disaster studies, and cultural sociology, we introduce the concept of the shelf life of a disaster to analyze the short and limited impact of Fukushima Daiichi on U.S. nuclear energy policy and its vitality within Germany. American media, nuclear industry representatives, regulators, and policy makers contributed to a tepid political environment for policy change by expanding symbolic distance from Fukushima, focusing on U.S. superiority to Japanese infrastructures. While this technicist orientation was evident in Germany as well, its distancing effects were offset by a conjunction of mechanisms that packaged Fukushima as a precursor to an inevitable German nuclear catastrophe.     

Solving Current Social Challenges: Engaging Undergraduates in Policy Practice

This article explores an innovation in teaching policy practice at the undergraduate level. It analyzes an experiential learning model that uses current social challenges as a compelling way to generate student learning about policy practice. Over the course of the semester, students examine antecedents, current issues, and potential solutions to a contemporary social issue through a series of assignments that build knowledge and skills and link the topic to larger social policy concerns. Using quantitative and qualitative evidence from seven semesters, the article explores benefits and challenges of this approach to teaching, and derives lessons for social work education.     

Children's Participation,Childhood Publics and Social Change: A Review

Progress in the implementation of children's participation rights in England is reviewed and situated within a broader agenda of social change. The article argues that much of the energy for ‘change for children’ has resided within a governance pathway across policy, practice and research. An alternative perspective is offered by re‐connecting children's rights debates to those of social movements and asking whether childhood publics are possible, what they might look like and where they might be found. It is concluded that a cross‐national and longitudinal perspective grounded in everyday life is likely to provide a more nuanced understanding of the change for children.     

Coalition-Based Social Change Initiatives

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a model for establishing and maintaining social change coalitions. The model, based on the authors' study of a successful coalition-based social change initiative, highlights the potential contribution of a neutral, external support agency whose goal is to help a group of organizations collaborate in an effort to promote change in social policy in an area of shared concern. The external agency brings knowledge and experience in working with coalitions, needs to be trusted by all the coalition partners, and should be perceived as not competing for recognition or resources, and as having only the common goal in mind. The components of the model and the methodology employed to develop it are presented, followed by assessment of its generalizability to other settings. Experts, from different disciplines, countries and ethnic backgrounds, advised that this model has great potential for solving social problems in many different areas.     

The University: An Agent of Social Change?

Can universities be agents of progressive social change? How would we know if a university was acting as an agent of social change? Drawing on four case studies, I raise a number of questions to problematize our understanding of the university as an agent of social change. I outline a number of contributing factors that appear to explain successful cases. I conclude by arguing the relevancy of these cases for larger, and more traditional, sociological projects.     

Power and Social Work: A Change in Direction

This article examines the elite model of conceptualizing poverty. The authors contend that elites frame the discussions about employment and poverty; consequently, they prevent any meaningful examination of the root causes of poverty and circumvent any proposals that shift the balance of power. The challenge for social work is that the elite model considers the profession as an agent responsible for executing social policy that supports the status quo. Thus, social workers have unwittingly become part of the problem.

The authors argue that the way to address this problem is to transform the profession of social work from within. Among the ways to create this transformation are to focus social work education on the function of politics; strengthen field education; promote action-based research; and integrate a global perspective into practice and policy initiatives.     

The Impact of the Conservative Protestant Movement on Social Policy

This article presents an analysis of the impact of the conservative Protestant movement on social policies of particular interest to the social work profession in the United States. In the light of the success of conservative Christian groups, suggestions for policy praxis are offered to promote progressive social policies.     

Social Change and Social Policy in Japan

This paper aims to present and discuss social change and social policy in Japan after the mid-20th century from a sociological viewpoint. Japanese social change and social policy from the mid-20th century onward can be categorized into three models in chronological order: escape from mass poverty by means of industrialization, improvement of the social security system to establish a welfare state, and parallel progress of aspiration for a welfare society and workfare. Defined concretely, these are (1) the period that established and improved social security, which started immediately after the end of World War II and ended in 1973, when Japan began to suffer from low growth after enjoying high growth; (2) the period in which finance for social security was adjusted, halfway through which the country experienced a bubble economy; and (3) the period after the 1990s, in which the structural reform of social security went hand-in-hand with labor policy and the advent of globalization. In each of the three periods, the direction of social policy was affected by factors that caused changes in such areas as industrial structure (the decline of agriculture), demographic structure (an aging society), and family structure and work pattern (the growing trend of nuclear families, single-person households, and irregular employment). In Japan, life security now attracts increasing attention, and employment security rather than social security has been the central issue. As it is greatly affected by globalization, employment security grows less conspicuous and makes the vulnerability of social security grow more conspicuous. Social policy has the potential to become an area with which to struggle for national integration and fissures between social groups.     

Organizing Self-Help Groups for Empowerment and Social Change

Abstract

Empirical research has shown that self-help groups are not purely about individual change and intra-personal empowerment, but also about policy change and collective empowerment. In North America and Europe, such groups have been in the forefront of social change, and self-help represents a new political potential. However, findings of this study of self-help groups in Hong Kong indicate that social change has never been their common objective. In addition, members of the Hong Kong groups feel unable to impact social policies that affect their lives, despite wanting to do so. It is contended in this paper that this feeling of powerlessness among members might be related to the nature, size and length of existence of the self-help groups. It is further argued that self-help groups should form coalitions and seek professional assistance in order to effect social change and to strengthen and broaden their power base.     

Risk as Social Context: Immigration Policy and Autism in California1

Motivated by the dramatic increase in autism diagnoses in recent years, research into risk factors has uncovered substantial variation in autism prevalence by race/ethnicity, SES, and geography. Less studied is the connection between autism diagnosis rates and the social and political context. In this article, we link the temporal pattern of autism diagnosis for Hispanic children in California to state and federal anti‐immigrant policy, particularly ballot initiative Proposition 187, limiting access to public services for undocumented immigrants and their families. Using a population‐level data set of 1992–2003 California births linked to 1992–2006 autism case records, we show that the effects of state and federal policies toward immigrants are visible in the rise and fall of autism risk over time. The common epidemiological practice of estimating risk on pooled samples is thereby shown to obscure patterns and mis‐estimate effect sizes. Finally, we illustrate how spatial variation in Hispanic autism rates reflects differential vulnerability to these policies. This study reveals not only the spillover effects of immigration policy on children’s health, but also the hazards of treating individual attributes like ethnicity as risk factors without regard to the social and political environments that give them salience.     

The Mechanisms of Social Exclusion in Modern Society: The Dilemma of Active Labor Market Policy*

In this article, I examine the social exclusion approach that has influenced social policy in Europe, and demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in explaining the emergence of new forms of inequality in modern society. First, I consider recent studies of social exclusion to show two important points: the paradigm shift from poverty to social exclusion and the introduction of a new policy framework of social inclusion. At the same time, I examine the inherent dilemma of social exclusion in response to radical critics of the social exclusion approach. Next, I point out an internal dilemma in the active labor market policies prioritized today by European Union member states. This dilemma is that these policies make the unemployed more vulnerable by forcing them into paid work. I then show how the enhancement of social networks in local communities and the provision of assistance to support cultural identity can serve as a buffer to compensate for the destructive influence of the economic dimension of social inclusion. In addition, I point out that citizenship as rights claiming is indispensable to social inclusion for all. Finally, drawing on the analysis outlined above, I conclude that a multi-tiered mechanism of social inclusion can reasonably be considered the most effective framework in a precarious society where people bear various risks in the era of globalization.     

Connecting Policy to Practice

Abstract

Eight variables affect the policy process of the Section 8 housing program. An analysis of the eight variables allows for conceptualization of the factors influencing the shape and direction that Section 8 policy has taken through the course of history. Examining the variables of the Section 8 housing program can lead to an understanding of the program as a whole, the impact of the policy process on the recipients of the program, and the impact on social work practice. In addition, an understanding of these eight variables provides a useful heuristic for social workers engaged in policy changing activities.     

Idealism Versus Non-Idealism: New Light on Social Policy and Voluntary Action in Britain Since 1880

This paper applies the contrast between idealist and non-idealist modes of thought to an examination and categorization of ideas and practices of voluntary action in Britain in the period from the1880s to the 1990s. In particular, the paper explores: (1) idealism and non-idealism as properties of social theories about voluntary action; (2) idealist and non-idealist social thought in voluntary organizations; (3) pro-state idealist social thought in official or governmental circles on relationships with voluntary action, and changes in such thought and in government relationships with voluntary action in the 1970s; (4) innovations in the ways of classifying voluntary organizations; and (5) new approaches to the study of voluntary action. The paper also comments on voluntary action and the third way.