Search results for ‘Subject term:"social policy"’ Sort:
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Modernisation, political strategy and the Welfare State: an organisational perspective
- Author:
- HOGGETT Paul
- Publisher:
- University of Bristol. School for Advanced Urban Studies
- Publication year:
- 1990
- Pagination:
- 65p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
Comparison and transfer: social work and social policy in international contexts
- Editors:
- BERG Wolfgang, (ed.)
- Publisher:
- Shaker Verlag
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 190p., bibliogs.
- Place of publication:
- Aachen
Selected studies in social policy, social workers and social work from Europe. Examines the role of social workers and organisational structures in international contexts.
Creativity and urban governance
- Author:
- HEALY Patsy
- Journal article citation:
- Policy Studies, 25(2), June 2004, pp.87-102.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This article explores the relationship between 'creativity' and 'innovation', and the forms and practices of 'governance' in an urban context. It examines, in particular, the 'double' creativity of governance, both in terms of its potential to foster creativity in social and economic dynamics and to creatively transform its own capacities. It argues that there is no simple equation between the characteristics of a 'creative city' and a 'creative' mode of urban governance. Instead, the article advocates a multi-level approach to the dimensions of urban governance through which to identify qualities of governance activity, which, in specific contexts, have the potential to encourage creativity and innovation. The article first develops three meanings of creativity and outlines the way these are related to governance activity. A three-level approach to the interacting dimensions of governance is then presented, linking episodes, processes and cultures. This approach is then developed into an evaluative framework through which the creative potentialities of emergent properties of governance practices in specific situations can be explored. In conclusion, the article comments on the kinds of governance infrastructures which may have the capacity to release imaginative and innovative activities in city regions, the kinds of interventions which may help to transform such capacity and the imaginative resources and mobilising power which may help successful innovations to spread from experiment to 'mainstream'.
Keeping the lights on: citizen service centers in municipal amalgamations
- Authors:
- BHATTI Yosef, OLSEN Asmus Leth, PEDERSEN Lene Holm
- Journal article citation:
- Administration in Social Work, 35(1), January 2011, pp.3-19.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
In January 2007, the Danish municipal sector underwent a radical structural reform. The number of municipalities was reduced from 271 to 98, the average size of a municipality increased from 159 to 440 square kilometres, and the average number of inhabitants increased from about 20,000 to 56,000. These reforms raised concerns about the loss of democratic proximity, nearby municipal services, and blurred the mental maps of local democracy. This article considers these reforms of the public administration and the delivery of public services by using concepts from organisational analysis. In this study, the central argument is that politicians used the establishment of citizen service centres (CSCs) to signal stability and nearness to the citizens in order to make the reforms more acceptable. Empirical evidence from a Poisson regression highlights the importance of the former municipal structure as a determining factor for the prevalence of CSCs in the new municipal structure. Using process tracing, it is argued that the importance of the former structure in the diffusion process reflects that CSCs are employed ‘to keep to lights on’ in the old town halls. The study also indicates that the CSCs may be closed when the reforms become part of the past.
Something old, something new, something borrowed . . . how institutions change (and stay the same) in local governance
- Author:
- LOWNDES Vivien
- Journal article citation:
- Policy Studies, 26(3/4), September 2005, pp.291-309.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Local governance is conceptualised as an ‘institutional matrix’, comprising distinct (but interacting) rule-sets, in which forces for change and continuity coexist. Different rule-sets change at different rates and in different directions, reflecting power relationships and the ‘embeddedness’ of local governance in specific historical and spatial contexts. In England, inertia and innovation have characterised, respectively, the political and managerial domains of local governance. But it is clear that creative spaces also exist between the extremes of institutional stability and volatility. Institutional entrepreneurs exploit ambiguities in the ‘rules of the game’ in order to respond to changing environments, and to protect (or further) their own interests. Local government actors expand and recombine their institutional repertoires through strategies of ‘remembering’, ‘borrowing’ and ‘sharing’. In so doing they create a contingent and context-dependent process of institutional emergence.
Policy component analysis: a method for identifying problems in policy implementation
- Author:
- WILLIAMS Martha M.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Service Research, 4(30), 2004, pp.1-18.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Agency personnel policies were improved in two human services agencies using the “policy component analysis method” implemented as part of organizational development (OD) efforts. The research findings generated by the policy component analysis method made it possible for managers and employees to target very specific aspects of agency policy that needed revision and improvement. The approach encouraged broad participation by employees in change efforts thus increasing employee understanding of and commitment to changes made. The approach described is easy to administer and can be incorporated in and adapted to many similar organizational improvement efforts. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre, Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580).
The influence of social context on partnerships in Canadian health systems
- Authors:
- SCOTT Catherine M., THURSTON Wifreda E.
- Journal article citation:
- Gender, Work and Organization, 11(5), September 2004, pp.481-505.
- Publisher:
- Blackwell
Partnerships, collaboration, joined-up government; these terms have become common elements of global health and social policy discourse. The terms may be pervasive but there remain significant challenges to collaborative ways of working. We argue that some of these challenges arise from a failure to account explicitly for the influence of social context. Between 1999 and 2001 the authors conducted a comparative case study of partnerships in Canadian health systems in which they examined specifically the roles of social context and gender. Social structures directly linked to formalized health systems are embedded in social institutions based on patriarchal and bureaucratic practices that do not traditionally support the relational practices required for the development of partnerships. While individuals within such organizations may have the knowledge, skills and commitment to collaborate, in such an environment, tremendous resource expenditures are required to achieve and maintain collaborative advantage.
Boateng's bottom line
- Author:
- CROMPTON Simon
- Journal article citation:
- Professional Social Work, May 1998, p.13.
- Publisher:
- British Association of Social Workers
Interviews Social Services Minister Paul Boateng about the forthcoming reorganisation in social care and the implications for social work.
Effective government structures for children
- Author:
- -
- Journal article citation:
- Childright, 134, March 1997, pp.18-19.
- Publisher:
- Children's Legal Centre
Reports on the Gulbenkian Report on Effective Government structures for children. Looks at how an inadequate co-ordination of policies across government is a potential problem and makes the case for a distinct and high political priority for children.
Having the bun and the halfpenny: can old public service ethics survive in the new Whitehall?
- Author:
- GREENAWAY John
- Journal article citation:
- Public Administration, 73(3), Autumn 1995, pp.357-374.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The past few years have seen major changes in Whitehall. These include: the encouragement of business values; the erosion of the idea of a career civil service; the Citizen's Charter; the growth of Next Steps agencies; market testing; the rise of political patronage and tensions in ministerial/official relationships. The official view is that this is an evolution of a former tradition and that the old public service ethos can continue. This seems doubtful. At all events there are widely differing normative, evaluations of the recent developments. Concludes by offering some more historical reflections about the significance of the developments in the context of British public administration.