Search results for ‘Subject term:"social policy"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 10 of 205
The ‘user’: friend, foe or fetish?: a critical exploration of user involvement in health and social care
- Authors:
- COWDEN Stephen, SINGH Gurnam
- Journal article citation:
- Critical Social Policy, 27(1), February 2007, pp.5-23.
- Publisher:
- Sage
‘User Involvement’ has become the new mantra in Public Services with professionals constantly being reminded that ‘user knows best’. The purpose of this paper is to ask where the preoccupation with ‘the User’ comes from and to pose some questions about what ‘User Involvement’ actually means. Within the paper the authors see three issues as central within this. The first is a consideration of the historical antecedents of the discourse of ‘User Involvement’, focusing in on the struggles over British welfare that took place around the late 1970s–early 1980s. This forms the context from which we seek to understand and critique the New Labour project in relation to the massive expansion of regulatory frame works. The authors argue that, far from enabling the delivery of high quality integrated services that truly reflect the interests of current and future users, these policies represent the further commodification of basic human needs and welfare. Finally, it has become apparent the current ‘User’ discourse has assumed contradictory manifestations, in particular the emergence of groupings of ‘professional users’ who participate in the formation of state policy as ‘expert consultants’. The authors conclude by arguing for an approach in which user perspectives are neither privileged nor subjugated, but are situated in a process of creative critical dialogue with professionals, which is linked to the development of a concept of welfare driven by emancipatory rather than regulatory imperatives.
Community development and Primary Care Trusts: the experience of community action on health in Newcastle
- Author:
- CROWLEY Philip
- Journal article citation:
- Local Governance, 27(4), Winter 2001, pp.205-212.
- Publisher:
- University of Birmingham. Institute of Local Government Studies
This paper sets out to share some ideas about the value for Primary Care Trusts of engaging with local communities in a developmental way. Most of the ideas arise from the experience of having established a community development project linked to primary care in the west end of Newcastle since 1995.
Partial, unequal and conflictual: problems using participation for social inclusion in Europe
- Authors:
- STEVENS Alex, BUR Anne Marrie, YOUNG Lucy
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work in Europe, 6(2), 1999, pp.2-9.
- Publisher:
- Russell House
Asks how concepts of social exclusion and participation are translated into European Union policy and what difference this process is likely to make.
Young people active in youth research: an innovative approach
- Author:
- HAZEKAMP Jans Lauren
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work in Europe, 6(3), 1999, pp.2-9.
- Publisher:
- Russell House
Describes how since the end of the 1980's youth participation has had a high priority in Dutch youth policy.
Community involvement in Europe: pushing at an open door?
- Author:
- HENDERSON Paul
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work in Europe, 4(2), 1997, pp.31-33.
- Publisher:
- Russell House
Looks at some of the issues surrounding the definition and implementation of community involvement in European social policy.
The shape of things to come: user-led social services
- Author:
- MORRIS Jenny
- Publisher:
- National Institute for Social Work
- Publication year:
- 1994
- Pagination:
- 75p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Report looking at opportunities for user's to become more involved in services. Examines features associated with organisations run by service users and asks whether these features can be taken on by statutory and independent service providers.
Theorizing notions of the participation of people in poverty in social policymaking: policing, politics and subjectification
- Authors:
- DEGERICKX Heidi, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 56(1), 2022, pp.19-32.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Since the 1990s, a paradigm of participation has gained prominence and become a dominant policy rhetoric in anti-poverty policymaking in Europe, embracing the key idea that people in poverty should participate as equal citizens in political decision-making processes. Based on a historical case study of the production process of a Belgian white paper, the General Report on Poverty (1994), this study investigates who participated in the GRP production process, and whether the underlying participatory and democratic mechanisms produced a shift in power and might have led to a more socially just and equal society. The researchers rely on a central set of ideas of the French philosopher Jacques Ranciere to theorize different notions of participation, and tease out whether the processing of equality had the capacity to move from policing towards politics through subjectification. This research study demonstrates how social change and a reconfiguration of the democratic order can appear as a moment of democracy, yet inevitably leads to a new police. (Edited publisher abstract)
National reforms in mental health and social care services: comparative, text-based explorations of consumer involvement and service transparency
- Authors:
- LEVIN Lia, LEVY Adi Amram
- Journal article citation:
- Community Mental Health Journal, 56(1), 2020, pp.42-49.
- Publisher:
- Springer
Consumer involvement and service transparency have, in recent years, become inherent components of policy guiding the provision of public mental health and social care services. The current study wished to deepen insights on these issues, as they unfold in public services reforms in Israel and England, through an examination of key policy documents describing reforms in both countries. The results of this research show the often tacit ways policy can “talk the inclusive talk”, but only limitedly “walk the inclusive walk”, offering some interesting observations regarding the linkage between involvement and transparency in mental health and social care services. (Publisher abstract)
New contractualism in social policy and the Norwegian fight against poverty and social exclusion
- Authors:
- NILSSEN Even, KILDAL Nanna
- Journal article citation:
- Ethics and Social Welfare, 3(3), November 2009, pp.303-321.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Abingdon
The concept of 'new contractualism' in social policy is explored, using the Norwegian policy on poverty and social exclusion as an example. The ideas behind new contractualism are based on reciprocity, mutual agreement, freedom of choice and equality of power, as opposed to political control through bureaucratic arrangements. A key aim of the paper is to identify how the move to new contractualism implies new modes of controlling behaviour and to explore the ethical legitimacy of this approach. Contractualism is first discussed in relation to Norwegian and European social policy over the last 20-30 years, emphasising the importance of economic considerations and the financial sustainability of the welfare state. The authors then explore some implications of contractual modes of thought for balancing rights and duties in the welfare state. They conclude that the principle of a welfare contract is a euphemism for a policy that imposes more obligations on the recipients of welfare services. Finally the tensions between the possible democratic benefits of contractualism and more paternalistic consequences are debated. It is concluded that although relational contracts may enhance client-influenced service provision, paternalistic outcomes are likely, because such contracts are often used as instruments for behaviour change, such as those to create an economically active citizen.
Hearing the voices of children: social policy for a new century
- Editors:
- HALLETT Christine, PROUT Alan, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- RoutledgeFalmer
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 264p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This book is aimed at students and academics in the field of childhood studies, sociology, social policy and education. Twenty seven contributors from the UK, Scandinavia, Germany and Australia argue that children’s views should receive more prominence in policy formation at all levels. Part one includes a progress report on the Office of the Children’s Rights Commissioner for London set up in 1999. Part two includes papers on Finnish conceptions of children, the political debate in Germany on children’s issues and the trends in law and policy affecting children in England. Part three covers children and their services, including their participation in family law matters and a model for reconstructing disability, childhood and social policy in the UK. Part four looks at child poverty and child health in international perspective, and children’s share of household consumption.