Social policy and social change – explanations of the development of social policy

Abstract

The resources of sociology do not appear to have been extensively or systematically utilized in the study of social policy and administration. One source of evidence for this statement is the absence of explicit references to sociological theories in some of the most well known general texts on British social policy and administration. Pinker's recent analysis of social theory and social policy also lends support to the view that there has been, and still remains, something of a division between sociologists and students of social policy and administration. He concludes that the ‘founding fathers’ of sociology (Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Spencer) had a tendency to be ‘not greatly interested…(in)…remedies for social problems’, and makes the general observation that ‘sociologists have been oddly diffident about the subject-matter of social administration’, possibly because of the latter's atheoretical nature.

Three Versions of Constructionism and their Reliance on Social Conditions in Social Problems Research

“… 6. See Carrier and Kendall (1973) and (1977) for why a comparative method of social context should be favored over a grand theory of social problems and solutions. …”

Social administration revisited: Traditions of observational fieldwork and their value

“…During the 1970s social administration saw calls for greater theoretical engagement and also greater comparativism. Academics such as Pinker (, ), Carrier and Kendall (, ), Warham () and George and Wilding () called for a shift in emphasis away from studying administration micro‐details and towards greater incorporation of new and diverse ideas from sociology, economics and politics, though notably sociologists including T. H. Marshall and W. G. Runciman, economists such as C. A. R. Crosland and political scientists including W. A. Robson were already highly influential in the field . Detailed discussion of ways in which social policy and administration as an academic subject subsequently grew and changed is beyond the scope of this article .…”

Robert Pinker, the Idea of Welfare and the Study of Social Policy: On Unitarism and Pluralism

“…If the basic point was an amplification of his earlier position on the concept of welfare, this position was now complemented by a body of literature displaying contextual sensitivity in relation to cognate concepts. Robert Dingwall had argued the case in respect of the concepts of health and illness in his Aspects of Illness of 1976, and others, notably Carrier and Kendall (1973 and 1977), had treated a range of policy-related concepts similarly. In his writing, Pinker always eschewed explicit references to ‘phenomenology’ and ‘ethnomethodology’ but an underlying concern with everyday meanings and practices, with ‘the meanings of morality – and rules in general – in everyday life’ (Douglas, 1970: 9), was nonetheless shared.…”