Even today, many people think of 'social problems' as involving poor and powerless individuals in society. "Research in Social Problems and Public Policy" seeks to improve the balance by adding a focus on important and powerful institutions. Such organizations often play key roles in managing, and mismanaging, the ways in which some of today's most important social problems are handled by the public policy system. The papers discuss policy sciences, public policy analysis and public management, addressing operations and design issues for government organizations.
Describes the ways some of the important social problems are handled by the public policy system. This book contains papers that discuss policy sciences, public policy analysis and public management, addressing operations and design issues for government organizations.
Many people think of 'social problems' as involving poor and powerless individuals in society. This work seeks to improve the balance by adding a focus on important and powerful institutions. It discusses policy sciences, public policy analysis and public management. It addresses operations and design issues for government organizations.
Examines diverse developments in the evolution of public policy institutions for remedying social problems. This title includes chapters that address the transformation of social problems, social problems work, and social problems solutions in the context of criminal justice, mental health, and community institutions in contemporary society.
Divided into six sections, this title examines Government secrecy (GS) in a variety of contexts, including comparative examination of government control of information, new definitions, categories, censorship, ethics, and secrecy's relationship with freedom of information and transparency.
This up-to-date and accessible text fills an important gap in the market by introducing students to social policy perspectives on social problems. Written in an accessible, student-friendly style, using subheadings, boxed material, tables, and up-to-date examples Each chapter includes a brief outline of the issues to be explored and question sections to help learning, develop evaluative skills and encourage project work Includes an annotated guide to further reading, helpful internet addresses, and a bibliography of sources cited Chapters can be used independently or in conjunction with others addressing related questions
This lively book provides an essential introduction to the critical analysis of social problems and the policy process. It argues that policy does not just have an impact of people’s lives, but that people can and should have an impact on policy. Rather than assuming that social policies reflect an inevitable response to pre-existing givens, the author adopts a more proactive position to show how a ‘problem’ is fabricated and how a particular response to a ‘problem’ is legitimated. He goes on to demonstrate how the struggle over the meaning and desirable response to a range of social issues continues to take place not only in Parliament, but across broadcast and print media and the numerous internet channels. The book provides students, practitioners and activists with a rationale for and means to read, write and perform policy analysis. Drawing on the notion of policy literacy, readers will be introduced to a range of resources to enable them to further develop the ability to both read (comprehend), write (create, design, produce) and perform (influence and shape) policies. The book is illustrated throughout with examples from historical and contemporary representations of social problems and local, national and global policy making and practice. Each section will make reference to a toolkit that tutors, student and activists can access to help inform their practice. Presented in an accessible format, the book demonstrates that making sense of social issues and the policy process, also means making sense of some of the fundamental questions, values and assumptions of how is / should society be organised and our own role in the shaping of society. In this way the book not only provides practical and critical insights into the policy process, but is also an intellectually challenging and stimulating read.
