Social Change, Social Welfare and Social Science argues that the case against the welfare state is not proven and explores the reasons why social science in the 1980s and 1990s has devalued state welfare as yesterday's future. The book goes on to demonstrate that a forceful case for the welfare state can be made.
Much like today, the early twentieth century was a period of rising economic inequality and political polarization in America. But it was also an era of progressive reform—a time when the Russell Sage Foundation and other philanthropic organizations were established to promote social science as a way to solve the crises of industrial capitalism. In Social Science for What? Alice O'Connor relates the history of philanthropic social science, exploring its successes and challenges over the years, and asking how these foundations might continue to promote progressive social change in our own politically divided era. The philanthropic foundations established in the early 1900s focused on research which, while intended to be objective, was also politically engaged. In addition to funding social science research, in its early years the Russell Sage Foundation also supported social work and advocated reforms on issues from child welfare to predatory lending. This reformist agenda shaped the foundation's research priorities and methods. The Foundation's landmark Pittsburgh Survey of wage labor, conducted in 1907-1908, involved not only social scientists but leaders of charities, social workers, and progressive activists, and was designed not simply to answer empirical questions, but to reframe the public discourse about industrial labor. After World War II, many philanthropic foundations disengaged from political struggles and shifted their funding toward more value-neutral, academic social inquiry, in the belief that disinterested research would yield more effective public policies. Consequently, these foundations were caught off guard in the 1970s and 1980s by the emergence of a network of right-wing foundations, which was successful in promoting an openly ideological agenda. In order to counter the political in-roads made by conservative organizations, O'Connor argues that progressive philanthropic research foundations should look to the example of their founders. While continuing to support the social science research that has contributed so much to American society over the past 100 years, they should be more direct about the values that motivate their research. In this way, they will help foster a more democratic dialogue on important social issues by using empirical knowledge to engage fundamentally ethical concerns about rising inequality. O'Connor's message is timely: public-interest social science faces unprecedented challenges in this era of cultural warfare, as both liberalism and science itself have come under assault. Social Science for What? is a thought-provoking critique of the role of social science in improving society and an indispensable guide to how progressives can reassert their voice in the national political debate. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Centennial Series
Different types of social change agents and catalysts in society operate in a wide range of sectors and industries. In the first chapter, some major theoretical perspectives in the study of social change and individual socioemotional functioning are reviewed. The authors of the second chapter explore the aforementioned agents and catalysts that can create a more meaningful and lasting impact in society if efforts, strategies and resources are aligned. In the third chapter, the effect of radical social change on the diffusion of professional norms across contexts is examined. The fourth chapter helps evaluators and program managers understand the importance of considering culture in program design and evaluations, with particular emphasis on culturally specific vulnerable populations. The fifth chapter studies two social change conceptions, very popular in sociological literature: modernity and modernisation. Chapter 6 explores the effect of social changes and demographic variables on the importance of work outcomes. In Chapter 7, the authors' describe the impact of social welfare and government trust in society on its citizens. The authors of Chapter 8 discuss the recent developments of school music education in China, focusing on Beijing and its long and rich history dating back more than 3,000 years. Chapter 9 aims to investigate the role of entrepreneurial ecosystem in the various steps of the development of a start-up and to verify the role of the social mission as an enabler factor in the enhancement of relationship with the actors in the ecosystem. In Chapter 10, the author theoretically develop and empirically test for the utility of the concept of social intermediaries (SI) in explaining social change. The last chapter of the book aims to give an account of the process of development, adaptation and change in the social structure at the microlevel, as a result of changes in the policies of development and the alteration of the global order.
This important book examines how social science is applied now and how it might be applied in the future in relation to social transformation in a time of crisis.
The social development approach seeks to integrate economic and social policies within a dynamic development process in order to achieve social welfare objectives. This first comprehensive textbook on the subject demonstrates that social development offers critically significant insights for the developed as well as the developing world. James Midgley describes the social development approach, traces its origins in developing countries, reviews theoretical issues in the field and analyzes different strategies in social development. By adding the developmental dimension, social development is shown to transcend the dichotomy between the residualist approach, which concentrates on targeting resources to the most needy, and the institutional approach which urges extensive state involvement in welfare.
This book includes a comprehensive survey of the theories and principles employed by sociologists, anthropologists, and other social scientists in the study of sociocultural change. Employing these tools, the later chapters examine the major trends and challenges that face today's rapidly globalizing world. Students are asked to consider how they can participate actively in shaping the events that affect their lives. Among the book's pedagogical features are well over one hundred Web sites, organized by chapter and topic, which connect the text with contemporary events and commentary. Visit our website for sample chapters!
It seems like most of what we read about the academic social sciences in the mainstream media is negative. The field is facing mounting criticism, as canonical studies fail to replicate, questionable research practices abound, and researcher social and political biases come under fire. In response to these criticisms, Matt Grossmann, in How Social Science Got Better, provides a robust defense of the current state of the social sciences. Applying insights from the philosophy, history, and sociology of science and providing new data on research trends and scholarly views, he argues that, far from crisis, social science is undergoing an unparalleled renaissance of ever-broader understanding and application. According to Grossmann, social science research today has never been more relevant, rigorous, or self-reflective because scholars have a much better idea of their blind spots and biases. He highlights how scholars now closely analyze the impact of racial, gender, geographic, methodological, political, and ideological differences on research questions; how the incentives of academia influence our research practices; and how universal human desires to avoid uncomfortable truths and easily solve problems affect our conclusions. Though misaligned incentive structures of course remain, a messy, collective deliberation across the research community has shifted us into an unprecedented age of theoretical diversity, open and connected data, and public scholarship. Grossmann's wide-ranging account of current trends will necessarily force the academy's many critics to rethink their lazy critiques and instead acknowledge the path-breaking advances occurring in the social sciences today.
The issues of poverty, inequality, racial injustice, and climate change have never been more pressing or paralyzing. Current approaches to social change, which rely on linear thinking and traditional power dynamics to 'solve' social problems, are not helping. In fact, they may only beentrenching the status quo.Systemic social challenges produce bewildering results when we try to solve them due to their complexity, scale, and depth. While strategies to tackle complexity and scale have received significant attention and investment, challenges that arise from deeply-held beliefs, values, and assumptions thatno longer serve us well have been largely overlooked. This book draws on stories of committed social changemakers to uncover a set of principles and practices for social change that dramatically depart from the industrial approach. Rather than delivering solutions or being lured by grander visionsof 'systems change', these principles and practices focus on the process of change itself. Simple yet profound, these stories distil a timely set of lessons for leaders, scholars, and policymakers on how connection, context, and power sit at the heart of the change process, ensuring broader agencyfor people and communities while building social systems that are responsive in a rapidly-changing world.
Social Welfare Policy in a Changing World is an approachable and student-friendly text that links policy and practice and employs a critical analytic lens to U.S. social welfare policy. With particular attention to disparities based on class, race/ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation and gender, authors Shannon R. Lane, Elizabeth Palley, and Corey Shdaimah assess the impact of policies at the micro, meso, and macro levels.
In this book, the evolution of building a modern and creative society in China is explored in juxtaposition with the development of school education in China. The authors examine how music education may help initiate a policy dialogue on creativity in Chinas school music education and the challenges between contemporary cultural and social values and communist ideologies, and between collectivism and individualism. Next, the authors propose a framework for effective policy practice and detail evidence-based strategies for competent social service policy practice. The framework is drawn from research, professional experience, the experience of colleagues, and the experience of social work students. A study is presented on junior secondary school students preferred musical styles and how different social factors have fashioned their musical preferences in contemporary Hong Kong culture. This study showed that music listening functioned as an aesthetic and leisure activity, but more importantly as a means of socialization. An important chapter is included that defines powerful network actors in public policy, demonstrates the effects of their actions, and explains reasons behind different types of networking. The authors review the five stages of policy cycle: formation, formulation, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation, placing greater emphasis on implementation. In closing, the concept of social change is examined from various angles, using differing definitions as given by many sociologists. The authors maintain that society, in conjunctio with social change, is dynamic and in a constant state of transformation.