Sociology and Social Policy Flashcards
Sociological vs social problems
Social problems are in some way harmful to society, Worsley (1978) describes them as something which causes public friction / private misery and needs some collective action to solve it; social policy.
All social problems are sociological problems, but not the other way around; this deals with theoretical issues that need explaining for explanations sake. For example the huge improvement in girls educational achievement is not a social problem. Sociological problems may not be practical or useful but search for knowledge for knowledge’s sake. For example, Simmel (1950) looked at universal characteristics of social relationships, in the work place, families or even a bus queue.
However some sociologists are concerned with practical problems and are employed by the home office to research and tackle them.
Does sociological research make a difference?
Sociological research into poverty, health, education and crime has a huge influence on government policy and often government bodies hire sociologists to research these areas for them; for example the Institute of Public Policy Research.
What makes research?
Research findings might highlight areas the electorate like, if the people are behind it and it becomes widely accepted then it could also influence policy; Bowlby’s (1965) idea that young children’s relationships with their mother is crucial became widely accepted and influenced policy.
What makes it research?
Ideological preferences: if the government and research share the same perspective on research there is a higher chance of success.
Interest groups: pressure groups seek to further own interests through government policy.
Globalisation: International policies (IMF – international monetary fund) structural readjustment programmes have require criteria to be met by developing countries that sociologists have warned against.
Critical sociology: Critical perspectives like Marxism are seen as too extreme to influence policy.
Cost: Even if the government likes the research findings, they might not have the funds.
Funding sources: think tanks which research, can have political perspectives and so politicians are more likely to use the ones that will provide the research they want.
Positivism and Functionalism
Using the Enlightenment Project to improve society, sociologists could influence social policy by showing objective scientifically collected facts (cause and effect relationships) in society and using social policy to better them. For example, Durkheim’s analysis lead him to propose a meritocratic education system and the abolition of inherited wealth, to make society fairer.
Functionalists favour tackling one social problem at a time, this is called the piecemeal approach.
Marxists critique of the piecemeal approach
Marxists criticise this piecemeal approach because it ignores wider social issues that require the basis of society to change rather than individual issues they are targeting. For instance, targeting improving education ignores the wider issues of poverty causing material deprivation.
The Social Democratic perspective
This approach wants a major reshuffle of the structure of society, to redistribute wealth from rich to poor. Townsend (1979) argues sociologists should be involved in researching social problems, and making policies to fix them. Townsend researched poverty and influenced welfare policies. The Black Report announced 37 far-reaching recommendations for policy, including free school meals and improved working conditions.
The New Right and social policy
The New Right believe that the state should have only minimal involvement in society. In particular, they are opposed to using state provision of welfare to deal with social problems. In their view, state intervention in areas as family life, income support, education and health care robs people of their independence and especially the freedom to make their own choices.
This undermines their sense of personal responsibility and leads to greater social problems, such as crime and delinquency. The New Right are therefore highly critical of many existing government social policies. They believe that government social policies should enable people to stand on their own two feet and help themselves.
Marxism and social policy
Marxists see society as divided by a fundamental conflict of interest in which the ruling capitalist class exploit the labour of the working class. Unlike functionalists, they do not see the state and its social policies as benefiting all members of society. In the Marxist view, the state represents the ruling class, and its social policies serve the interests of capitalism, not those of society as a whole.
Marxists see social policy as problematic for three reasons
1) Social policies hide capitalist exploitation. For example, the social policies that make up the welfare state gives capitalism a ‘human face’, making it appear that the system cares about the poor, sick and old.
2) Social policies maintain the labour force ready for exploitation. For example, the social policy that resulted in the NHS serves capitalism by keeping workers fit enough to work.
3) Social policies are a means of preventing revolution. For example, Marxists see the policies that created the welfare state after the Second World War (1939-45) as a way of buying off working-class opposition to capitalism.
Critiques of Marxism
However, critics argue that Marxist views on social policy and the role of sociologists are impractical and unrealistic. Social democrats criticise Marxists for rejecting the idea that sociological research can help bring about progressive policies within the existing capitalist system. For example, they point out that poverty researchers have had some very positive impact on social policy aimed at helping the poor.
Feminism and social policy
Like Marxists, feminists see society as based on conflict, but in their view the fundamental conflict is between genders, not classes. Feminists see society as patriarchal (male dominated) and believe that it benefits men at women’s expense. Furthermore, the state is seen as perpetuating women’s subordination through its social policies.
For example, family policies may be based on the assumption that women are better at looking after children than men. These policies may produce a self-fulfilling prophecy – the idea that mothers should be encouraged to re-enter the workforce as soon as possible or that crèche facilities should be provided in the workplace or that men should be awarded custody of children by the family courts may be resisted by social policy makers, therefore, reinforcing traditional patriarchal relationships.
Government vs feminism
However, there is evidence that feminist research has influenced government social policy in the following areas:
In education, learning materials, especially in maths and science, have been changed to promote more positive images of females, and teacher-training is now aimed at sensitising teachers to the need to avoid gender bias and to promote inclusiveness for both sexes.
Radical feminist analysis of domestic violence has led to the establishment of women’s refuges, e.g. the Women’s Aid Federation supports a national network of over 500 such services, often with funding from local and central government (although recent austerity cuts have resulted in many refuges closing down).
The Equal Opportunities Commission was set up to monitor discrimination against women in job advertising and in the workplace.
Feminist sociological research, therefore, has had some impact on government social policy especially with regard to equal opportunities and anti-discrimination. However, many feminists reject the view that social policies can liberate women from patriarchy.
Postmodernism and social policy
For postmodernists, sociology has no contribution to make policy.
The role of sociology is to simply allow people to seek out an understanding of their personal lives within a specific social context.
This is because postmodernists reject the modernist idea of ‘progress’ – social policy cannot be used to usher in the ‘good society’.
Sociologists assume that there is an ‘orderly society out there to be discovered by rational scientific method’ but postmodernists argue that there is no such thing. Sociology is simply an academic discipline and its findings should not be used to inform government social policy and there should not be a relationship between sociology and social policy.
