sociology and social policy

Question 1

why can and should sociology inform social policy?

Answer 1

• positivists and functionalists
• social democrats
• liberal feminists
  -new right

Question 2

why cannot and should not sociology inform social policy?

Answer 2

• piecemeal approach does not work
• Marxism
• difference feminism
• radical feminism

Question 3

positivists and functionalists

Answer 3

-early positivists Comte and Durkheim - sociology is a science that can find out causes of social problems and create scientifically based solutions for them.
-functionalists - the state is beneficial for society, implementing policies good for all.
-functionalists and positivists favor the ‘piecemeal social engineering’ whereby they favor approaches that take a step-by-step approach to tackle issues in society one by one in a manageable way.
-therefore, sociology can and should inform social policy because sociology and policy have a positive relationship in working together to create a march of progress.

Question 4

piecemeal approach does not work

Answer 4

-tackling issues one at a time leads to problems as a whole not being solved
-social issues such as educational underachievement is an aspect of a wider societal issue and using the piecemeal approach is not useful is the wider structural issue is not solved.
for example, the government implementing policies such as bursaries to tackle working class differences in education is defeated by the wider issue of poverty in society.
therefore, sociology cannot and should not inform social policy because they have a negative relationship whereby they can’t tackle issues as a whole.

Question 5

social democrats

Answer 5

favours the major redistribution of wealth and income from the rich to the poor - to create more equality.
Townsend - sociologists should take out research in social issues and create recommendations to eradicate them.
he conducted research on poverty and made recommendations based on his findings - higher benefits and more spending on health, education and welfare.
therefore, sociology can and should inform social policy as they can make recommendations to tackle class inequality.

Question 6

marxists

Answer 6

social issues such as social inequality are deep rooted in society and cannot be solved by the government
these issues are due to capitalism and the only way they can be solved is through the abolishment of capitalism
capitalism is not likely to implement social policies that require costly spending on the public to benefit the WC
their social policies will represent the interests of capitalism rather than those of society as a whole:
-policies that serve an ideological function: promote a ‘caring face’ to society to make it seem like they care and create a false class consciousness where the proletariat fail to see their exploitation.
-policies that maintain the labour force: NHS - keep people healthy so that they are able to keep working for capitalism.
therefore, sociology cannot and should not inform social policy because sociologists should criticise capitalism’s social policy, not serve the capitalist state.

Question 7

liberal feminism

Answer 7

the conflict in society is based on gender not class
society is patriarchal
march of progress view - there has been an improvement in womens rights over time and the main reason for this is legislation
liberal feminists have conducted research and campaigned which has had an impact on a number of different policy areas e.g. GIST and WISE and the equal pay act
therefore, sociology can and should inform social policy because they can tackle gender inequality and help create more rights for women.

Question 8

difference feminism

Answer 8

women experience the world and patriarchy in different ways.
e.g. a black disabled women in the first world will not have the same experiences as an Hispanic women in the third world.
feminists need to work together to highlight the difference and diversity of women and their experiences - rather than lumping them together which tends to marginalise groups.
social policies must reflect the interests of different women and their needs.
therefore, sociology cannot and should not inform social policy because both sociologists and the government tend to generalise females and do not account for their differences.

Question 9

new right

Answer 9

state intervention in areas such as family life, income support and education undermines self-reliance
this can lead to greater social problems e.g. crime
encourages dependency culture - lone parent families
however, support their their policies on welfare as it reduces dependency culture
they favour those policies that have a tougher stance in crime
they adopt a zero tolerance approach - where the smallest sign of disorder must be tackled to prevent escalation
therefore, sociology can and should inform social policy as it involves recommending policies that promote self-reliance - reducing a dependency culture.

Question 10

radical feminism

Answer 10

policies are not enough to tackle patriarchy
patriarchy is deep-rooted in society and radical solutions are needed e.g. seperatism
criticise new right - they hold traditional views of the family which is oppressive towards women
reducing benefits to minimise the number of lone parent families discriminates against women as they hold the majority of LPFs
if the policies that new right promote go ahead in society - women would be plunged further into poverty deepening patriarchy in society
therefore, sociology cannot and should not inform social policy because they reinforce patriarchy and further promote poverty.