Sociology as a social policy

Question 1

What are social problems?

Answer 1

Described by Worsley as something which causes public friction/private misery and needs some collective action to solve it: social policy
- Someway harmful to society

Question 2

What are sociological problems

Answer 2

Theoretical issues that need explaining
- may not be practical/useful but for knowledge for knowledges sake

Question 3

What’s a clear distinction between social and sociological problems?

Answer 3

All social problems are sociological but not all sociological problems are social
- eg: improvement in girls educational achievement - not a social problem

Question 4

What is an example of sociological problems?

Answer 4

Simmel, who looked at universal characteristics of social relationships, work place, families and even bus queues

Question 5

Does sociological research make a difference?

Answer 5

• Sociological research into poverty, health, education and crime has a huge influence on government policy
• Government bodies often hire sociologists to research these areas for them
• eg: the institute of public policy research

Question 6

What makes research?

Answer 6

• Research findings might highlight areas the electorate like: if people are behind it and it becomes widely accepted then it could also influence policy
• Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation: importance of relationships between young child-mom, became widely accepted and influenced policy

Question 7

What makes it as research?

Answer 7

• Ideological preferences
• Interest groups
• Globalization
• Critical sociology
• Cost
• Funding sources

Question 8

What is meant by ideological preferences (IP) and Interest groups (IG)?

Answer 8

IP: If the government and research share the same perspective on research = high chance of success
IG: Pressure groups seek to further own interests through government policy

Question 9

What about positivism and functionalism in social policy?

Answer 9

• Use the enlightenment project to improve society
• sociologists could influence social policy by showing objective, scientifically collected facts (causal relationships) in society and using social policy to better them
• Functionalists favor tackling one social problem at a time, called the piecemeal approach

Question 10

What is meant by globalization (G) and critical sociology (CS)?

Answer 10

• G: international policies (IMF: international monetary fund) structural readjustment programmes have require criteria to be met by developing countries that sociologists have warned against
• CS: critical perspectives like Marxism are seen as too extreme to influence policy

Question 11

What is meant by cost (C) and funding sources (FS)?

Answer 11

• C: government likes the research findings but might not have the funds
• FS: think tanks for research can have political perspectives and so politicians are more likely to use the ones that will provide the research the want

Question 12

What’s an example of positivism in social policy?

Answer 12

Durkheim’s analysis lead him to propose a meritocratic education system and the abolition of inherited wealth to make society fairer

Question 13

Why do marxists critique the piecemeal approach?

Answer 13

• Ignores wider social issues that require the basis of society to change rather than the individual issue they’re targeting
• eg: targeting the improvement of education ignores the wider issues of poverty causing material deprivation

Question 14

What is the social democratic?

Answer 14

Approach wants a major reshuffle of the structure of society, to redistribute wealth from rich to poor

Question 15

Who talks for the social democratic?

Answer 15

Townsend
The Black Report

Question 16

What did Townsend say and do?

Answer 16

• Argues sociologists should be involved in researching social problems and making policies to fix them
• Researched poverty and influenced welfare policies

Question 17

What did the Black Report do?

Answer 17

Announced 37 far reaching recommendations for policy, including free school meals and improving working conditions

Question 18

What about the new right and social policy?

Answer 18

• Believe that the state should have only minimal involvement in society
• opposed to using state provision of welfare to deal with social problems
• state intervention in areas as family life, income support, education and health care jobs of their independence and especially the freedom to make their own choices

Question 19

What else do the new right think?

Answer 19

• Undermines their sense of personal responsibility and leads to greater social problems such as crime and delinquency
• New right heavily critical of many existing government social policies
• Government social policies should enable people to stand on their own 2 feet and help themselves

Question 20

What about marxism and social policy?

Answer 20

• See society as divided by a fundamental conflict of interest = ruling capitalist class exploit the labor of the working class
• Don’t see the state and its social policies as benefiting all members of society
• the state representing the ruling class and its social policies serve the interests of capitalism, not those of society as a whole

Question 21

What are the reasons for Marxists seeing social policy as problematic?

Answer 21

1) Social policies hide capitalist exploitation
2) Social policies maintain the labor force ready for exploitation
3) Social policies are a means of preventing revolution

Question 22

What is meant by the first reason in marxism and social policy?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What is meant by the second reason in marxism and social policy?

Answer 23

The social policy that resulted in the NHS serves capitalism by keeping workers fit enough to work

Question 24

What is meant by the third reason in marxism and social policy?

Answer 24

Marxists see the polices that create the welfare state after the WW2 as a way of buying off working class opposition to capitalism

Question 25

What are critiques to the marxism approach to social policy?

Answer 25

• Impractical and unrealistic
• Social democrats criticize them for rejecting the idea that sociological research can help bring about progressive policies within the existing capitalist system
• Point out that poverty researchers have had some very positive impacts on social policy aimed at helping the poor

Question 26

What is the feminist approach to social policy?

Answer 26

• See society as based on conflict, fundamentally between genders
• patriarchal society benefits men at women’s expense
• state perpetuates women’s subordination through social policy
• may produce a self fulfilling prophecy (idea that mothers should reenter the workforce asap or men should be awarded custody of children)
• things may be resisted by social policy makers thus reinforcing traditional patriarchal relationships

Question 26

What is an example of patriarchal social policies?

Answer 26

Family policies may be based on the assumptions that women are better at looking after children’s than men

Question 27

How have feminist research affected the government?

Answer 27

Education, learning materials, especially in maths and science, have been changed to promote more positive images of females
- teacher training aimed at sensitizing teachers to the need to avoid gender bias and to promote inclusiveness for both sexes

Question 27

What’s the postmodernist approach to social policy?

Answer 27

• Sociology has no contribution to make to policy
• Role of sociology: simply to allow people to seek out an understanding of their personal lives within a specific social content
• Reject the modernist idea of ‘progress’ - social policy cannot be used to usher in the ‘good society’

Question 28

How have radical feminists influenced social policy?

Answer 28

Analysis of domestic violence has led to establishment of women’s refuges often with funding from local and central government
- recently austerity cuts have resulted in many refuges closing down
- EG: Women’s Aid Federation supports a national network of over 500 such service

Question 29

What else about the postmodernist approach?

Answer 29

• Postmodernists argue there’s no such thing as an ‘orderly society to be discovered by rational scientific methods’
• Sociology: simply an academic discipline and it’s findings shouldn’t be used to inform government social policy
• Shouldn’t be a relationship between sociology and social policy