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Sociology and social policy - Coggle Diagram
Sociology and social policy
Positivism and functionalism
Early positivists
Comte & Durkheim
see sociology as a science and want to discover the cause of social problems and scientifically based solutions - linked to the Enlightenment project e.g. Durkheim wants a meritocratic education for social cohesion
Both see the sociologists role as providing the state objective, scientific info, investigating social polices for the state to base policies
Functionalists society is based on value consensus and free from fundamental conflicts, like positivists they see the state as social policies for the good of all, helping society
Sociologist is like a medical researcher, investigating and providing possible 'pure' by policy recommendations
Functionalists favour 'piecemeal social engineering'
The power to define the problem
Any policy is a result of a political decision by those in power
those in power are the ones that can define what is and isnt a problem, and what (if anything) should be done about it
Influence of sociology on social policy
Electoral popularity:
research findings and recommendations may point to a policy unpopular with voters
Ideological and policy preferences of government:
if the researches value-stance & perspective is similar to gov political ideology they stand more chance of influencing its policies
Interest groups:
pressure groups that seek to influence gov policies in their own interest
Globalisation:
international organisations may influence social policies of individual govs
Critical sociology:
sociologists like Marxists that are critical of the state & powerful groups may be too extreme, hostile or impractical to influence policy
Cost:
government may not have sufficient funds to implement an appropriate policy based on findings, or may have other spending priorities and committments
Funding sources:
sociologists may tone down funding and policy recommendations to fit paymasters wishes, policymakers may recruit sociologists that share assumptions and political values, research findings may be used to justify what policymakers intended to do in the first place, similarly they may turn to a particular think tank they think will give the result they want
Social scientists ideas sometimes become part of mainstream culture and influence the way people see social problems, this can affect policies gov produce, this can make people favour policies reflecting social science-derived ideas e.g. John Bowlby idea of young children relationships with mothers being important influencing childcare policies
Social problems & sociological problems
Social problems:
Peter Worsley
, a social problem is a piece of social behaviour that causes public friction and/or misery and calls for collective action to solve it
Sociological problems:
Worsley
, a sociological problem is any piece of behaviour that we wish to make sense of, it can be a social problem or 'normal' behaviour. Some sociologists want to discover knowledge for its own sake, others want to solve social problems.
The New Right
Influence of New Right thinking:
attractive to Conservative party
some labour policies have some influence of new right views e.g. New Labour seeing married couple as normally best place to bring up a child
strong 'law and order' policy and research by right realists like Wilson and Kelling influential in zero-tolerance policies
research used has been questioned e.g. validity of data Murray uses for link between absent fathers and delinquency
new right policy proposals often use findings of politically sympathetic think tanks
state should have minimal involvement in society, especially welfare to deal with social problems as state intervention in certain areas robs people of their freedom to make their own choices and undermines their sense of responsibility (leading to greater social problems like crime)
Charles Murray
generous welfare benefits act as 'perverse incentives' that weaken the families self-reliance, encouraging growth of a dependency culture and underclass
need a reduction in state spending on welfare
highly critical of many existing policies, but not opposed to social policy, role of social policy to propose alternative policies that restore individuals responsibility for own welfare
Breakdown Britain:
a report by conservative think tank, the Social Justice Policy Group (2007)
new social policies aimed at family e.g. parenting classes
reports main trust was the give citizens responsibility for their own welfare
social policy should enable people to help themselves, rather than welfare state attempting and failing to do it for them
Feminism
state perpetuates women's subordination through social policies
family policies may assume normal is conventional nuclear family and offer benefits to this, producing a self-fulfilling prophecy encouraging this family type making it more difficult for others
impacted several policy areas e.g. education training to stop gender-bias of teachers ; most of these
liberal feminist
radical feminist
ideas have had some influence, regard men as oppressors, especially through family, favouring separatism
one policy reflecting this is refugees for women escaping domestic violence like Women's Aid Federation supporting >500 services, often with gov funding
feminist sociological research has impacted social policies in areas impacting women, partially due to broader feminist movement gaining traction since 1970s
marxist and radical feminists
call for more far-reaching changes that the existing state cannot deliver
Marxism
Social policies serve the interest of capitalism:
provide ideological legitimation to mask capitalist exploitation, e.g. welfare give capitalism a 'human face'
maintain labour force for further exploitation
prevent revolution when class conflict intensify and capitalism stability threatened
social policies sometimes provide real benefits, but gains constantly threatened by reversal by capitalism tendency to go into crises of profitability, leading to welfare cuts
research that reveals truth about social problems capitalism creates will not be used to formulate policy
only solution overthrowing of capitalism & a classless society
sociologists main role is to criticise social policy, not serve it, reveal exploitation underpinning capitalism and how ruling class use it to their advantage
Critics say this is impractical and unrealistic
social democrats criticise for rejecting idea research can bring progressive policies within capitalist system
The social democratic perspective
Favours major redistribution of wealth
Peter Townsend
, sociologists should research social problems and make policy to eradicate them
The Black Report (1980):
on class inequalities in health
37 far-reaching policy recommendations to reduce deep-routed inequalities
example, FSMs for all children
Labour gov commissioned report in 1977, completed 1980, a year after Thatcher gov but her gov refused to implement as too expensive and tried to restrict publication
Criticisms:
Marxists reject far reaching policies, only solution abolition of capitalism - capitalist state unlikely to introduce costly public spending policies to benefit the W/C, rational social policies fall on deaf ears
Postmodernists, no objective truth, sociological findings cannot be a good basis for policy-making, sociologists can only be 'interpreters' with one view, not 'legislators' (lawmakers) like functionalists and social democrats try to do