NSF seeking proposals on social policy problems

1971 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Problems

scholarly journals Unconditional Basic Income as an Instrument of State Social Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-214
Author(s):  
Vlad Stokolos ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Security System ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
State Budget ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Problems

Annotation. Introduction. The article considers the concept of unconditional basic income in the study of social policy as a state instrument of universal social justice. Considerable attention paid to the prospects for the introduction of unconditional basic income and the implementation of its basic principles into Ukrainian legislation. Various approaches of legal regulations and etymology of social policy in the context of the state security system are considered. Significant emphasis placed on the study of the theoretical challenge of unconditional basic income, namely the study of the functioning of such a mechanism in modern communicative realities. This research is a product of analytics and was created without taking into account the author’s political ideas. Given the recommended amount of research, the issues of unconditional basic income was considered not to be completed. Purpose. One of the main tasks of the article is to study the mechanism of functioning of unconditional basic income and the possibility of its application in practice. It is also worth giving your own view of the social policy problems. The tasks of the article are to analyze the modern social security system and to suggest options for its improvement. Results. The theory of unconditional basic income currently has no practical application. Despite a significant number of theoretical experiments, no country in the world uses the instrument of unconditional basic income at the legislative level. Therefore, it is too early to talk about the implementation of this theory of social policy in practice in Ukraine. Conclusions. Theory of unconditional basic income has a strong intellectual tradition, but the practical application of this instrument of social policy not implemented. Our studies show that such a system promotes the development of human capital and increases the geographical mobility of people. Unconditional basic income creates material support that promotes human development in other spheres of life. However, it was noted that conducting such a social policy requires significant expenditures from the state budget. This creates material barriers for some countries to use unconditional basic income as a tool of social policy. Keywords: unconditional basic income; social policy; state institutions; legal system.

scholarly journals Reading Complexity in Social Policy Contexts:  The Value of Q Methodology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Iris Anne Hutchinson
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Policy Problems

<p>Many social policy problems are recognised as complex and intractable, and hence necessitate analysts' having the capability to address them. Epistemological influences embedded in approaches to policy can impose constraints on the natural capacity and capability that people have to make sense out of particular experiences of complexity in the course of policy analysis work. Within the dominant policy approach adopted by policy analysts under the rubric of evidence-based policy, such complexity capability eschews any explicit role for opinion. However, the application of Q methodology by Michel van Eeten among others in a specific case of policy deliberation in the Netherlands, which had proven resistant to the standard, evidence-based policy analysis, shows that there could be a role for what is otherwise overlooked. Accordingly, this thesis examines the proposition that opinion indeed may play an important role in policymaking in complex and intractable situations. Q methodology is an established research methodology for acquiring and developing knowledge from a subjective standpoint. It has a growing record of successful application to public policy controversies, where solutions were made possible because opinion - and its everyday experiential rationality - were made available. Q methodology is also seen, however, as a marginal methodology. There has been insufficient explanation of why the application of Q methodology could make a positive difference to policy problems of a complex and intractable kind. The two research questions focus on the efficacy of Q methodology. Q methodology could make a difference in an adjunctive sense. It meets a policy need, namely to make opinion available as a complement to other evidence knowledge and thus adds to understanding of problems and solutions while remaining firmly within the prevailing evidence-based policy epistemology. Alternatively, Q methodology could make a difference of a transformative kind. It opens up a new epistemological space for doing policy analysis work with the power to create substantial policy-analytic change. To address these questions, the thesis develops an argument that establishes the linkages between pragmatism, complexity thinking and Q methodology and, in so doing, provides a path for understanding the role and place of opinion in policy making contexts. It proceeds through several stages which together make an epistemological argument for the efficacy of Q methodology. First, the nature of the policy problem is explicated as one of the separation of opinion from knowledge. Secondly, the thesis turns to a counter argument drawing on Peirce's pragmatism and his attention to abduction. In the next stage, dominant practice ideas about the capability needed to address complexity are critically examined, which shows that opinion is not valued in that practice. The success of van Eeten's work leads to a detailed examination of complexity in the policy context, and the claim that opinion is less problematical than are the overall epistemological choices made in policy analysis. Focusing on those epistemological choices, the argument draws together, in a fresh look, the thinking entailed in Q methodology in respect of its abductive logic and its theory of knowledge. Q methodology is shown to be a kind of science that allows objective fact to be approached from a subjective standpoint under experimental conditions. Finally, therefore, Q methodology is shown to open up an epistemological space quite unlike others. This makes the practice described as "reading complexity" in a real-world policy application possible.</p>

scholarly journals Reading Complexity in Social Policy Contexts:  The Value of Q Methodology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Iris Anne Hutchinson
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Policy Problems

<p>Many social policy problems are recognised as complex and intractable, and hence necessitate analysts' having the capability to address them. Epistemological influences embedded in approaches to policy can impose constraints on the natural capacity and capability that people have to make sense out of particular experiences of complexity in the course of policy analysis work. Within the dominant policy approach adopted by policy analysts under the rubric of evidence-based policy, such complexity capability eschews any explicit role for opinion. However, the application of Q methodology by Michel van Eeten among others in a specific case of policy deliberation in the Netherlands, which had proven resistant to the standard, evidence-based policy analysis, shows that there could be a role for what is otherwise overlooked. Accordingly, this thesis examines the proposition that opinion indeed may play an important role in policymaking in complex and intractable situations. Q methodology is an established research methodology for acquiring and developing knowledge from a subjective standpoint. It has a growing record of successful application to public policy controversies, where solutions were made possible because opinion - and its everyday experiential rationality - were made available. Q methodology is also seen, however, as a marginal methodology. There has been insufficient explanation of why the application of Q methodology could make a positive difference to policy problems of a complex and intractable kind. The two research questions focus on the efficacy of Q methodology. Q methodology could make a difference in an adjunctive sense. It meets a policy need, namely to make opinion available as a complement to other evidence knowledge and thus adds to understanding of problems and solutions while remaining firmly within the prevailing evidence-based policy epistemology. Alternatively, Q methodology could make a difference of a transformative kind. It opens up a new epistemological space for doing policy analysis work with the power to create substantial policy-analytic change. To address these questions, the thesis develops an argument that establishes the linkages between pragmatism, complexity thinking and Q methodology and, in so doing, provides a path for understanding the role and place of opinion in policy making contexts. It proceeds through several stages which together make an epistemological argument for the efficacy of Q methodology. First, the nature of the policy problem is explicated as one of the separation of opinion from knowledge. Secondly, the thesis turns to a counter argument drawing on Peirce's pragmatism and his attention to abduction. In the next stage, dominant practice ideas about the capability needed to address complexity are critically examined, which shows that opinion is not valued in that practice. The success of van Eeten's work leads to a detailed examination of complexity in the policy context, and the claim that opinion is less problematical than are the overall epistemological choices made in policy analysis. Focusing on those epistemological choices, the argument draws together, in a fresh look, the thinking entailed in Q methodology in respect of its abductive logic and its theory of knowledge. Q methodology is shown to be a kind of science that allows objective fact to be approached from a subjective standpoint under experimental conditions. Finally, therefore, Q methodology is shown to open up an epistemological space quite unlike others. This makes the practice described as "reading complexity" in a real-world policy application possible.</p>

scholarly journals Reviewing the relationship between social policy and the contemporary populist radical right: welfare chauvinism, welfare nation state and social citizenship

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Ketola ◽  
Johan Nordensvard
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Populist Radical Right ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Political Approach ◽  
Policy Problems ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractWhilst populism has a long-standing relationship with social policy, the recent emergence of radical right populism as a considerable political force across Europe and beyond compels us to think further about this relationship. The aim of this review essay is to bring together literature on populism, welfare chauvinism and social citizenship in order to highlight the role social policy plays in the rhetoric and political approach of the populist radical right. This essay reviews, how, by developing artificial distinctions between culturally homogeneous ‘people’ and corrupt ‘elite’, the populist radical right generates interpretations of social citizenship that confers social rights based on of cultural or ethnic belonging, rather than as a matter of right. By simplifying the nature of complex social policy problems, radical right populism further problematises the mainstream social policy agenda. Consequently, radical right populism will continue to present a significant challenge to progressive and inclusive social policy.

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