Foundations of an Asset-based Social Policy Agenda

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reid Cramer
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Agenda

Evolving meanings of “the social” in the international development agenda

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naila Kabeer
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
International Development ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Means And Ends ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
The Social

This paper argues that while social policy as an explicit aspect of policy discourse has relatively recent origins within the international development agenda, concerns with “the social” have featured from its very early days seeking to challenge the conflation between growth and development. The paper focuses on key international conferences and policy documents to analyse contestations over the meanings of “the social” within development policy discourse and their efforts to rethink its boundaries with “the economic”. It suggests that these contestations have helped to spell out the basic outlines of an alternative policy agenda in which concerns with “the social” have come to define both the means and ends of development.

Farewell flexicurity? Danish flexicurity and the crisis

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bredgaard ◽  
Per Kongshøj Madsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Unemployment Insurance System ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Before the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, flexicurity topped the European labour market and social policy agenda. It was acclaimed for combining the flexibility of liberal labour markets with the security of social welfare states, thereby offering a viable formula for success in the new global economy. Nowhere was this better exemplified than in Denmark, with the Danish system repeatedly highlighted as a good example of flexicurity in action. In this article, we revisit the flexicurity concept, assessing how the Danish labour market came through the crisis. We argue that the economic crisis and especially political reforms of the unemployment insurance system have challenged the institutional complementarities of flexicurity, but that the Danish labour market is recovering and adapting to new challenges. The Danish case illustrates that institutional complementarities between flexibility and security are fragile and liable to disintegrate if the institutions providing flexicurity are not maintained and supported.

scholarly journals Efficiency or compensation? The global economic crisis and the development of the European Union’s social policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-322
Author(s):  
Imke Lammers ◽  
Minna M-L van Gerven-Haanpää ◽  
Oliver Treib
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Economic Rationale ◽  
Global Economic Crisis ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Welfare State

How has the global social policy agenda evolved since the global economic crisis? To shed light on this question, this article looks at the discourses in European Union (EU) social policy. It draws on two rival theoretical approaches from the literature on globalisation and the welfare state, the efficiency and compensation hypotheses, and links these approaches to two fundamental rationales underlying the discourse in EU social policy. Based on an analysis of key documents from two Open Methods of Coordination (OMCs), the article shows that the logic underlying the efficiency hypothesis can be extended to discourses in EU social policy. While policy debates in one OMC remained largely unchanged, the discourse significantly shifted towards the economic rationale during and after the crisis in the other OMC. This suggests that the crisis at least partly strengthened the view that social policy should be geared towards economic efficiency, growth, and the creation of jobs.

Setting a conservative policy agenda: The Victorian print media, young people in care and chroming

2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Mendes
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Young People ◽  
Drug Use ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Harm Minimisation ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Conservative Policy

The tabloid print media has played a crucial role in recent Australian social policy debates, particularly those pertaining to drug use and child and adolescent welfare. Much of the media's contribution has been around promoting simplistic and often conservative solutions to complex social problems.This article examines the recent media-inspired furore over so-called ‘safe-sniffing’ practices in a Victorian welfare agency. It is acknowledged that other forms of media such as talk back radio may have had influential roles, as might other factors also. Particular attention, however, is drawn here to the Herald Sun's role in this affair, and to similarities with its intervention in earlier policy debates. Some comparisons are also drawn with the coverage of the affair by the Age and the Australian.It is argued that the Herald Sun's specific campaign on chroming reflects a broader conservative agenda to undermine progressive social policy interventions including harm minimisation. This agenda may have significant implications for the Victorian community welfare sector given the tendency of politicians – whether in government or opposition – to bow to the demands of the tabloid media.

scholarly journals Financial Inclusion: A Tale of Two Literatures

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-50
Author(s):  
Rajiv Prabhakar
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Literature ◽  
The Everyday

Financial inclusion has arisen as an important social policy agenda over the past twenty years. A scholarly literature has emerged that is very critical of financial inclusion, seeing it as part of the financialisation of the everyday. Often, this theoretical literature makes little reference to how financial inclusion was developing in practice. Conversely, much of the policy literature does not refer to theoretical controversies about financial inclusion. The result is that the theoretical and policy literatures are developing in isolation from one another. This article suggests that it would be much better if there were greater mixing between these different literatures. The scholarly literature can inform the direction of policy and the applied literature can develop more nuanced versions of financialisation.

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