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.

scholarly journals Whither development studies? Reflections on its relationship with social policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Copestake
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
International Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Development Studies ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Evolving System ◽  
The Uk

This paper contributes to an ongoing conversation between development studies (DS) and social policy (SP) as academic fields, particularly in the UK. Using Andrew Abbott's analysis of the social sciences as an evolving system of knowledge lineages (KLs), it reflects on the status of DS and its relationship with SP. Defining DS as a distinctive KL centred on critical analysis of ideas and projects for advancing human well-being, I suggest that it has lost coherence even as research into international development thrives. Indeed it is easy to envisage its gradual assimilation into other KLs, including SP. The two increasingly overlap in their analysis of the causes of relative poverty and injustice, and what can be done to address them, within countries and globally. Strengthening links between the two fields can be justified as a political project, even at the risk of some loss of plurality and plenitude across the social sciences.

THE 'INVISIBLE' NGO: US EVANGELICAL MISSIONS IN KENYA

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Hearn
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Family Planning ◽  
International Development ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
International Aid ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article argues that the beginning of the new millennium marks not the end of the missionary era but its high point. Critical changes have taken place in international development policy, resulting in a smaller role for the state and a greater role for non-state agencies, including NGOs. In Kenya, American evangelical missions constitute one of the most important of these groups, but their significance is overlooked, hence they are described as 'invisible'. The article examines the role of missions as implementers of the New Policy Agenda in Kenya, focusing on five organisations and their involvement in such matters as health care, AIDS, family planning and food security. It enriches our understanding of the contemporary role of mission-related Christianity in Africa, and explores the relationship between American evangelical missions and the international aid regime.

scholarly journals Implications of Korea`s Saemaul Undong for International Development Policy: A Structural Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-100
Author(s):  
Kwon Huck Ju
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
The Government

Development strategies based on neoliberal theories and good governance have failed to achieved clear outcomes. This paper examines the Saemaul Undong movement in Korea with the contention that it can provide a missing link between market- and state-oriented development policy. Saemaul Undong contributed to social and economic development in Korea not only as a self-help community movement but also as a mechanism of social inclusion. Its success was based on a social structure that was made more open to upward mobility by the land reform of the 1950s. A negative aspect of Saemaul Undong is that it was promoted by the government to mobilize political support for authoritarian President Park Chung Hee. In order to draw policy implications from Saemaul Undong for international development, it is necessary to consider the social and political context of the developing countries under consideration.

scholarly journals TOO WEAK TO INFLUENCE? A CASE STUDY OF THE LITHUANIAN NGDOs IN FOREIGN AID POLICY MAKING

Politologija ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Marta Gadeikienė
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
International Development ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Eu Project ◽  
Aid Policy ◽  
The Eu

For the East Central European Countries (ECE), the membership in the European Union also meant an entry into the foreign aid donor community. To understand the international development policy change in over a decade and a policy divergence among the ECE countries that have started from relatively similar situations, this article offers the case study of Lithuania and the analysis of domestic policy actors, namely the non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) as one of the policy change facilitating factors. It provides an empirically-rich account of how Lithuanian NGDOs participate in the national foreign aid policymaking and explains factors that affect Lithuanian NGDOs’ capacity to influence government decisions. Szent-Ivanyi’s and Lightfoot’s theoretical model guided the analysis of the Lithuanian NGDOs umbrella organisations composition and power relations, their organizational capacities, foreign donor assistance and attitudes of the state actors. The article concludes the limited, yet increasing Lithuanian NGDOs’ role in shaping Lithuanian foreign aid policies, as undermined as they are by the chronic lack of resources to fund advocacy from national sources and the dependency on the EU project-based funding. Consequently, these circumstances constrain the NGDO Platforms’ focus mostly on the EU development agenda and therefore mimic the European NGO networks’ policy agenda. The lack of capacities among the NGDOs to adapt a European policy agenda to the national foreign aid policy reality makes it of limited relevance to the policy makers domestically.

scholarly journals “Apa salahku?”: Interrogating social policy problem representations of domestic violence within Singapore's Malay/Muslim population

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabilah Husna Binte Abdul Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Problem Representations

<p><b>What’s the problem of domestic violence (DV) represented to be in Singapore’s social policy? This thesis interrogates the social policy responses to DV by looking at its discursive effects on Singapore’s Indigenous Malay/Muslim population. Undergirding the study is a theoretical understanding of structural intersectionality, which allows for a recognition of the unique identity of the Malay/Muslim population in Singapore. Such an approach contextualises Malay/Muslim women’s experiences of DV against the backdrop of Singapore’s colonial history and its current Anglo-Chinese political hegemony, which adopts a neoliberal, patriarchal and authoritarian form of governance. </b></p> <p>Through qualitative interviews with seven professional advocates working in the social sector and public service, and in-depth analysis of policy documents and first-hand accounts, I examined the ways in which the problem of DV has been imagined and, thus, remedied. Using thematic analysis and taking some inspiration from Carol Bacchi’s post-structuralist “What’s the problem represented to be?” analytical tool, I identified the representations of DV that are found in the interviews and first-hand accounts by survivors and uncover the implicit problematisations within the discourses. These representations show that DV within the Malay/Muslim population is seen as experiences of patriarchal and religious authoritarianism, housing and income insecurity, inadequacies with informal strategies of resistance, and limitations of formal forms of resistance. Then, using the WPR mode of questioning more conventionally, I analysed policy documents and solutions, such as counselling, public education and criminal justice solutions, to reflect on the parameters and limits of how DV has been problematised and where policies fall short in addressing Malay/Muslim women’s experiences according to discourse. </p> <p>The study concludes that social policy solutions define DV within the Malay/Muslim population largely as cultural problems, divorced from the historical and structural context it operates within. Problem representations also mute the overarching ideological position of Singapore’s governance. </p> <p>The findings urge advocates and policy-makers to commit to a structural intersectional framework that actively dismantles the neoliberal capitalist systems and patriarchal ideologies legitimised by the State, which underpin and intensify experiences of DV among Malay/Muslim women and other marginalised groups.</p>

What's Feminist about Feminist Foreign Policy? Sweden's and Canada's Foreign Policy Agendas

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 424-437
Author(s):  
Jennifer Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Development ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Critical Force ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
International Commitments ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Policy Agendas

Abstract Across politics and public discourse, feminism is experiencing a global renaissance. Yet feminist academic work is divided over the burgeoning use of the term, particularly in reference to economic and international development policy. For some, feminism has been co-opted for neoliberal economic ends; for others, it remains a critical force across the globe. This article explores the nascent feminist foreign policies of Sweden and Canada. Employing a discourse analysis of both states’ policy documents, it asks what the term “feminist” meant in preliminary attempts at constructing a feminist foreign policy. It argues that although both use the term “feminist,” they understand the term very differently, with Sweden centering it in domestic and international commitments to change, while Canada places greater emphasis on the private sector. This suggests that this policy agenda is still developing its central concepts, and is thus ripe for intervention on the part of policymakers and civil society organizations.

scholarly journals The Social Construction of Retirement and Evolving Policy Discourse of Working Longer – CORRIGENDUM

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-587
Author(s):  
PHILIP TAYLOR ◽  
CATHERINE EARL
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Early Exit ◽  
The Social ◽  
Short Termism

In the April 2016 issue of the Journal of Social Policy (vol 45, part 2 pp251-268), there was an article by Philip Taylor and Catherine Earl entitled ‘The Social Construction of Retirement and Evolving Policy Discourse of Working Longer’ which contains the following statement: “The case for early exit was argued, in part, on the back of efforts to re-distribute work to the young. Macnicol (2008) describes this as ‘misguided short-termism’ attempting to facilitate economic modernisation” (p251). This should have read “Macnicol (2008) describes as incorrect commentary that this was ‘misguided short-termism’ attempting to facilitate economic modernisation.” The authors acknowledge that the statement in their article was incorrect and apologise for this oversight.

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