Among the key concerns of social policy are the organization of social welfare to meet human needs and ways of recognizing and dealing with social problems.This focuses on the theories and concepts of social policy and the planning and implementation of state initiated social protection programs in the context of India. Informed by concerns around social justice and social exclusion and foregrounding key approaches such as capabilities theory, there should be reviews regarding contemporary theories, models, trends and processes in social policies and outcomes. A related goal is to draw out the evolving relationship between social and economic policies.
Understanding, assessment and critical engagement with social policy is increasingly relevant for social workers, in a context where numerous social protection programs are being implemented by the state in India. While these programs are about providing entitlements to citizens that guarantee that nobody will fall below a minimum living standard, the planning and implementation processes and outcomes frequently fall short of expectation. Moreover in recent decades these initiatives have been taking place in a broader context of economic globalization that is producing unprecedented forms of vulnerabilities, deprivation, exclusions and conflicts aggravating existing conditions of poverty and structural inequalities in power and resources.
Study in social policy will equip social workers to understand and analyze the theories, values, principles and processes that underpin social policies, state and public action emerging from them. Social workers should contextualize and critically evaluate existing social protection and welfare policies, institutional mechanisms and programs based on the learning about social policy.
What are the basic objectives in Social policy and planning cover?
A need to understand the concepts of need, well-being, redistribution, equality and justice, the underpinning values and principles of social policy and to understand the role of the state in making social policy through the historical and contemporary development in welfare state theories, concepts and models.
Alcock, C et al (eds). 2008. Introducing Social Policy. Pearson Education Limited and Baldock, J. 2007. Social Policy, Social Welfare and the Welfare State.inBaldock, J, Manning, N and Vickerstaff, S, (eds). Social Policy.Third edition. NY:OUP clearly introduce social policy in these books. Those who are interested can read these.
