Tony Atkinson, Bea Cantillon, Eric Marlier, and Brian Nolan
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199253494
- eISBN:
- 9780191595882
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253498.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
Social indicators are an important tool for evaluating a country's level of social development and for assessing the impact of policy. Such indicators are already in use in investigating poverty and ...
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Social indicators are an important tool for evaluating a country's level of social development and for assessing the impact of policy. Such indicators are already in use in investigating poverty and social exclusion in several European countries and have begun to play a significant role in advancing the social dimension of the EU as a whole. The purpose of this book is to make a scientific contribution to the development of social indicators for the purposes of European policy‐making. It considers the principles underlying the construction of policy‐relevant indicators, the definition of indicators, and the issues that arise in their implementation, including that of the statistical data required. It seeks to bring together theoretical and methodological methods in the measurement of poverty/social exclusion with the empirical practice of social policy. The experience of member states is reviewed, including an assessment of the National Action Plans on Social Inclusion submitted for the first time in June 2001 by the 15 EU governments. The key areas covered by the book are poverty, including its intensity and persistence, income inequality, non‐monetary deprivation, low educational attainment, unemployment, joblessness, poor health, poor housing and homelessness, functional illiteracy and innumeracy, and restricted social participation. In each case, the book assesses the strengths and weaknesses of different indicators relevant to social inclusion in the EU, and makes recommendations for the indicators to be employed. The book is based on a report prepared at the request of the Belgian government, as part of the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2001, and presented at a conference on ‘Indicators for Social Inclusion: Making Common EU Objectives Work’ held at Antwerp on 14–15 Sept 2001.Less
Social indicators are an important tool for evaluating a country's level of social development and for assessing the impact of policy. Such indicators are already in use in investigating poverty and social exclusion in several European countries and have begun to play a significant role in advancing the social dimension of the EU as a whole. The purpose of this book is to make a scientific contribution to the development of social indicators for the purposes of European policy‐making. It considers the principles underlying the construction of policy‐relevant indicators, the definition of indicators, and the issues that arise in their implementation, including that of the statistical data required. It seeks to bring together theoretical and methodological methods in the measurement of poverty/social exclusion with the empirical practice of social policy. The experience of member states is reviewed, including an assessment of the National Action Plans on Social Inclusion submitted for the first time in June 2001 by the 15 EU governments. The key areas covered by the book are poverty, including its intensity and persistence, income inequality, non‐monetary deprivation, low educational attainment, unemployment, joblessness, poor health, poor housing and homelessness, functional illiteracy and innumeracy, and restricted social participation. In each case, the book assesses the strengths and weaknesses of different indicators relevant to social inclusion in the EU, and makes recommendations for the indicators to be employed. The book is based on a report prepared at the request of the Belgian government, as part of the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2001, and presented at a conference on ‘Indicators for Social Inclusion: Making Common EU Objectives Work’ held at Antwerp on 14–15 Sept 2001.
Tony Atkinson, Bea Cantillon, Eric Marlier, and Brian Nolan
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199253494
- eISBN:
- 9780191595882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253498.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
In designing indicators for use in the EU monitoring process, a great deal can be learnt from the experience of member states in their national policies to combat social exclusion. Ch. 3 reviews, ...
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In designing indicators for use in the EU monitoring process, a great deal can be learnt from the experience of member states in their national policies to combat social exclusion. Ch. 3 reviews, country by country, social indicators from a member state perspective, with the aim of illustrating the range of current practice in the use of social indicators in the field of social inclusion, rather than providing a comprehensive assessment. Member states differ in the degree to which they have embarked on strategies aimed at promoting social inclusion that already include explicit targets and indicators against which to measure the effectiveness of policy, and for this reason, the amount of space allocated to each country varies. In each case, however, the National Action Plan on Social Inclusion (NAPincl) submitted to the European Commission in June 2001 is discussed from the viewpoint of the method by which the plans were produced, their relation with previous policy formation, the use made of the seven indicators proposed by the Commission, and other indicators employed by member states that seem of wider interest, particularly where they relate to fields not covered by the Commission's indicators. The countries included in the review are Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, and the UK.Less
In designing indicators for use in the EU monitoring process, a great deal can be learnt from the experience of member states in their national policies to combat social exclusion. Ch. 3 reviews, country by country, social indicators from a member state perspective, with the aim of illustrating the range of current practice in the use of social indicators in the field of social inclusion, rather than providing a comprehensive assessment. Member states differ in the degree to which they have embarked on strategies aimed at promoting social inclusion that already include explicit targets and indicators against which to measure the effectiveness of policy, and for this reason, the amount of space allocated to each country varies. In each case, however, the National Action Plan on Social Inclusion (NAPincl) submitted to the European Commission in June 2001 is discussed from the viewpoint of the method by which the plans were produced, their relation with previous policy formation, the use made of the seven indicators proposed by the Commission, and other indicators employed by member states that seem of wider interest, particularly where they relate to fields not covered by the Commission's indicators. The countries included in the review are Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, and the UK.
Tony Atkinson, Bea Cantillon, Eric Marlier, and Brian Nolan
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199253494
- eISBN:
- 9780191595882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253498.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
The end result of the investigations carried out over the last 8 chapters is a list of 33 recommendations, which are printed in bold type, scattered throughout the book, and summarized at the end of ...
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The end result of the investigations carried out over the last 8 chapters is a list of 33 recommendations, which are printed in bold type, scattered throughout the book, and summarized at the end of the book, preceding a list of the proposed social indicators. The recommendations and proposed indicators are intended as a contribution to the debate about EU policy‐making, and in this chapter, the future policy process is considered. Topics discussed include the use of indicators in National Action Plans on Social Inclusion and by the European Commission, policy and national targets, and the development of indicators and mobilizing actors.Less
The end result of the investigations carried out over the last 8 chapters is a list of 33 recommendations, which are printed in bold type, scattered throughout the book, and summarized at the end of the book, preceding a list of the proposed social indicators. The recommendations and proposed indicators are intended as a contribution to the debate about EU policy‐making, and in this chapter, the future policy process is considered. Topics discussed include the use of indicators in National Action Plans on Social Inclusion and by the European Commission, policy and national targets, and the development of indicators and mobilizing actors.
John O. McGinnis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151021
- eISBN:
- 9781400845453
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151021.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Successful democracies throughout history have used the technology of their time to gather information for better governance. Our challenge is no different today, but it is more urgent because the ...
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Successful democracies throughout history have used the technology of their time to gather information for better governance. Our challenge is no different today, but it is more urgent because the accelerating pace of technological change creates potentially enormous dangers as well as benefits. This book shows how to adapt democracy to new information technologies that can enhance political decision making and enable us to navigate the social rapids ahead. This book demonstrates how these new technologies combine to address a problem as old as democracy itself—how to help citizens better evaluate the consequences of their political choices. As society became more complex in the nineteenth century, social planning became a top-down enterprise delegated to experts and bureaucrats. Today, technology increasingly permits information to bubble up from below and filter through more dispersed and competitive sources. The book explains how to use fast-evolving information technologies to more effectively analyze past public policy, bring unprecedented intensity of scrutiny to current policy proposals, and more accurately predict the results of future policy. But he argues that we can do so only if government keeps pace with technological change. For instance, it must revive federalism to permit different jurisdictions to test different policies so that their results can be evaluated, and it must legalize information markets to permit people to bet on what the consequences of a policy will be even before that policy is implemented. This book reveals how we can achieve a democracy that is informed by expertise and social-scientific knowledge while shedding the arrogance and insularity of a technocracy.Less
Successful democracies throughout history have used the technology of their time to gather information for better governance. Our challenge is no different today, but it is more urgent because the accelerating pace of technological change creates potentially enormous dangers as well as benefits. This book shows how to adapt democracy to new information technologies that can enhance political decision making and enable us to navigate the social rapids ahead. This book demonstrates how these new technologies combine to address a problem as old as democracy itself—how to help citizens better evaluate the consequences of their political choices. As society became more complex in the nineteenth century, social planning became a top-down enterprise delegated to experts and bureaucrats. Today, technology increasingly permits information to bubble up from below and filter through more dispersed and competitive sources. The book explains how to use fast-evolving information technologies to more effectively analyze past public policy, bring unprecedented intensity of scrutiny to current policy proposals, and more accurately predict the results of future policy. But he argues that we can do so only if government keeps pace with technological change. For instance, it must revive federalism to permit different jurisdictions to test different policies so that their results can be evaluated, and it must legalize information markets to permit people to bet on what the consequences of a policy will be even before that policy is implemented. This book reveals how we can achieve a democracy that is informed by expertise and social-scientific knowledge while shedding the arrogance and insularity of a technocracy.
Jose Harris (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199260201
- eISBN:
- 9780191717352
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199260201.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Economic History
This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a ...
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This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a wide range of historical settings. These include ‘state interference’, voluntary associations, economic decision-making, social and economic planning, the ‘bourgeois public sphere’, civil society in wartime, the ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ of women, and relations between the state, the voluntary sector, and individual citizens. The contributions suggest that the sharp distinction between civil society and the state, common in much continental thought, was of only limited application in a British context. They show how past understandings of the term were often very different from (even in some respects the exact opposite of) those held today, arguing that it makes more sense to understand civil society as a phenomenon that varies between different cultures and periods, rather than a universally applicable set of principles and procedures.Less
This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a wide range of historical settings. These include ‘state interference’, voluntary associations, economic decision-making, social and economic planning, the ‘bourgeois public sphere’, civil society in wartime, the ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ of women, and relations between the state, the voluntary sector, and individual citizens. The contributions suggest that the sharp distinction between civil society and the state, common in much continental thought, was of only limited application in a British context. They show how past understandings of the term were often very different from (even in some respects the exact opposite of) those held today, arguing that it makes more sense to understand civil society as a phenomenon that varies between different cultures and periods, rather than a universally applicable set of principles and procedures.
Richard Pugh and Brain Cheers
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861347213
- eISBN:
- 9781447303305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861347213.003.0007
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy
This chapter looks at similarities among community-oriented practice, community social work, community work, and community intervention. It examines the ways in which rural social work can contribute ...
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This chapter looks at similarities among community-oriented practice, community social work, community work, and community intervention. It examines the ways in which rural social work can contribute to action at the community level aimed at assisting, sustaining, developing, and, sometimes, helping to rebuild communities. Although different writers use different terminology for describing their ideas on community social work, and have developed varied models to describe the processes of planning and development, there is considerable overlap between much of their work. The chapter distinguishes three broad strategies for community intervention: social planning and community planning, community-services development, and community development, which also includes community organisation. Finally, it discusses personal skills, capacities, and characteristics necessary for effective casework.Less
This chapter looks at similarities among community-oriented practice, community social work, community work, and community intervention. It examines the ways in which rural social work can contribute to action at the community level aimed at assisting, sustaining, developing, and, sometimes, helping to rebuild communities. Although different writers use different terminology for describing their ideas on community social work, and have developed varied models to describe the processes of planning and development, there is considerable overlap between much of their work. The chapter distinguishes three broad strategies for community intervention: social planning and community planning, community-services development, and community development, which also includes community organisation. Finally, it discusses personal skills, capacities, and characteristics necessary for effective casework.
G.I.T. Machin
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198217800
- eISBN:
- 9780191678271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198217800.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Religion
The social challenges which had arisen to affect the Christian Churches in Britain in the 1930s and earlier continued to confront them during and after the Second World War. At the same time, the war ...
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The social challenges which had arisen to affect the Christian Churches in Britain in the 1930s and earlier continued to confront them during and after the Second World War. At the same time, the war provided more impetus for social planning and renewal which might be put into operation should victory in the armed conflict be secured; and this affected the position of the Churches as well as other aspects of society. During the war, the country was divided into three kinds of area — evacuation (those to be evacuated), reception (those to receive the evacuees), and ‘neutral’. Evacuees would be placed in private homes, and the receiving persons would obtain a government allowance. From the end of June to early September 1939, immense numbers of children (amounting to at least three million) moved in accordance with these intentions. Other social concerns of the Churches in the war included drinking, gambling, divorce, and birth control.Less
The social challenges which had arisen to affect the Christian Churches in Britain in the 1930s and earlier continued to confront them during and after the Second World War. At the same time, the war provided more impetus for social planning and renewal which might be put into operation should victory in the armed conflict be secured; and this affected the position of the Churches as well as other aspects of society. During the war, the country was divided into three kinds of area — evacuation (those to be evacuated), reception (those to receive the evacuees), and ‘neutral’. Evacuees would be placed in private homes, and the receiving persons would obtain a government allowance. From the end of June to early September 1939, immense numbers of children (amounting to at least three million) moved in accordance with these intentions. Other social concerns of the Churches in the war included drinking, gambling, divorce, and birth control.
Javier Díaz‐Giménez
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199248278
- eISBN:
- 9780191596605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199248273.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics
This is a brief introduction to dynamic programming and the method of using linear quadratic (LQ) approximations to the return function; the method is an approximation because it computes the ...
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This is a brief introduction to dynamic programming and the method of using linear quadratic (LQ) approximations to the return function; the method is an approximation because it computes the solution to a quadratic expansion of the utility function about the steady state or the stable growth path of model economies. The main purpose of the chapter is to review the theoretical basis for the LQ approximation and to illustrate its use with a detailed example (social planning). The author demonstrates that, using the LQ approximation approach and the certainty equivalence principle, solving for the value function is a relatively easy task. The different sections of the chapter describe the standard neoclassical growth model, present a social planner problem that can be used to solve the model, give a recursive formulation of the social planner's problem, and describe an LQ approximation to this problem. Exercises are included throughout, and an appendix presents a MATLAB program to illustrate the LQ method.Less
This is a brief introduction to dynamic programming and the method of using linear quadratic (LQ) approximations to the return function; the method is an approximation because it computes the solution to a quadratic expansion of the utility function about the steady state or the stable growth path of model economies. The main purpose of the chapter is to review the theoretical basis for the LQ approximation and to illustrate its use with a detailed example (social planning). The author demonstrates that, using the LQ approximation approach and the certainty equivalence principle, solving for the value function is a relatively easy task. The different sections of the chapter describe the standard neoclassical growth model, present a social planner problem that can be used to solve the model, give a recursive formulation of the social planner's problem, and describe an LQ approximation to this problem. Exercises are included throughout, and an appendix presents a MATLAB program to illustrate the LQ method.
G.I.T. Machin
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198217800
- eISBN:
- 9780191678271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198217800.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Religion
The Christian Churches had been thoroughly bound up with the British effort during the Second World War, and were equally involved with the victory celebrations. Some of the social planning of the ...
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The Christian Churches had been thoroughly bound up with the British effort during the Second World War, and were equally involved with the victory celebrations. Some of the social planning of the war and before was realized in the rapid erection of a welfare state by the Labour Government of 1945–1950, with the wide agreement of opposition parties. The adoption of universal social security was the culmination and extension of forty years of intervention. The finished product provided family allowances, sickness and unemployment insurance, old age pensions, a National Health Service, and free primary and secondary education. The period also saw the opening of betting shops; legalization of abortion and homosexual practice; divorce reform and the questioning of marriage; widening use of a new contraceptive pill; the abolition of censorship of plays; and much more freedom of exhibition and speech in the cinema, theatre, broadcasting, books, magazines, and newspapers.Less
The Christian Churches had been thoroughly bound up with the British effort during the Second World War, and were equally involved with the victory celebrations. Some of the social planning of the war and before was realized in the rapid erection of a welfare state by the Labour Government of 1945–1950, with the wide agreement of opposition parties. The adoption of universal social security was the culmination and extension of forty years of intervention. The finished product provided family allowances, sickness and unemployment insurance, old age pensions, a National Health Service, and free primary and secondary education. The period also saw the opening of betting shops; legalization of abortion and homosexual practice; divorce reform and the questioning of marriage; widening use of a new contraceptive pill; the abolition of censorship of plays; and much more freedom of exhibition and speech in the cinema, theatre, broadcasting, books, magazines, and newspapers.
Lars Peter Hansen and Thomas J. Sargent
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691042770
- eISBN:
- 9781400848188
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691042770.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter describes fast algorithms for computing the value function and optimal decision rule for the type of social planning problem to be described in Chapter 5. The chapter is organized as ...
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This chapter describes fast algorithms for computing the value function and optimal decision rule for the type of social planning problem to be described in Chapter 5. The chapter is organized as follows. First, it displays a transformation that removes both discounting and cross-products between states and controls. It then describes invariant subspace methods for solving an optimal linear regulator problem. Next, it describes a closely related method called the doubling algorithm that effectively skips steps in iterating on the Bellman equation. The calculations can be further accelerated by partitioning the state vector to take advantage of patterns of zeros in various matrices that define the problem. This is followed by discussions of fast methods for computing equilibria for periodic economies; the rapid solution of a periodic optimal linear regulator problem; and how the calculations can be adapted to handle Hansen and Sargent's (1995) recursive formulation of Jacobson's and Whittle's risk-sensitive preferences.Less
This chapter describes fast algorithms for computing the value function and optimal decision rule for the type of social planning problem to be described in Chapter 5. The chapter is organized as follows. First, it displays a transformation that removes both discounting and cross-products between states and controls. It then describes invariant subspace methods for solving an optimal linear regulator problem. Next, it describes a closely related method called the doubling algorithm that effectively skips steps in iterating on the Bellman equation. The calculations can be further accelerated by partitioning the state vector to take advantage of patterns of zeros in various matrices that define the problem. This is followed by discussions of fast methods for computing equilibria for periodic economies; the rapid solution of a periodic optimal linear regulator problem; and how the calculations can be adapted to handle Hansen and Sargent's (1995) recursive formulation of Jacobson's and Whittle's risk-sensitive preferences.
Aaron Stephen Moore
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804785396
- eISBN:
- 9780804786690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785396.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the discourse around technology as it circulated among engineers and technology bureaucrats. Through an analysis of the writings and policies of Miyamoto Takenosuke, a ...
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This chapter examines the discourse around technology as it circulated among engineers and technology bureaucrats. Through an analysis of the writings and policies of Miyamoto Takenosuke, a high-level technology bureaucrat and spokesperson for the engineers’ movement, it discusses how engineers defined technology as comprehensive social planning. In the 1930s, engineers flocked to the colonies to “construct East Asia” through large-scale infrastructure projects and economic planning studies. In this context, Miyamoto and others developed such notions as “comprehensive technology” (sōgō gijutsu), which coordinated infrastructure projects such as flood control, transportation, land reclamation, and hydropower dam construction to achieve the most effective results and therefore, appeal to the colonized. In sum, this chapter examines how colonial ideology worked through tropes of modernization and technical development, as opposed to backward looking, spiritualist discourses of emperor worship and Japanese racial superiority.Less
This chapter examines the discourse around technology as it circulated among engineers and technology bureaucrats. Through an analysis of the writings and policies of Miyamoto Takenosuke, a high-level technology bureaucrat and spokesperson for the engineers’ movement, it discusses how engineers defined technology as comprehensive social planning. In the 1930s, engineers flocked to the colonies to “construct East Asia” through large-scale infrastructure projects and economic planning studies. In this context, Miyamoto and others developed such notions as “comprehensive technology” (sōgō gijutsu), which coordinated infrastructure projects such as flood control, transportation, land reclamation, and hydropower dam construction to achieve the most effective results and therefore, appeal to the colonized. In sum, this chapter examines how colonial ideology worked through tropes of modernization and technical development, as opposed to backward looking, spiritualist discourses of emperor worship and Japanese racial superiority.
Peter Murray and Maria Feeney
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526100788
- eISBN:
- 9781526120823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526100788.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Chapter 5 returns the focus to the social sciences. The injection of resources into Ireland’s scientific research infrastructure at the end of the 1950s created two new social science research ...
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Chapter 5 returns the focus to the social sciences. The injection of resources into Ireland’s scientific research infrastructure at the end of the 1950s created two new social science research producers – the Rural Economy Division of An Foras Taluntais and the Economic Research Institute. In the former rural sociology took a recognised place alongside a variety of other agriculture-relevant disciplines. In the latter the distinction between the economic and the social was a blurred and indistinct one. During the first half 1960s the unenclosed field of social research was to be the subject of a series of proposals from actors located within the Catholic social movement to a variety of government departments for the creation of research centres or institutes. This chapter details these proposals and the fate of consistent refusal with which they met. Empirical social research in Ireland was funded and organised in a manner that effectively excluded the participation of any Catholic social movement actor without a university base when the government approved the transformation of the Economic Research Institute into the Economic and Social Research Institute. This approval for a central social research organisation was crucially linked to the project of extending the scope of government programming to encompass social development as well as economic expansion.Less
Chapter 5 returns the focus to the social sciences. The injection of resources into Ireland’s scientific research infrastructure at the end of the 1950s created two new social science research producers – the Rural Economy Division of An Foras Taluntais and the Economic Research Institute. In the former rural sociology took a recognised place alongside a variety of other agriculture-relevant disciplines. In the latter the distinction between the economic and the social was a blurred and indistinct one. During the first half 1960s the unenclosed field of social research was to be the subject of a series of proposals from actors located within the Catholic social movement to a variety of government departments for the creation of research centres or institutes. This chapter details these proposals and the fate of consistent refusal with which they met. Empirical social research in Ireland was funded and organised in a manner that effectively excluded the participation of any Catholic social movement actor without a university base when the government approved the transformation of the Economic Research Institute into the Economic and Social Research Institute. This approval for a central social research organisation was crucially linked to the project of extending the scope of government programming to encompass social development as well as economic expansion.
Peter Murray and Maria Feeney
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526100788
- eISBN:
- 9781526120823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526100788.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Chapter 6 examines the relationship between the programming state and social research. Initial crisis conditions had enabled increased social spending to be left off the government programmers’ ...
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Chapter 6 examines the relationship between the programming state and social research. Initial crisis conditions had enabled increased social spending to be left off the government programmers’ agenda. The changed politics of increasing prosperity, as well as their own expanding ambitions, meant that this could no longer be sustained during the 1960s. Ireland’s social security provision became an object of both political debate and social scientific analysis in this period. The official response to this ferment was a Social Development Programme to which the ESRI was initially seen as a vital provider of inputs. During the 1960s a Save the West movement challenged both programmers and governing politicians. The official response to this challenge involved new structures for rural development with which the social sciences interacted as well as expanded social welfare provision to a class of smallholders whose resilience would later become an object of significant sociological study. As the 1960s proceeded, however, Irish state plans and programmes had to contend with an increasingly difficult external environment with which they ultimately failed to cope.Less
Chapter 6 examines the relationship between the programming state and social research. Initial crisis conditions had enabled increased social spending to be left off the government programmers’ agenda. The changed politics of increasing prosperity, as well as their own expanding ambitions, meant that this could no longer be sustained during the 1960s. Ireland’s social security provision became an object of both political debate and social scientific analysis in this period. The official response to this ferment was a Social Development Programme to which the ESRI was initially seen as a vital provider of inputs. During the 1960s a Save the West movement challenged both programmers and governing politicians. The official response to this challenge involved new structures for rural development with which the social sciences interacted as well as expanded social welfare provision to a class of smallholders whose resilience would later become an object of significant sociological study. As the 1960s proceeded, however, Irish state plans and programmes had to contend with an increasingly difficult external environment with which they ultimately failed to cope.
Joshua L. Cherniss
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199673261
- eISBN:
- 9780191751714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199673261.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
This chapter reveals opposition to tendencies towards scientistic and/or technocratic paternalism—a complex of ideas and inclinations identified here as ‘managerialism’—to have been central to ...
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This chapter reveals opposition to tendencies towards scientistic and/or technocratic paternalism—a complex of ideas and inclinations identified here as ‘managerialism’—to have been central to Berlin’s post-war political concerns. The ‘managerial’ strains in post-war Western (and particularly British) thought, and their antecedents, are traced, as is Berlin’s perception of and reaction to these trends in his writings on politics, the philosophy of history, and the nature of the social sciences. The importance of his reaction against the various facets of ‘managerialism’ for Berlin’s thought is demonstrated; and his political and philosophical responses to these trends are compared to those of other prominent ‘anti-managerial’ and anti-scientistic liberals of the post-war period: Aron, Friedrich Hayek, and Karl Popper.Less
This chapter reveals opposition to tendencies towards scientistic and/or technocratic paternalism—a complex of ideas and inclinations identified here as ‘managerialism’—to have been central to Berlin’s post-war political concerns. The ‘managerial’ strains in post-war Western (and particularly British) thought, and their antecedents, are traced, as is Berlin’s perception of and reaction to these trends in his writings on politics, the philosophy of history, and the nature of the social sciences. The importance of his reaction against the various facets of ‘managerialism’ for Berlin’s thought is demonstrated; and his political and philosophical responses to these trends are compared to those of other prominent ‘anti-managerial’ and anti-scientistic liberals of the post-war period: Aron, Friedrich Hayek, and Karl Popper.
Upendra Baxi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198061762
- eISBN:
- 9780199080212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198061762.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter discusses the Idea of Development, which appears to emerge variously. It looks at the twelve questions of ‘planned’ social change and reverts to some historical collections of ideas ...
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This chapter discusses the Idea of Development, which appears to emerge variously. It looks at the twelve questions of ‘planned’ social change and reverts to some historical collections of ideas concerning development. The chapter also takes into consideration the Third World ideas of development and looks at development as developmentalism.Less
This chapter discusses the Idea of Development, which appears to emerge variously. It looks at the twelve questions of ‘planned’ social change and reverts to some historical collections of ideas concerning development. The chapter also takes into consideration the Third World ideas of development and looks at development as developmentalism.
Kenneth M. Ehrenberg
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199677474
- eISBN:
- 9780191758355
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677474.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
Legal positivism generally views law as a genre of artifact. Hart’s de-emphasis on function is seen as a response to Fuller and Dworkin’s mistakes. The inclusive/exclusive debate is understood as ...
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Legal positivism generally views law as a genre of artifact. Hart’s de-emphasis on function is seen as a response to Fuller and Dworkin’s mistakes. The inclusive/exclusive debate is understood as being over the role of law’s function. Little practical difference between the two positions is seen except perhaps in treatment of individuals who deny the validity of certain laws generally in force, although the focus on law’s artifactual nature leans toward the exclusive position. Legal validity is seen as an aspect of law’s institutionality. A spectrum of the six jurisprudential positions is given based on their views about legal validity’s dependence on morality. Comparison is made between seeing the law as a genre of institutionalized artifact and as a species of social planning. It is argued that Searlean institutionality better explains the endurance of law than Scott Shapiro’s notion of plans, and that Shapiro’s notion of self-certification is ad hoc.Less
Legal positivism generally views law as a genre of artifact. Hart’s de-emphasis on function is seen as a response to Fuller and Dworkin’s mistakes. The inclusive/exclusive debate is understood as being over the role of law’s function. Little practical difference between the two positions is seen except perhaps in treatment of individuals who deny the validity of certain laws generally in force, although the focus on law’s artifactual nature leans toward the exclusive position. Legal validity is seen as an aspect of law’s institutionality. A spectrum of the six jurisprudential positions is given based on their views about legal validity’s dependence on morality. Comparison is made between seeing the law as a genre of institutionalized artifact and as a species of social planning. It is argued that Searlean institutionality better explains the endurance of law than Scott Shapiro’s notion of plans, and that Shapiro’s notion of self-certification is ad hoc.
Marc Schuilenburg
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479854219
- eISBN:
- 9781479881956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479854219.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter presents a case study on urban intervention teams. Intervention teams spring into action to deal with families if there are suspicions that things are going seriously wrong. It involves ...
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This chapter presents a case study on urban intervention teams. Intervention teams spring into action to deal with families if there are suspicions that things are going seriously wrong. It involves house visits along with a series of actions that must eventually lead to improvement in the living circumstances of households and whole neighborhoods. Depending on the nature and aims of a project, the parties involved will include municipal departments, housing associations, welfare organizations, the police, health-care institutions, labor-mediation organizations, debt-relief institutions, community workers, welfare benefit services, schools, and youth-care associations. Despite criticisms, the relevant literature suggests a relatively large degree of confidence that an integral approach will lead to the disappearance of the barriers between organizations, and to a better approach to the problem: so-called decompartmentalization. The underlying train of thought is that the participating parties will be inspired and motivated to collaborate more, which should lead to a more effective approach to security and livability. The chapter attempts to verify this claim by examining the power game currently playing out in the Social Investment Plan (SIP), a project team that tries to regulate livability and insecurity in Amsterdam neighborhoods, in conjunction with housing associations, relief workers, and welfare-benefit institutions.Less
This chapter presents a case study on urban intervention teams. Intervention teams spring into action to deal with families if there are suspicions that things are going seriously wrong. It involves house visits along with a series of actions that must eventually lead to improvement in the living circumstances of households and whole neighborhoods. Depending on the nature and aims of a project, the parties involved will include municipal departments, housing associations, welfare organizations, the police, health-care institutions, labor-mediation organizations, debt-relief institutions, community workers, welfare benefit services, schools, and youth-care associations. Despite criticisms, the relevant literature suggests a relatively large degree of confidence that an integral approach will lead to the disappearance of the barriers between organizations, and to a better approach to the problem: so-called decompartmentalization. The underlying train of thought is that the participating parties will be inspired and motivated to collaborate more, which should lead to a more effective approach to security and livability. The chapter attempts to verify this claim by examining the power game currently playing out in the Social Investment Plan (SIP), a project team that tries to regulate livability and insecurity in Amsterdam neighborhoods, in conjunction with housing associations, relief workers, and welfare-benefit institutions.
Adolf Grünbaum
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199989928
- eISBN:
- 9780199346356
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199989928.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Chapter expands on the Determinism vs. Indeterminism debate and explores whether a deterministic socio-political theory can consistently advocate a social activism with the aim of thereby bringing ...
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Chapter expands on the Determinism vs. Indeterminism debate and explores whether a deterministic socio-political theory can consistently advocate a social activism with the aim of thereby bringing about a future state whose eventuation the respective theory regards as determined by historical causation.Less
Chapter expands on the Determinism vs. Indeterminism debate and explores whether a deterministic socio-political theory can consistently advocate a social activism with the aim of thereby bringing about a future state whose eventuation the respective theory regards as determined by historical causation.
Paul Froese
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199948901
- eISBN:
- 9780190262884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199948901.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The conclusion outlines the basic arguments of the book and provides a moral to the story. Every person can imagine a unique life purpose. The theoretical possibilities are seemingly unlimited, but ...
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The conclusion outlines the basic arguments of the book and provides a moral to the story. Every person can imagine a unique life purpose. The theoretical possibilities are seemingly unlimited, but external realities constrain us all. Our salvation appears to be the product of social luck, yet we retain the ability to create meaning in the world, no matter what fate has sent our way. That tension is at the heart of the way people find their purpose in life. It is in our nature to attribute meaning to our every experience in the world. Most remarkably, we create meaning out of abstractions, like love, Truth, beauty, God, and life. To do so is uniquely human.Less
The conclusion outlines the basic arguments of the book and provides a moral to the story. Every person can imagine a unique life purpose. The theoretical possibilities are seemingly unlimited, but external realities constrain us all. Our salvation appears to be the product of social luck, yet we retain the ability to create meaning in the world, no matter what fate has sent our way. That tension is at the heart of the way people find their purpose in life. It is in our nature to attribute meaning to our every experience in the world. Most remarkably, we create meaning out of abstractions, like love, Truth, beauty, God, and life. To do so is uniquely human.
