Introduction
This new BSA/SPA study group, established in 2006, brings together people who are interested in utilising sociological perspectives and concepts to examine the nature of social and public policy.
New members are much welcomed if you would like to join this study group please contact one of the co-conveners.
Aims of the Study Group
The aim of this study group is to consider a range of issues, including, but not limited to the following:
- How we might understand using sociological theories and perspectives, the processes by, and contexts within which, social/public policy is generated, implemented and ‘received’.
- How a sociological focus on wider dimensions of social, economic and political change may impact upon our understanding of social/public policy.
- How contemporary sociological concerns with issues such as space/time, complexity, ‘risk’, and embodiment intersect with issues in social/public policy.
- How sociological concerns with ‘identity’ link with analyses of policy.
- How we might analyse and research the ways in which people ‘interact’ and ‘negotiate’ social/public policy utilising sociological understandings of agency, networks and processes of social/political engagement.
- How sociological concerns with ‘discourses’ – particularly ‘exclusionary discourses’ – impact upon analyses of social policy. For example, to what extent social policy is itself a ‘discourse’, and how various discourses - ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘disablist’, ‘heterosexist’, and ‘ageist’ - can become embedded within social/public policies.
Study Group Website
Group website currently in development.
Forthcoming Events
15 September 2010
The BSA/SPA Study Group for the Sociology of Social and Public Policy presents - 'The Child’ and ‘Childhood' in Theory and Policy: A Transdisciplinary Conference - Book now!
University of Leeds, UK
Past Events
15 January 2008
The BSA/SPA Study Group for the Sociology of Social and Public Policy presents a One Day Conference on: The Body and Social Policy
Weetwood Hall, University of Leeds, UK
3-6 September 2007
8th Annual Conference of the European Sociological Association: Conflict, Citizenship and Civil Society
Glasgow
Angharad Beckett and Justin Waring also act as co-ordinators of the ESA's Social Policy Research Network. This network will be running a paper stream at the conference and members of this BSA/SPA study group are warmly invited to attend the conference and the social policy paper stream in particular.
13 April 2007
Policy, Technology and Society Workshop at BSA Annual Conference 2007
University of East London, UK
8 January 2007
First Annual Meeting
The Jubilee Room, Palace of Westminster
The First Annual Meeting aimed to provide an inclusive, roundtable forum for discussing the aims and role of the Study Group and identifying the future directions for the Group's activities and networking.
Contact the Convenors
Dr Angharad Beckett
School of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
Send an email.
Dr Justin Waring
School of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham
NG7 2RD
Send an email.
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