107 research outputs found
Social policy and international interventions in South East Europe: conclusions
This book has brought together three fields of study; that concerned with the role of international actors and their influence on national polices; changes taking place to social policies in the context of globalisation, transnationalism and Europeanisation; and the political transformations taking place in South Eastern Europe. It has reported the results of empirical investigations into recent changes in social policy in the region and the ways in which transnational actors are influencing these changes.
We divide this concluding chapter into three parts. The first part summarises the actual developments in social policy in the countries of the region and the several and diverse ways in which international actors have, to varying degrees, been influential. We then draw some analytical conclusions arguing how the case studies lead to changes in the ways social scientists should make sense of: the role of international actors engaged in transnational policy making including that of the EU; the role and nature of states in this âmulti-level and multi-actorâ process; and the prospects for social policy and the diversity of welfare regimes. Finally we make suggestions about the kind of research that is needed to advance understanding in these inter-related areas
From 'Safety Nets' Back to 'Universal Social Provision'
This short article draws upon a number of recent reports from several international organizations to argue the case that, at least at the level of discourse, the tide has turned from the period in the 1990s when a targeted and means tested safety net future for welfare policy especially in the context of development was being constructed. Now even within the World Bank there is some evidence that the case for a universal approach to social welfare provision is again being recognized. This shift suggests that one locus of the struggle for the future of national and international social policy continues to be the international epistemic community of social policy analysts working for and advising international agencies
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Trust, time and participatory research in regional social policymaking: the African Union and Southern African development community
This paper reports two empirical studies undertaken in 2012 and 2014 both of which examine the extent to which International Organisations have argued for and helped to develop regional social policies in regional associations of government in Africa and in particular within SADC. The paper argues that within the context of an analytical framework for understanding policy change that combines social structural, institutional, agency and policy discourses, biographies of policy players including civil servants (national, regional and global) and individual policy advocates acting in often fleeting global and regional policy spaces can and do impact on policy change, in our case regional social policy formulation. The paper argues therefore that researchers applying participatory research tools can in certain circumstances also influence policy in favourable conditions where actor-researchers as agents have earned trust over time in engagements with key individual policy players in international and regional organisations and manage to shift policy discourses.</i
Globalization, Postcommunism and Social Policy: Issues in Croatia
Ovaj Älanak izvjeĆĄtava o istraĆŸivanju globalizacije socijalne politike koja je u tijeku u Hrvatskoj, a tiÄe se ĆĄirih istraĆŸivanja razvoja socijalne politike u postkomunistiÄkoj Srednjoj i IstoÄnoj Europi i bivĆĄem Sovjetskom Savezu. Brojne specifiÄne teme pojavile su se u Hrvatskoj u okolnostima ratova i prisilne migracije. Autori odreÄuju deset podruÄja za daljnje istraĆŸivanje: Intervencija meÄunarodne zajednice, Uloga inozemnih NVO (NGO â nongovernmental organization, NVO â nevladina organizacija), UÄinci humanitarne pomoÄi, Financiranje od inozemnih partnera, PoremeÄaji u obrascima zapoĆĄljavanja, Problemi hrvatskih NVO, Prioriteti hrvatske Vlade, Vjerske i etniÄke osnove pruĆŸanja usluga, Globalizacija odozdo i Poslije ove krize.This article reports on work in progress in Croatia concerning the globalization of social policy, related to wider research on the development of social policy in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In the context of wars and forced migration, a number of specific issues have emerged in Croatia. The authors identify ten areas for further research. The intervention of the international community, The role of foreign NGOâs, The effects of humanitarian aid, Funding by foreign partners, Distortion in employment patterns, The problems of Croatian NGOâs, The priorities of Croatian government, The religious and ethnic basis of provision, Globalization from below and after the crisis
Globalisation
Summaries This article argues that the current phase of neoliberal globalisation presents a challenge to the prospects for equitable social development in developing and transition economies. This challenge flows partly from the unregulated nature of the emerging global economy and partly from the intellectual currents dominant in the global discourse concerning social policy and social development. In particular the article argues that a combination of the World Bank' s preference for a safety net and privatising strategy for welfare, the self interest of International NGOs in being providers of associated basic education, health and livelihood services, and the World Trade Organisation's push for a global market in health, education and insurance services, is generating a set of global conditions which undermine the prospects for any alternative scenario of equitable public social provision. This disturbing trend is taking place within the context of an apparent shift in the politics of globalisation from fundamentalist economic liberalism to global social concern
Global public policy, transnational policy communities, and their networks
Public policy has been a prisoner of the word "state." Yet, the state is reconfigured by globalization. Through "global publicâprivate partnerships" and "transnational executive networks," new forms of authority are emerging through global and regional policy processes that coexist alongside nation-state policy processes. Accordingly, this article asks what is "global public policy"? The first part of the article identifies new public spaces where global policies occur. These spaces are multiple in character and variety and will be collectively referred to as the "global agora." The second section adapts the conventional policy cycle heuristic by conceptually stretching it to the global and regional levels to reveal the higher degree of pluralization of actors and multiple-authority structures than is the case at national levels. The third section asks: who is involved in the delivery of global public policy? The focus is on transnational policy communities. The global agora is a public space of policymaking and administration, although it is one where authority is more diffuse, decision making is dispersed and sovereignty muddled. Trapped by methodological nationalism and an intellectual agoraphobia of globalization, public policy scholars have yet to examine fully global policy processes and new managerial modes of transnational public administration
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