In and against social policy

Abstract

In order to consider the potential relationships between community psychology and social policy it is necessary to consider the contradictory nature of social policy in the modern State. Following the tradition of critical social policy analysis established through the work of British writers on Critical Social Policy from the late 1970s onwards, social policies will be considered as a hybrid between the role of the State in the service of capital and the realisation of emancipatory struggles by a variety of subjects (workers, women, disabled people, ethnic minorities, and so on). Community psychology also reflects contradictions in the societies in which it is practised, with a similarly dual character both responding to emancipatory interests and at times transmitting the processes of control and recuperation by dominant social interests. Putting together these two critically constituted elements, 'social policy' and 'community psychology', implies a continual process of reflection where the interests of the disadvantaged are ('analectically') kept central. I will explore some opportunities and traps of the social policy process through the experience of leading a demonstration project that piloted changes in disability policy in the UK, and as an activist trying to influence city policies on climate change mitigation. The relative autonomy of system levels will be explored in relation to the scope for and limits to change. Some practical tools for maintaining an ethical clarity will be identified.