Social policy and development: an overview

As the social services of Western countries expanded in the years after the Second World War, some academics took the view that it would be worthwhile to study and assess the impact of government social policies. At about the same time, others were of the opinion the process of development, which was being given high priority by the governments of the newly independent developing nations at the time, was worthy of academic scrutiny. As a result, two new interdisciplinary fields known as social policy and development studies emerged at universities in Europe, North America and in other Western countries. While social policy was primarily concerned with the social services in these countries, development studies focused on the economic policies of governments in the Global South. Although both fields had a distinctly practical bent, they drew liberally on established social science disciplines to enhance their intellectual content. In some cases, social policy and development studies emerged out of existing social work and colonial administration training programmes, but separate academic departments as well as centres and institutes devoted to both fields were also created. In addition, courses in both subjects were introduced within established disciplines, especially economics, sociology and political science. In time, both launched their own journals and established professional associations, and by the 1960s a significant number of books, journal articles and research reports had been published. In addition to offering professional undergraduate and graduate courses, doctoral education was introduced to prepare students to assume leadership positions in both fields. The work of academics in social policy and development studies began to influence governments as well as international organizations, foundations and nonprofits, and policy-relevant contract research for these organizations was also undertaken. Scholarly inquiry that was not of direct policy relevance was also pursued and often it was of a critical nature, challenging prevailing academic ideas and policy approaches.