Analyzing Social Policy - by Mary Katherine O'Connor & F Ellen Netting Paperback

About the Book

"This unique volume outlines the different frameworks of policy analysis and explains how readers can use research and critical thinking skills to understand the different models from their formation and development to implementation. Approaching the topic from an analytical and research-based perspective, the authors help readers make better, informed choices for successfully dealing with the complexities of social policy. Social workers, public administrators, nonprofit managers and upper level students of these fields will find the tools necessary for understanding how social policies are analyzed, conceived, and ultimately applied."--

From the Back Cover

From formulation to implementation, an approach to the analysis of social policy through the lens of research

Analyzing Social Policy prepares professionals and students to make better informed decisions related to identifying and understanding the intricacies and potential impact of social policymaking and enactment on their organization as well as their individual responsibilities, goals, and objectives.

Authors Mary Katherine O'Connor and F. Ellen Netting thoroughly examine various approaches to the analysis of social policies and how these approaches provide the knowledge, multiple perspectives, and other resources to understand and grasp the nuances of social policy in all its complexity.

Comprehensive and based on research, Analyzing Social Policy explores:

• An overview of the practice of social policy analysis

• The role of research in guiding policy analysis

• The idea of policy analyses as research

• Themes, assumptions, and major theories that undergird rational models of policy analysis

• Nonrational themes, assumptions, and major theories informing nontraditional interpretive and critical approaches to policy analysis

• Strategies for applying selected models and approaches when engaging in policy analysis as research

Providing practitioners and students with a set of tools that can be used to enhance an understanding of what constitutes policy as well as acceptable standards for critical analysis of policy, this resource enables policy advocates--regardless of their level--to be political, strategic, and critical in their work.

About the Author

Mary Katherine O'Connor, MSW, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University where she has taught in the MSW and PhD programs for over twenty years. She has authored or coauthored numerous books, chapters, and journal articles in the areas of public child welfare practice, services to street children, and qualitative research method development.

F. Ellen Netting, MSSW, PhD, is a Professor of Social Work and Samuel S. Wurtzel Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University where she teaches in the BSW, MSW, and PhD programs. She has authored or coauthored numerous books, chapters, and journal articles in the areas of health and human service delivery issues for frail elders, as well as nonprofit management concerns.