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Teaching Social Policy: Some European Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Catherine Jones
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Abstract

This article sets out to explore the ways in which social policy is catered for, at university level, in various European countries. It starts with a review of the ‘Sigriswil (1972 and 1973) Colloquia’ papers on ‘The Study of Social Policy: Teaching and Research’. Having weighed up the evidence – or lack of evidence – emanating from these get-togethers, the article then goes on to explore university social policy teaching – and the extent to which this may or may not constitute a coherent specialist programme – in selected West German, French, Swedish and Swiss (Geneva) university arrangements. Concluding comments on this evidence highlight several key aspects of debate so far as present and probable trends in social policy and administration education at university level in Britain are concerned.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 1979 , pp. 509 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 See for example Mishra, Ramesh, Society and Social Policy, Macmillan Press, London, 1977, ch. 1.Google Scholar

2 See for example Donnison, D. V., ‘Research for Policy’, in Bulmer, Martin (ed.), Social Policy Research, Macmillan, London, 1978.Google Scholar

3 In this connection I am also indebted to Maurice North, Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies and Humanities, Preston Polytechnic, for his helpful comments and advice on the state of social work education in West Germany; and also to Cahnman's, Werner J. and Schmitt's, Carl M. ‘The Concept of Social Policy (Sozialpolitik)’Google Scholar (including an English translation of an extract from Zwiedineck-Südenhorst's, Otto vonSozialpolitik, B. G. Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin, 1911Google Scholar – ‘Social Policy and its Manifestations’), Journal of Social Policy, 8:1 (1979), 47–59.Google Scholar

4 see Girod, R. and Laubier, P. de (eds), L'Etude de la Politique Sociale, Commission Nationale Suisse pour L'UNESCO, Berne, 1974.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. p. 1.

6 Ibid.

7 W. Büchi, ‘La Politique Sociale comme Discipline Scientifique dans les Pays de Langue Allemande’, in Girod and de Laubier, op. cit. p. 46.

8 Ibid. See also Zwiedineck-Südenhorst as quoted in Cahnman and Schmitt, op. cit.

9 Zwiedineck-Südenhorst, , ‘Social Policy and its Manifestations’.Google Scholar

10 Ibid.

11 Büchi, op. cit. pp. 53–5.

12 This was personal correspondence, which was centred around five topics: (1) the distribution of specialist chairs in SozialpolitikGoogle Scholar in West Germany; (2) the probable or possible career openings for university graduates who had specialized in Sozialpolitik studies; (3) the social science subjects with which Sozialpolitik-type courses are most likely to be associated in universities where there is no specialist chair in Sozialpolitik; (4) the degree of comparability (if any) between university Sozialpolitik teaching and the content of social work education; and (5) the extent to which (if at all) Sozialpolitik is regarded as an academic discipline in its own right in West Germany.Google Scholar

13 Personal correspondence, and also information papers supplied by correspondents.

14 University of Cologne, Vorschau auf das Lehrprogramm des Seminars für Sozialpolitik im Wintersemester 1977/1978Google Scholar; and Vorschau auf das Lehrprogramm des Seminars für Sozialpolitik im Sommersemester 1978.

15 Ibid.

16 Personal correspondence.

17 Dr Hans F. Zacher, Projektgruppe für Internationales und Vergleichendes Sozialrecht, Max Planck Gesellschaft, Munich, personal correspondence.

18 Personal correspondence.

19 See for instance Maurice North, ‘Into Europe: The Training of Social Workers in West Germany’, Social Work Today, 5:8 (1974), 233–6Google Scholar; see also Maòr, H., Deutscher, R. and Fiefler, G. (eds), Lexifeon der Sozialen Arbeit, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 1978, pp. 37–9.Google Scholar

20 Verzeichnis der Lehrveranstaltuugen und der Mitarbeiter Einschliesslich Kommentar, Sommersemester 1978, Evangelische Fachhochschule, Darmstadt, 1978, pp. 63–5.Google Scholar

21 Personal correspondence.

22 M. P. Grandjeat, ‘L'Enseignement de la Politique Sociale: Le Cas de France’, in Girod and de Laubier, op. cit. pp. 162–5.

23 Lévy, E., ‘Enseignement et Recherche sur la Politique Sociale en France’, paper presented to the Sigriswil conference of February 1973Google Scholar but not included in the subsequent publi cation (Girod and de Laubier, op. cit.).

24 Lévy, op. cit.

25 Ibid.

26 Université de Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, ‘Troisième Cycle 1976–1977: Unité d'Enseignement et de Recherche: Travail et Etudes Sociales’Google Scholar, information leaflet, among other sources.

27 See Lévy, op. cit.; and Granjeat, op. cit. p. 163. See also above, p. 512.

28 Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Prospectus 1977–78, p. 204.Google Scholar

29 See Grandjeat, op. cit. pp. 172–6.

30 Lévy, op. cit.

31 Ibid. See also Girod and de Laubier, op. cit. p. 272; and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, op. cit. pp. 204 and 232.

32 Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, op. cit. pp. 87–108; and Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Grenoble, Information Leaflets, 1977–1978.Google Scholar

33 Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, op. cit. p. 71.

34 Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Grenoble, op. cit.

35 See for instance Institut Régional de Formation de Travailleurs Sociaux et de Recherche Sociale d'Aquitaine, Projet Pédagogique 1977–78, pp. 10, 12 and 14.Google Scholar

36 Students at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration do of course undertake a programme of studies which includes both academic course-work and ‘les stages’ (in-service training in branches of civil service administration). However, since this is an institution separate from the university system and geared exclusively to the production of top-level civil servants and administrators, the blend of academic study and field practice in this case hardly makes it a counterpart of British university courses in social administration.

37 See Portocarero, Lucienne (Swedish Institute for Social Research), ‘Teaching and Research in Social Policy in Sweden’, unpublished paper presented to the Sigriswil conference, 1973Google Scholar (under the name Lucienne Forsse). Subsequent references to this paper are supported by recent correspondence with Ms Portocarero and others.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

41 See National Swedish Board of Universities and Colleges, Studying in Sweden, 1977–1978, p. 19.Google Scholar

42 (Swedish) National Board of Education for Social Work and Public Administration, ‘Graduate Schools of Social Work and Public Administration’, information leaflet (to be replaced by a new curriculum leaflet in 1979).Google Scholar

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid. Note that ‘social policy’ courses, in this context, normally cover topics such as manpower policy, housing, social planning, family policy and (increasingly) comparative social policy.

45 University of Geneva, ‘Etudes et Carrières No. 17, 1974Google Scholar: L'Etude de la Politique Sociale à L'Université de Genève’, information leaflet, p. 65.

46 Ibid.

47 ‘La Politique Sociale et ses Applications’, information leaflet (using material drawn from University of Geneva, ‘Etudes et Carrières No. 24, February 1977’), pp. 73–8.Google Scholar

48 Ibid. pp. 79–82.

49 Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Geneva, ‘Certificat de Perfectionnement en Politique Sociale’, information leaflet, p. 2.Google Scholar

50 Ibid. pp. 2–3.

51 ‘La Politique Sociale et ses Applications’, p. 78Google Scholar, shows that the second student intake (for 1976–8) was broadly comparable to that for 1974–6, so far as occupational backgrounds were concerned.

52 Note that Barbara Rodgers was described as the most ‘pragmatique’ of all the Sigriswil contributors for her insistence – conventional by British standards – that one ought not to discuss and teach ‘high’ social policy-making without also commenting on social policy delivery at the middle level and the ground level – see Girod and de Laubier, op. cit. pp. 152–3.