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Social Conscience and Social Policy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Abstract

Elementary textbooks in a subject may well influence students more than their subsequent reading, and they show the basic assumptions of teachers. This article is based on a study of introductory reading recommended to social administration students in British universities and polytechnics in 1976. It argues that many textbooks incorporate to some extent an ideal-typical interpretation of social policy which is called ‘the social conscience thesis’. The first part of the article sets out to establish that this approach, which was one of the dominant ones in social administration, remains influential. It is still the most common interpretation of social policy at the elementary level. The article is not concerned with advanced and specialized texts, where, although the social conscience thesis is still strong, different approaches are more commonly found. The second part then attempts to explain why this approach was once so powerful and why it is still with us.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 Mills, C. Wright, ‘The Professional Ideology of Social Pathologists’, American Journal of Sociology 49 (1943), 165–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The most notable exception is Wootton, B., assisted by V. G. Seal and R. Chambers, Social Science and Social Pathology, Part II, Allen and Unwin, London, 1959.Google Scholar

3 In January 1976 all member institutions of the Joint University Council for Public and Social Administration, and some other higher education institutions with social administration or closely related courses, were circulated with a request for their first and most elementary reading lists for social administration. Two-thirds gave their recommended reading; the listing here is therefore fairly secure, but not definitive. Most notable was the range of books recommended – over 200 in all – of which only a third were on two or more lists. Three books were mentioned by half or more of the institutions – Marshall, T. H., Social Policy in the Twentieth Century, various editions, Hutchinson, London (the 1970 edition is referred to in these references)Google Scholar; Titmuss, R. M., Essays on the Welfare State, Allen and Unwin, London, 1958Google Scholar; and Titmuss, R. M., Social Policy: An Introduction, Allen and Unwin, London, 1974Google Scholar. Three others were mentioned by more than a third – Titmuss, R. M., Commitment to Welfare, Allen and Unwin, London, 1968Google Scholar; Pinker, R., Social Theory and Social Policy, Heinemann, London, 1971Google Scholar; and Hall, Penelope, The Social Services of Modern EnglandGoogle Scholar, various editions, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Other books mentioned by a quarter or more were Butterworth, E. and Holman, D. (eds), Social Welfare in Modern Britain, Fontana, London, 1975Google Scholar; Birrell, W. D., Hillyard, P. A. R., Murie, A. S. and Roche, D. J. D. (eds), Social Administration, Penguin Books, Harmonds-worth, 1973Google Scholar; Brown, M., Introduction to Social Administration, Hutchinson, London, 1969Google Scholar; Forder, A., Concepts in Social Administration, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1975Google Scholar; Slack, K., Social Administration and the Citizen, Michael Joseph, London, 1966Google Scholar; Sleeman, J. F., The Welfare State, Allen and Unwin, London, 1973Google Scholar; and Fraser, D. F., Evolution of the British Welfare State, Macmillan, London, 1973CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Unless otherwise stated, all textbooks cited were mentioned on an introductory reading list.

4 For instance Hall, Phoebe, Land, Hilary, Parker, R. A. and Webb, Adrian, Change, Choice and Conflict in Social Policy, Heinemann, London, 1975Google Scholar, in which the approach of the introduction is scarcely followed up in the text, where these assumptions are present; and the work of Titmuss and Peter Townsend seems to be based implicitly on a similar approach, although both vigorously attack it. For a discussion of Titmuss's relationship to the ideas mentioned here, see Reisman, D. A., Richard Titmuss: Welfare and Society, Heinemann, London, 1977.Google Scholar

5 Rein, M., Social Policy: Issues of Choice and Change, Random House, New York, 1970, p. 4.Google Scholar

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9 Marshall, , Social Policy, p. 9Google Scholar. There is a full documentation of many definitions of social policy and of social services that could go into this section in Gil, D. G., Unravelling Social Policy, Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1973Google Scholar, ch. 1. Gil also discusses their consequences and refuses to attempt a definition himself, saying that his concern is ‘the overall quality of, life in society, the circumstances of living of individuals and groups, and the nature of all intra-societal human relations’ – p. 13.

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14 In this case social policy means conscious state intervention in social affairs.

15 see Boyd, C. W. (ed.), Mr Chamberlain's Speeches, Constable, London, 1914, pp. 131–7Google Scholar. the ‘ransom’ speech.

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19 Robson, W. A., Welfare State and Welfare Society, Allen and Unwin, London, 1976, p. 34Google Scholar. This work was published after the survey of reading lists and was therefore not on any of them. It is included here to indicate that the social conscience approach is still alive.

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21 Rodgers, B., The Battle Against Poverty, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1968, p. 2Google Scholar. See also Marshall, , Social Policy, p. 34Google Scholar; and Rooff, M., A Hundred Years of Family Welfare, Michael Joseph, London, 1972, p. 24.Google Scholar

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39 But see A. K. Maynard, ‘Social Security’, in Cooper, op. cit.

40 Marshall's Social Policy is one of the exceptions here – see p. 81.

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43 F. Lafitte, op. cit. See the extract in Birrell et al, op. cit. p. 59. See also Rimlinger, op. cit. pp. 333–4.

44 Lafitte, op. cit.; and Birrell et al, op. cit. pp. 59–60.

45 Gregg, op. cit. title page.

46 Myrdal, G., ‘Planning in the Welfare State’, in Schottland, C. I. (ed.), The Welfare State, Harper and Row, London, 1967, p. 106Google Scholar; Schottland, C. I., Introduction and editor's note in Schottland, The Welfare State, p. 15Google Scholar; and Marsh, , The Future of the Welfare State, p. 118.Google Scholar

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52 Hall, op. cit. (1952), p. 8.

53 Parker, J., Local Health and Welfare Services, Allen and Unwin, London, 1965, p. 14Google Scholar. The difference in approach between this – predominantly a social conscience textbook – and her later Social Policy and Citizenship, Macmillan, , London, 1975Google Scholar, is one indication of change in social administration writing.

54 Gregg, op. cit. Preface, p. v.

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57 Titmuss, R. M., ‘Social Administration in a Changing Society’, in Titmuss, Essays on the Welfare State (third edition, 1976).Google Scholar

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62 see George, V., Social Security and Society, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1973Google Scholar. This was mentioned on one reading list.

63 see Saville, J., ‘The Welfare State: An Historical Approach’, New Reasoner, 3 (1957–8)Google Scholar. This was mentioned on one reading list. More students would see extracts in Butterworth and Hohnan, op. cit.

64 Titmuss, , ‘Time Remembered’, p. 48.Google Scholar

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66 see Kuhn, T. S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Phoenix, Chicago, 1962.Google Scholar

67 see Briggs, A., Social Thought and Social Action: A Study of the Life of Seebohm Rowntree, Longman, London, 1961.Google Scholar

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72 Social Services Yearbook, Councils and Education Press, London, 19771978.Google Scholar

73 Titmuss, R. M., ‘The Welfare Complex in a Changing Society’Google Scholar, in Titmuss, , Commitment to WelfareGoogle Scholar. Here, as elsewhere, Titmuss makes points critical of the social conscience thesis, but they tend not to be followed up. see Sinfield, A., ‘Analyses in the Social Division of Welfare’, Journal of Social Policy, 7:2 (1978), 129–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 see Loch, C. S., How to Help Cases of Distress, facsimile edition, Continua, London, 1977.Google Scholar

75 Note how isolated the essay by R. Boyson, ‘Down with the Poor’, is in Butterworth and Holman, op. cit.

76 This is an example given in Marsh, , The Future of the Welfare State, pp. 63–4.Google Scholar

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83 Not much of the relevant literature was yet on introductory reading lists. Field, F., Unequal Britain, Arrow, London, 1974Google Scholar, was on three; Bull, D. (ed.), Family Poverty, Duckworth, London, 1972Google Scholar; and Holman, R. (ed.), Socially Deprived Families in Britain, Bedford Square Press, London, 1970Google Scholar, were on two; and Abel-Smith, B. and Townsend, P., The Poor and the Poorest, George Bell and Sons, London, 1972Google Scholar, was on one.

84 See for example Titmuss, R. M., ‘Income Distribution and Social Change’; and ‘The Social Division of Welfare’Google Scholar, in Titmuss, , Essays on the Welfare State.Google Scholar