Читать книгу Social Policy - Fiona Williams - Страница 12

In the previous chapter I introduced two ideas. First, that, while there have been major analytical insights on welfare states from many of the feminist, anti-racist, political economy, disability, age, sexuality, and ecology-related critiques of social policy, the core of social policy has been slow or differentially selective in acknowledging them. Second, that, while many of these critiques offer profound analyses, they remain relatively disparate; what is important is to draw together their commonalities, strengths and insights in a way that respects their specificities and argues for their central significance in the discipline of social policy. This chapter elaborates both these ideas, setting out the places different critiques have occupied in relation to mainstream social policy and looking at the combination of political and intellectual forces that have shaped their continuing marginality. In the second half I examine the origins and re-emergence of intersectionality as theory, method and praxis, looking at its potential and pitfalls. I argue that, if combined with some of the key concepts from critical approaches to social policy, it has much to offer in pulling together the disparateness of different critical approaches and in thinking through issues of a transformative perspective on social policy. In sum, I offer an intersectionally informed and multi-focal critical approach. The subsequent chapters apply this in different ways.