Methodological challenges in the implementation and evaluation of social welfare policies

Abstract

As social reality is quite elusive, even regarding seemingly well-recognized everyday concepts and objects, there are always methodological challenges underlying assessments and evaluations of implementation policies. The present article addresses this area of concern by presenting the results of a rereading of an empirical study of elderly home care services. Our results reveal the emergence of a dissolution of common and professional key concepts and objects in these welfare services to a degree that challenges both the implementation policy and the evaluation of policy. We claim that this has methodological implications for evaluation of implementation policies in general.

Swedish eldercare within home care services at night-time: perceptions and expressions of ‘good care’ from the perspective of care workers and care unit managers

“…Thereafter, by letting the analysis of the two perspectives be informed by Nodding's concepts: responsiveness; receptivity and relatedness, contrasts and similarities were interpreted in contextual and holistic ways but in their specific situation (cf. Andersson and Kalman 2012;Stake 2006).…”

Internal Differentiation within the Rural Migrant Population from the Sustainable Urban Development Perspective: Evidence from China

“…In the process of the formulation and implementation of social security policies in China, obvious regional distribution differences are found between various clusters; that is, the population distribution of these clusters differs across cities [55]. Practical experience suggests that the social security policy in China should be specifically devolved to the local level to balance the urban sustainability [56,57]. At present, there are obvious weaknesses in housing security for RMP in China.…”

Does the Effectiveness of Budget Deficit Vary between Welfare and Non-Welfare Countries?

“…Fourth, prior studies highlight disproportionate economic growth patterns across welfare and non-welfare countries due to the disparity in QOG [4]. However, in some studies, welfare and non-welfare countries are discussed, considering the level of Subsidies and Other Transfers (SOT) to the citizen, the level of Institutional Quality (IQ), and the position of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the country [25][26][27][28]. Studies argue that the group of nations that emerged as welfare countries are those in which the government is primarily responsible for safeguarding and advancing its citizens' economic and social well-being.…”