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Social planning: past, present, and future
Author(s) -
Bromley Ray
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1037
Subject(s) - social policy , social equality , equity (law) , liability , social engineering (security) , public administration , political science , sustainability , field (mathematics) , democracy , social planning , sociology , economic growth , law , economics , ecology , computer security , mathematics , politics , computer science , pure mathematics , biology , developing country
This article discusses the history of the idea of social planning, and of the pioneering Masters Programme in Social Planning established at the University of Wales Swansea in 1973. Swansea's initiative in social planning led to the creation of the University's Centre for Development Studies (CDS), and it broadened development studies as an academic and policy field. Social planning is a controversial term because it has sometimes been associated with social engineering and totalitarianism. Nevertheless, it has a very important intellectual and policy agenda, and if the word ‘planning’ proves a liability it can be replaced by ‘policy’ or ‘strategy’. The major questions reviewed at CDS‐Swansea in the 1970s are still pertinent, and new dimensions have been added through growing concerns for nation‐building, sustainability, democracy, gender equity and human rights. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.