Agenda
Social Values: the Foundation Underneath Most Public Policy
1. How Social Values Relate to Public Policy.
Learning objectives: participants will:
a. understand definitions of social value,
“The Origin of Values: Sociology and Philosophy of Beliefs” Ray Boudon
b. learn how social values are identified and measured
c. see how social values have influenced public policy over time
d. recognize that social value change over time, sometimes in a linear fashion
and sometimes in a cyclical fashion.
e. be able to name 10 important social values that they should be tracking now (e.g. individualism versus communitarianism, privacy versus imposed morality, etc.)
2. How to Identify and Measure Social Values Today.
Learning objectives: participants will:
a. learn key sources of information on social values, including
b. be made aware of annual surveys by Daniel Yankelovich, Gallup, PEW and others
c. Review recent research conducted by the Ford Foundation (Meg Bostrom)
and others on how social values translate into public support or opposition to policies and programs.
d. Learn the crucial important of the language that is used to create a link
between a strategy and the social value (Douglas Gould Associates, George Lakoff, the Reframing Institute. E.g Universal Preschool tests 52% positive and 19% negative, Preschool for All tests 59% positive and 12% negative.
e. Using the Ford Foundation materials, identify the key values held by the
public that relate to poverty and poor people, and the numbers of U.S. citizens who report they subscribed to each value (or not)
3. Assess Existing Anti Poverty Strategies in Relation to Beliefs of Americans
Learning objectives: participants will:
a. Help develop a taxonomy of anti-poverty strategies, e.g. economic growth, human
b. development, assess development, public charity, private charity.
c. Identify key programs of interest to community action and place them in the
taxonomy,
d. Combining the tools developed in workshop # 2 and the taxonomy just developed,
participants will predict the amount of support various strategies will have.
Weight the support for each strategy.
4. Reframe or Retool Existing Strategies or Develop New Strategies
Learning objectives: participants will:
a. Reframe the language used to describe an existing strategy to enhance public support.
b. Re-tool an existing strategy in a way that support for it is enhanced
c. Discuss which strategies are most useful in the long run.
d. Identify characteristics of new anti-poverty strategies or identify new strategies.