TY - JOUR
AU - Papoulias, Demetrios B.
AB - AbstractWe attempt here to explain why reforming social systems is not an easy job and what can be done about it. Vickers' concept of ‘appreciative systems’ is re-examined and further developed. It is argued that appreciative systems are socially established ways of perceiving, consisting of a set of cognitive categories, values and interests which are grounded on social practices. The latter are constituted by certain historically developed self-understandings shared by individuals. Social practices are self-referential and, therefore, particularly resistant to reform. It is argued that the role of policy makers should be seen as consisting of two components. First, inventing and supplying social systems with new appreciative systems, and secondly, regularly providing social systems with information about their own functioning as well as the functioning of other systems. That information, spread throughout a system, has potentially reforming effects. These claims are illustrated with examples from UK and American public life.
TI - Understanding Social Reforms: A Conceptual Analysis
JF - Journal of the Operational Research Society
DO - 10.1057/jors.1996.111
DA - 1996-07-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/taylor-francis/understanding-social-reforms-a-conceptual-analysis-EFt9AlEwWr
SP - 853
EP - 863
VL - 47
IS - 7
DP - DeepDyve
ER -