Resource information
This Sourcebook deals with social
analysis in policy reform, encompassing the transition from
gaining a better understanding of the distributional impacts
of proposed or continuing reform to influencing a more
informed and locally embedded process of policy review and
design. In a generic sense, the term "social
analysis" encompasses institutional, political, and
social analyses. These three overlapping areas, derived from
different disciplinary backgrounds, focus on the rules and
relations that underpin and influence reform outcomes:
Institutional analysis looks at the rules that people
develop to govern group behavior and interaction in
political, economic, and social spheres of life.
Institutional analysis is based on an understanding that
these rules-whether formally constructed or informally
embedded in cultural practice-mediate and distort, sometimes
fundamentally, the expected impacts of policy reform.
Political analysis looks at the structure of power relations
and often-entrenched interests of different stakeholders
that affect decision making and distributional outcomes.
Political analysis is built on recognition that political
interests underpin many areas of policy debate and economic
reform, challenging assumptions about the technical nature
of policy making. Social analysis looks at the social
relationships that govern interaction at different
organizational levels, including households, communities,
and social groups. Social analysis is built on an
understanding of the role of social and cultural norms in
governing relationships within and between groups of social
actors, with implications for the degree of inclusion and
empowerment of specific social groups.
