This book is a concise conceptualization of fundamental key themes, issues principles and perspectives which govern the dynamics of contemporary social policy planning. My Goal is to provide students with a rapid and holistic sketch of the basic issues and themes of social policy to a style analogous to implemented social policies in Uganda. This style is advantageous in a sense that social policy theoretical discourses ceases to be abstract hence providing students with the inspirations to design policies which can provide answers to contemporary problems. There is nothing in the realm of social development that does not exist in government social policy framework. Using its organizing theme, social policy debates emphasize that social policy and social development are parallel the former is the propeller shaft while the later is the product. Writing this text has not been a picnic; there have been several frustrating moments especially when I first worked into a publisher’s house six years ago and the questions such as, have you ever published? Can we get for you a co-writer? were frustrating. Publishing in Uganda, like any other business, exist within the realm of profit motives. Publishers are not enthusiastic to publish books for high institutions of learning such as universities. These institutions have a culture of buying a few copies which they photocopy for their libraries, instead of buying original copies. Publishers concentrate on primary and secondary school books because that is where they make big profits. This is a paradox because secondary schools prepare students for universities but if the students do not find books in universities how will they be inspired and challenged to build regimes of knowledge which can solve contemporary problems in their societies? I firmly believe that books are the carrier of civilization and providers of knowledge. They help in the production of new regimes of knowledge and without books, history is silent, literature irrelevant and obsolete, science disabled and crippled, especially in the societal context. It is a common phenomenon for people to conclude that in Uganda the reading culture is very low that reading is not in the societal cultural patterns and trimmings. How will people develop a reading culture where there is no facilitated writing culture? Without contextualized knowledge challenge for a change for a better future is always a dream, and inspiration in vein. I write in reference to the conventional practice which I will preface with a brief experience account. I have taught social policy for several years in several universities in Uganda. It is common phenomena in the academia to look for existing literature. However, most of the scholarly works on several social policy issues are written by foreigners with foreign illustrations such as the welfare state, poor law etc. These illustrations are abstract to social policy students in Africa. The resultant effect to this scenario is that the inspiration among the students to apply the acquired body of knowledge is as I said earlier at a standstill. While attention to availability of social policy texts is well merited, intervention to write texts with explorations and historical accounts of our Ugandan and African own policies with authentic illustrations is imperative. This position is visibly lacking in existing texts on social policy issues. While writing this book, I worked with a presumption that it will contribute to the filling of this gap, so that social policy as a discipline can find its theoretical and empirical location in our own academic space. Universities are considered to be manufacturers of knowledge and this book is designed to help students of social policy to acquire a knowledge base of developing policies, and to develop analytical judgment of those existing policies which require revisiting. This can lead to production of new objects of knowledge which can break a dependency syndrome on foreign regimes of knowledge, which often can not be applied in our societies. This text acknowledges the legitimacy and authority of the existing literature. However, production of new regimes of knowledge is a moral imperative and a social duty incumbent on all professionals. Since the field I have chosen to plough has been ploughed before and I have been a beneficiary of this knowledge, I find it a moral duty to contribute to social policy space by helping students to examine philosophical origins of social policy in our society, rather than depending per se on abstract foreign knowledge products. In this text, social policy theoretical discourses point out important issues but at the same time raise questions and relevant analysis that can create a continuum of social policy existence in the academia space. Let me hope this book will go through several editions.

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