Social Policy and Planning for the 21st Century: In Search of the Next Great Social Transformation

This book addresses the two most critical issues facing humanity today, climate change and poverty, arguing that neither can be solved without resolving the other, and that in order to address these two critical issues, social policy (including environmental policy) will need to be completely altered from how it is conceived at present. Today’s social values of consumption and accumulation will need to give way to new social markers, aesthetic consumption and accomplishment. Additionally, the allocation of resources in the new economy will be based on these new social markers rather than simply through the present market mechanism.

The greatest problems facing humanity today are climate change, poverty, and the increasing separation between the rich and poor. The aim of this book is to examine the social constructions that have led to these breakdowns, and provide potential solutions that are based on a fundamental change in the structure of society and the values on which a new and better social system can be built.

Unless we as a society set a drastically different course soon, human life as we know it will suffer greatly, perhaps even cease altogether. Excess consumption is becoming anti-social as the effects of global warming and increasing poverty become apparent. What, then, will form the new social values on which society replaces the present emphasis on work and material consumption that now prevail? This book’s answer to that question is accomplishment and aesthetic consumption. This proposed refocused existence will necessitate a new economic order that provides access to a livelihood beyond the market system.

This groundbreaking book will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, leisure studies, political science, and social work.