Subjects of social policy of the welfare state. Social and spiritual subjects

All functions of providing assistance to those in need are performed by the subject of social activity.

The subject includes all those people and organizations that conduct and manage social activities. This:

The state as a whole, implementing social policy;

Charity organisations;

Relief societies such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society;

Public organizations: Children's Fund named after. V. I. Lenina, Russian Association of Social Services;

Association of Social Educators and Social Workers;

Union of Officers, etc.

But main subject social work are, of course, not organizations, not associations, but people engaged in social activities professionally or on a voluntary basis , who base their activities on laws adopted by the state.

The classification of subjects of social activity is as follows:

1. Organizations, institutions, social institutions of society; These include:

Firstly, the state with its own structures represented by the legislative, executive and judicial authorities at various levels. In this structure, a special role is played by the Ministry of Health and Social Development, as well as executive bodies of social work management at the regional level (social protection bodies of territories, regions, republics, autonomous entities), cities, local administrations;

Secondly, various types of social services: territorial centers for social assistance to families and children; social rehabilitation centers for minors; assistance centers for children left without parental care; rehabilitation centers for children and adolescents; centers for psychological assistance to the population; centers for emergency psychological assistance by telephone, etc.;

Thirdly, the administration of state enterprises, organizations, institutions, universities, etc. and their divisions.

2. Public, charitable and other organizations and institutions:

Unions;

Branches of the Children's Fund;

Red Cross Society;

Private social services, organizations, etc., as well as non-governmental charitable organizations in Russia, etc.

Today in Russia, charitable activities are carried out in accordance with the Federal Law “On Charitable Activities and Charitable Organizations,” which provides legal regulation of these activities, guarantees support for its participants, and creates a legal basis for the development of the activities of charitable organizations.

3. People engaged in practical social work professionally or on a voluntary basis.

4. Teachers, as well as those who contribute to the consolidation of knowledge, skills, skills: heads of student internships, mentors, practical social workers and other workers who facilitate the internship of students (listeners) in various organizations, institutions, and social enterprises.

5. Social action researchers: scientists analyze the state of social work using various methods, develop scientific programs, record existing and emerging trends in this area, publish scientific reports, books, articles on social work issues.

1. Object and subject of social work

To whom assistance is provided - in medicine, such a person is called a “patient”. In jurisprudence - “victim”, which is the Russian analogue of the Latin term “patient”, or “plaintiff”, i.e., in essence, the one who seeks help.

Persons who receive assistance from a social worker should be called clients. The client can be individual or group (family, school class, group of disabled people, work team, etc.).

Since a social worker of any rank is always an active party, we can talk about what his activity is aimed at, regardless of whether it meets with an active response or is only passively accepted by people. In this sense, the object of social work is individuals, families, groups, and communities in difficult life situations.

Difficult life situation- this is a situation that violates or threatens to violate the possibility of normal social functioning of these objects. It is also important to add that individuals themselves are unable to cope with this situation on their own, without external help.

In life, unfortunately, misfortunes, illnesses, and disasters happen, which can push a completely prosperous person, family, or social group into the ranks of the disadvantaged, in need of external help. Family problems that destabilize interspousal or parent-child relationships can arise in any family, regardless of its social status and financial situation.

Therefore, all over the world it has long been realized that social work is needed by all strata, groups and individuals, although some need it potentially, while others already need it. It is customary to compare it with an umbrella, which can be folded up for a time, but at the right moment it will protect individuals from adverse influences that threaten them.

So, we can conclude that social work is carried out at the level of the individual, family, group, community of people united on a territorial, production basis, based on a similar problem, or within the entire society. However, when providing assistance, a social worker must know what this assistance is aimed at, what he wants to achieve in the process of his activities, what his goal is and how he imagines the ideal result of his work.

Object Social work serves people who need outside help:

Old people and pensioners;

Disabled people;

Seriously ill;

People who find themselves in a difficult life situation - trouble;

Children, teenagers who find themselves in bad company, and many others.

The object of socio-legal work refers to those who need help, and the subject refers to those who provide it.

Socio-legal work is the interaction between object and subject.

Groups of people that are the object of socio-legal work can be divided into three categories:

Vulnerable groups;

Marginalized groups;

Persons with deviant behavior.

Social situation– the specific state of the problem of a specific citizen - a client of socio-legal work, individual or group, with all the wealth of his connections and mediation related to the resolution of this problem.

Subject social and legal work is the social situation of the client and the immediate field where the social specialist makes efforts. affairs. The purpose of his activities is to improve the social situation of the citizen-client.

In the modern theory of socio-legal work, the problem of the subject and object of socio-legal work is considered in interrelation, therefore the subject and object of socio-legal work can only be conditionally represented in its system at various levels (see Table 1).

At the macro level of social and legal activities, the subjects and objects are society, the state, and social work management bodies. At the meso level, these are social groups (family, production team, community, etc.), public and private social services of various types, public and charitable organizations. At the micro level, interconnected subjects and objects are social work specialists and practical social workers of various qualifications, researchers and teachers of social work as a subject area, clients of social services, i.e. people who need social assistance and provide it to others.

The subjects of socio-legal work are professional specialists of higher and middle management, people engaged in social work on a public and charitable basis, persons teaching social work, employees of administrative and managerial structures of the social sphere. The subject of socio-legal work in Western scientific literature is characterized as “an agent of social change.” He participates in creating conditions that make positive transformations of society and individuals possible.

Table 1 – Subject and object of socio-legal work in the system of various levels.

1. Structural elements of social activity.

Structure of social work– these are its components, the content of which is determined by the need to satisfy the most pressing interests and needs of people.

In general, structure is understood as a set of stable connections of an object that ensure the preservation of its basic properties. This general interpretation of the structure is also applicable to social work, which includes a number of interrelated components:

Subject;

Facilities;

Control;

The object and connecting them into a single whole - means, goals and functions.

If we consider socio-legal work as a special system of activity, it is necessary to keep in mind that it consists of a subject, content, means, management, object, united into an integral system using goals and functions (see Diagram 1).

Scheme 1. System of social and legal work activities.

By means refers to all those objects, tools, devices, actions with the help of which the goals of the activity are achieved. The variety of functions of social activity also causes the variety of its means. It is almost impossible to list them. This is a word, a fountain pen, special accounting forms, a telephone, business connections, psychotherapy techniques, personal charm, etc. It is important to keep in mind that the richer the arsenal of tools that a social worker has and is well-versed in, the more successful his activities.

Social activity is unthinkable without such a component as control . It includes assessment of the condition of the object, planning, development and decision-making, accounting and control, coordination, organizational and logistical support, selection, training and education of social work personnel. All these management actions are performed by absolutely all social workers, regardless of whether they are managerial or practical social workers.

Target- an image of an object that a person wants to receive as a result of his activity. We can also say that a goal is a desired state for a person of the subject of his activity.

The sequence of the listed components is not random: any activity is performed in the direction from subject to object, although it is the object that is the main factor determining the essence and nature of the activity.

Diagram 2. Sequence of components.

All main components are closely interconnected. Having different (in a certain sense) content, only together they give an organic understanding of social work.

In addition, we can distinguish two aspects of socio-legal work:

Solving everyday, urgent problems of a citizen;

Solving problems in the long term, anticipating and preventing acute social problems on a global scale (unemployment, poverty, various social diseases, the most acute forms of deviant behavior, etc.).

Goals:

Tactical is satisfaction taking into account the possibilities of the domestic economy;

Strategic – this is the most complete satisfaction of the needs of all segments of the population for social protection, based on the introduction of advanced and new technologies.

Functions:

General – forecasting, activation, stimulation of scientific, technical, socio-economic, etc.;

Specific – (special) execution and implementation of activities with varying degrees of fragmentation in the process of managing a given object.

Both aspects of social work are related (and conditioned) state social policy , main directions, guidelines for the development of society.

The next structural section of social activity is predetermined by its universal, integrated nature as a specific type of human activity.

We are talking about the main directions (types) of social activity:

Social diagnosis;

Social therapy;

Social rehabilitation;

Social prevention;

Social control;

Social insurance;

Social services;

Social mediation;

Social care, etc.

Conclusion: no matter what type of socio-legal work has to be considered (help for the sick, social protection of workers or the unemployed, patronage of a large family, etc.), it is always necessary to determine the characteristics of the object, select a special subject, select appropriate means, adequate management, formulate special goals, give preference to specific functions. In a word, the designated set of components of the system of socio-legal work is necessary. The exclusion of one of them leads to disruption, weakening, and even destruction of the system.

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The social subject begins to pay attention to what previously went unnoticed. Value wealth makes it easier to understand how to better organize life and evaluate it more multifacetedly.

In this case, the social subject acts as a biological entity. Social subjects also operate in an artificially created material environment, which is characterized not only by constant change, but also by radical transformations associated with technical technology.

Cultural-historical choice draws a social subject (individual, social group or society) into a new social continuum. He is faced with those circumstances, those functional expediencies that are unlikely to be encountered by someone who made a different choice.

Subjects of politics can be any social entities that enter into relationships with each other regarding the conquest or exercise of political power, including classes, political parties, and individuals. Nations and entire peoples in their political relations among themselves, as well as states, act as subjects of politics.

Considering a person as a social subject, an actor, we must first of all understand how social conditions (general and specific) affect the interests of the individual. Interests act as the main link between the real social position of an individual and the reflection of this position in his consciousness. Through social interest, feedback occurs - from the subject to his social action: people act in pursuit of certain socially determined interests. At the same time, on the basis of a dynamic system of needs and previous experience, the subject forms certain and relatively stable readiness (dispositions) for perception and mode of action in various specific situations, and the formation of new needs, interests and dispositions stimulates creative, non-stereotypical behavior and forms of activity, going beyond strict role prescriptions, possible only with developed self-awareness. The latter, as I. Kon figuratively summarizes, is the answer to the following three questions: What can I do.

Political power is the ability of a social subject (individual, group, layer) to impose and carry out its will with the help of legal and political norms and a special institution - the state.

In different historical conditions, the social subject is represented by its different modes.

Political interest is the awareness by social subjects (individuals, groups, strata, classes) of the objective possibility and need to participate in the exercise of political power with the help of the state, political parties, and public organizations.

Any mature community acts as a social subject - an active dynamizing force of society.

The very structure of social subjects interested in these processes seems self-sufficient, however, there is a function that is not performed by any of the listed subjects.

Power relations mean that between social subjects there are such relationships in which one subject acts as an object of action of another subject, or rather turns (imposes) another subject into the object of its action. In the structure of power relations, the key importance belongs to the management of resources, which allows the ruling subject to subjugate other people.

Supporters of this orientation are convinced that the only real social subject is a single individual and, accordingly, the source of social phenomena - a single social action. It is on the basis of individual subjects and their actions that the main characteristics of social phenomena, communities, and processes should be formulated.

The real impetus for cultural change is the social subject’s dissatisfaction with his social position, with certain rules of the game established in society, which may be little realized, or may take the form of a decisive protest.

The practical activity of people is built into the very essence of the social subject and is its main potential. It changes the person himself and the conditions of his existence.

Interest has an objective content that expresses the position of a social subject in the system of social relations, and its reflection in the consciousness of a social subject is associated with whole patching - the construction of an ideal model of action and its results. The goal is realized through the practical activities of people as a result. The process of determining people's activities by objective conditions in the most general form can be schematically represented as a chain of cause-and-effect relationships: objective, living conditions of people.

8. Subjects and objects of social policy

The object of social policy in its broad interpretation is all people. This is explained by the fact that the life activity of all layers and groups of the population depends on those conditions that are largely predetermined by the level of development of society, the state of the social sphere, the content of social policy, and the possibilities for its implementation.

We must also keep in mind that every person at any time, at any period of his life, needs more complete satisfaction of his needs and interests. Moreover, in each area of ​​life they can be satisfied unevenly: a rich person needs to maintain and strengthen his health, in a calmer environment not associated with a stressful situation; a healthy person may be poor, unable to realize his various attitudes; in any family, relations between spouses or between parents and children can become strained (this is especially evident in a crisis state of society) - i.e. Every person, to one degree or another, needs support, help, and protection.

The population is structured on a different basis, and in it there are such people, such groups and strata that, finding themselves in a difficult life situation, either cannot at all, or can only partially resolve their social and other problems. Therefore, considering social policy in its immediate, narrow meaning, we understand by objects precisely these groups, layers of the population, their individual representatives, individuals.

There are quite a lot of these objects. Let's try to classify them taking into account the priority of the grounds for this classification:

a health condition that does not allow you to independently solve life problems.

These are the following population groups: disabled people (both adults and children), people exposed to radiation, families with disabled children, adults and children with psychological difficulties, experiencing psychological stress, prone to suicidal attempts;

service and labor in extreme social conditions.

This group of people includes participants in the Great Patriotic War and persons equivalent to them, home front workers during the Great Patriotic War (whose life situation is aggravated by their advanced age and state of health), widows and mothers of military personnel who died during the Great Patriotic War and in peacetime, former minor prisoners of fascist concentration camps;

elderly people of retirement age, due to which they find themselves in a difficult life situation - these are single elderly people and families consisting of pensioners (by age, disability and other reasons);

deviant behavior in its various forms and types.

These categories include children and adolescents with deviant behavior; children experiencing abuse and violence; those who find themselves in conditions that threaten their health and development; persons who returned from places of deprivation of liberty, special educational institutions; families in which there are persons who abuse alcohol or use drugs;

difficult, disadvantaged situation of various categories of families.

This group of the population includes families with orphans and children left without parental care in their care; low-income families; large families; single-parent families; families in which parents have not reached the age of majority; young families; divorcing families; families with an unfavorable psychological microclimate, conflictual relationships, pedagogical failure of parents;

special situation of children (orphanhood, vagrancy, etc.).

On this basis, it is advisable to distinguish the following groups: graduates of orphanages and boarding schools living independently (until they achieve financial independence and social maturity); orphaned or left without parental care children; street children and adolescents;

vagrancy, homelessness.

This group includes persons without a fixed place of residence, registered refugees, internally displaced persons;

prenatal and postnatal condition.

These are groups of pregnant women and nursing mothers, as well as groups of mothers on maternity leave;

the legal (and, in connection with this, social) status of persons who were subjected to political repression and subsequently rehabilitated.

The proposed division into groups is not the only one. It is probably possible to differentiate these groups of people more specifically or, conversely, by identifying broader categories - this depends on the goals and objectives of the study and the solution of practical problems.

Subjects of social policy, which include people, institutions, organizations, social institutions, designed to solve (and solve) certain problems, problems facing the objects of social policy, can be differentiated on various grounds, including taking into account the components of social policy: practical activities, science and educational process (academic disciplines in the field of social policy).

The subjects of social policy are:

1) first of all, organizations, institutions, social institutions of society:

a state with its own structures in the form of legislative, executive and judicial authorities at various levels. In this structure, a special role is played by the Ministry of Labor and Social Relations, as well as executive bodies for managing social policy at the regional level (social protection bodies of territories, regions, republics, autonomous entities), cities, local administrations;

various social services: territorial centers for social assistance to families and children; social rehabilitation centers for minors; assistance centers for children left without parental care; rehabilitation centers for children and adolescents with disabilities; social shelters for children and adolescents; centers for psychological and pedagogical assistance to the population; centers for emergency psychological assistance by telephone, etc.;

administration of state enterprises, organizations, institutions, universities, etc. and their divisions;

2) public, charitable and other organizations and institutions: trade unions, branches of the Children's Fund, Red Cross societies, private social services, organizations, etc.

Non-state charitable organizations in Russia are, in particular, the Chelyabinsk Hospice Foundation, “Solnyshko” - the Chelyabinsk city public organization of disabled children with mental disorders, the regional charitable foundation “Sotsgorod”, etc.

Currently, in the country, charitable activities are carried out in accordance with the Federal Law "On Charitable Activities and Charitable Organizations", which provides legal regulation of these activities, guarantees support for its participants, creates a legal basis for the development of the activities of charitable organizations, in particular the establishment of tax benefits;

3) people engaged in practical social work professionally or on a voluntary basis. In fact, they are representatives of the two indicated subjects of social policy. At the same time, they can be divided into two groups: organizers-managers and implementers, practical social workers who provide direct assistance and support, ensuring social protection of clients, representatives of the objects of social policy already considered.

According to some estimates, there are about 500 thousand professional social workers in the world. Many certified specialists have appeared in Russia in recent years. There are much more uncertified, but professionally engaged in social work specialists, especially in those countries (including Russia) in which a new profession - “social worker” - has been introduced relatively recently.

There is no exact data on how many people are engaged in social work on a voluntary basis, but their number is large (it is generally accepted that one social worker serves 10-15 people).

Social workers are a special group, since they must have certain professional, spiritual and moral qualities;

4) teachers, as well as those who contribute to the consolidation of knowledge, skills, abilities: heads of student internships, mentors, practical social workers and other workers who facilitate the internship of students (listeners) in various organizations, institutions, social enterprises;

5) social policy researchers. Scientists analyze the state of social work using various methods, develop scientific programs, record existing and emerging trends in this area, publish scientific reports, books, and articles on social policy issues. Departments of the country's leading universities, laboratories, scientific institutions, dissertation councils for the defense of doctoral and master's theses in the field of social issues play a major role in this process.

In Russia, several research schools of social work have practically already been created: philosophical, sociological, psychological, etc. Their representatives, when developing the problems of social work, pay special attention to its individual areas.

Social subject

Definition 1

A social subject is understood as an individual or a group of them, independently implementing their chosen programs of action to achieve goals. Goals are also chosen independently. This is the main difference between the subjects.

Only the subject can implement goal-setting activity, as well as determine the conditions and means of achieving it. Subjects, in order to achieve their goals, can attract groups of individuals whose goals are different.

The interests and needs of a social subject are specific and conflict with the interests of other social groups. The needs of the subject are very important for him, and in order to satisfy them, it is necessary to carry out the type of activity necessary for the system.

Note 1

It turns out, therefore, that the interests of the subject are a means of satisfying his needs, and satisfying the needs of the subject for the system is a means of realizing his interests.

Social groups that realize their needs to ensure the conditions of their existence are subjects of intercultural society. Their needs require the mandatory introduction into the mass consciousness of such social attitudes that are expressed in their own ideology. As a result, social groups have a greater interest in producing mass information.

They do not set a goal to comprehensively and completely inform the audience, because their goals and the need for profit come first.

The quality of subjects in the process of mass communication activities is obtained by:

• carriers of social interests;
• subjects of realization of commercial interests - owners of individual QMS;
• subjects of interests realization – journalists;
• a collection of subjects with a common goal - a mass audience.

All participants in this social activity are also subjects of just a different series of activities. Each of the subjects determines their goals and ways of achieving these goals independently.

There are two types of social subjects – institutionalized or supported by legislation, and non-institutionalized subjects.

The first group includes students, pensioners, minors, and the second group includes elderly people and youth.

The main social actors of society include:

• citizens and authorities;
• employees and employers;
• poor and rich;
• employed and unemployed in social production.

Note 2

The social subject can be correlated with a “market segment”, which is a marketing category. A “market segment” is a group of consumers that have a similar response to a marketing event. Marketing communication itself is a special case of mass communication.

Social systems as social subjects

Man is surrounded by a wide variety of natural and artificial systems - large, extra-large, open and closed, etc. Artificial systems are created by man - these are political, economic, military, etc.

Note 3

Any system consists of a set of closely interconnected components. A change in one of them causes a change in other components, and sometimes the entire system. The subjects and participants of social processes are social systems.

The subject of social processes fulfills his role, which is to determine the direction of changes occurring in society and consciously resist them. We can name three levels of the subject of social processes. In relationships with the object, they determine different ways of perceiving and assessing such changes - personality, social group, culture.

A person, following the set goals, in comparison with other subjects, must take into account the characteristics of specific situations that underlie local processes. A personality, as a system, forms a set of symbolic guidelines around itself in order to choose the best behavior. Such a symbolic system expands the range of possibilities and sets the range of actions.

The degree of rationality in a person’s actions and the nature of the perception of changes occurring are determined within this range. Such processes include all social changes associated with human socialization. Processes have their own results and are reflected differently in the destinies of specific people, so they do not always have any connection with each other.

The next level of the subject of social processes are social groups. These communities form such social processes when large-scale transformations in society are their source and targeted object of influence. This type of process, for example, includes military clashes, stock trading, the electoral process, etc. The implementation of such processes in society can lead to changes that will affect the existing communication system and take it to a qualitatively new level.

Culture is a special type of system. The formative factor of such systems is the presence of a significant layer of material and spiritual prerequisites. Since cultures are different, social processes caused by differences between them will have the highest duration and maximum stability in relation to possible regulators. A deep analysis of historical, philosophical, literary sources of information about the development of society is possible only with knowledge of the mechanisms of such processes.

Subjects of social policy

A social system can be represented either by a collection of individuals or by communities and organizations. They are united by stable social connections and relationships and interact with the environment as a single whole.

Social systems can be different in scale, from a family consisting of two people to large stable associations of people, such as classes or nations. Let us dwell on the subjects of social policy.

The term “social policy” has many variants from the perspective of subject-object relations. This is the activity of the state in the social sphere, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is the interaction of all subjects of the amateur population, economic and management structures.

Subjects of social policy include government bodies, organizations and institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations, public associations of citizens, and initiatives. Legislative, executive, judicial authorities.

With public participation, they determine goals, objectives, priorities, and the legal framework for social policy. They also carry out work to implement the state’s social policy, in which many subjects take part.

Their activities are based on the legal and regulatory framework. Nowadays, the state determines the prospects for its development and is the main subject of the implementation of social policy. The implementation of social policy occurs at the federal, regional, and municipal levels.

At the federal level, goals and objectives, principles of social development and methods of achievement are determined.

The activities of subjects at the regional and local level in the field of social policy are aimed at solving specific problems of the population, for example, housing policy, education policy, health care, etc. are implemented by regional authorities.

Compared to other areas, the social area is characterized by greater stability and enforcement of laws. Together with the state, the subjects of social policy are also:

• departments and institutions with state status;
• local government bodies;
• off-budget funds;
• non-governmental associations – religious, charitable, public;
• business and commercial structures; ordinary citizens through participation in civic initiatives.