An annotated bibliography of the most significant and general sources available on central planning for social change in the Soviet Union is presented. This bibliography concentrates on sources dealing with planning and change and includes a few works on forces and institutions of change, such as education, collective farms, trade unions, etc.,…

Concern with the complexity of social problems and of public policy designed to cope with them has led to the identification of an interdisciplinary focus called the policy sciences. The concept includes both governmental and non-governmental decisions. The social sciences have provided structure with new methods such as operations research,…

This report examines the origins and implications of social reporting and accounting and defines the problems related to finding measurable indicators of social change. The development of scholarly and governmental interest in these concepts and the interest in the conceptual differences among approaches on how to manage society are discussed. In…

Planning, both as an academic field and as a profession, is in a dilemma involving the adoption of two contradictory public philosophies. The more established philosophy orients itself to the efficiency of the whole system, while the second orients to particular groups and claims that adequate participation in the system is denied these groups as…

An outline of a major project of research and analysis to be undertaken by a graduate school of business administration is described as a continuing series of studies designed to provide a unique data base for planners in the private and public sectors. The data base would be derived from the intersection of significant social, economic, and…

As one of a series of reports in progress, this report is introduced with a discussion of the concepts underlying long-range planning of any kind, and the methods of research used to describe alternative patterns of evolution or change within various policy fields. The FAR method, which emerged out of the Contingent U.S. Patterns (CUSPs) analysis…

This discussion places the ten years of the war on poverty in perspective and, on the basis of both the experiment in policy intervention and some recent trends, speculates on the nature and course of social policy over the next decade. The basis of and motivations for the war on poverty are reviewed as the primary concern of the first part of…

Social change goals and objectives may be achieved by social change advocates through the policy development process. Policy is defined as a set of decisions governing the behavior and actions of institutions and individuals. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government comprise the major policy institutions. The bureaucracy of…

Although planning theory is regarded as an analysis of the relationship of knowledge to action by many theories, a view from the poor and minority strata of this society suggests a different alternative--that planning theory is an analysis of the relationship of "knowledge" to inaction, particularly with regard to the continuation of deteriorating…

Massive social changes are bound to occur with the extension of mass information utilities: the fundamental question is how shall this massive reconstruction of social information power be designed for the best interest of people. This book grew out of an American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) conference, and is organized…

No technique of forecasting exists with which a "single" future can be predicted accurately. We can, however, project a set of significantly different but quite plausible lines of future development, a set of alternative future histories, which we hope will bracket the one future that comes to be. Since social indicators are specifically designed…

This is a report sponsored by UNICEF on the effects of economic and political transition in Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, on young children and adolescents. The economic theories and changes in labor and markets which have characterized European transitions in the past few years have paid little attention to issues of poverty and child…

Although social policy makers and researchers assume that research is a major part of the information base upon which policy decisions are made, social policy is by nature incompatible with the organizational structure and time requirements for decision making in an administrative system. Whereas social policy decisions are timed in accordance…

In order to formulate social policy which is responsive to needs of women and other minority groups, decision makers must be better informed about alternative options, incentives, and unintended as well as intended consequences of various policies. Social scientists can contribute to decision makers' understandings of social factors in numerous…