Argues that human service organizations need to unite, to adopt a proactive, rather than reactive, stance toward the political process that produces social policy, and to build advocacy coalitions that influence this process. Suggests ways to form coalitions and conduct lobbying efforts. (Author/ABB)

This paper examines questions concerning political and social change in communities and its implications for educational administration. Issues that underlie these questions include the distinction between internal and external changes, and the tension among representativeness, technical competence, and leadership. Evolutionary patterns in…

Two crucial processes are discussed: (1) that through which social problems become public issues; and (2) that through which conflicts between competing diagnoses of, and responses to, publicly recognized social problems are resolved. Regularities in these transformations are conceptualized as follows: groups differ in their definitions of social…

Suggests that the relationship between policy outputs and community power may be more fruitfully conceived as variable, depending on the type and characteristics of the policy in question. (Author/AM)

The Aspen Domestic Strategy Group exists to encourage a search for common ground on the nation's social challenges by bringing together leaders of diverse views and backgrounds. It is not expected to produce legislative proposals but rather a continuing conversation to shape a more coherent approach to domestic needs. (SLD)

South Africa is in a state of transition. In viewing the struggle between apartheid's defenders and its opponents, social scientists can make the valuable contribution of projecting alternative scenarios of change as it relates to the way in which state institutions intersect with society. This paper is part of a larger study of South Africa that…

The publication of "Inequality" by Christopher Jencks last fall occasioned a storm of controversy, especially among those in education. The findings of the Harvard professor rejected a sacred cow--that there is any correlation between one's education and income. Meeting at Teachers College, Columbia University recently for the expressed purpose of…

Demands for urban decentralization and community control are indexes of the inaccessibility, irresponsibility, and unresponsiveness of the institutions of urban government in the 1970's. How and why these institutions have become the focus of such widespread dissatisfaction can be understood only in the total context of urban politics in America,…

This volume includes ten articles. In the first, "After Deschooling, What?" Ivan Illich goes beyond his argument for deschooling, to the beginning of some thoughts about what society and education might look like following it. The remaining nine articles contain the reactions of a number of serious and active educators to the Illich article. They…

Argues that both state and local politics are more influential than current theory, educational research, and practitioner craft knowledge in shaping the initial conceptualization and subsequent implementation of reform initiatives in the Chicago (Illinois) public schools. Messages for other school systems are highlighted in the Chicago…

Describing issues relative to economic development in nonmetropolitan areas, this document presents narrative and tabular data re: (1) the causal forces behind economic decline in rural America (technology, shifting patterns of demand for goods and services, and changes in life styles and residential preferences); (2) the incidence and indicators…

This monograph explores aspects of science and technology in contemporary society and suggests methods for teaching about social policy issues which have resulted from scientific and technological developments. Section one offers an argument for teaching about science and social policy; surveys the sociology, politics, and history of contemporary…

These papers from an International Committee on Family Research (CFR) seminar explore seven themes, four of which are presented in Part 1. The first set of papers approach the question of whether the family is worth supporting and the related issue of pressures, conflicts, and expectations of family life (Theme 1). Randall Collins discusses…