Policy instrument affordances: a framework for analysis

The present study uses the concept of technological efficacy derived from ecological psychology and design studies to offer an alternative way of analyzing how policy instruments affect change. Reasoning from this, the paper outlines a framework for analyzing policy instruments in terms of their affordances. We define affordances as the means through which an instrument exerts influence on its intended target audience. Using this approach, we contend that policy instruments may be analyzed as interfaces that organize social relations and create structures of opportunity and/or restrict possibilities for action. We argue that explicating the pathways through which instruments afford or constrain action is a central task for policy analysis. Our proposed framework of analysis builds on the idea that instruments yield effects by facilitating action and learning. We further contend that the actions that an instrument can facilitate or inhibit are determined by specific affordance modalities of the instrument in conjunction with contingencies of the actor and the policy environment. Examples from research policy are used to illustrate some of these effects.     

社会工作理论与实务课程设计建议——以某大学社会工作系大四学生的研究为例

本文主要通过定量研究的问卷法和结构式访谈法分析某大学社会工作专业4年级学生关于如何将社会工作理论与社会工作实务联系起来的调查,在其中寻找到存在的一些问题,同时也试图运用整合教学模式为该系的课程设计提出一些自己的见解。