Creating demand for better health by using social marketing techniques

The most significant environmental change to support people who want to give up smoking is the legislation to ban smoking in public places. Following Scotland in March 2006, and Wales and Northern Ireland in April 2007, England moves one step closer to being smoke free on 1 July 2007, when it becomes illegal to smoke in almost every enclosed public place and workplace. Social marketing will be used to support this health promoting policy and will become more prominent in the design of health promotion campaigns of the future. Social marketing is not a new approach to promoting health but its adoption by the Government does represent a paradigm shift in the challenge to change public opinion and social norms. As a result some behaviours, like smoking or excessive alcohol consumption, will no longer be socially acceptable. The Department of Health has decided that social marketing should be used in England to guide all future health promotion efforts directed at achieving behavioural goals. This paradigm shift was announced in Chapter 2 of the “Choosing health” White Paper with its emphasis on the consumer, noting that a wide range of lifestyle choices are marketed to people, although health as a commodity itself has not been marketed. The DoH has an internal social marketing development unit to integrate social marketing principles into its work and ensure that providers deliver. The National Centre for Social Marketing has funding to provide ongoing support, to build capacity and capability in the workforce. This article describes the distinguishing features of the social marketing approach. It seeks to answer some questions. Is this really a new idea, a paradigm shift, or simply a change in terminology? What do the marketing principles offer that is new, or are they merely familiar ideas repackaged in marketing jargon? Will these principles be more effective than current health promotion practice and, if so, how does it work? Finally, what are the implications for community pharmacy?

Third sector organisations and social welfare : a study of the role of social service and charitable organisations in Taiwan

This study is about the role and operation of ‘third sector’ organisations (TSOs) within the Taiwanese social welfare context. TSOs have increased dramatically and become actively involved in social service provision. This phenomenon has not only had significant impact on the development and operation of TSOs in Taiwan but it is also of increasing interest to public policy academics. The latter are especially interested in the implications for the government-third sector relationship. This research examines the reasons why TSOs have been established, why they actively participate in social service provision, and their role and operation within the social welfare context of Taiwan. The study has both quantitative and qualitative data. It sampled ‘social service’ and ‘charitable’ organisations (SSCOs), which are the main type of TSOs in Taiwan, to examine their role, operation and interaction with government. Questionnaires were mailed to collect quantitative data first. After the quantitative data were collected and analysed, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to collect qualitative data. The study found that TSOs in Taiwan exist in a highly institutionalised environment, which is affected by traditional Confucian ideas and contemporary Western ideas such as social justice and civil rights. The rapid growth of TSOs has a strong connection with the desire to fill social service gaps left by government and family. TSOs mainly play the role of service provider rather than that of advocate. They cooperate with government in social service provision and have developed different types of symbiotic relationships with government. A ‘resonance effect’ between government and TSOs was also found as they implement social policy.

Trade union policy and new technology: the Civil and Public Services Association

The introduction of a micro-electronic based technology to the workplace has had a far reaching and widespread effect on the numbers and content of jobs. The importance of the implications of new technology were recognised by the trade unions, leading to a plethora of advice and literature in the late 70s and early 80s, notably the TUC 'Technology and Employment ' report. However, studies into the union response have consistently found an overall lack of influence by unions in the introduction of technology. Whilst the advent of new technology has coincided with an industrial relations climate of unprecedented hostility to union activity in the post-war period, there are structural weaknesses in unions in coming to terms with the process of technological change. In particular was the identification of a lack of suitable technological expertise. Addressing itself to this perceived weakness of the union response, this thesis is the outcome of a collaborative project between a national union and an academic institution. The thesis is based on detailed case studies concerning technology bargaining in the Civil Service and the response of the Civil and Public Services Associations (CPSA), the union that represents lower grade white collar civil servants. It is demonstrated that the application of expertise to union negotiators is insufficient on its own to extend union influence and that for unions to effectively come to terms with technology and influence its development requires a re-assessment across all spheres of union activity. It is suggested that this has repercussions for not only the internal organisation and quality of union policy formation and the extent, form and nature of collective bargaining with employer representatives, but also in the relationship with consumer and interest groups outside the traditional collective bargaining forum. Three policy options are developed in the thesis with the 'adversarial' and 'co~operative' options representing the more traditional reactive and passive forms of involvement. These are contrasted with an 'independent participative' form of involvement which was a 'pro-active' policy option and utilised the expertise of the Author in the CPSA's response to technological change.

Institutions and social entrepreneurship:the role of institutional voids, institutional support, and institutional configurations

We develop the institutional configuration perspective to understand which national contexts facilitate social entrepreneurship (SE). We confirm joint effects on SE of formal regulatory (government activism), informal cognitive (postmaterialist cultural values), and informal normative (socially supportive cultural norms, or weak-tie social capital) institutions in a multilevel study of 106,484 individuals in 26 nations. We test opposing propositions from the institutional void and institutional support perspectives. Our results underscore the importance of resource support from both formal and informal institutions, and highlight motivational supply side influences on SE. They advocate greater consideration of institutional configurations in institutional theory and comparative entrepreneurship research.