Introduction to Social Policy

Lecture 4
Dr Simon Pemberton

Needs
What have critics said about the concept of Need in social policy?
Lying at the heart of social policy (Liddiard, 2007)
We are concerned with the study of a range of social needs and the functioning, in conditions of
scarcity, of human organisation, traditionally called social services or social welfare systems, to meet
those needs (Titmuss 1976: 20)
arguably the single most important organising principle in social policy (Dean, 2010: 2)
One reason for the significance of the idea of need is that it links common sense understandings of
the social world with the language and ways of thinking of social policy and technical expertise
There are points of connection and overlap between everyday usage of the idea of need and the more
formal discourses of social policyThough the condition of being in need may be regarded as selfevident, the question of different individuals, or groups of individuals, are met in our society is not so
straightforward (Clarke and Langan, 1998 pp 260-1)
Defining needs: What is a need?
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Needs are integral to our functioning and participation in society

Needs are universal, normative and identifiable

Wants: we often want things we dont need and need things we dont want

Consumerist society generates needs that should be interpreted as desires

Needs can be distinguished according to duty or obligation to ask what our needs
are is to ask not just which our desires are strongest and most urgent, but which of
our desires gives us an entitlement to the resources of others (Ignatief 1990: 27)

Needs can be defined by consequences i.e. unmet needs result in harm

Preferences;: exercise of choice reveals what we want or need

Preference revealed through actions, in particular the consumption of specific goods

or services

Preference has informed social policies through the notion of delivering greater
choice to service users

Problems reliant on markets to deliver adaptive preferencessocial capital

Maslows (1954) hierarchy of needs represents the first attempt of a definitive list of
needs

Introduction to Social Policy

Lecture 4
Dr Simon Pemberton

all

human needs are

interrelated and
interactive. With the sole
exception of the need of
subsistence, to remain alive, no hierarchies exist within the system (Max-Neef et al,
1989: 19)

interwoven like a web (Doyal and Gough, 1984: 11)

What have critics defined needs as?

upon some, usually ill defined, conception of human nature: of those physiological or emotional
gaps which again, it is unnatural or abnormal not to try to fill. (Doyal and Gough, 1984: 12)
These needs might be regarded generally as physical well-being and autonomy: an individual would
have to attempt to be able to function efficiently as a physical entity and have freedom to deliberate
and choose between alternatives if he is to pursue any conception of the good (Plant, 1985: 18)
Problems with defining needs

Introduction to Social Policy

Lecture 4
Dr Simon Pemberton

Some needs may be more important than others

Can we be objective when ranking needs?

Are needs relative to time and space?

The contested notion of need

Basic needs
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Post war welfare state is based upon basic needs that are universal

Thus, needs are objective both the material ones as well as social participation some
space for relativist notions

These needs, it was believed, could be satisfied by state welfare provision

Residual needs
-

Based upon the idea that individuals share basic needs

However, individuals are primarily responsible for fulfilling their needs through the
market

The state should provide minimal safety nets to protect those who not gain access to
the market

Postmodernism
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Universalist perspectives have been challenged

Thus, because postmodernists reject commonality for social diversity they favour the
notion of particular needs

Social policy must address difference through recognising the differences between
social groups needs

Marx was particularly critical of Political Economists, such as Adam Smith, for
encouraging the absolute minimum of basic need

Reduces individuals to their minimal physical functions

Marx argued that we are more than the sum of our physical parts

Creation of false needs as a form of social control

Recurring issue of the universal nature of needshow do we move from abstract

notions of need to more concrete and context specific understandings?

Marxism

Thin vs Thick need (Fraser, 1989)

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Thin need abstract understanding of need

Introduction to Social Policy

Lecture 4
Dr Simon Pemberton

Thick need greater level of detail

Alternatively (Dean, 2010)

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Thin needs required to avoid harm

Thick needs required for human flourishing

Unmet needs?
Data: Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey 2012
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2.3 million households, in which 1.5 million children live, cannot afford to heat the
living areas of their home

2.7 million households, with 2.5 million children live in a damp home

600,000 children live in a home that is both damp and which the household cannot
afford to heat

Around 700,000 children cant go on school trips once a term

Around 500,000 children have no place to study

Around 500,000 children are forced to cope with homework without a computer

33% of adults (16.5 million) cant pay unexpected costs of 500

31% of adults (14 million) cannot afford to save at least 20 a month for rainy days

30% of working age people aged 18-65 (11 million) cant afford regular payments
to a pension

Conclusion
We will never resolve the debates surrounding the notion of need
The continuous relevance of need is required to:
- Formulate policy
- For academics, to understand social disadvantage, patterns of inequality, etc