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Those who grew up in the war, as I did, could not fail to be aware of the lowering of social barriers and of the popular support for social reform. Whether by eating in communal restaurants and sleeping in air raid shelters, accommodating evacuees and the victims of the, blitz, joining in firewatching and civil defence, doing holiday work on farms or serving in the armed forces, people were obliged to meet, and get to know, many others of different class, occupation and background. They had a common interest and a common purpose. One of my most vivid memories is of the shock felt by the middle classes in Black-pool upon the arrival of families evacuated from the Liverpool slums. As in many other places, people came to understand for the first time how the other half lived, and what the years of unemployment had wrought. Here were two nations confronted.

This article argues that a concern with social policy must be central rather than peripheral to sociology. Some sociologists wrongly regard policy analysis as inconsequential, or as an applied subject; others subordinate scientific to conventional, and highly restricted, interpretations of the concept. Both thereby fail to play a positive role in explaining how society came to be what it is and how it could be changed for the better. The role of the state in engineering social structure, particularly social stratification, and in controlling the direction of social change has been, as a consequence, underestimated. This article reviews in outline the history and future of the study of social policy.

Based largely on evidence from his nat'l survey of nearly 200 old people's Homes (OPH's) in GB, in 1957-1961, the author argues for replacing many long-stay instit's with alternative accomodations & services. The survey showed that: (1) a large % of elderly residents enter communal instit's & OPH's mainly because of homelessness & lack of soc & financial recourses, (2) the domiciliary welfare & health services are not utilized to the full before admission, nor are they, in all areas, as fully developed for OP generally, as they might be, (3) some services provided in OPH's are very poor, & many people who are seriously incapacitated, including those with psychiatric disorders, receive comparatively little skilled attention, (4) a large % of the OP living in OPH's are able to look after themselves in homes of their own, (5) entering an OPH has certain critical effects on the behavior & att's of OP, & (6) a majority of those entering an OPH appear not to want to stay permanently in such a place. It is proposed that in densely populated areas, hosp's should be reorganized to possess larger out-patient Dept's, including geriatric units, which would include provisions for some of the people who live today in OPH's - those requiring temporary care. Most other types of instit's might be gradually abandoned by creating sheltered housing & a much richer variety of home services. M. Truzzi.