Social Policy as Text and Discourse

Recognition of concepts and knowing their implicit implications is one the preconditions of their application in different contexts. This article scrutinizes common definitions of social policy by critical analysis approach beside introducing social policy as a combination of text and discourse and proposing it based on two textual and discoursive characteristics by theoretical-analytical approach. In this sense, social policy is based on power relations and an aspect of rationality of government and its ideology system; whereas all common definitions of social policy, regardless of ontological framework in terms of identity of social policy, consider it as an instrument for development (functionalist approach) or emphasize only on its goals (goal-oriented). This article, beside confronting these two approaches, poses a new conceptualization of social policy and is in pursuit of introducing new area for theory and research in the field of social policy.