福祉社会のガバナンス

グローバルとローカル

抄録

Governance is a very popular term in social sciences today. Social governance is an example of introduction of this concept into the field of welfare. This paper is a preparation for a study of social governance in welfare sociology. First, it analyzes the concepts of governance in other fields and it shows that this concept implies the shift from substance to function of governance. Second, it examines the related theories in welfare sociology. Welfare pluralism is a pioneer of the social governance and there are some similarities and differences between them. Welfare regime is different from welfare pluralism in two points: the bias towards welfare provision and the assumption of consensus; and similar to social governance in these points. However, the concept of social governance differs from the regime theory in two points: it regards NGOs as important actors and it refers not only to the national but also the global and the local. Third, it investigates the social governance at the global and local levels. In the process of globalization it has become difficult for national governments to make decisions about social policy issues independently. That demands the formation of transnational social policy and it can be fulfilled only by the establishment of global governance. In Japan, the mainstreaming of communitybased welfare makes the role of local social governance important.