Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 94

Practice Issues
is crucial to the drawing and reading of maps. Without the scale, the map
loses its proportion. Similarly, without research, policy formulation is aimless,
loses a sense of relativity and can end up as mere rhetoric. With research,
policies will be better directed with increased perspectives to form solutions
to tackle the social issue at hand.
It is vital for policy formulation as it provides the information needed for
answering the following questions:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

what is the problem,
what is the size of the problem,
who has the problem,
why the problem exists,
what solutions are successful or otherwise,
what makes the solutions viable.

Good questions always provide the start for good research. In computer
technology, garbage in leads to garbage out. So in research, poor questions
lead to research that misleads. Poor questions are a waste of time and poor
research is a waste of resources. Formulating the right questions is therefore
crucial to research.

Social empathy
Lastly, there is another important aspect to good policy making and that
is social empathy. Empathy as in “relational empathy” is the ability to
understand the situation and experiences of another person and this is basic
to social work training. Social empathy as described by Segal 4 (2011) calls
for us to use the insights gained about people’s lives to develop public
policies that are sensitive to people’s needs based on the realities of their
living situations. A social empathy perspective allows policy designers to
analyse social concerns or problems and develop policies that reflect the
lived experiences of people.
A more recent approach that aims to increase empathy is “design thinking” 5.
Design thinking teaches a set of skills using tools that enable the participants
to have an understanding of the perspective of the users of services by
detailing their views. These insights are useful in so far as they contribute to
4

5

Segal, E.A. (2011). Social empathy: A model built on empathy, contextual understanding
and social responsibility that promotes social justice. Journal of Social Service Research,
37(1), pp. 266-277. DOI:10.1080/01488376.2011.564040
http://dschool.stanford.edu/redesigningtheater/the-design-thinking-process/
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