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Getting on the Agenda: Assessing the Political Context and Developing Political Strategy

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Political Social Work
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Abstract

Political social work is most effective when it has a clear vision, set of goals, and strategy. Strategic planning must be a thoughtful process that takes into account an assessment of the context in which you are working. This chapter introduces and explains five steps of political strategy development, including:

  1. 1.

    Determining the specific purpose of the political change effort; that is, what specifically you are trying to change

  2. 2.

    Assessing the internal (organizational) and external (environmental) context

  3. 3.

    Identifying the change effort’s goals

  4. 4.

    Selecting the specific targets of the political change effort

  5. 5.

    Selection of tactics that are likely to influence the target or targets.

Activities throughout the chapter allow opportunities to practice skills in each of these areas.

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

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Lane, S.R., Pritzker, S. (2018). Getting on the Agenda: Assessing the Political Context and Developing Political Strategy. In: Political Social Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68588-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68588-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68587-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68588-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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