University Assignment: Policy in Context - Alan Walker Commentary

This report provides a comprehensive commentary on the contributions of Alan Walker, a prominent British social scientist and academic, to the field of social policy and social gerontology. The report begins with an overview of Walker's professional background, highlighting his roles as a professor, director of research programs, and advisor to various organizations. The main body of the report delves into Walker's significant impact on policy development, particularly within the context of ageing and social care. It explores his influence on the dominant paradigm in social gerontology and his efforts to promote social justice through his research and publications. Furthermore, the report examines the research methods employed by Walker, including his focus on social structure, community care, and pensions, and his efforts to understand the interplay between agency and structure. The report concludes with an evaluation of Walker's overall contribution, emphasizing his role as a scholar, researcher, and advocate for older people. It highlights his extensive publications, supervision of postgraduate students, and his commitment to advancing the understanding of ageing and social policy.

Policy in Context

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Contribution of Alan Walker to the development of policies......................................................3
Research methods used in the researches of Alan Walker and the reason behind it...................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Alan Walker also known as Alan Christopher Walker was born on 20 April 1949. He is a
British social scientist, academic and public health administrator. Alan Walker has been
Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology at the University of Sheffield. Previously he
was the director of the Ageing Programme New Dynamics. In 1977 he joined the department as
a Social Policy Senior Lecturer and Reader. Alan Walker also directed the New Dynamics of
Ageing Research Programme costing £22 million which was funded by five Councils of UK
Research, ESRC Growing Older Programme costing £3.6 million and Mobilising the Potential of
Active Ageing in Europe costing £6.5 million (Alan Walker, 2021). He was also known for
directing the Ageing Research of UK National Collaboration, several large European Projects
such as FUTURAGE which helps in setting the roadmap for the future of ageing research and
many more. He is also known for supervising postgraduate students and also has more than 55
successful completions. He also served as Research Director for the faculty of social sciences.
Alan Walker has also held many official advisory positions and currently he is a member of All
Party Parliamentary Group on the Advisory Board of Longevity Strategy (Craig, 2018). The
report will shed light on the prominent personality as a researcher in the field of social sciences
named as Alan Walker. The report will be a sort of commentary on the person by focusing on the
professional contributions made by him in his field and on the society. The section below will
also highlight on the methods used by Alan Walker in contributing positively towards the society
and nation.
MAIN BODY
Contribution of Alan Walker to the development of policies
Alan Walker contributed towards the dominant paradigm in social gerontology. Earlier the
field of political economy or critical gerontology was referred as deterministic which is why
Alan Walker was amazed by this which forced him to lay emphasis on the hidden analysis. Later
on, the significance of social policy and social structure was widely acknowledged. The thing
which impressed Alan Walker was to work with post graduate students whereas on the other
hand, he hated the myriad administrative tasks which can with everything along with travelling.
Alan Walker was an eminent Sociologist who has served as a career young researcher and after
that involved in the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) (Katz, 2019). Alan Walker has
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provided many materials which could be used by the politicians for underpinning strategic
developments. In various programmes of European Research Areas in Ageing and Futurage
which were funded by ESRC, Alan went to motivate the older people participation within the
development of research. Alan took various initiatives in various programmes and not only this,
he continued managing the research funding for work in studies of ageing and social
gerontology. This can also be observed that his continuity to stay at Sheffield which means that
Alan was gaining a great support for grounding the work. Alan Walker had not only contributed
in these ways but also supervised more than 50 PhD students from various different countries
including Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan where he also did partnership with Sheffield. He
also served as a research supervisor of Dr Chau and Dr Corbett who are at very good positions
including Marie Curie Research Fellow at Sheffield and also Lecturer in Social Policy in
Liverpool Hope University respectively (Angileri, 2018). The organisation BSG was so friendly
and welcoming and the most of the credit goes to Alan Walker because he was in association
with the organisation and played a major role in the same. Some if the people engaged in the
organisation felt the same because it is open to all the disciplines for those who really are keen
for study ageing and later life. Alan was considered to be the first person who received Alan
Walker Award which was given introduction by Tony Maltby who was a member of Executive
Committee. Alan was found to bring much academic strength to the country by being a true
scholar and also through skilful mastery in research development of steering which helped in
demonstrating the significance of ageing and later life and related topics which could be
identified by funding bodies. The commitment must be maintained. Alan Walker have written
and published many things related to social gerontology and social policy which include the
political economy along with comparative research in East Asia and Europe and the theory and
application of social quality. The main drivers of the academic career of Alan Walker include the
twin commitments to the field of social science as a vehicle for promoting social justice and the
duty of academics for speaking truth for powering that Townsend. The major important thing
which Alan finds regarding the economics and social sciences is that there are many advances
made by social science since last many years including the association between the prevalence of
various social problems from infant mortality to mental ill-health and the extent of inequality in a
societ. Alan identified demographic change as the biggest challenge over which the individuals
can respond to. Along with this, the elevation of individualism to social, political and cultural
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priority when comes together with liberalism gains this much power that it can destroy important
collective institutions in terms of social and economical. Alan also contributed towards the
policies by researching in topics such as Quality of later life, multi disciplinary research on
ageing, European collaboration in ageing research, comparative research on social philosophy,
developing and testing the concept of social quality, social gerontology, Chinese and east Asian
welfare, age and employment, Social inclusion/ exclusion, Empowerment, International
relations, older people with intellectual or learning disabilities and their careers (Eaton and et.al.,
2020). Alan also wrote various books which are most prominent these days including
Contemporary issues in Gerontology, Unqualified and Underemployed, The Future of Ageing in
Europe etc. His edited books include Death and Social Policy in Challenging times, Social
Quality: From Theory to Indicators and many more. Along with this, he also wrote many
journals related to Ageing, Social Science, Neo-liberalism and many more. By these writings and
publications, Alan contributed towards the society, individuals, policies and the related fields
greatly. Not only this, he is also now teaching the postgraduate research students. He is also
known as the most experienced research supervisors of postgraduates in UK who has more than
50 successful PhD completions in the field of social policy, sociology and social gerontology
(Urkevich, 2019). He is also welcoming the potential postgraduates who are interested in any of
these mentioned fields of interest for research. He is also focussing in moulding the ESRC
(Economic and Social Research Council) New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) research programme
into some different things which is both larger than the sum of its portions and also has long
lasting effects on the quality of the lives of older people.
Research methods used in the researches of Alan Walker and the reason behind it
The interest of Alan Walker was not instant but he went through various important things
before achieving this position. When Alan was living his childhood with is joint family, from
that tender age itself he started doing some voluntary work at school in which older people were
also involved. Fortunately, Alan was asked to look at the data related to the older people and the
intergenerational transfers (Turner and et.al., 2018). He was also an active welfare rights
campaigner who organised various campaigns which also helped him in running an advice stall
on weekends and in this also the main focus was to make older people the frequent callers. He
founded Disability Alliance in 1974 which clearly presents his interests in disability as well. This
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also shows that Alan Walker was always motivated and encouraged by social justice instead of
scientific inquiry for the own sake. The major area of interest of him was the intersection
between the gerontology, sociology and social policy. When he started working in the field of
ageing, the significance of social policies in shaping the lives of older people was neglected
almost everywhere. This is why, his main focus was social structure including all its aspects such
as community care and pensions which include the role of policies in the gender roles and caring
relationships, the developing of the theoretical understanding regarding the ways in which states
shape and give response to ageing and the role played by older people to evolve relationship
between agency and structure (Department of Sociological Studies, 2021). There are various
aspects of Alan’s research portfolio but the major one was the chairing of the European
Observatory on Ageing and Older People because this possesses powerful potential to change the
policies. Along with all this, other method was to link the core gerontology, sociology interfaces
and the social policies which are basically the politics of ageing and the interconnection between
micro, macro and meso politics (Naegele and Hess, 2020).
CONCLUSION
The above report concluded about the life of Professor Alan Walker. It also shed light on the
professional background of him by explaining his areas of expertise. The commentary also
focussed upon the contributions made by him in the policy analysing and change. The research
methods used by him were also highlighted by focussing upon his research fields including
social policies, ageing and quality of later life.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Angileri, N., 2018, January. The Tarsus Connection: Striking Coins, Striking Lives. In 119th Annual
Meeting.
Craig, G., 2018. Handbook on Global Social Justice. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Eaton, S.E. and et.al., 2020. In memory of Tracey Bretag: a collection of tributes.
Katz, S., 2019. Reflections on the gerontological handbook. In Cultural Aging (pp. 70-84).
University of Toronto Press.
Naegele, G. and Hess, M., 2020. Alte und neue soziale Ungleichheiten bei Berufsaufgabe und
Rentenübergang. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Turner, T.R. and et.al., 2018. Participation, representation, and shared experiences of women
scholars in biological anthropology. American journal of physical anthropology, 165,
pp.126-157.
Urkevich, L.A., 2019, October. Furthering Perspectives in Music Education, General Editor’s
Preface 59.2. In College Music Symposium (Vol. 59, No. 2, pp. 1-3). College Music
Society.
Online
Alan Walker, 2021.[ONLINE]. Available through :< https://esrc.ukri.org/about-us/50-years-of-
esrc/outlook-at-50/alan-walker/#:~:text=Alan%20Walker%20is%20Professor
%20of,Innovations%20for%20an%20Ageing%20Population.>
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