As an academic and scientific field, social policy is a relatively recent discipline characterised by diverse research themes and approaches. This study aims to develop an initial taxonomy for social policy research (SPL Classification) to organise and systematise knowledge. It also applies this taxonomy to identify trends and clusters in the literature between 2015 and 2019, analysing key research objects.
A bibliometric analysis was conducted on the abstracts of articles published between 2015 and 2019 in the highest-impact non-thematic social policy journals. This was followed by thematic content analysis, identifying 12 categories and subcategories. The taxonomy is applied to examine trends and clusters in the social policy research literature, including its application to international research patterns as empirical validation.
The analysis resulted in a taxonomy composed of 12 broad analytical categories and corresponding subcategories. The application of the taxonomy reveals dominant research objects, thematic clusters and patterns across journals and geographical contexts, highlighting both concentrations of scholarly attention and underexplored areas within social policy research. The study presents a characterisation of research objects in social policy according to geographical context, journal and analytical category.
By providing a structured overview of the field, the proposed taxonomy contributes to the organisation and cumulative development of social policy research, while the analysis of research objects supports the ongoing development of social policy both as a domain of academic inquiry and as a field of public action.
