Chapter 1: The Social Work Vision - A Progressive View Flashcards
When and where did the Charity Organization Society form?
The movement began in 1877 in the United States
When and where did the Settlement House Movement begin?
It began in 1884 in England
What did the Charity Organization Movement belive?
The movement believed that a rational system of coordinated, private, and scientific philanthropy supplemented by an army of ‘friendly visitors’ would do much to diminish destitution, hardship, and begging
Why was coordination viewed as important for the COM?
Coordination was viewed as important because otherwise, people living in poverty might take advantage of a fragmented charity system and obtain duplicative goods and services.
What is the modern version of a Charity Organization Society?
The United Way, is an example
What did the Settlement House Movement believe?
Their approach was rather than seeing as makers of their own misfortune, it believed that they were victims of an unjust social order than discriminated against large numbers of people so that a few might benefit. In other words, the capitalist system caused poverty, not the people experiencing poverty
What did people involved with the SHM do?
They established houses in slum neighbourhoods and worked directly with families in attempts to do something about poor sanitary conditions, slum housing, crime, poverty, sweatshop work conditions, and so on
What was the primary focus of the Settlement House Movement?
Focusing on reforming society, rather than reforming the person
What is known as the conventional view in social work, and what is it?
The conventional view, or social welfare, has always been held by the majority, and is influenced by and reflective of popular beliefs and attitudes about the nature of the individual, of society, and of the relationship between the two.
In the social welfare perspective, how is society viewed?
Society is viewed as comprising social institutions that serve the individual as long as they make full use of available opportunities for personal success
The conventional/social welfare view acknowledges that:
social problems do exist but define them in terms of personal difficulties or immediate environmental issues that require social work intervention either to help people cope with or adjust to existing institutions or to modify existing policies in a limited fashion
What is the progressive or critical view?
Also known as social work practice, this view does not believe that our present social institutions are capable of adequately meeting human need
What is the ultimate goal of progressive and critical social work?
Social transformation in support of social justice
What do the two schools of conventional social work focus on?
One focuses on the individual or individuals as both the source of and the solutions to problems and has as its goal to help the individual cope with, fit into, and/or adjust to society
The other focuses on the goodness of fit between the individual and their environment
Social work must be viewed as a highly ______ practice in which social problems and their solutions are shaped by access to power and resources
political
What does it mean to politicize something or someone?
To introduce the idea that everything has political elements; that is, to introduce the idea that nothing is neutral and everything involves an overt or covert struggle over power, resources, and affirming identities.
What are examples of conventional social work perspectives/approaches
Psychodynamic, behavioural, client-centred, psychosocial, clinical, family therapies, casework
What are examples of progressive social work perspectives/approaches
Feminist theory, Marxist, radical, structural, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, critical, post-colonial, Indigenous, narrative, just therapy
What are Canadian social work educational institutions being coerced into doing?
Developing academic programs with more emphasis on learning about a variety of intervention techniques and assessments related to determining eligibility for services than on understanding the importance of connecting social work theory with practice
What has the current Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics (2005) retreated to?
An era when there was no vision or articulation of what social work wanted when no statement of social philosophy existed, and when the primary task of social work was to help people cope with, adjust to, and/or fit back into the very society that caused them problems in the first place
What is impartiality?
Impartiality is a liberal-humanist notion that was adopted as a professional norm by mainstream social work dating back to at least 1958 when Wilensky and Lebeaux called for it to become part of the social work “professional self”.
What does the notion of professional impartiality specify?
The desirability of providing social work services to people without regard to gender, class, race, sexuality, age, and so on. In other words, all people should be treated equally
To treat all social groups as if they were all the same is to:
maintain the inequalities that exist among them
What is the Radical Social Work Group?
An organization founded in 2008, is New York City-based collective and community of social service workers and activists who organized for social justice and human rights.
What was the mission of the Radical Social Work Group?
To promote social change by challenging the systems of injustice that they and their service users face and to transform society by using radical social work principles and practices
What is ethics concerned with?
Ethics is concerned with oppression as a process within groups that has the power to limit the lives, experiences, and opportunities of groups in an unjust way
What is social justice defined as through the International Federation of Social Worker’s (IFSW)
Social justice is defined only in terms of distributing or redistributing society’s resources (i.e. distributive or redistributive justice), which excludes doing anything about the social institutions, policies, processes, and practices responsible for the inequitable distribution in the first place.
What is injustice, according to this distributive notion of social justice?
A situation in which one group has a monopoly over a particular good
What have welfare capitalism and conventional social work adopted?
The distributional concept of social justice in that their focus has been on the distribution and redistribution of income and other resources, which are often defined in terms of some kind of social minimum.
What must any conception of justice must take into account?
The vast differences in the number of material goods that exist in our society, where thousands starve and live on the streets while others can have anything they want
Distributing or redistributing rights and opportunities is not the same as distributing or redistributing income because:
rights and opportunities are not possessions
A society may be evaluated as just to the degree that it contains and supports the institutional conditions necessary for the _______ of the universal value that everyone is of _________ ________ worth.
promotion; equal intrinsic
Although more than one meaning can be ascribed to the term ‘egalitarianism’, the one that forms part of a progressive social work ideology is that of:
social equality
What is the central value premise of social equality?
Every person is of equal intrinsic worth and should therefore be entitled to equal civil, political, social, and economic rights, responsibilities, and treatment
Why is social equality a correlate of humanism?
Because the dignity of the person cannot be achieved if some people have control over others, have preferred access to life chances, or have more power concerning public affairs
What is the key element of social equality?
Arriving at a humanistic and egalitarian society is the development of a true collectivist spirit.
What does collectivism imply?
Collectivism implies participatory decision-making, not hierarchical decisions made at the top and passed down
What is humanism?
A system of views based on the respect for the dignity and rights of men, his value as a personality, concern for his welfare, his all-round development, and the creation of favourable conditions for social life,
What is an ideology?
An ideology is a consistent set of social, economic, and political beliefs. It serves as the foundation and determines the nature and worldview of particular social paradigms.
Friedmann argues that the view of people as social beings is essentially ______, wheras the view of people as economic individualists is essentially _______.
moral; amoral
The worth of a person is judged mainly by what they _____ and/or ___.
earn; own
To be consistent with social work ideals, the economic system must be rationalized from a ______ perspective
social
What is the main goal of a positive state?
To protect the interests of business from the difficulties of unprotected markets and from potential redistributive demands
The positive state aims at _________ ______ _________ to keep consumption up, labour costs down, and labour unions weak
minimal full employment
What is the preferred social welfare instrument?
Social insurance, which is consistent with economic efficiency and encourages ‘proper’ work habits
What is the vision of the positive state?
One of rugged individualism within the context of balanced economic growth and protection of business interests
The positive state is the model of welfare favoured by:
neo-conservatives
What is the key concept of the social security state?
That everyone who is a casualty of the industrial order has a right to a guaranteed minimum of social security
What does the social welfare state aim to promote?
Equality and solidarity
Why must social work reject the positive state as a welfare system?
Because it violates its fundamental values of humanism and egalitarianism and its corresponding set of social, economic, and political beliefs.
There is no ________ within social work with respect to the ideas nature of society or the nature and functions of the welfare state
consensus
Social work is a dynamic field that started as a movement to reduce _______ and __________
poverty; inequality
How did social work begin in Canada?
In Canada, social work began with a group of home visitors, who were volunteers that were driven to help vulnerable people, spread hope, and advocate for social justice
What do social workers advocate for?
Social justice, human rights, and fair access to health and social services
What are the social worker’s core values? (Hint: there are 6)
- Respect for the inherent dignity and worth of persons, 2. Pursuit of social justice, 3. Service to humanity, 4. Integrity in professional practice, 5. Confidentiality in professional practice, and 6. Competence in professional practice
Why have social work value’s been critiqued?
A lack of vision and individual focus
What does oppression occur?
Oppression occurs when individual’s are systematically subjected to political, economic, cultural, or social degradation because they belong to a group.
What does oppression result from?
Oppression results from structures of domination and subordination, and correspondingly, ideologies of superiority and inferiority
What are the three approaches to oppression?
- Helping oppressed persons cope with their oppression, 2. Attempting to modify/reform the system so oppressed persons can better fit into it, 3. Contributing to a total transformation of society.
All three approaches to oppression are not ________ ___________
mutually exclusive
What are the two approaches to oppression that most social workers adopt?
Helping oppressed people cope with their oppression, and attempting to modify/reform the system so oppressed persons can better fit into it
Both the Charity Organization Society and the Settlement House Movement are products of _____________ and ___________.
industrialization; urbanization
What did Community Organizing focus on?
It focused on the participation of the poor, community development, and social action
What is meant by the term ‘Liberal-Humanist’?
Social disorganization caused by large social changes in people’s living and work environments (ex. industrialization and globalization) leads to individual disorganization
What is social conflict?
Social conflict attributes social problems to social structures that favour certain groups in society and oppress others
What is the order perspective?
In this perspective, society is viewed as orderly, stable, and unified by shared cultures, values, and a consensus on its forms and institutions
What is the conflict perspective?
In this perspective, society is viewed as a continually contested struggle among groups with opposing views and interests
Society is held together not by consensus, but by ______________ and ____________
differential control of resources; political power
Most social work theories and practices are based on the _______ perspective
order
What is critical social theory?
Critical Social Theory is a macro theory that examines social structures, institutions, policies, practices, and processes with respect to how they treat all groups in society.
What is Critical Social theory motivated by?
It’s motivated by an interest in those who are oppressed, and it is informed by a critique of domination, and is driven by a goal of liberation
