Sociology and Social Welfare by Michael Sullivan

Author:Michael Sullivan [Sullivan, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138604353
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

4 The Development and Functions of Social Work

Despite claims to be found in some histories of social work (Kuenstler, 1961; Bessell, 1970), social work as we know it mounts no challenge to prostitution as the oldest servicing profession. Goetschius (in Kuenstler, 1961) may see concern for social welfare needs in the Buddhist, Egyptian and Jewish Scriptures. Bessell may discern startling similarities between the training of first-century Christian deacons and modern social work education. Social work, however, has much more recent origins, and state provision of personal social services is a veritable infant.

This chapter starts by tracing the roots of state social work and then proceeds to outline a range of understandings of the development and functions of that work.

Social Work Before the Welfare State

Most commentators on the history of social work trace its origins back to the middle of the nineteenth century. Some appear to see a positive and unilinear progression from the tradition of Victorian philanthropy through to the co-ordinated state provision of social work services in the twentieth century (Woodroofe, 1971). The ideology of the Poor Law (itself of much earlier origin) which marked the provision of help in the nineteenth century – dividing the poor into deserving, and therefore worthy of philanthropic action and undeserving to be punished for their feckless behaviour – is seen by some as also permeating the attitudes and activities of twentieth-century state welfare agencies (George, 1973).

Others have argued that social work as a discrete activity grew out of the failure of philanthropy. Philanthropic action, often administered by the same people who administered the Poor Law, had failed to eradicate social needs, and this failure was seen in the late nineteenth century as a blow to national prestige (Seed, 1973). As a result, ‘social work came into being closely related to a need to repair the national image which had been spoilt by a dramatic exposure of social need and the failure of philanthropy’ (Seed, 1973, p. 9).

Some recent commentators have seen the growth of private charity organizations like the Charity Organization Society in a different light. Parry and Parry identify the evangelical Christian revival of the mid nineteenth century as the seed bed from which social work grew and flourished (Parry, Rustin and Satyamurti, 1979). Evangelical Christianity, with its emphasis on personal salvation, is seen as having spawned a social work with an emphasis on rescuing the immoral or preventing immorality. The first sign of modern social work appeared during the 1850s with the introduction of paid welfare workers associated with the Church and directed mainly at the moral welfare of women and girls (Walton, 1975, p. 41).

Others see the origins of modern social work as rooted in quite a different morality. For Steadman Jones (1971) the roots of nineteenth-century philanthropic and social welfare action are better seen in the need for a well-socialized proletariat in order to integrate all sections of the population into the structure, culture, norms and values of capitalist society and prevent social revolution. He reminds his readers

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