Professional Documents
Culture Documents
S.Rengasamy
Madurai Institute of Social Sciences
S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
Contents
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S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
IN AN ERA OF CHANGE
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S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
Framework to understand
History / evolution of Understanding history by understanding
Social Welfare / Social contributions of pioneers of Social Work
Work can be understood in
several ways
Understanding William Beveridge Contribution that
shaped global welfare policies
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S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
Prior to Tofler‟s Agricultural Society: special values about caring for individuals evolve. Emergence of
1600 unconditional charity toward individuals in times of hardship
1084 Almshouses for the poor and handicapped are established in England.
1300s Bubonic plague kills nearly 1/3 of European population. Labor shortages force the State to
intervene. Laws passed to compel all able-bodied men to accept employment. Alms to able-bodied
beggars were forbidden.
1313 Christianity legalized by Roman Emperor, Constantine. Church sanctioned to use donated funds to
Prior to 1600
aid the poor. Charitable attitudes and behaviors expected of the rich; redistribution of wealth not
part of charitable principles
1348 The Statute of Laborers is issued in England, requiring people to remain on their home manors
and work for whatever lords want to pay. Begging and Almsgiving is outlawed except for the aged
and those unable to work. For the first time, a distinction is made between the "worthy poor" (the
aged, handicapped, widows, and dependant children), and the "unworthy poor" (able-bodied but
unemployed adults).
1500 Henry VIII in England broke from the Roman church. State confiscates Church wealth, leaving it
without means to carry out charity expectations. Spain introduces first State organized registration
of the poor.
of dealing with the poor and disadvantaged for over 200 years. It also becomes the basis for
dealing with the poor relief at the colonial level, taxes people in each parish pay for their own
poor, establishes apprentice programs for poor children, develops workhouses for dependant
people, and deals harshly and punitively with able bodied poor people.
1650 The influence of Luther, Calvin, and others has become established and manifested as the
Protestant ethic, a philosophy that becomes influential in England, parts of Europe, and American
colonies. It emphasizes self-discipline, frugality, and hard work and leads many of its adherents to
frown on those who are dependant or unemployed.
1662 The Law of Settlement and Removal is established in England as one of the world‟s first
"residency requirements" in determining eligibility to receive help. Municipal authorities to help
only poor local citizens and to expel from their jurisdictions anyone else who might become
dependant for assistance. This law causes authorities to evaluate people as to the likelihood of
their becoming poor. Thus, though the law is basically harsh and punitive, some efforts too look at
the causes of poverty are codified.
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1697 The workhouse system is developed in Bristol and soon spreads throughout England and parts
of Europe. It is designed to keep down poor taxes by denying aid to anyone who refuses to enter
a workhouse. These institutions are usually managed by private entrepreneurs who contract with
the legal authorities to care for the residence in exchange for the residence in exchange for using
their work. Residence - including very young children, the handicapped and very old people – are
often given minimal care and are worked long hours as virtual slaves.
1700 Humanitarian groups in Quebec establish centers for the relief of the poor; Nova Scotians
adopt English Poor Laws.
1600-1800
1782 The Gilbert Act is passed in England, enabling humanitarians, appalled by the exploitation of
workhouse residence, to institute reforms in many English jurisdictions. Many workhouses are
closed, assistance to the poor in their own home is established, and children under 6 are placed
with families. Many private entrepreneurs are replaced by municipal employees as managers of
the remaining workhouses.
1795 Speemhamland system establishes earliest "poverty line" based on the price of bread and
number of dependents in a workers family; subsidization provided when wages dipped below the
poverty line.
Volunteers recruited to befriend applicants, make individual assessments and correct their
problems.
Thomas Malthus, British East India Company economist, documents population numbers
multiplying faster than production of goods to meet their needs. Coincides with Darwin‟s theory of
evolution based on natural selection. Applied to human condition by Herbert Spencer‟s declaration
that poverty was part of natural selection; helping the poor would only perpetuate unfit laziness
and non industriousness.
Protestant Ethic emphasizes self-discipline, frugality and hard work; encouraged disapproval of
dependence on others.
Feminists in America convene to declare the goal of equal rights for women; suffrage, equal
opportunities in education and jobs, and legal rights.
1819 Scottish preacher and mathematician Thomas Chalmers assumes responsibility for Glasgow‟s
poor. He develops private philanthropies to help meet the economic needs of the poor and
organizes a system of volunteers to meet individually and regularly with disadvantaged people to
give them encouragement and training.
1833 Antoine Ozanam established in the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in Paris, using lay volunteers
to provide emergency economic and spiritual assistance to the poor.
1834 The new Poor Law is established in England to reform the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601). The
underlying emphasis of the new law is on self-reliance. Public assistance is not considered a right,
and government is not seen as responsible for the unemployed. The principle of "less eligibility" (a
recipient of aid can never receive as much as does the lowest-paid worked) is enforced.
1844 1844: The first YMCA is established in London, England.
1867 1867: The British North America Act created a political union between New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
Canada East, and Canada West -- the Dominion of Canada. Responsibility for social welfare given to
the provinces. Welfare was not seen as a major function of governments.
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1883 Chancellor Bismarck of a newly united Germany introduces first national health insurance
system.
1887 Royal Commission on the Relations of Labor and Capital reported on conditions for workers in
the Dominion of Canada.
1889 In Chicago, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr open Hull House, which becomes one of the
1800 -1900
great deal of individual responsibility and because it still lacks a written body of knowledge and
educationally communicable techniques.
1917 Mary Richmond publishes Social Diagnosis. Social workers use her book as a primary text and
as an answer to Flexner.
The first organization for social workers is established. The national Social Workers Exchange
exists primarily to process applicants for social work jobs.
1919 The 17 schools of social work that exist in the United States and Canada form the
Association of Training Schools for Professional Social Work to develop uniform
standards of training and professional education. This group is later renamed the
American Association of School of Social Work (AASSW), eventually becoming the
Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
Social workers employed in schools organize as the National Association of Visiting Teachers.
The Charity Organization Societies (COS) becomes oriented increasingly toward helping
families. Many local societies change their names to Family Welfare Agency. The National Alliance
for Organizing Charity is renamed the American Association for Organizing Family Social Work. By
1946 this Organization is known as the Family Service Association of America (FSAA), renamed
Family Service America (FSA) in 1983.
1927 Canada introduces social security; subsidized old-age pension program for over 70 year old
citizens, based on a strict and often humiliating means test -- Old Age Pensions Act 7
S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
1928 International Permanent Secretariat of Social Workers founded; Canada is a charter member;
spear headed by Dr. Rene Sand, Belgian advocate of social medicine; predecessor to International
Federation of Social Workers (IFSW).
1928 The Milford Conference convenes to discuss whether social work is a disparate group of
technical specialties or a unified profession with more similarities than differences among its
specialties. In 1929 the report of the conference is published as Social Case Work: Generic and
Specific.
1929 Famous Five women from Alberta (Murphy, McClung, Parlby, Edwards, McWhinney) win
approval from Privy Council in England that women are included as "persons" making them
eligible for appointment to Canada‟s Senate.
Stock market crashes and Great Depression begins.
1930 Gordon Hamilton extends Richmond‟s "man in his environment" concept to "person-in-
1900 -1950
situation" within a organist context; Bertha Reynolds saw social work in a "between client and
community" context.
1931 Social worker Jane Addams becomes co recipient of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.
1937 The AASSW declares that beginning in 1939 the requirement for social work accreditation will
be a two-year master‟s degree program. The MSW becomes a requirement to be considered a
professional social worker
1939 American Association of Schools of Social Work, the accrediting body for social workers,
declared MSW degree as the minimum requirement to be a professional social worker.
1940 Mary Parker Follett‟s posthumous book Dynamic Administration is published; it becomes an
influence in the field of social welfare administration.
1941 Atlantic Charter; historical meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt, formulated as one of its
agreements citizen rights to social security.
1942 The Beveridge Report is issued in Great Britain, recommending as integrated social security
system that attempts to ensure cradle-to-grave economic protection for its citizens. Many of the
report‟s recommendations go into effect after World War II.
1945 World War II ends. On October 24, the United Nations is established.
1946 Great Britain establishes its National Health Service.
1954 In social casework, the so-called "diagnostic" and "functional" schools begin to merge and lose
their separate identities. The functional school had been oriented toward a highly focused, goal-
oriented approach to casework intervention. The diagnostic school had been influenced by
Freudian theory, but adherents of this approach develop more of a psychosocial orientation in the
1950s.
1955 On October 1, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is created through
the merger of seven organizations – the AASSW, plus the American Association of
Medical Social Workers (AAMSW), the American Association of Psychiatric Social
Workers (AAPSW), the National Association of School Social Workers (NAASW), The
American association of Group Workers (AAGW), the Association for the Study of
Community Organization (ASCO), and the Social Work Research Group (SWRG).
Membership is limited to members of the seven associations and subsequently to
master’s degree-level workers graduating from accredited schools of social work. 8
S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
1958 Working Definition of Social Work Practice, headed by Harriett Bartlett, defines person-in-
environment as social work‟s comprehensive domain of practice; published in 1970 by Bartlett in
Common Base of Social Work; reaffirmed in two special issues of Social Work on conceptual
frameworks in 1977 and 1981.
1959 Social Work Education Curriculum Study, headed by Werner Boehm, claimed a broad-based
orientation for social work that recognized five specialization methods: casework, group work,
community organization, administration, and research.
1962 NASW organises the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW), restricted to NASW members
with accredited MSW degrees, two years‟ agency experience under certified social work
supervision, and adherence to the NASW Code of Ethics. ACSW membership requirements are
1950 to the Present
Photos of Walter Friedlander & Simon Patten 9who used the term social work first time)
1900 Educator
Simon N. Patten
coins the term "social
workers" and applies
it to friendly visitors
and settlement house
residents. He and
Mary Richmond
dispute whether the
major role of social
workers should be
advocacy or
delivering
Walter Friedländer individualized social
(1891- 1984) services. 9
S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
The settlement house, an approach to social reform with roots in the late 19th century and the Progressive
Movement, was a method for serving the poor in urban areas by living among them and serving them directly.
As the residents of settlement houses learned effective methods of helping, they then worked to transfer
long-term responsibility for the programs to government agencies. Settlement house workers, in their work to
find more effective solutions to poverty and injustice, also pioneered the profession of social work.
The term "neighborhood center" (or in British English, Neighbourhood Centre) is often used today for similar
institutions, as the early tradition of "residents" settling in the neighborhood has given way to professionalized
social work.
The first settlement house was Toynbee Hall in London, founded in 1883. The first American settlement house
was The Neighborhood Guild (later the University Settlement), founded by Stanton Coit, begun in 1886.
The best-known settlement house is perhaps Hull House in Chicago, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams with
her friend Ellen Starr. Lillian Wald and the Henry Street Settlement in New York is also well known. Other
settlement houses, like Both of these houses were staffed primarily by women, and both resulted in many
reforms with long-lasting effect and many programs that exist today. Other individuals known as settlement
house leaders include John Lovejoy Elliott and Mary Simkhovitch.
Mary McDowell, Alice Hamilton, Florence Kelley, Francis Perkins, John Dewey and Eleanor Roosevelt
are among the many women and men connected at some point in their careers with settlement houses.
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“Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums
that damn them, the economic conditions that cripple them, is a dry-as-dust religion”
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Debate
The Residual versus Institutional View of Social Welfare
• The debate between the residual and institutional views of social welfare has been in existence
throughout history – it is as old as humankind.
• The debate will continue.
• There is probably no right or wrong answer to the debate – both sides have their positive aspects.
• Intelligent people, people of good intent can and do differ on their views in this area.
Work Houses
uniform. This meant that everyone looked the same and everyone outside knew they were poor
and lived in the workhouse. Upon entering the workhouse, the poor were stripped and bathed 14
(under supervision).The food was tasteless and was the same day after day.
The young and old as well as men and women were made to work hard, often doing unpleasant
jobs. Children could also find themselves 'hired out' (sold) to work in factories or mines.
S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
Germany became the first nation in the world to adopt an old-age social insurance program in 1889,
designed by Germany's Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. The idea was first put forward, at Bismarck's
behest, in 1881 by Germany's Emperor, William the First, in a ground-breaking letter to the German
Parliament. William wrote: ". . .those who are disabled from work by age and invalidity have a
well-grounded claim to care from the state."
Bismarck was motivated to introduce social insurance in Germany both in order to promote the well-
being of workers in order to keep the German economy operating at maximum efficiency, and to
stave-off calls for more radical socialist alternatives. Despite his impeccable right-wing credentials,
Bismarck would be called a socialist for introducing these programs, as would President Roosevelt 70
years later. In his own speech to the Reichstag during the 1881 debates, Bismarck would reply: "Call
it socialism or whatever you like. It is the same to me."
The German system provided contributory retirement benefits and disability benefits as well.
Participation was mandatory and contributions were taken from the employee, the employer and the
government. Coupled with the workers' compensation program established in 1884 and the "sickness"
insurance enacted the year before, this gave the Germans a comprehensive system of income security
based on social insurance principles. (They would add unemployment insurance in 1927, making their
system complete.)
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp
/hi/pds/19_07_05_beveridge.pdf
The Social Assistance strategy Social Insurance Strategy Social Allowance Strategy
originating in the Poor law The redistributive goal is horizontal This strategy aims at universal
tradition redistribution from workers to coverage and vertical
The redistributive goal is to retired old, from childless to families redistribution is considered as a
reduce poverty that is to provide with children, from healthy to the goal. It considers a guaranteed
a socially acceptable minimum sick, etc. Benefit entitlement is minimum income as a right of
support. Vertical redistribution. dependent on and related to past nation-state citizenship.
Social assistance is targeted on contributions or earnings Social allowances are granted
individuals meeting certain The social security goal is poverty according to demographic criteria
criteria of neediness. prevention. It provides a social such as children and age.
Criticism: economists have security the market can hardly Criticism: very expensive, today
argued that it can discourage supply. facing financial crisis; risk of
labour supply because of the risk Criticism: it leaves outside of the inadequate levels of benefits with
of poverty-traps and that it can coverage the non regular full-time persistent poverty; risk of
increase costs of administration employees: self-employed, atypical welfare-dependent underclass
and surveillance forms of contracts, etc.
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Main principles included local control, with reflected this hierarchy and the presence of a
administrative units made up of parishes, and select permanent underclass fit into this world view.
residents of the parish designated "overseers of the Believing in predestination, Puritans could
poor." look at poverty as revealing a flaw in the poor
These overseers had responsibility for the poor of person's character; a sign that he or she was
the parish, including finding work, taking care of out of favor with the higher power.
neglected children and providing relief for "the lame, While acts of charity to help the needy were
impotent, old, blind, and such other among them, an important part of religious practice, there
being poor and not able to work." Emphasizing care was not an expectation that such charitable
for the disabled and aged made a distinction acts would raise the underclass out of poverty.
between "deserving" and "undeserving" poor. Charity was viewed as comfort to those
For neglected children, whose parents were found by unfortunates doomed to suffer in this world,
the overseers to be unfit to "keep and maintain" and the charitable act a sign of the goodness
them, care took the form of being apprenticed to a of the giver.
local tradesman.
Local control of social welfare under the Poors of
1601 also meant local financing, with overseers given A New Nation -Democratic spirit and
broad authority to levy taxes on parish residents new religious fervor
The 1601 Poor Laws were the basis of English social The newly independent United States of
policy until the mid-1800's. Their influence on America enjoyed great prosperity and
American practice, particularly in New England, was expansion in the early nineteenth century. An
tremendous. In fact, until recent times, New invigorating democratic spirit influenced all
Hampshire welfare case-workers were called aspects of society.
"overseers of the poor." Responsibility for governing was now in the
hands of the people. The nation's elite saw a
need to educate, improve, and uplift the people to best prepare them for this new
challenge. The creation of societies for civic improvement was widespread and social
movements like temperance and abolition got their start.
A similar spirit of optimism and hope was alive in the Church. A movement called "The
Great Awakening," begun in the 1700's, had challenged the deterministic view of the
Puritans. Emphasizing spiritual rebirth and salvation, this view held more hope for the
underclass.
Monarchy had relied on rigid class distinctions that allowed no upward mobility. Religion
had reinforced acceptance of a permanent impoverished class. With its space and
abundant resources, egalitarian philosophy, and a renewed religious vigor, America
enthusiastically tackled social ills.
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Early Reforms - "Outdoor" relief moves "Indoor"
The social welfare practices of colonial America and the early United States were a
legacy of English practice.
Appointed overseers of the poor in each community made provision for the needy:
securing pensions, apprenticing wayward youth to tradesmen, and, in some cases, auctioning off care of
people to the lowest bidder. The low bidder would be paid to care for an indigent person in his home, with
little financial incentive to provide quality care.
This decentralized system was called "outdoor" relief because care took place in people's homes, outside
an institution.
While at times abused by its disinterested overseers, outdoor relief was also criticized for delivering service
in homes, instead of motivating the needy to get out and help themselves.
Reformers of the time stressed the environmental factors that shaped social ills, such as poverty and
alcoholism. They built institutions to provide corrected, safe environments. Homes for the disabled, mental
institutions, even prisons grew out of this movement.
History of Social Welfare in USA
Many states created institutions for the impoverished. "Indoor" relief was born, and the era of the
poorhouse began.
Civil War - War redefines The Gilded Age - Industrialized economy booms for some.
balance between state and In 1869, the just-completed transcontinental railroad connected
federal. the West to the East.
The US Civil War was a conflict With North and South no longer at war, the nation moved solidly
between state and federal power. in the direction of commerce. The railroad united new industries
One consequence, though and vast fortunes were made in steel, oil, and banking.
perhaps coincidental, While some tycoons, like Andrew Carnegie and
was a change in the John D. Rockefeller, would become legendary philanth
federal government's -rapists ,so-called "robber-barons" viewed the world
role in social welfare, exclusively as a competitive arena where every possible advantage
particularly in public should be exploited.
health. These "Social Darwinists" extrapolated the "Survival of the Fittest"
At the War's outset, appalling theories of Charles Darwin to mean the pursuit of individual
numbers of troops succumbed to wealth was natural and right.
disease, due largely to poor Darwin's work challenged prevailing religious views about Man's
sanitation. A very effective origins. Just as some religious interpretation had led to acceptance
Sanitary Commission was of a permanent underclass, this interpretation of Darwin's work
established to disseminate proper served the purpose of the wealthy
health practices.
Though it was not a government
agency, the Commission Cities and Settlement Houses - Immigration,
demonstrated to federal and state urbanization challenge cities.
governments that a nationally led Post-Civil War industrialization and immigration lead to enormous
organization could be effective in city growth, as many newcomers to America were crowded into
promoting the public welfare. cramped and filthy tenements.
It also demonstrated that some The settlement house movement sought to relieve the pressures
issues, like public health, were of urban immigrant life by providing community social services in
larger than local concerns and an informal, neighborly setting.
required cooperation between The most famous example is Chicago's Hull House, founded by
units of government. social reformer Jane Addams. Less concerned with providing the
The Commission also created new moral improvement charitable organizations sought, Hull House
roles for women by putting nurses offered some practical services to its community, like the first
near the front. childcare and kindergarten in Chicago.
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3
The Progressive - Era Government gets The Social Worker - The rise of the profession.
involved. In 1921, at a Milwaukee conference, the American
Around the turn of the last century, the Association of Social Workers was established. This
excesses of the Gilded Age became politically movement toward a more professional approach
unpalatable. The laissez-faire style of evolved throughout the early decades of the 20th
government that had allowed unrestricted century.
commerce did little to protect the rights of The complexity of modern life and the social ills
workers or provide for the needy. associated with city growth were thought too
In Wisconsin, Bob LaFollette fought political daunting for the traditional untrained charity worker.
corruption. In Washington, President The social work profession devised standards and
Theodore Roosevelt broke up the trusts that training and advocated social research and scientific
had monopolized whole sectors of the methods.
economy. And around the country, farmers While such professionalism lead to more consistent
and laborers organized for political unity. and focused care for individuals in need, much of the
Journalistic endeavors in this era of reformist zeal and desire for social change, so vital in
muckraking shed light on dangerous work the 19th century, fell by the wayside.
conditions and squalid housing. Famous
examples include Jacob Riis's photography and
writing about tenement life and Upton
History of Social Welfare in USA
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single mothers at home had been Although Edwin Witte was able to devise Social Security in a
passed as part of the Social Security matter of months, speed worked against the War on Poverty.
Act. Now a very different public image The crisis mentality of War meant many programs were poorly
of women was being projected. conceived and badly administered.
Although "Rosie the Riveter" was Meanwhile, another war, a real one in Vietnam, consumed
expected to return to homemaking more of Johnson's attention. Protests against the war and
after the war, seeds of social urban rioting showed that Johnson was ineffective at providing
transformation were planted. either guns or butter. His effort to fight Communism overseas
Wartime production gave way to divided the country. A riotous underclass destroyed the image
postwar prosperity, as factories turned of a prosperous, united nation. Government seemed impotent
out consumer items for a growing at quelling rebellion, on one extreme, and a failure at providing
middle class. But amid the apparent economic justice for the largely minority underclass, on the
affluence and anti-Communist fever of other extreme.
the postwar era, there was a growing While there were some Great Society successes like Head Start
"Other America" – rural areas and and adding two-parent families to AFDC, Johnson Era programs
inner cities that had not enjoyed an would become the prototype of the "Big Government"
economic boom. approach neoconservatives would fight against for years to
come.
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S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
Octavia Hill
training enabling them to act as social workers. Octavia Hill works in a way that strengthens self
respect and trust in own capabilities. These days, we would call that empowerment and resilience.
She hates philanthropy that creates dependency. In 1869, she is one of the founding members of the
Charity Organization Society that aims to modernize poverty work. Its origins go back to Elberfeld,
Germany.
Octavia Hill starts advocacy work for nature in and around London in 1975. She becomes one of the
three founding members of the National Trust in 1894. The organization is still an important actor in
the maintenance of parks, castles and nature in the UK. Octavia‟s influence is far reaching, and has
links to Amsterdam, Berlin and Chicago. Her 1883 publication The homes of the London poor
(http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications/homesofthelondonpoor.htm) helps spreading her ideas
across the world.
Although by the end of her life, interest in her thinking declined because of her great emphasis on
individual and small-scale social work, the past few decades have seen a renewed interest. Hill
refused to acknowledge that significant government intervention could be needed to deal with major
social problems such as poverty, housing and unemployment. In her thinking, government initiatives
should never replace voluntary action. With the emergence of the welfare state, her popularity
eroded. Within the current discussion about the sustainability of the welfare state, parts of Hill‟s work
emerge again.
Octavia Hill is remarkable in the history of social work because she rejected alms. Those would only
bring curses and keep citizens at the edge of pauperism. Hill believed in a paternalistic approach that
changed the attitudes of poor people. More and better houses wouldn‟t help to get rid of slums: “The
people‟s homes are bad, partly because they are badly built and arranged, they are tenfold worse
because the tenants‟ habits and lives are what they are. Transplant them tomorrow to healthy and
commodious homes and they would pollute and destroy them” (1875)
Read more
1. Smith, Mark K. (2008), Octavia Hill: housing, space and social reform, 2. Hill, Octavia (1883), Homes of the
London Poor 3. Lewis, J. E. (1991), Octavia Hill, 1838-1912, 4. Lewis, J. E. (1991), Women and social action in
Victorian and Edwardian England, Links The Octavia Hill society (and birthplace) Wikipedia about Octavia Hill
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S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
Arnold Toynbee
conditions. The confrontation with the harsh reality of social inequality would not only sharpen their
University Extension, an outreaching type of learning in which students worked with the poorer
parts of the population and applied their course material as a way of voluntary work. Students thus
would become more aware of daily living sense for social responsibility, but also bridge class
segregation. This idea was later labelled Practical Socialism (1888) by Toynbee‟s think-alike and
Anglican priest Samuel Barnett. It received plenty of support in Oxford and Cambridge, from which
it gained international recognition.
After Toynbee‟s death, Barnett continued work on the University Extension. Students would not
only work to enhance the living conditions of the poor, they would also live among them for at
least a year. The University Settlement was born. This would guarantee a stronger link between
scholars and urban slums, and achieve better results. In 1884 Toynbee Hall opened in East
London. Graduated students cam and lived there, while often working elsewhere, and contributed
to neighbourhood development. They studies the living conditions and necessities of the working
class, and organised activities to contribute to community building, (informal) education and social
liberation. They worked to achieve improvements in the poor law, better pension rights and an
overall enhancement of living conditions. Toynbee Hall quickly became an inspiring example of
community development in both the US and Europe. In the beginning of the 20th century, one of
the people to live and work at Toynbee Hall for a short period of time was William Beveridge.
(http://www.historyofsocialwork.org/details.php?id=4)
Extra Toynbee Hall celebrated it's 125th anniversary in 2009. On the 1st of June, there was a
party for the volunteers. This was also the launch of the movie "Celebrating Volunteers at
Toynbee Hall". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwHo55IzD6Y&)
Read more
Additional information
Barnett-Rowland, Henrietta (1913), Canon Barnett, his life, work and friends,
(http://www.archive.org/stream/canonbarnetthisl01barnuoft)
Links
Wikipedia on Arnold Toynbee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_J._Toynbee)
Toynbee Hall now (http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/)
Settlements and social action centers (http://www.infed.org/association/b-settl.htm)
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Jane Addams (1860-1935) was born in Cedarville, Illinois in a well-off Quaker family. After her studies,
she visited Toynbee Hall in London and inspired by it, she developed a very similar initiative in Chic-
ago. Together with her friend Ellen Starr, she started the first settlement house in 1889 in Near West
Side, a neighbourhood with plenty of European immigrants: Hull House. It quickly developed into a
real action centre with plenty of room for children, education for adults, culture and focus on social
progress. Addams however didn‟t only work with the poor but also engaged in political action aimed at
establishingnew laws to protect the poor.
Addams assembled a group of very committed young women. They became the female face of the
democratisation movement in the Progressive Era. From 1900 onwards the United States saw a wave
of interest in women‟s emancipation, new social laws and attention for social and racial tensions. The
Hull House group professionalised the contribution of women in social work. With their neighbourhood
work, they contributed to a more structural political focus.
They started from a profound analysis of real situations and by doing so contributed to later social
science research. In the Hull house maps and papers they reported on the effects of concentration of
different ethnicities and their living conditions, about labour circumstances in the sweatshops, about
child labour. This was work done by e.g. Julia Lathrop and Florence Kelley. This approach to „mapping‟
contributed to the start of the famous Chicago school in urban sociology with key figures like George
Herbert Mead and John Dewey. For the academic researchers, Addams and her colleagues were just
data collectors, while for themselves their research was a tool and starting point for social action.
With the strong combination of professional interventions and structured reseach, Addams succeeded
in establishing a specific basis for American social work which raised international interest. From the
very beginning, Hull house received numerous visitors from abroad.
Many initiatives were launched from Hull house. Julia Lathrop later became the first director of the
Children‟s Federal Bureau (1912). She succeeded in raising concerns about child labour and child
deaths.
The power of the settlement work translated to a broad social engagement of Jane Addams in which
she combined here work for Hull House with an at least equally passionate contribution to the peace
movement during the First World War. That earned her the nickname Saint Jane. Four years before
her death, she received the Nobel Prize for the peace (1931).
]
Extra
Jane Addams is still actively being remembered in the US. The social work department of the
University of Illinois at Chicago is named after her: Jane Addams College of Social Work.
(http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/college/)
Read more
Allen, J. D. (2008), Jane Addams (1860-1935): social worker and peace builder,
Additional information
Addams, Jane (1910), Twenty Years at Hull-House,
(http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EHYPER/ADDAMS/title.html)
Hull House museum in Chicago (http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/)
The urban experience in Chicago: Hull House and its neighborhoods
(http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/urbanexp/)
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Mary Richmond
Celebrating Social Welfare / Work Pioneers
Mary Ellen Richmond (1861-1928)
With her book Social Diagnosis from 1917, Mary Ellen Richmond (1861-
1928) constructed the foundations for the scientific methodology
development of professional work. She searched for the causes of poverty
and social exclusion in the interaction between an individual and his or her
environment. Mary Richmond can be described as the mother of social
casework.
Richmond spent her youth in Baltimore on the American east coast. Aged
4, she became an orphan. She was an intelligent young lady and was
raised by her feminist grandmother. After having worked for eight years in
a bookshop, she dedicated the rest of her live from 1889 onwards to
modernizing and professionalizing of care for the poor.
She started her career with the Charity Organization Society (COS) in Baltimore, a US branch of the
organization Octavia Hill established in the UK. Richmond‟s capacities didn‟t remain unnoticed and
soon she was offered leading position in COS in Baltimore and Philadelphia. From 1909 until her
death, she was director of the charity department of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York, an
influential fund supporting social science research.
In modern social work, about everybody agrees there is a need for diagnosis and research to happen
before care provision. It was Richmond who systematically developed the content and methodology of
diagnosis in the period around 1910. Her first principle was that care had to focus on the person
within her or his situation. Building on extensive research, she developed what she labeled as „social
diagnosis‟. Her famous circle diagram visualized the correspondence of client and environment.
Richmond identified six sources of power that are available to clients and their social workers: sources
within the household, in the person of the client, in the neighborhood and wider social network, in civil
agencies, in private and public agencies. This is a precursor of the system theory that was so popular
in 1970‟s social work.
Through her approach to research, Richmond gave social work clients a voice for the first time. In this
way, she opened a new and fruitful area of social research which is up to now a cornerstone of social
work. With her broad instructions on how to gather information, interview methodologies, establishing
contact and conducting conversations, Richmond gave social casework a strong professional status. In
her second big publication What is social casework? (1922) Mary Richmond introduced the
methodology of „learning from cases‟. She provided extensive comments to six elaborately described
practice situations. New was her plea to also cover psychological elements. First came however an
open and honest communication with clients, without encumbering formalities. Strengthening the
resilience of clients is a natural component of this approach. Richmond‟s plea to involve clients in the
solving of their problems still provides inspiration, even a century later.
The work of Mary Richmond was highly influential in the US, UK and internationally. There are few
countries where current social work has not been influenced by her work and thinking.
Additional information
Richmond, Mary Ellen (1899), Friendly Visiting among the Poor. A Handbook for Charity Workers
Richmond, Mary Ellen (1908), The good neighbor in the modern city
Richmond, Mary Ellen (1913), A study of nine hundred and eighty-five widows known to
certain charity organization societies in 1910
Richmond, Mary Ellen (1917), Social diagnosis
Richmond, Mary Ellen (1922), What is social case work? An introductory description
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George Orwell, John Howard Griffin, Pat Moore, Tolly Toynbee, Günther Wallraff, Barbara Ehrenreich
There was a time when Eric Blair wasn‟t yet know as George Orwell, the
author of 1984 and Animal Farm. It was a time in which he was so poor that
he needed to move to Paris where the cost of living at the time was much
lower. He wrote up his experiences combined with those upon his return to
London and thus provided a great description of what poverty really looked
like. He provided a view on the (in)humanity behind statistics with more
vividness than any quantitative research could ever achieve.
To give one example, Orwell describes how he and his Russian friend Boris
are short of food and spent their last money on some bread and garlic. The
combination is part of their survival skills: "the point of rubbing garlic on
bread is that the taste lingers and gives one the illusion of having fed
recently." Others wrote similar accounts of poverty and injustice. Well known
examples include John Howard Griffin, a white man who decided to dye
himself black to experience society like „a black‟. During some months in 1959,
he lived like a black citizen in the segregated deep south of the US. The
diaries he kept were published the year after as Black like me and showed
the many (ugly) faces of day-to-day racism. Griffin became a respected civil
rights activist but also received death threats and was at one time severely
beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Similar to Griffin‟s work is Pat
Moore‟s Disguised, a true story from 1985. A student of gerontology,
Moore wanted to get a better understanding of what it meant to be a senior
citizen and started being one by applying a gray wig and e.g. blurring her
sight by applying baby oil to her eyes. Travelling through the US and Canada
in this disguised way, she organized her own excursions into the world of the
elderly. Although somewhere in the intro to her book she is described as not
being a social worker, she most definitely is.
Her project became a great example of how bad design of products (incl.
buildings, transport,...) excludes people with impairments. She also clearly
illustrated how working on social progress can go hand in hand with business
interests.
Griffin and Moore worked in North America and are not very known in Europe.
The same approach has however gained widespread fame in Europe through the
work of the German journalist Günther Wallraff. Around the same time as Pat
Moore‟s work, Wallraff disguised as a Turkish immigrant worker. He worked for
several companies, including German‟s steal industry giant Thyssen and the fast
food champion McDonald‟s. His book Ganz Unten was translated in many
languages and made a great impact as it illustrated both the exploitation of
immigrant workers in the labour market as well as day to day racism from
German people.
All of the above are prime examples of the use of immersive research and role
play techniques to highlight situations of social injustice. This is not something
from the past, but still being done in our time. Examples include the UK
journalist Tolly Toynbee who worked as a low-skilled employee and published
her experiences in Hard work, the US writer Barbara Ehrenreich who did the
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same and published Nickled and dimed, and the French journalist Florence
Aubenas who lived for six months as a low-skilled single woman in a poor area
of the French city Caen. All three of these recent examples of immersive
research illustrate life at the bottom of society is not easy.
If three well educated woman with plenty of life experiences did not manage
to remain out of poverty when acting as a low-skilled person, how could
somebody really in that situation do it? Their research shows that society still
has not succeeded in building „ladders out of poverty‟.
Additional information
Orwell, G. (1933), Down and out in Paris and London
Griffin, J. H. (1960), Black Like Me
Moore, P., Conn, C. P., & Conn, P. (1985), Disguised: A True Story
Wallraff, G. (1985), Ganz unten, translated as 'Lowest of the low'
Toynbee, P. (2003), Hard work, life in low-pay Britain
Ehrenreich, B. (2002), Nickel and dimed, undercover in low-wage
USA
Aubenas, F. (2010), Le Quai de Ouistreham
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S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
More than anyone else, Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) influenced our thinking about cities and city life
during the second half of the twentieth century. A lack of any formal education in city planning or
related subjects didn‟t put a brake on her influence. At a very early age, she moved to Greenwich
Village, a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York, where she had to take several different jobs to
survive amidst the economic crisis. Times of unemployment were filled with long walks through the
city. During that time, her eloquent writing and sharp analytic eye became to be noted. She married
an architect and started writing for Architectural Forum. In this way, she developed a keen interest in
cities and city life.
Jacobs published here best-known book in 1961: The death and life of great American cities. It
was a protest against the megalomaniac plans of Robert Moses, the city architect of New York. He
wanted to build huge traffic gateways through the inner city to give maximal freedom to car transport.
Jacobs was furious about these drawing board plans, and argued a city is not created on maps but
grows like a living organism. Cities are like bodies, and streets are the arteries. Through her
publications and protest actions, Jacobs together with many others succeeded in stopping the building
of the Lower Manhattan Expressway. She had been wrestling with Moses, and won.
In 1968, Jane Jacobs moved to Toronto as a protest against the war in Vietnam and to avoid military
service for her sons. She‟d stay in Toronto until her death in 2006. The situation Jacobs found in
Toronto wasn‟t that different to New York. Plans existed to build the huge Spadina Expressway all the
way through the center of town. Jacobs became one of the most visible activists against these plans,
and again she and her companions succeeded in stopping the further planning and building of this
expressway.
In many cities across the Western world, the notion of make room for car mobility has gradually been
replaced by the notion that other transport is equally relevant and car-free zones are a benefit for the
city.
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A few key elements in Jacobs‟ vision on the city are still present in our present day thinking. She
argued that a mix of functions on the local level was a key element for general attractiveness of a
neighbourhood. If functions would become geographically separated, we get neighborhoods that are
only partially used, e.g. places where people only come to sleep, places where people only shop,
places that are only used during office hours. Jacobs had a strong preference to intertwine these
functions in the same locality, thus making for continuous activity.
Related to this Jacobs introduced the notion of eyes on the street. Plenty of people that make use of
the city at different hours would create a light form of social control that would enhance public safety.
Robert Putnam would later use and expand this notion in his work on social capital.
Another still very popular idea from Jane Jacobs is her saying that „old ideas can sometimes use new
buildings, but new ideas must use old buildings‟. City development is not about destroying old
buildings and constructing new ones, but about giving old buildings a new purpose. Numerous
examples exist, such as Tate Modern in London, housed in an old power station.
To commemorate Jane Jacobs, several cities have installed Jane‟s walks: city tours focuses on the
current live in neighborhoods, guided by citizens themselves. These give a view on the living city, not
on the historical „dead‟ city. They are also called urban safaris.
Read more
Hospers, G.-J. (2006), Jane Jacobs: her life and work, (http://www.dime-
eu.org/files/active/0/Jane%20Jacobs.pdf)
Additional information
Jacobs, J. (1961), The death and life of great American cities
Sparberg Alexiou, A. (2006), Jane Jacobs, urban visionary
Flint, A. (2009), Wrestling with Moses, how Jane Jacobs took on New York's master
builder and transformed the American city.
Goldsmith, S., & Elizabeth, L. (Eds.). (2010), What We See, Advancing the Observations of
Jane Jacobs,
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Joel Fischer
It is early 1973 when the at the time little known Joel Fischer publishes a
paper in Social Work, the journal of the US‟ National Association of Social
Workers. After the professionalization of social work through the work of
Mary Richmond and the establishment of higher education for social work,
Fischer asks the question whether there is any indication on the
effectiveness of social casework. Are the goals one expects to reach also
reached?
To the surprise of many, research at the time indicated that social casework
was not very effective and that about 50% of the clients were worse off
after treatment than before. Fischer consequently argues social work should
not be satisfied with good intentions, but look critically into the effects of its
actions “The issue of effectiveness of practice always must be of paramount
concern to the profession and cannot be brushed aside.”
Joel Fischer‟s article caused a debate in the subsequent issues of Social
Work and other scholarly social work journals. It is probably one of the most
reprinted and most cited single publication in the entire social work
literature. The article and the ensuing debate can be seen as the start of
professional doubt. No doubt in a cynical way, but as a healthy level of
scrutinizing one‟s work and monitor the effects of social interventions as a
foundation for continuous improvements.
Fischer did not linger in questioning the effectiveness of social work, but in
the decades after 1973 published several manuals on how to liaise science
and social work. His Evaluating practice (together with Martin Bloom and
John Orme) received its sixth edition in 2009. It focuses on the use of
single-system designs to evaluate social work practice.
Fischer had an infectious enthusiasm and optimism about science and social work growing close. He wrote
e.g. in 1993: “By the year 2000, empirically based practice – the new social work – may be the norm, or
well on the way to becoming so.” You could argue that scientific based social work is still not the norm, but
the discussion about why and how is certainly dominating a great number of discussions within the
profession.
Professional doubt as the driving force behind innovation has gained much attention since 1973. Social
work followed in the footsteps of medicine and invests in evidence based practice. Whole libraries have
been written on this subject by now and organizations such as Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) or
the Campbell Collaboration (C2) make it a core part of their reason of existence to contribute to the
scientific grounding of social work.
Additional information
Fischer, J. (1973), Is casework effective? a review, (http://lyceumbooks.com/pdf/Toward_Evidence-
Based_Prologue.pdf)
Bloom, M., Fischer, J., & Orme, J. (2009), Evaluating Practice Guidelines for the Accountable
Professional,
Fischer, J. (2009), Toward evidence-based practice: variations on a theme,
(http://lyceumbooks.com/iTowardEvidence-BasedPrac.htm)
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Understanding Social Work history by understanding the history of fields of social work
Practice of Social Work with Correctional / Forensic Social Social Work with Gay, Lesbian,
Individuals, Families and Groups Work Bisexual, and Transgender
People
Social Work with Organizations, Gender and Social Work Practice Psychiatric Social Work
Communities and Larger Systems
Addictions and Social Work Social Work Practice in Health- Social Work with Disabled
Practice Care Settings
Social Work and Familiy Welfare Gerontological Social Work Poverty: Opportunities for
Social Work
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S.Rengasamy-History of Social Welfare / Social Work
1774 Chief Justice of the Maratha Empire, Ram Shastri passes death sentence against the
ruling Peshwa Raghunathrao for murdering his nephew.
1777 -1782 First Anglo-Maratha War begins and ends with the restoration of status quo as per
Treaty of Salbai.
1779 Maratha sardar Mahadji Shinde routs the British army at the Battle of Wadgaon.
1780 -1784 Second Anglo-Mysore War begins. ends with the Treaty of Mangalore.
1789 -1792 Third Anglo-Mysore War begins.
1790 The Marathas under Holkar and General de Boigne comprehensively defeat the Rajputs
of Jaipur and their Mughal allies at the Battle of Patan, where 3000+ Rajput cavalry is killed
and the entire Mughal unit vanquished. The defeat crushes Rajput hope of independence from
external influence
1798 – 1799 Fourth Anglo-Mysore War begins. ends with the death of Tipu Sultan and the
restoration of the Wodeyar dynasty.
1803 1805 Second Anglo-Maratha War
1817 - 1818 Third Anglo-Maratha War begins and ends with the defeat of Bajirao II and the
end of the Maratha Empire leaving the British with control of almost the whole of India
Evolution of Social Welfare Ministry in India
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It is not known whether the creation of the Department of Social Security in 1964 was a direct
outcome of the recommendations of the Renuka Ray Team or of other conferences and
committees. The subjects then allotted to the newly created Department of Social Security
included an assortment or items like child welfare, orphans and orphanages, education of the
handicapped, social welfare, the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes, ex-criminal tribes and
other backward classes, unemployment insurance, social security measures, the Central Social
Welfare Board, coordination and development of village industries including Khadi and
handicraft, prohibition, Ambar Charkha, and UNICEF. Later on, certain subjects like social
security, village industries and the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes were allocated to other
Ministries.
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In 1967 in its report, the Study Team appointed by the Administrative Reforms Commission to
examine the machinery of the Government of India and its procedures of work suggested that
rehabilitation and social welfare should be combined into a single department and the
department should then be grouped with the Department of Labor and Employment to constitute
a Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Welfare. It further recommended that considering
the tremendous influence that charitable and religious institutions can have on social welfare
programs of the Government and in molding public opinion in the field, this subject should be
transferred from the Ministry of Law to the proposed Department. The Study Team was of the
view that child welfare should not be separated from health and family planning and should be
transferred from the Department of Social Welfare to the proposed Ministry of Health, Family
Planning and Regional Planning.
ALLOCATION OF SUBJECTS
The subjects allocated to the Department of Social Welfare need also to be viewed in the context
of the consecutive Five Year Plan policies and programs. Although a separate social welfare
sector has been in existence ever since the beginning of the First Five Year Plan (1951-56), a
separate Department of Social Welfare came into being only after about thirteen years.
The Department of Social Welfare was elevated to the status of an independent Ministry on 24
August 1979 and was placed under the charge of a Cabinet Minister. This opportunity was not,
however, availed of to regroup or reallocate subjects related to social welfare from amongst
different Ministries. The subjects allocated to the Ministry of Social Welfare cover child welfare
and development, women's welfare and development, welfare of the physically handicapped,
social defence, social welfare planning and research, etc. The Ministry provides general direction
in social welfare policy formulation, promoting legislation and amendments to legislation,
review of welfare legislation, implementation of schemes, promotion and assistance to voluntary
effort and coordination.
The list of subjects which stand allocated to the Ministry of Social Welfare would show that
several subjects or significant parts of these subjects administered by other Ministries could
perhaps be administered by the Ministry of Social Welfare, as, for instance, social education and
adult education and youth welfare activities (Ministry of Education and Culture); welfare of
labor (Ministry of Labor); legal aid to the poor (Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law,
Justice and Company Affairs); and relief and rehabilitation of displaced persons (Department of
Rehabilitation, Ministry of Supply and Rehabilitation).
The allocation of subjects to the Ministry of Social Welfare has thus not strictly followed any set
pattern or direction. It has over the years primarily been based on the views of policy-makers and
administrators as to which Ministry would be in a better position to discharge a particular
function.
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