Social Work Commons^™

Deprofessionalization, Proletarianization, And Social Welfare Work, Paula Dressel, Michelle Waters, Mike Sweat, Obie Clayton Jr., Amy Chandler-Clayton

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this paper we explore the personnel transformations which have occurred in social welfare work. Specifically, we examine the tensions between the dynamics of professionalization and deprofessionalization and how these trends have impacted upon those who work in the social welfare enterprise. Another concern of the paper is the effect of the proletarianization of social welfare work in the face of increasing efforts of some to create professional standards and to solidify the position of professionals in agencies. These struggles are examined in terms of their ability to affect the likelihood of both worker unionization and worker-client political coalitions.

Reaganism And The Poor Family: Life On Afdc After The Budget Cuts, Norman L. Wyers, Robert C. Holloway

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Recent changes in federal and state welfare policies have had negative consequences for public welfare recipients. This paper summarizes a study which focused on the impact of these policy changes on the AFDC population in the most populous region of Oregon. Of particular importance are the changes in income levels, employment, and social service utilization of recipients. Personal reactions of recipients are also reviewed, as are expectations for the future. The differential economic impact of the policy changes on various categories of recipients is stressed.

Will A Private War On Poverty Succeed? The Case Of The St. Louis Provident Association, Robert H. Lauer, Jeanette C. Lauer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In view of the current emphasis on private approaches to social problem resolution, it is instructive to look at private efforts of the past. The St. Louis Provident Association was a private effort to deal with poverty. It was organized in 1860 to provide relief for the "needy and distressed." Data on the volunteer leaders of the association and on the people who were actually helped show a number of things about the 19th-century effort to deal with poverty. First, the volunteers were upwardly- mobile business and professional men who were concerned about the stability of their society. Second, the …

Social Action Organization Participation And Personal Change In The Poor: Part I, Robert D. Herman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Evidence bearing on the hypothesis that participation by the poor in social action organizations results in personal change is inconsistent and open to diverse interpretations. This paper first reviews that evidence and then takes the first step toward a substantive reconciliation of the apparently inconsistent evidence - the development of a typology of social action organization forms. The typology, which is derived from the literature on poverty and organizational analysis, incorporates the elements of (1) inclusion of the poor, (2) resource base of organizational sponsors, and (3) output goal orientation. The typology will be used in Part I I to …

The Hyde Amendment: Its Impact On Low Income Women With Unwanted Pregnancies, Marjorie R. Sable

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Hyde amendment, which has been in effect since 1977, restricts federal funding of abortions for Medicaid-eligible women "except where the life of the mother would be endangered if a fetus were carried to term." It has virtually eliminated federally financed abortions and the undue hardships it places on poor women foreshadow contemporary developments in abortion politics today for all women.

Social-Emotional Keys To The Division Of Power, Philip Lichtenberg, Carol Roman Reimert, Susan S. Levine

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social organizers concerned with facilitating the reallocation of power must not overlook psychological issues. Within groups, power hierarchies are a function of individual methods of coping with social-emotional interactions. Clinical insights suggest that both empowered and disempowered people participate in the process of establishing and maintaining this hierarchial structure.

Child Health And Developmental Problems And Child Maltreatment Among Afdc Families, Isabel Wolock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores the complex interrelationship among the physical health and developmental problems of a child, child abuse and neglect, and poverty. Gaps in agency attention to children's medical needs are identified and recommendations made for reducing these gaps. The analysis is based on interview and agency data for 45 families randomly selected from a group of 365 AFDC recipient families under supervision for child abuse and neglect.

The Power Of Situations: An Approach To Understanding Powerlessness And Oppression, Dennis Saleebey, Mary Ski Hunter

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Much of the difficulty people have in organizing, directing, and coping with their lives is, perhaps, directly traceable to their lack of awareness of, and erroneous assumptions about, the interactional contexts in which they seem or feel powerless. This is especially true, but not exclusively so, of the poor and ethnic, sexual, and political minorities. To the extent that powerlessness exists and is implicated in the various miseries of existence, the role of social worker as advocate, broker, counselor, or agent of change might profitably and accurately be defined in interactional, structural terms.

Demographic Correlates Of Self-Esteem Among Black And White Afdc Recipients, Srinika Jayaratne, Wayne A. Chess, Julia Norlin, John Bryan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study was concerned with the extent to which different demographic characteristics would offer explanations with regard to self-esteem among black and white AFDC recipients. Basically, the analysis revealed no differences in self-esteem between the black and white women in this sample. The major correlates of self-esteem for whites were work and education, whereas, the major correlates of self-esteem for blacks were the presence of children and work.

Political De-Moralization Of The Poor: Organizing Lower-Class Families Of The Mentally Retarded, Leonard Fontana

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper employs an analytic framework based on organizational incentives to explain the failure of recent welfare reform efforts. The data consists of observations, interviews, and routine inhouse reports collected on a federally funded program, Project STAR. The project was developed with the aim of mobilizing lower-class and minority families of the mentally retarded in support of reform of mental retardation services in five cities in the U.S. A service-inducement strategy was pursued by the reform organization to overcome the difficulties of enticing lower-class families of the retarded to participate in organizational activities. This strategy appears to have had several …

Historic Trends In The Delivery Of Services To Teenage Parents, Nancy Aries

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper will examine the political, social, and economic factors which underlie the transition in services from unwed mothers to teenage parents over the past 15 years. The experience of agencies in the Boston area serves as the basis for this case study. Data have been collected from open-ended interviews with key service providers who have developed and implemented policy related to adolescent parents.

The findings indicate that, prior to 1960, agencies were responding to what was perceived as individual problems or circumstances. Illegitimacy was thought to be an unconscious attempt by white middle class women to fulfill psychological needs. …

Organizing The Poor, Charles S. Stevens

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One area of interest in poverty in Urban America has focused attention on the urban poor and their participation. A major consideration about the problem has been the view that poverty is a pervasive condition and that it can be a determinint of behavior. The notion of a "culture of poverty" and a "welfare syndrome" was an expression of this viewpoint indicating poverty is a way of life. A second viewpoint suggests the urban poor are victims of urban society and are therefore restricted from meaningful participation.2 This viewpoint is in contrast to a "culture of poverty", but it does …

Reactions To The Stigmata Of Inner City Living, Jerome Krase

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper discusses the problem of living in a stigmatized inner city community. The reactions of residents are categorized into "Four Moral Careers", and implications for the community of each career are discussed. Major attention is focused upon the "activist" career which aims to overcome the stigma of the community. The activists are discussed and described through the use df materials from intensive interviews of local community leaders who have tried to cope with the stigma of the area. Some suggested implications are made for the application of the ideas presented herein to urban research in general and the provision …

Shame And Public Dependency: A Literature Review, Norman L. Wyers

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

All research related to under-utilization of income maintenance programs as well as to their impact on recipients has discovered the presence of stigma. A survey of the pertinent literature points out that much is known about stigmatization but that social welfare has been slow to incorporate this knowledge in any attempt to reduce the destructive effect of stigma on program users. Both liberal and radical reform measures are proposed as remedies.

Women: Re-Entry And Challenge, Lita Linzer Schwartz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Women are turning or returning to the world outside the home in ever-increasing numbers, partly due to the economic crisis of recent years and partly in response to the "consciousness-raising" and self-actualization aspects of the women's liberation and humanistic movements. When a woman re-enters the workaday or educational world, she meets a variety of challenges. Some she may have anticipated; others may come as a surprise - or a shock.

New York City And The Economic Crisis, Joseph Harris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The crisis of New York City and the crises affecting many hundreds of other cities, counties, school districts, and other local and state governments are not accidents. They are a direct result of the neglect that social welfare receives at the hands of a government interested only in furthering the profits and position of the monopolies. Some people call the U.S. government a "warfare/welfare" state. I prefer to call it a state dominated by the giant corporations which control the economic and hence the political life of our nation. As long as federal policy continues to stress profits before people, …

The Warfare-Welfare Tradeoff: Health, Public Aid And Housing, Kathleen Peroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is a truism that resources devoted to defense are unavailable for nondefense purposes. Investment in defense takes place partly by reducing civilian spending on consumer and capital goods through tax rates that are higher than they would otherwise be and partly by reducing government spending on non-defense programs. The purpose of this paper is to test for the existence and magnitude of the latter tradeoff over the years 1929-1971 in the United States. In particular, the analysis concerns the tradeoff between defense and three social welfare policies: health, public aid and housing. In addition, the analysis examines whether these …

Low Income, Ethnicity, And Voluntary Association Involvement, Nancy G. Kutner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Data on voluntary association participation among low-income members of major ethnic groups in the U.S. are reviewed. Low-income blacks are most likely to participate, followed by (2) whites and Mexican Americans and (3) Italian Americans and Puerto Ricans. Reasons for these ethnic differences are considered. More general factors affecting voluntary association patterns of low-income persons are also considered, and a means for increasing their voluntary association involvement is suggested.

Public Welfare: Utilization, Change, Appropriations, Service, John E. Tropman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the decade of the 1960's there was continually increasing interest in the programs of public welfare. This interest sprang from several sources. Citizens, always worried about welfare expenditures, developed resurgent concern. Recipients, long a quiet group, became more active, forming the National Welfare Rights Organization. And then there was the rediscovery of poverty as a social problem, and a realization that very many Americans were poor, many more than anyone had somehow realized.

The general interest in poverty and the measures used to relieve it had an effect on the academic community, generating some sustained and critical attention to …

Public Concepts Of Poverty: The County Commissioners' View, Charles Ramsey, Rita Braito

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Every program designed to decrease poverty is based upon assumptions either as to the nature and causes of poverty or what is necessary to help the poor improve their lot (Spilerman and Elish, 1970; Task Force on Economic Growth and Opportunity, 1966; Valentine, 1968). Often these assumptions are only implicit, and supervisors of the program might not even agree with the assumptions if they were stated. Nevertheless, a program would itself make no sense unless certain statements about poverty were true. For example, a program of economic development to increase employment opportunities assumes that, first, much poverty is due to …

The Sociology Of Client Alienation In Relation To Societal Structure, William D. Poe, Jerry H. Borup

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

STUDY DESIGN

The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between client alienation and efforts by the social work profession to intervene in behalf of the welfare poor. Specifically, this investigation focuses on the ideas, proposals, and studies that have appeared in the social work literature that would indicate efforts by social workers to increase or decrease client alienation. Social work is practiced primarily in agency and organizational settings. Attention will be given to the nature of these structures to determine how they affect client alienation and prevent social workers from relieving alienation. The dimensions of client …