Social Work Commons^™

Social Work Practice As Collective Experience, Harvey Finkle, Jeffry Galper, Philip Lichtenberg, Jack Sternbach

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This is an account of four workers in the human services who have developed an ongoing collective experience. The four of us, all white, professional social workers, drew together in the late Spring, 1972. We were all involved in academic life, primarily as social work professors, although one of us was detaching himself from academic life at that time.

Integrated Cooperation Within A Grass-Roots Movement’S The Class Emphasis, John C. Leggett, Frances V. Mouldner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Under what conditions is it possible for members of different racial groups to cooperate in an integrated sense to build a successful, working class, community based, mutual benefits association -- one with the long-term intent of organizing workplaces where mutual-benefits association members happen to work? Can this inter-racial cooperation occur at all levels of the organization? Given this long term possibility of unionization, an end product not too different from an association-union recently achieved by Caesar Chavez's "NFWA-UFVOC", what are the initial organizational prerequisites for successfully bringing together blacks, whites, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans and others within these local associations?

Housing As A Process Of Community Development, Gary D. Askerooth

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this essay, I shall outline a strategy that could lead to the initial stages of developing a society in which human needs are not dependent on residuals from the market. By using cooperative, mutual selfhelp methods to develop local community power, we may provide examples applicable to other sectors as well.

Maximizing The Impact Of An Alternative Agency, Miriam Galper, Carolyn Kott Washburne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the late 1960's and early 1970's the energy for change generated by the civil rights, black power and women's movements strongly affected many professionals working in social welfare agencies. Individually or with others in agencies, caucuses and unions, these radical professionals began to question the services provided by their agencies, the social and political functions of those agencies, and the part they played in their agencies. They began to critique the social welfare system in the United States and to develop some perspectives on what social services could be like if the country were truly committed to improving human …

Radicalism In Casework, Philip Lichtenberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social casework seems always in tension between some inherent tendency to be radical in a social and political way and a comparable drive to hold on to the established modes of life that are conventional and conservative. The profession has never pretended to be value-free, and within the values held forth resides this tension to which I refer. Similarly, social casework has long been a socially activist field -- as simple comparison with any other accepted profession readily demonstrates -- and in its assertive endeavors this same combination of radical and conservative tendencies can be identified. To a radical, such …

The Rank And File Movement: The Relevance Of Radical Social Work Traditions To Modern Social Work Practice, Leslie Leighninger, Robert Knickmeyer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social work, like many fields, has sometimes suffered from an inadequate and distorted understanding of its own history. A profession's inattention to its past is an unfortunate thing. As Clark Chambers has noted, the study of social work history provides models for social work practice and yields insights into social processes (31 11-22). Works like Cloward and Piven's Regulating the Poor have demonstrated the rich potential of the social welfare case study for social analyses (4). In addition, examination of goals and motivations of specific social workers in the past have served to further our understanding of professional issues and …

Comunication Disturbances In A Welfare Bureaucracy: A Case For Self Management, Robert E. O'Conner, Larry D. Spence

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The survey data in this study of 1313 caseworkers and income-maintenance workers of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare provide some elements of a description of white-collar alienation in government bureaucracies. We interpret our findings to indicate that the hierarchical communication network of this department operates to deny implicitly the worth and intelligence of workers. As perceived by employees, the general pattern of message construction, message transmission and message acknowledgment takes no account of their needs for information and validation nor does it allow the information generated at the work place to be fed back to the administration. Thus, the …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 4, No. 2 (November 1976)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

ISSUE EDITOR: JEFFRY GALPER, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Editorial - pp. 164
• The Rank and File Movement: The Relevance of Radical Social Work Traditions to Modern Social Work Practice - LESLIE LEIGHNINGER & ROBERT KNICKMEYER - pp. 166
• Communication Disturbances in a Welfare Bureaucracy: A Case for Self-Management - ROBERT E. O'CONNOR & LARRY D. SPENCE - pp. 178
• The Politics of Drug Addiction: A Comparison of United States and Chinese Drug Policies Since 1949 - RICHARD FORTMANN - pp. 205
• Housing as a Process of Community Development GARY D. ASKEROTH - pp. 218
• Central Appalachia: A Peripheral Region …

The Politics Of Drug Addiction: A Comparison Of United States And Chinese Drug Policies Since 1949, Richard Fortmann

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the past decade the increase in drug use and drug addiction in the United States has been viewed with growing alarm. Drug addiction has been compared to a contagious disease, an epidemic which is raging in our cities and towns. Although the rhetoric has become more dramatic, the drug problem is certainly not a new one. This paper is concerned with the historic failure of United States policies to eliminate or even to contain drug abuse and drug addiction. It is the central thesis of this paper that drug addiction is a social disease, and as such is symptomatic …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 4, No. 1 (September 1976)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Editorial - pp. 3
• What Kind of Sociology is Useful to Social Workers? - ALFRED McCLUNG LEE - pp. 4
• Toward a Working Model for Community Organizing in the 1970's - JOHN L. MUSICK, NANCY R. HOOYMAN - pp. 14
• The Incremental Trail in Developing False Doctrine and its Consequences in the American Drug Scene - AVRON HEILIGMAN - pp. 19
• A Locality-Oriented Public Welfare Agency: A Case Study of Boundary Maintenance in a Hostile Environment - RAY H. MACNAIR, GRETA HAWTHORNE - pp. 27
• An Economic Analysis of Economic Inequality - JOHN P. HUTTMAN - pp. …

A Study In Self-Defeat: The Public Health Venereal Disease Clinic, Joseph F. Sheley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper relates the results of three months of participant observation and interviews in a public venereal disease clinic. The research was directed toward assessment of the relationship of clinic efficiency (a smoothly operating bureaucratic clinic) and clinic effectiveness (a major reduction of illness within a community). The venereal disease clinic is described as an efficient and well planned health unit with three major objectives: a) checking the increase of V.D. through preventive medicine; b) detection and treatment of V.D. within the community; and c) provision of health services to lower S.E.S. segments of the population. Research results indicate that …

Issues In Evaluative Research: Implications For Social Work, John S. Wodarski, Walter Hudson, David R. Buckholdt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Various issues in evaluative research are reviewed according to their relevance for the evaluation of social work practice. Specific items discussed are: plausible studies, what should be changed and why, the change agent, criteria for positive assessment, traditional research designs, time-series designs, organizational aspects of research, researchers vs clinicians, researcher's distance from populations served, incentives for research, and the dissemination of information and application of relevant knowledge. Where relevant, aspects of certain evaluative studies are discussed to illustrate the items reviewed.

The Incremental Trail In Developing False Doctrine And Its Consequences In The American Drug Scene, Avron Heiligman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The trail of what has turned out to be the criminalization of drug taking behavior illustrates a major criticism of incrementalism in developing policy-- the acceptance and maintenance of specific values and attitudes. The effects of false doctrine accepted more than fifty years ago are with us today and will continue in their effect umtil a radical change is seen in our society. The purpose of this paper is to map the old trail, identify those times where false doctrine was accepted, and to present a radical alternative for the future.

Phenomenological Social Science And Holistic Social Policy, Thomas D. Watts

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The reliability of positivistic social science knowledge poses seminal problems for social policy. Needed is more sound phenomenological and qualitative research within the conspectus of the twin theoretical movements of ethnomethodology and the Frankfurt School, towards the goal of a more holistic social science knowledge base as well as a more holistic social policy.

Discourse Management: Key To Policy Development, Joseph R. Steiner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Skills in discourse management are necessary in order for democratic policy development groups to be productive. These skills, like other skills, are developed by practicing their utilization. A general cognitive frnework, however, can assist one in this development. This paper develops and then describes the use of such a general framework.

Let's Stop Helping The Poor, Donald Feldstein

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The time has come in America to stop trying to help the poor. These efforts have resulted in poor services, inadequate levels of aid, stigma to the recipients, creation of a permanent welfare class, cheating, and the exacerbation of divisiveness in America between classes and ethnic groups. In large part, these negative effects are due to the attempt to target or pinpoint aid for the poor alone; but the poor can only be helped in the context of programs for all Americans.

What Kind Of Sociology Is Useful To Social Workers?, Alfred Mcclung Lee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Both social workers and sociologists have been trying desperately for more than a century to live down their miscellaneous ancestry. Both are still embarrassed that their disciplines are rooted historically in the work of oldtime clergy, police, utopian philosophers, sentimentalists, reactionary manipulators, and radical thinkers and agitators. Nevertheless it was from those men's and women's concerns, their perceptions of social problems, their efforts at social amelioration and reform or revolution, and their inter-cult conflicts that the two corps of modern professionals sprang.

Toward A Working Model For Community Organizing In The 1970'S, John L. Musick, Nancy R. Hooyman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The authors critique the service delivery model for solving community problems and stress the value of citizens developing their capabilities to attack the source of problems. A model for grass roots, autonomous, multi-issue citizens organizations is presented.

A Locality-Oriented Public Welfare Agency: A Case Study Of Boundary Maintenance In A Hostile Environment, Ray H. Macnair, Greta Hawthorne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Boundary maintenance activities are studied in a public welfare agency as a means of establishing the relationship between the nature of these activities and the essential character of a formal organization. Assaults on the agency are observed through a period of social change, in this case an extreme of racial succession among the staff and administration of the agency. Conclusions point to congruence between the character of the organization and its boundary maintenance activity. Skewed or incongruent boundary maintenance produces disorganization and confusion among participants. In the context of racial succession, universalistic patterns are recommended as a solution to the …

An Economic Analysis Of Economic Inequality, John P. Huttman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

"Inequality is what economics should be all about," argued the late R.H. Tawney. It isn't, because concern with the patterns of distribution of wealth and income is shared with production, upon which consumption is contingent. Concentration of wealth and unequal levels of income largely reflect the patterns of returns to labor and investment in a traditional capitalist economy. Additionally, income tromfers, rationalized on other than a labor or investment compensation basis, alter the patterns of income and wealth holdings. Pronounced economic inequality, while prevalent in capitalist economies, would not seem to result from the market mechanism. Broadly based ownership of …

Towards The Development Of Theory: Cultural Pluralism Redefined, Antonia Pantoja, Wilhelmina Perry, Barbara Blourock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The authors are attempting to move beyond the descriptive position, evidenced in the current writing, towards a theoretical approach to cultural pluralism. A series of definitions are presented concluding with the authors' definition of cultural pluralism - redefined. The new definition is discussed, as an operational concept, emanating from participants in the new cultural pluralism movement.

The current societal conditions that impede the realization of cultural pluralism are discussed in relation to a conceptual model, Criteria for Assigning Preferred or Unpreferred Status, that is used to explain our society's idealization of certain personal, social, and economic characteristics.

The authors conclude …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 3, No. 6 (July 1976)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Issue Editors: DR. ROBERT CREEN, School of Social Work - UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT, DR. FLORENCE KASLOW, HAHNEMANN MEDICAL COLLEGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Editorial - pp. 620
• The Family - 100 Years of Neglect - FRANK J. MONTEMURO, Jr - pp. 622
• Crime Victims and Public Policy - JOE HUDSON, BURT GALAWAY - pp. 629
• The Dysfunctional Dialectics of the Prison - RICHARD A. BALL - pp. 636
• The Death Penalty and Discretion: Implications of the FURMAN Decision For Criminal Justice - MARC RIEDEL - pp. 649
• Educating Social Workers For Evolving Roles In Corrections - FLORENCE KASLOW, STEWART WARNER - …

Police As Social Service Workers?, Robert Green

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This is a subject area that is not easily or directly approached, for the state of the knowledge rests primarily upon educated guesses, intuitive hunches and intellectual speculation. Little hard empirical data is available. We are still trying to determine how many police departments we have, let alone understand them. The most extensive surve of the criminal justice system ever attempted in this country concluded in 1967 that we had more than 40,000 departments (President's Commission, 1967). Using more sophisticated sampling techniques, L.E.A.A. reported in 1970 that the number was closer to 14,900; by 1975, however, varying its sampled population …

Psychodramatic Treatment Techniques With Prisoners In A State Of Role Transition, Kenneth Byrne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One of the inevitable results of incarceration is the difficulty faced by the offender at the time of his release in his re-entry to a free society. He must adjust to a system which in today's rapidly changinq, technological world, has often chanoed drastically since the time of his entry. The prisoner has had an extended period of time in the prison community in which to warm up to the role of inmate, with its concommitant behavior. (Johnson, Savitz & Wolfgang, pp. 383-496).

Crime Victims And Public Social Policy, Joe Hudson, Burt Galaway

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The administration of criminal law has traditionally Ignored the role of the victim and focused on the criminal offender. Increasingly, however, social policy and programs are beginning to take Into consideration the situation of the crime victim. Programs designed to focus on offender restitution to crime victims are being developed and Implemented at various stages of the criminal Justice system. At the same time, programs of state compensation to crime victims are being Implemented in an Increasing number of jurisdictions.

Police Professionalism: Another Look At The Issues, Samuel Walker

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The concept of professionalism is frequently used as a frame of reference for evaluating the organizational status of the American police. Observers generally conclude that the police lack most of the essential features of professional status. This paper questions the utility of using such a standard for evaluating the police. The professions of medicine, law and education are themselves in a state of flux. In particular, the crucial concept of professional autonomy appears increasingly incompatible with the goal of public accountability. Rather than expect the police to strive toward the traditional forms of professionalism, we should think in terms of …

Educating Social Workers For Evolving Roles In Corrections, Florence Kaslow, Stewart Werner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The sought after concept of "socialized justice" toward which we aspire will hopefully emerge a reality in the Twentieth Century. The pendulum swings from the public's indignation and outrage toward the violent and heinous crimes of our times to the advance of modern correctional methods and techniques stimulated by changing social forces and federally funded programs; the humanization of our prisons, facilities and field services is the result. Gains are being made which are beginning to be felt, in which prescribed treatment programs tailored to meet the needs of the individual are beginning to pay dividends. This advance speaks to …

Indigenous Correctional Paraprofessionals: "Bourgeois Nigger Or Empathetic Worker?" - A Brief Position Paper, Robert J. Wicks

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Employment of paraprofessionals in correctional settings is no longer considered to be a controversial experiment. Their involvement in institutional and community-based programs is expected today. To utilize only professionals such as social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and penologists is considered to be an outdated waste of available personnel. A number of recent, comprehensive reports have borne this out (Gartner, 1971; Sobey, 1970; Arnhoff & Rubenstein, 1969; Grosser, Henry & Kelly, 1969).

A Rehabilitation Model For The Adult Offender, Morton Zivan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the face of ever-increasing crime rates, corrections has come under considerable criticism, simultaneously being called too lenient by same and too harsh by others. The historical facts clearly shrew that corrections has been a monolithic and simplistic response to one of our most complex social problems. Retributive punishment has been the single guiding objective, and incarceration has been the principal medium. That this approach has been a multi-billion dollar unmitigatedly tragic failure is evidenced by the fact that of the 90% of offenders who ultimately return to the cammunity after release from prison, an estimated 65% recidivate (U.S. Dept. …

The Family - 100 Years Of Neglect, Frank J. Montemuro

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The following address was made at an All-Day Institute convened by the Family Court Division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in conjunction with the Family Institute of Philadelphia to explore issues and new responsibilities faced by public and private agencies dealing with the myriad changes in family life in this last decade of social upheaval.