scholarly journals The Main Aspects of the Activities of Charitable Organizations in the Legacy of Mary Ellen Richmond

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liudmyla Petrukhan-Scherbakova ◽  
◽  
Nadiia Chernukha ◽  

The article is devoted to the analysis of the scientific heritage of Mery Elen Richmond. A cornerstone of building the social work profession, Mary Richmond was known for her ability to organize communities, her development of casework practice, as well as her ability to teach and speak intelligently on a wide array of subjects. The subject of the article is the provisions on the activities of charitable organizations in the United States during the life and work of the researcher. The article describes the main problems in the activities of charitable organizations of the late 19th - early 20th centuries During this time Richmond was connected to the COS, she demonstrated her qualities as a leader, teacher, and practical theorist; ; revealed the functions of charitable organizations in the theory and practice of M. E. Richmond; described possible provisions for improving the activities of charitable organizations in accordance with the legacy of Mary Ellen Richmond, who is considered a principle founder of the profession of social work and the importance of professional education. Her first principle was that care had to focus on the person within their situation. Building on extensive research, she developed what she labelled ‘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.

1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-33
Author(s):  
Allie C. Kilpatrick ◽  
Gary L. Shaffer

Baccalaureate social work personnel in the United States have gone through a significant transformation during the past decade. Always a significant part of the social work labour force, they are now being prepared to assume a profes sional role. The two studies discussed in this paper highlight some of the current trends in Batchelor of Social Work programmes which have been accredited by the Council on Social Work Education since 1974. As this transition continues into the 1980's, the Baccalaureate practitioner will play an increasingly important role in the delivery of social services in the U.S.


Author(s):  
Tracy Whitaker ◽  
Lauren Alfrey ◽  
Alice B. Gates ◽  
Anita Gooding

The concept of White supremacy is introduced and its impact on society and the social work profession is examined. The ideological and historical foundations of Whiteness in the United States are summarized, and an overview is provided of the legal supports that codified White supremacist ideas into structural racism. White supremacy’s influence on social work is discussed, with an emphasis on language and concepts, history, pedagogy, and organizations. Critical theory and practice frameworks are explored as responses to White supremacy. The limitations of social work’s responses and specific implications for macro social work are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001946462110203
Author(s):  
Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati ◽  
Prithvi Sinha ◽  
Sneha Garg

This essay aims to understand the role of religion in the social work of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922). By focusing on a twenty-five-year period commencing with her conversion to Christianity in 1883, we argue that religion constructed a political framework for her work in Sharada Sadan and Mukti Mission. There is a lacuna in the conventional scholarship that underplays the nuances of religion in Ramabai’s reform efforts, which we try to fill by conceptualising faith and religiosity as two distinct signifiers of her private and public religious presentations respectively. Drawing on her published letters, the annual reports of the Ramabai Association in America, and a number of evangelical periodicals published during her lifetime, we analyse how she explored Christianity not just as a personal faith but also as a conduit for funds. The conversion enabled her access to American supporters, concomitantly consolidating their claim over her social work. Her peculiar religious identity—a conflation of Hinduism and Christianity—provoked strong protests from the Hindu orthodoxy while leading to a fall-out with the evangelists at the same time. Ramabai shaped the public portrayal of her religiosity to maximise support from American patrons, the colonial state, and liberal Indians, resisting the orthodoxy’s oppositions with these material exploits. Rather than surrendering to patriarchal cynicism, she capitalised on the socio-political volatilities of colonial India to further the nascent women’s movement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (40) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilmaisa Macedo da Costa

Resumo − Este artigo tem por finalidade revisitar o tema das origens do Serviço Social em seu processo de institucionalização nos Estados Unidos. Expõe aspectos das bases históricas e teóricas da profissão, revelando conteúdos referentes ao Serviço Social clássico, hoje pouco analisado no interior da formação, limitando possivelmente a informação aos estudantes e profissionais sobre a produção do Serviço Social em seu contexto originário e talvez até mesmo a crítica a ele realizada. O texto trata do pensamento de Mary Ellen Richmond e sua proposição do Serviço Social de casos individuais, mostrando as bases teórico-metodológicas para uma ação sobre os indivíduos sociais em meio a um conjunto de interpretações divergentes sobre o tema. O pensamento de Richmond exerceu forte influência no Serviço Social europeu e no Brasil, oferecendo o suporte para que se fizesse uma crítica às tendências oriundas da base positivista e as insuficiências ali contidas como proposição conservadora. Palavras-Chave: Serviço Social clássico; institucionalização; bases teórico-metodológicas.   Abstract − This article aims to revisit the origins of social work in its process of institutionalization in the United States. It exposes aspects of the historical and theoretical bases of the profession, revealing contents referring to classic social work that are little analyzed today in undergraduate courses, possibly restricting information valuable to students and professionals about the inception of social work in its original context and perhaps even the criticism it received. The text deals with the thought of Mary Ellen Richmond and her proposal of the social work of individual cases, showing the theoretical-methodological bases for an action on social individuals in the middle of a set of divergent interpretations on the subject. Richmond's thought exerted a strong influence on both European and Brazilian social work, offering support to the criticism of tendencies originating from the Positivist base and the inadequacies contained therein as a conservative proposition. Keywords: classic social work; institutionalization; theoretical-methodological bases.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  

Developed by Paulo Freire, critical consciousness (CrC) is a philosophical, theoretical, and practice-based framework encompassing an individual’s understanding of and action against the structural roots of inequity and violence. This article explores divergent CrC scholarship regarding CrC theory and practice; provides an in-depth review of inconsistencies within the CrC “action” domain; and, in an effort to resolve discrepancies within the existing CrC literature, presents a new construct—transformative action (TA)—and details the process of TA development. Comprising three hierarchical levels of action (critical, avoidant, and destructive) for each level of the socio-ecosystem, TA serves as a model for community-based practitioners, such as those working in the fields of social work and public affairs. The authors argue that transformation is necessary to deconstruct the social institutions in the United States that maintain and perpetuate systemic inequity, creating dehumanizing consequences. Through critical TA, community workers can make visible hidden socio-structural factors, such as institutionalized racism and White privilege, countering the historic trend of community workers acting as tools of social control—that is, socializing individuals to adapt to marginalized roles and accept inferior treatment; maintaining and enforcing the status quo; and facilitating conformity with inequitable societal norms and practices. The authors also discuss the implications of community-based TA practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Michael Garrett

Summary Having outlined Foucault’s articulation of power and governmentality, the article critically explores attempts to translate the philosopher’s theorisation into social work. Findings After briefly referring to Jacques Donzelot’s work and that of other writers, it is argued that Foucault’s conceptual ‘tools’ are problematic for those seeking to promote critical approaches within the field of social work. Those influenced by Foucault’s complex contributions may amplify a defective understanding of power which unduly emphasises ‘soft’ power and neglects the continuing significance of hierarchical and coercive power. This is reflected in Foucault’s analysis of the state and, at a micro level, his remarks on sexualised interactions involving adults and children. Efforts to ‘apply’ Foucauldian reasoning within social work may also risk promoting politically passive forms of theory and practice. Applications Contributing to the discipline’s literature on Foucault, the article maintains the social work scholarship has much to gain by engaging with work, but this engagement might aspire to become more critical.


Author(s):  
Larry Abbott Golemon

The first century of educating clergy in the United States is rightly understood as classical professional education—that is, as formation into an identity and calling to serve the wider public through specialized knowledge and skills. This book argues that pastors, priests, and rabbis were best formed into capacities of culture building through the construction of narratives, symbols, and practices that served their religious communities and the wider public. This kind of education was closely aligned with liberal arts pedagogies of studying classical texts, languages, and rhetoric in order to form habits of inquiry, interpretation, and oratory in students. The theory of culture here is indebted to Clifford Geertz and Jerome Bruner’s social-semiotic view, which identifies culture as the social construction of narrative, symbols, and practices that shape the identity and meaning-making of certain communities. The theological framework of analysis is indebted to George Lindbeck’s cultural-linguistic view, which emphasizes the role of doctrine as grammatical rules that govern narratives, doctrinal grammars, and social practices for distinct religious communities. This framework is pushed toward the renewal and reconstruction of religious frameworks by the postmodern work of Sheila Devaney and Kathryn Tanner. The book also employs several other concepts from social theory, borrowed from Jurgen Habermas, Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Michael Young, and Bernard Anderson.


Author(s):  
Arati Maleku ◽  
Richard Hoefer

This chapter examines the engagement of social work academics in the policy process in the United States. It begins by presenting an overview of social policy and the welfare state in the United States and by discussing the emergence of the social work profession in that country. The development of social work education in the United States and its contemporary features are then depicted. Following these, the methodology and the findings of a study of the policy engagement of American social work academics are presented. The findings relate to the levels of engagement in policy and the forms that this takes. The study also offers insights into various factors that are associated with these, such as perceptions, capabilities, institutional support and the accessibility of the policy process. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the findings and their implications.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Kazimiera Wódz ◽  
Ewa Leśniak-Berek

The main goal of the article is to present the achievements of the Social Work Unit at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Silesia, accumulated during the 25 years of its functioning. Aside from the rich experience in terms of educating towards the position of a social employee, the unit is characterized by scientific research activity and is engaged in numerous cooperative endeavours locally, nationally and internationally. The entirety of the activity contributes to the pursuit of processes that strengthen the professionalism and prestige of the job of a social employee. The activity results from the belief in the significance of combining theory and practice, which is evidenced in the various forms of the realized tasks. The text was created for the 25th anniversary of the existence of the Social Work Unit and is a summary of the most important achievements.


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