5. Community social work

Abstract

‘Community social work’ shows that social work in communities has played an important role throughout the history of social work and is still relevant and widespread today as, despite the case work model being dominant in the Global North, it is central to the delivery of social welfare in the Global South. It explains how social work addresses societal inequalities and improves distribution of resources and attempts to work nearer the ‘macro’ rather than ‘micro’ level of human society. The different forms of community are considered before looking at contemporary community social work and the future of community social work.