Solving Social Problems: Southern Perspectives

Abstract

Locating an appropriate starting point for this review is no simple task. Part of the difficulty is that the book breaks important new territory for New Zealand and Australian students and, possibly, students and practitioners at the international level because of the strong and explicit connection between social problems and the work of community and social workers as social change agents. It also attempts to make direct connections between theory and practice and the unequivocal preference for community-based responses, arguments and solutions. There is a good body of material that focuses on different dimensions of social problems and a significant body of material on social work intervention and practice. The authors' purpose is clear. As they note on the back cover, the book is intended for students and practitioners ‘who wish to develop their reflexive practice’. The development of this practice is, the authors argue on a number of occasions, very specifically and directly affected by the approach taken to the social problems with which practitioners engage. The book traverses different perspectives on five major ‘wicked’ (p. 13) problems of society – poverty, unemployment, crime, ill health and discrimination – and is explicit that there are important possibilities for practitioners working with these (and other social problems) to undertake their work in ways that build a more sustainable society. This notion of ‘a sustainable society’ forms the linchpin of the concluding chapter (pp. 257–291), where the authors clearly indicate the shape and direction in which social work and social change work should be heading.