Field Of Social Welfare Research Articles

"Religion as an Engine of Civil Policy": A Comment on the First Amendment Limitations on the Church-State Partnership in the Social Welfare Field

James Madison warned in his famous Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments that to use tax revenues to finance teachers of the Christian Religion is to Religion as an engine of Civil policy.' Such a tax assessment would of course violate the Establishment Clause of the first amendment.2 Congress cannot prescribe religious education for the ills of society. But the federal and state governments can employ religiously motivated persons and institutions to carry out governmental functions. As Chief Justice Warren stated in McGowan v. Maryland,3 government action is not banned under the first amendment merely because it happens to coincide or harmonize with the tenets of some or all religions.4 The many Church-State partnerships in the social service field are based upon this fortunate harmonization of governmental and religious purposes. Chief Justice Warren's statement answers one question yet creates another, perhaps more important, one. Governmental and religious purposes may validly coincide, but at what point does this harmonization of purpose become subsidization of religious activity in effect? Supreme Court cases since McGowan give answers to this question. In three sections, this paper will analyze the first amendment limitations on the Church-State partnership in the social services field. In the first section, the past and present role of the Church5 as a social service provider will be summarized. In the second section, the Religion Clauses will be analyzed to determine what constitutional restrictions are imposed upon the Church and State when they deal with

Bureaucrats as “Social Engineers”: Federal Welfare Programs in Herbert Hoover's America

Abstract. Historians interested in 20th century American reform often seek to analyze the ideologies of political leaders separately from the institutions that these same leaders created. Such emphases on ideas, as opposed to actions, has, for example, led “revisionist” American historians to argue that the presidencies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt were “conceptually continuous.” Our examination of the major social welfare programs undertaken by the federal government in the 1920s disputes this claim. Examination of the operations of the federal bureaucracy instead of the rhetoric of politicians demonstrates the existence of decided policy differences between the Hoover and Roosevelt eras. “Efficiency” analogues dominant during the Hoover era were replaced with “direct service‐provider” approaches which created a clear distinction between private and public welfare programs. Elements of “continuity” between the two eras have been overdrawn. Background is provided for increased understanding of some of the policy implications of America's contemporary welfare debate—particularly about “rehabilitation” strategies and/or rationales for action in the social welfare field.

Community information

IT IS SAID THAT ‘charity begins at home’ but, as far as English law is concerned, charity begins in 1601 with an Act of Parliament of Elizabeth I. The preamble to this act lists some of the activities regarded as charitable at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Although many of them are now enshrined in central and local government, the 1976 Goodman report stated that ‘Charity will never be altogether superseded by state activity even in the field of poverty and social welfare. There will always be gaps in the services run by the state.’ In addition to the nationally well‐known charities, there are numerous small charities at local level, which give valuable help and support to community groups and activities. Running or setting up a charity, there is a fair body of law covering the subject, so more than welcome is a recently published layman's guide called Charity trustees' guide, written by A R Longley. It highlights some of the most commonly asked questions about charities and indicates where the answers may be found. There is a bibliography of books, pamphlets and leaflets and a list of useful addresses. Published by the National Council of Social Service, the guide costs £1.25 from McDonald & Evans, Distribution Services Ltd., Estover Road, Plymouth.

Legislation and Litigation Concerning American Indians

The period 1957-77 witnessed an increasing tendency to include Indians in programs and legislation that affected all Americans, particularly in the field of social wel fare and development. Indians, as a whole, made good use of their eligibility for these new opportunities, and entered the mainstream of public social concern. Legislation dealing specifically with Indian rights and legal status was generally trivial because no administration made more than a perfunc tory effort to define the larger philosophical issues that might have clarified and modernized the Indian legal status. In liti gation Indians were unusually successful in some of their efforts, although, again, truly definitive cases that might have proved a fertile ground for long-term gains in the development of contemporary understanding were sparse. Generally, those cases which might have produced landmark theories or doc trines, the Supreme Court refused to take and the decisions, remaining on the federal circuit level, are not sufficiently strong or clear to provide a basis for further development. The era ended with a state of benign confusion, in which Indians seemed more concerned with funding programs than sketching out in broader and more comprehensive terms the ideologies and theories that are necessary for sustained growth. It was, basically, an undistinguished era, but one of maturing and awareness.

THE RELEVANCE OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT TO SOCIAL WELFARE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Abstract: Citizen involvement is regarded as a desirable component of public policy making, particularly policy in the social welfare field. This paper examines different conceptions of social welfare and different conceptions of citizen participation. Participation is a term with many shades of meaning, and policy makers should distinguish between sociotherapy, market research and citizen power, all of which come under the rubric “citizen participation”. Different conceptions of participation are appropriate in different policy circumstances and these circumstances are examined with reference to two recent Australian participatory programs in the welfare field. The paper concludes with an examination of the applicability of participation, leadership and expertise to public administration, and argues that these three values exist in a dialectical relationship and that social justice and the effectiveness of programs will be limited if too much reliance is placed on any one of these values.

The health implications of urbanisation in the South Pacific

THE HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF URBANISATION IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC. As a result of urbanisation in the South Pacific area, increasing population shift to bigger cities gives more and more rise to health problems of housing, pollution, environmental sanitation, and traffic accidents. New epidemiological patterns are created. Special attention is drawn to the results of urbanisation in the field of food and nutrition. Malnutrition, dental caries, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases are the inevitable consequences of the change in traditional food patterns. Social consequences of urbanisation such as mental health problems due to acculturation, delinquency, alcoholism and prostitution also affect directly the health of the population. To remedy the undesirable conditions created by increasing urbanisation, there is an immediate need for long-term planning in the fields of social welfare and public health. This paper records existing figures on these various aspects of urbanisation and on available health facilities in some urban areas of the South Pacific territories, originating mostly from territorial health reports. However, positive aspects of urbanisation do exist. Some of the reasons given by Pacific islanders for moving to an urban setting are briefly considered.

Community Work with Immigrants

SUMMARY The paper emerges from community work with an immigrant organization in a govern ment-sponsored Community Development Project over a two-year period. It discusses the various approaches to working with immigrants, including that of the local Com munity Relations Council, reports an action research survey of immigrant need, and in particular assesses the 'non-directive' community development approach to working with an immigrant organization. The implications of this study are discussed in relation to the general potential of community work with immigrants. There has recently been a growth of interest in the potential contribution of community work to the field of race relations in this country (Patterson),1 but there are few studies of what this approach is likely to achieve in practice. The account given in this paper emerges from the work of research workers attached to a government-sponsored Community Development Project. The Community Development Project programme was initiated by the government in 1969, and gradually extended its scope to cover twelve local area projects. The programme represents an attempt to find out how far the social needs experienced by people in a local community can be better understood and resolved through closer co-ordination of all agencies in the social welfare field, together with the aspirations and efforts of local people themselves. It is assumed that an exploratory approach, using social science methods of inquiry and evaluation as a built-in support for practice, constitutes a useful addition to more traditional ways of tackling problems of social welfare. Once an area is selected, the procedure has been for an action team to be appointed to the local authority's staff and a complementary research team formed from within a university or polytechnic. There is therefore a specialist and partly independent research team to assist, monitor and evaluate com munity work initiatives. Part of the work of one local Community Development Project affords a modest example of the efforts to combine

Private or Public: A Model of Ambiguities

A marked feature of modern government is the intermingling of the private and public sectors. The degree of this mixture is indicated by comparing the ways three consecutive models of United States society have dealt with the following four aspects of social policy: equity in the allocations of resources, efficiency in the allocation of resources, freedom of choice for individuals, and the public interest. The conclusion is that the practice of federalism by contract has occurred to a far greater extent than is generally recognized and that it suggests problems of accountability and control for the field of social welfare.

Action-research in community development

At the end of 1971 the Government designated the extention of the Community Development Project to the planned total of twelve areas. The project was then described as ‘a national action-research experiment’ carried out in selected urban localities in order to discover ‘how far the social problems experienced by people in a local community can be better understood and resolved through closer co-ordination of all agencies in the social welfare field – central and local government and the voluntary organizations – together with the local people themselves’. There was a special emphasis placed on the importance of ‘citizen involvement and community self-help’, together with the expectation that ‘the lessons learned can be fed back into social policy, planning and administration, both at central and local government level’.

Social administration and sociology

It may be that when the history of social administration as an academic discipline during the 1960s comes to be looked back upon, one of the most significant developments will be seen to have been the growing influence upon it of sociology. As social services have developed in extent and complexity, a descriptive approach to the study of them has appeared ever more inadequate; and with the rapid development of sociology, both new empirical material, new perspectives, and new methods of analysis have become increasingly accessible. Social administration now uses sociological research methods, and draws heavily upon sociological theory. At the same time, both the active interest of ‘committed’ sociologists in the field of social welfare and, specifically, the emergence of the ‘sociology of welfare’ to join other sociological specializations indicate that the tendency for the two disciplines to impinge increasingly upon each other is not one-sided.

The Student as Consumer in Social Work Education

A one-term introductory course to the field of social welfare was presented in March, 1970, for social work students at the University of Sydney's Department of Social Work. During 1970, I served as visiting lecturer in community work in that department.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Field of Social Welfare

The Roman Catholic Church and the Field of Social Welfare

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal Article BOOK REVIEWS Get access SEMINAR ON RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. Report of a Seminar held in Madrid, 21–23 April 1968. United Nations, New York, 1969. 74 pp. and appendices. No price stated. SEMINAR ON PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE SOCIAL SERVICES. Report of a Seminar held in Frankfurt, 6–11 October, 1968. United Nations, New York, 1969. 66 pp. & annexes. No Price Stated. EXPERT GROUP ON MANPOWER NEEDS IN THE SOCIAL WELFARE FIELD AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TRAINING PROGRAMMES. Report of a Seminar held in Hellebaek, Denmark, 13–21 May, 1969. United Nations, New York, 1969. 71 pp. No Price Stated. J. H. A. BOTTING J. H. A. BOTTING Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Community Development Journal, Volume 5, Issue 1, January 1970, Page 47, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/5.1.47 Published: 01 January 1970

Co-ordination of Social Work Services For the Maltreated Child in Western Australia

Lack of co-ordination in the social welfare field has commonly presented communities with major problems. “Duplicating”, “overlapping” and “fragmentary” are recurring descriptions of social welfare programmes.1 Lack of co-ordination can represent inconvenience to clients, economic waste for the community, ineffectual use of already available resources, or, in services for maltreated children, further injury or even death to the child.

On Studying Lawyers: An Aid to Law Reform

Social work tends to develop interest in law and legal development, particularly in family law, juvenile crime and social welfare fields. Social workers are often the closest observers of such laws in action, and naturally wish to help administer and amend them. My impression is that they are often inadequately prepared to do so—but not in the way they may think. Some sociology of lawyers may be more important than a mastery of technical law.

After the XIVth International Conference on Social Welfare

The congress is held by some writers to be the present day antidote to modern man's isolation. Must this be seen as the reason for the constantly large participation in International Conferences on social welfare, in spite of the proliferation of seminars and meetings ?Undoubtedly social workers and representatives of allied professions are not immune from this modern trend. Thus, every two years, when the International Council on Social Welfare organises its international forum there is a veritable “Migration” of office holders in the social welfare field. They come from all quarters to pool, for a week, their experiences and ideas on the selected theme.

Homeless Plus: A Study in Social Integration

It is no exaggeration to say that there is a revolution afoot in the field of social welfare. In recent decades there has been much radical re-thinking; principles which previously had been tacitly accepted, in some cases for a century or more, have become the subject of an increasingly severe and telling criticism. Experimental ventures are breaking new ground almost daily, and, though at present few have been running for a length of time or on a scale sufficient to yield more than marginal results, they are nonetheless proving that an urgent need exists for still further research and new endeavours.Among the few which can claim a significant and definitive breakthrough, both in terms of success and in relation to other existing techniques and structures, is the Ladyeholme Association. This has been working in London for the past seventeen years and has achieved a 75 per cent success rate in re-integrating with society families and the remants of families which, for one reason or another, have dropped out of general society and into a twilight region of (semi-) destitution; for example, the unmarried mother and her children, the ex-prisoner and his family, the mentally ‘recovered’ in search of a home, the prostitute escaping the trade but needing shelter and moral support, the socially unstable of almost every sort. It is a mistake to believe, as so many of us do, that existing social services are doing enough in this deceptively simple field; for the most part, the problem has either been ignored or aggravated by inadequate ‘answers’.

The relationship of natural and social sciences to social problems and the contribution of the information scientist to their solutions

AbstractSocial problems have multiple causes, and their solutions accordingly require a multidiscipline approach, which is facilitated by the fact that technology, the natural sciences, and the social sciences are closely interrelated (a point of view that is making itself increasingly felt in educational theory). The deterioration of the inner city is an example of a typical complex social problem that will yield only before such a unified attack. Solutions to social problems have been suggested by findings from such varied fields as astrophysics, sensory psychophysics, and population studies, as well as the more theoretical social sciences, whose influence can be seen in their application to problems of urban development. Although information specialists have hardly yet developed a full‐fledged body of knowledge, they can contribute much towards the solving of social problems by: (1) organizing and disseminating information to those broad‐gauged individuals and groups that are working on problems that defy solution by a fragmented approach; (2) controlling the rapidly mushrooming body of pertinent technical literature; (3) developing periodical indexes for the field of social welfare; and (4) assisting in the compilation of state‐of‐the‐art papers on social problems, basing their work on a value‐oriented extracting technique derived from a model created by the National Association of Social Workers.

A Developmental Approach to the Community Action Program Idea

Doubts about the Community Action Programs are held by both the Congress and people in the social welfare field who have noted the seeming failure of the community action idea in practice. Critics of the CAP, the author states, must recognize that the CAP must first establish and maintain itself before attempting to achieve the goals set for it. He suggests critical variables that influence the movement from Phase 1, in which the CAP is focused on its own survival, to Phase 2, when the CAP can begin to deal effectively with the local problems of poverty.

Age With a Future.

The ill-chosen title of this book gives no indication of its content. Tt sounds as if directed to a lay audience, when in fact it is fairly technical. The book represents a selection of papers presented at the Sixth International Congress of Gerontology held in Copenhagen in 1963. As usual in such selective compilations, not all of the excellent papers presented at the Congress are included in the book. About half of all the articles relate to the field of social science or social welfare as it applies to old people. To a biological gerontologist like myself it is unclear just what such articles are doing in a book (or a congress) on gerontology (gerontology is defined as the scientific study of the aging process). So we have here a book half of which is of interest to social welfare workers and the other half of interest to biological gerontologists.