A definition of social work: A thesis in sociology

								

a large number of charitable people; in fact the number of those who
can be properly so described is a small one. The few who are really
in earnest in their desire to alleviate distress even at the cost
of considerable expenditure of time and money, are surrounded by a
multitude of persons who are willing to assist but only provided they
can do so at no great inconvenience to themselves. This lower power of
sympathy passes gradually through the stages of languid interest to
complete indifference.”[40]
Modern social work is no longer dependent on the appeal to “sympathy”
alone. It has a wide range of interest and through its practical
application of the various social sciences it associates itself with
all our hopes of progress. Expectation not only to mitigate the effects
of calamity but to prevent its recurrence gives social work a claim on
public attention which charity never had.
Along with this change in expectation goes naturally a change in
attitude toward the beneficiaries of social work. “There can be no
line of cleavage in the advancement of public sentiment between
the development of the general social agencies such as church and
school and the more intensive forms which we have come to know as
social work.”[41] The old view of society saw many staunch persons
standing on their own feet and a few weak brethren or victimized who
needed support. But the view implied in this quotation recognizes an
interdependence among all the members of society, an interdependence of
which the particular predicament of those who happen to be in need of
social work is merely an incident.
But the speakers at the conference go still further. “So long as there
are human frailties there will be need of social workers. But let us
not forget that the larger vision of social work contemplates not
charity alone but justice, and all social ills arising from environment
are man-made and therefore changeable.”[42] If the beneficiaries of
social work are thus counted scapegoats for us all, being victims of
social injustice, then every act of prevention (and we have said that
all social work is now at some remove preventive) is for the general
safety and no more than a proper self-defence. Social work now resents
the smugness that can represent as especially disinterested any service
to those who have been paying the penalty of blunders or iniquities for
which the prosperous may be equally responsible. It is only justice to
them or less and it is sound policy for all. No wonder social work will
not stand to be considered charity! It considers its preoccupation with
the backwaters of race progress to show no gracious condescension on
its part--merely an appreciation of the extent and importance of the
backwaters.
But all this shows social work more than ever spontaneous and
gratuitous, for it does not work for even a heavenly reward; and it
must, unadmonished, stir the community to support the work it sets