A definition of social work: A thesis in sociology

								

provisions” prompted by it and, unmentioned but obviously implicit, a
constant concern with things subject to amelioration: “protection,”
“insurance,” “service,” “improvement,” “recreation”--these are the
substantives in its main statement. The Ohio catalogue itemizes the
demands of social service on a training school[57] but the only
generalization to be deduced from the list is that they all imply
a purpose of rescue or amelioration. The Simmons characterization
confines itself entirely to emphasizing the implications of the word
“social”[58] and the Missouri school opens its catalogue with the
discouraging statement that “it is impossible at the present time to
construct a satisfactory definition of social work.”
This exhausts the slender sheaf of direct comment. For further
enlightenment we must analyse the offered equipment itself. The nature
of the training given will predict the nature of the work expected to
follow. There are a great many courses offered and the variety not of
nomenclature only but of apparent content is enough for bewilderment.
Classification of the courses according to the type of preparation they
seem to offer does however sort them into three main groups.


A. Courses which introduce the student to the social sciences and the

      methods and concepts on which these rest.


B. Courses which offer information on the field of social work both

      past and present.


C. Courses which equip specifically for certain social work tasks.
In the first group, that of courses introducing the student to the
social sciences, their methods and concepts, fall sociology courses of
various sorts, courses in (1) general sociology, (2) the history of
institutions, (3) theories of social progress, (4) the value of norms
of income and opportunity for a given level of civilization, (5) the
means of “social control.” Here also belong courses in (6) general
psychology, (7) social psychology, (8) statistics and (9) economics.
In the second group, that of courses offering information on the
general field of social work, fall courses on (1) the nature and mutual
relations of contemporary social work undertakings, (2) the history of
philanthropy and (3) current social problems. Here ought also to be
put (4) the courses offered by five schools in the causes of poverty,
because poverty has been an age-long challenge to philanthropy and is
still the proximate occasion for a great part of social work.
For the third group are left courses in about forty subjects pertaining
to special fields or special methods. These subjects overlap and
interchange material but yield to classification as preparatory for
work in eight or nine fairly distinguishable fields.


1. Work in the interest of the public health, mental or physical.


2. Organization of community groups on various scales in both urban

      and rural areas.


3. Work in connection with industry.