Social Theory, Social Change and Social Work

This work analyzes the changes in social work and assesses how far developments in social theory can contribute to their interpretation. The book locates social work in its social and political contexts, paying particular attention to the changing organization of social work.
In the light of legislation in community care, child care and criminal justice, together with changes in local government and education and training, the nature and future of social work is changing dramatically. Increasingly, notions of care management, monitoring and evaluation and inter-agency co-ordination become more dominant, requiring new skills and new forms of knowledge to the extent that the image of the generic social worker working in the unified agency and drawing upon casework, informed by particular forms of psychology and displaying particular skills in human relationships, seems outmoded. This text has two inter-related themes. First, to account for and analyze changes in social work, and secondly to assess how far developments in social theory can contribute to their interpretation. The book locates social work in its social and political contexts, paying particular attention to the changing organization of social work, and the questions of feminism and difference.