Social Work & Social Policy
Social work and social policy concern the organized response to human need and social problems — the professional practice of helping individuals, families, and communities, and the public policies and welfare institutions that shape wellbeing.
Scope
The field spans direct (clinical and community) social work practice, child and family welfare, mental health, and gerontological practice, together with social policy analysis, the study of welfare states, poverty and social exclusion, and disability — drawing on sociology, psychology, economics, and political science.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- How can individuals, families, and communities in need be effectively helped?
- What causes poverty, exclusion, and disadvantage?
- How should societies organize welfare and social protection?
- What are the effects of different welfare-state arrangements?
- How can social justice and rights be advanced through policy and practice?
Key concepts
- Casework and social diagnosis
- Social citizenship
- Social rights
- Welfare state
- Decommodification
- Poverty and social exclusion
- Person-in-environment
- Social justice
Key theories
- Foundations of professional social work
- Addams's settlement movement and Richmond's casework method established social work's twin roots in community reform and individualized 'social diagnosis'.
- Social citizenship
- Marshall theorized the extension of citizenship to include social rights, providing a normative foundation for the welfare state.
- The welfare state and social administration
- Titmuss founded the academic study of social policy, analysing welfare as redistribution and the 'social division of welfare'.
- Welfare regimes
- Esping-Andersen's comparative typology of liberal, conservative, and social-democratic regimes reshaped the analysis of welfare states around decommodification.
History
Modern social work arose around 1900 from the charity-organization and settlement movements (Richmond, Addams). Social policy as an academic field developed mid-century, especially in Britain (Titmuss), alongside the expansion of welfare states. Marshall's social citizenship and, later, Esping-Andersen's welfare-regime typology framed comparative analysis, while social work professionalized across clinical, community, and policy domains.
Debates
- Individual help versus structural change
- Social work has long debated whether to focus on helping individuals adjust (casework) or on changing the social conditions that produce need (reform).
- Universal versus selective welfare
- Policy debate contrasts universal provision (citizenship-based) with means-tested, targeted assistance, with implications for solidarity and stigma.
Key figures
- Jane Addams
- Mary Richmond
- T. H. Marshall
- Richard Titmuss
- Gøsta Esping-Andersen
Related topics
Seminal works
- addams-1910
- richmond-1917
- marshall-1950
- titmuss-1958
- esping-andersen-1990
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between social work and social policy?
- Social work is a helping profession working directly with people; social policy is the study and design of the public policies and welfare systems within which such help occurs. They are closely linked.
- What is the welfare state?
- A system in which the state takes primary responsibility for citizens' social and economic wellbeing through provisions such as health care, education, pensions, and income support.