The Professionalization of Poverty : Social Work and the Poor in the Twentieth Century

The essays in this book discuss the evolution of the profession of social work in the 20th century.

Its specific focus is the relationship of the professional social worker to the poor.

Since it is the task of social workers to minister to the poor and ideally attempt to develop them into less "dependent" individuals, this relationship may seem self-evident to the public at large.

The reality underlying such a mission is somewhat more complex: the majority of social workers with professional degrees do not work in organizations or agencies specifically concerned with poverty clients, and often those who do work with the poor have administrative or supervisory roles rather than direct service ones.

The debate over this relationship is a long-standing and strenuous one, arguably at the heart of the identity and purpose of social work as a profession.

At this point in history in the United States, with the end of the welfare state paradigm and the dramatic restructuring of social service provision at hand, this seems to be a propitious time to reflect thoughtfully on both the profession's past and its probable future, in particular in the public sector. Attempting to avoid the usual retelling of the standard narrative of the social work profession, these essays provide a perspective that goes beyond the typical boundaries of liberal/conservative paradigms and suggest that social work incorporate intellectual and methodological elements compatible with both.

Finally, taken as a whole, they serve to evaluate the current state of the profession in an honest way, and consider the role of social work in the future.