Chapter Two

The Context of Social Work Practice

Text Analysis

• Features of Privatization of Our Contemporary Context

• Contextualizing Social Work Practice

• An Example of Contextualizing Practice

Thinking:

There are various dilemmas and conflicts for practitioners if social work is to attain a professional status. List three major conflicts that you feel social workers will face, summarize the main elements of the conflict, and decide how you think the conflicts could be resolved.

Three main conflicts：1、 The dominant culture of private individualis

m

Poverty

AIDS

Homelessness

Homosexual

Racism

• Hunger and World Poverty

• About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds, as you can see on this display. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.

• AIDS

• AIDS is now second only to the Black Death as the largest epidemic in history. AIDS kills over 2 million people a year, or about one person every 15 seconds. This death toll surprisingly includes a lot of children, who are often infected with the HIV virus during pregnancy or through breast-feeding. The toll is worst in Africa.

International Aid ― A Solution

• Quick Summary: Almost all of the deaths from hunger and disease that you see on this site can be stopped. The cost to do this is about $195 billion a year, according to the United Nations. Twenty-two developed countries below have pledged to work towards each giving 0.7% (a little less than 1%) of their national income in international aid, which would raise the $195 billion. Some countries are slow to meet their pledge.

• 2、 The sense of social interaction is weakened

Private spaces make people feel no need to communicate with others.

3、 Definitions of the public good become narrower.

How to resolve?

(1) Establishing an integrated work practice.

• × turn away from individual work

• × adopt macro practice

• √ to draw a connection between the personal and the social .

(2) Refocusing social work education on power

It lies a critical contextualization that focus on power

• → establish a larger political frame work

• → draw micro practice into social change

(3) Putting macro social work analysis and practice at the base of social work practice

Micro theory --- individual case in social work practice

Macro theory--- knowledge and framework

The twos should be conjunct in playing roles.

(4) Understanding the political nature of social work practice

Goal--- help the person or group to find the root

of the problem

(5) A social change ideology in social work practice

Ideology leads actions.

• (6) Emphasizing collective processes and strategies in social work practice

• (7) Connecting community, class, and culture in social work practice

• Northern & Southern hemisphere:

economy politics culture• → seek to bridge the gap

An example of contextualized practice

• PIVOT project:

raise the consciousness of male batters as an integral part of the program’s work to address violence against women.

Large groups → Macro contextualization:

--- consider the individual issue as a collective one

Small group and individual counseling →Macro contextualization of orientation session:

---the critique of patriarchy and violence