Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

New York City And The Economic Crisis, Joseph Harris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The crisis of New York City and the crises affecting many hundreds of other cities, counties, school districts, and other local and state governments are not accidents. They are a direct result of the neglect that social welfare receives at the hands of a government interested only in furthering the profits and position of the monopolies. Some people call the U.S. government a "warfare/welfare" state. I prefer to call it a state dominated by the giant corporations which control the economic and hence the political life of our nation. As long as federal policy continues to stress profits before people, …

The Warfare-Welfare Tradeoff: Health, Public Aid And Housing, Kathleen Peroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is a truism that resources devoted to defense are unavailable for nondefense purposes. Investment in defense takes place partly by reducing civilian spending on consumer and capital goods through tax rates that are higher than they would otherwise be and partly by reducing government spending on non-defense programs. The purpose of this paper is to test for the existence and magnitude of the latter tradeoff over the years 1929-1971 in the United States. In particular, the analysis concerns the tradeoff between defense and three social welfare policies: health, public aid and housing. In addition, the analysis examines whether these …

The Welfare Effort Of The United States: Know Then Thyself, Leonard S. Miller, Marleen Clark

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It seems obvious that the United States is not meeting the welfare needs of all its citizens in a adequate and equitable manner. But, it is neither clear what rearrangement of national priorities would result in more resources for welfare state usage, nor, given the resources at its disposal, is it clear what priorities and activities within the welfare state would lead to best reeting the needs of its users. Countrymen, what is to be done?

The Political Economy Of Social Welfare: A Perspective, Christopher Rhoades Dykema

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The social services are in trouble. After decades of expansion, we face retrenchment, fiscal pressures that threaten vital services, and unemployment among social service workers. The human services' traditional political champions offer only a timid and unconvinced resistance to the assaults from reactionary quarters.

The Welfare State Within The Military, Charles Maynard, Ann Blalock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Much has been written concerning the extent to which contemporary industrialized societies meet the accepted criteria of a "welfare state". By contrast, the literature on the welfare aspects of the military as an institution within societies is comparatively sparse. Yet internally, military establishments often exhibit many welfare state attributes. Within the military's organizational territory and authority, members are provided with a wide spectrum of comprehensive universal entitlements--social, economic, occupational, educational, and medical. The formal parameters of the U.S. military establishment's welfare entitlements give the undeniable appearance of a bonafide welfare state whose provision is significantly more benevolent and equitable than …

Social Wolk In Relief And Rehabilitation After Wars, At Home Aid Abroad, Walter A. Friedlander

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the United States after the wars of the 19th. century, particularly after the Civil War, no professional social workers existed who could have cared for the wounded soldiers and civilians or for the disabled veterans. But in Europe, during the war of France and Italy against Austria, in 1859, the foundation of some services for the wounded soldiers of the three involved nations were laid by a Swiss banker, Henry Dunant of Geneva who arrived by accident on the evening of the bloody battle in Solferino (Italy) and started to help bandaging some of the bleeding victims of this …

The Soft Spot: How To Attack The Pentagon, Marion Anderson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Have you been wondering why alI the ideas you learned in Economics haven't been working? Why the forecasts made at summit meetings of economists seem to go wrong? Why the U.S. economy, in utter disregard of all the rules of classical economics, suffers rising inflation and rising unemployment at the same time?

Well, there are reasons. Reasons that establishment economists have not wanted to face, and sti I I refuse to face, because the great myth of the last three decades would then be exposed. The myth is that we are so rich, so productive and so favored that we …

Social Welfare And Some Implications Of Non-Violence, Mulford Q. Sibley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A new journal has made its appearance. It is called Soldier of Fortune and is devoted to the concerns of "professional adventurers"--that is, to those who would like to become hired violent fighters in various parts of the world. The journal opens its columns to their advertisements: "Ex-marine seeks employment as mercenary, full-time or job contract, prefers South or Central America but all offers considered." "Experienced mature fighter/seeks assignment anywhere.... " In defending his journal from the charge of encouraging brutality, the founder says: "After all, booze is brutal, cars are brutal, sex is brutal. There's a need for guns …

Common Roots And Functions Of The Warfare And Welfare State, David G. Gil

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Warfare and welfare are usually assumed to serve contradictory ends and to hie rooted in antithetical values, institutions and dynamics. In this essay, I propose to challenge this notion and to advance, instead, the thesis that, in spite of significant differences betwcn them, warfare and welfare serc, nevertheless, identical and colilementary functions, and are both rooted in identical socittal values, institutions and dynamics.

Forward To Our Origins: Social Work Skills And Political Action In The Current Crisis, Bertram A. Weinert

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The last decade of the 19th century and the years prior to World War I was an exciting and fruitful period in United States history. It was a time of unrest, but characterized by vigorous discontent, not cynicism or despair. There was an aggressive optimism that fostered confidence in social action, even to the belief that poverty could be abolished. The failure to achieve that goal remains our burden today, but to have begun the struggle then was a significant step. It was the developing profession of social work that initiated that battle against poverty.

Influencing Welfare/Warfare Priorities Through The New Budgetary Process, Ann Blalock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the previous article, Weinert challenged social workers, and other professionals in the area of social welfare, to commit themselves to greater collective political action in the interest of substantial social change. He suggested that there are many options for movement in that direction. This article briefly discusses one incremental option within the established political system, intervention within the new Congressional budgetary process. This is not an insignificant strategy. Its purpose is to influence the way the national budget is constructed. The budget incorporates to an important degree the society's prevailing definition of its priorities. Furthermore, future policy alternatives are …

Integrated Cooperation Within A Grass-Roots Movement’S The Class Emphasis, John C. Leggett, Frances V. Mouldner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Under what conditions is it possible for members of different racial groups to cooperate in an integrated sense to build a successful, working class, community based, mutual benefits association -- one with the long-term intent of organizing workplaces where mutual-benefits association members happen to work? Can this inter-racial cooperation occur at all levels of the organization? Given this long term possibility of unionization, an end product not too different from an association-union recently achieved by Caesar Chavez's "NFWA-UFVOC", what are the initial organizational prerequisites for successfully bringing together blacks, whites, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans and others within these local associations?

Housing As A Process Of Community Development, Gary D. Askerooth

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this essay, I shall outline a strategy that could lead to the initial stages of developing a society in which human needs are not dependent on residuals from the market. By using cooperative, mutual selfhelp methods to develop local community power, we may provide examples applicable to other sectors as well.

The Rank And File Movement: The Relevance Of Radical Social Work Traditions To Modern Social Work Practice, Leslie Leighninger, Robert Knickmeyer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social work, like many fields, has sometimes suffered from an inadequate and distorted understanding of its own history. A profession's inattention to its past is an unfortunate thing. As Clark Chambers has noted, the study of social work history provides models for social work practice and yields insights into social processes (31 11-22). Works like Cloward and Piven's Regulating the Poor have demonstrated the rich potential of the social welfare case study for social analyses (4). In addition, examination of goals and motivations of specific social workers in the past have served to further our understanding of professional issues and …

Comunication Disturbances In A Welfare Bureaucracy: A Case For Self Management, Robert E. O'Conner, Larry D. Spence

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The survey data in this study of 1313 caseworkers and income-maintenance workers of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare provide some elements of a description of white-collar alienation in government bureaucracies. We interpret our findings to indicate that the hierarchical communication network of this department operates to deny implicitly the worth and intelligence of workers. As perceived by employees, the general pattern of message construction, message transmission and message acknowledgment takes no account of their needs for information and validation nor does it allow the information generated at the work place to be fed back to the administration. Thus, the …

The Politics Of Drug Addiction: A Comparison Of United States And Chinese Drug Policies Since 1949, Richard Fortmann

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the past decade the increase in drug use and drug addiction in the United States has been viewed with growing alarm. Drug addiction has been compared to a contagious disease, an epidemic which is raging in our cities and towns. Although the rhetoric has become more dramatic, the drug problem is certainly not a new one. This paper is concerned with the historic failure of United States policies to eliminate or even to contain drug abuse and drug addiction. It is the central thesis of this paper that drug addiction is a social disease, and as such is symptomatic …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 4, No. 2 (November 1976)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

ISSUE EDITOR: JEFFRY GALPER, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Editorial - pp. 164
• The Rank and File Movement: The Relevance of Radical Social Work Traditions to Modern Social Work Practice - LESLIE LEIGHNINGER & ROBERT KNICKMEYER - pp. 166
• Communication Disturbances in a Welfare Bureaucracy: A Case for Self-Management - ROBERT E. O'CONNOR & LARRY D. SPENCE - pp. 178
• The Politics of Drug Addiction: A Comparison of United States and Chinese Drug Policies Since 1949 - RICHARD FORTMANN - pp. 205
• Housing as a Process of Community Development GARY D. ASKEROTH - pp. 218
• Central Appalachia: A Peripheral Region …

Maximizing The Impact Of An Alternative Agency, Miriam Galper, Carolyn Kott Washburne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the late 1960's and early 1970's the energy for change generated by the civil rights, black power and women's movements strongly affected many professionals working in social welfare agencies. Individually or with others in agencies, caucuses and unions, these radical professionals began to question the services provided by their agencies, the social and political functions of those agencies, and the part they played in their agencies. They began to critique the social welfare system in the United States and to develop some perspectives on what social services could be like if the country were truly committed to improving human …

Radicalism In Casework, Philip Lichtenberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social casework seems always in tension between some inherent tendency to be radical in a social and political way and a comparable drive to hold on to the established modes of life that are conventional and conservative. The profession has never pretended to be value-free, and within the values held forth resides this tension to which I refer. Similarly, social casework has long been a socially activist field -- as simple comparison with any other accepted profession readily demonstrates -- and in its assertive endeavors this same combination of radical and conservative tendencies can be identified. To a radical, such …

Social Work Practice As Collective Experience, Harvey Finkle, Jeffry Galper, Philip Lichtenberg, Jack Sternbach

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This is an account of four workers in the human services who have developed an ongoing collective experience. The four of us, all white, professional social workers, drew together in the late Spring, 1972. We were all involved in academic life, primarily as social work professors, although one of us was detaching himself from academic life at that time.

Discourse Management: Key To Policy Development, Joseph R. Steiner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Skills in discourse management are necessary in order for democratic policy development groups to be productive. These skills, like other skills, are developed by practicing their utilization. A general cognitive frnework, however, can assist one in this development. This paper develops and then describes the use of such a general framework.

Let's Stop Helping The Poor, Donald Feldstein

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The time has come in America to stop trying to help the poor. These efforts have resulted in poor services, inadequate levels of aid, stigma to the recipients, creation of a permanent welfare class, cheating, and the exacerbation of divisiveness in America between classes and ethnic groups. In large part, these negative effects are due to the attempt to target or pinpoint aid for the poor alone; but the poor can only be helped in the context of programs for all Americans.

Phenomenological Social Science And Holistic Social Policy, Thomas D. Watts

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The reliability of positivistic social science knowledge poses seminal problems for social policy. Needed is more sound phenomenological and qualitative research within the conspectus of the twin theoretical movements of ethnomethodology and the Frankfurt School, towards the goal of a more holistic social science knowledge base as well as a more holistic social policy.

What Kind Of Sociology Is Useful To Social Workers?, Alfred Mcclung Lee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Both social workers and sociologists have been trying desperately for more than a century to live down their miscellaneous ancestry. Both are still embarrassed that their disciplines are rooted historically in the work of oldtime clergy, police, utopian philosophers, sentimentalists, reactionary manipulators, and radical thinkers and agitators. Nevertheless it was from those men's and women's concerns, their perceptions of social problems, their efforts at social amelioration and reform or revolution, and their inter-cult conflicts that the two corps of modern professionals sprang.

A Locality-Oriented Public Welfare Agency: A Case Study Of Boundary Maintenance In A Hostile Environment, Ray H. Macnair, Greta Hawthorne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Boundary maintenance activities are studied in a public welfare agency as a means of establishing the relationship between the nature of these activities and the essential character of a formal organization. Assaults on the agency are observed through a period of social change, in this case an extreme of racial succession among the staff and administration of the agency. Conclusions point to congruence between the character of the organization and its boundary maintenance activity. Skewed or incongruent boundary maintenance produces disorganization and confusion among participants. In the context of racial succession, universalistic patterns are recommended as a solution to the …

An Economic Analysis Of Economic Inequality, John P. Huttman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

"Inequality is what economics should be all about," argued the late R.H. Tawney. It isn't, because concern with the patterns of distribution of wealth and income is shared with production, upon which consumption is contingent. Concentration of wealth and unequal levels of income largely reflect the patterns of returns to labor and investment in a traditional capitalist economy. Additionally, income tromfers, rationalized on other than a labor or investment compensation basis, alter the patterns of income and wealth holdings. Pronounced economic inequality, while prevalent in capitalist economies, would not seem to result from the market mechanism. Broadly based ownership of …

Toward A Working Model For Community Organizing In The 1970'S, John L. Musick, Nancy R. Hooyman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The authors critique the service delivery model for solving community problems and stress the value of citizens developing their capabilities to attack the source of problems. A model for grass roots, autonomous, multi-issue citizens organizations is presented.

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 4, No. 1 (September 1976)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Editorial - pp. 3
• What Kind of Sociology is Useful to Social Workers? - ALFRED McCLUNG LEE - pp. 4
• Toward a Working Model for Community Organizing in the 1970's - JOHN L. MUSICK, NANCY R. HOOYMAN - pp. 14
• The Incremental Trail in Developing False Doctrine and its Consequences in the American Drug Scene - AVRON HEILIGMAN - pp. 19
• A Locality-Oriented Public Welfare Agency: A Case Study of Boundary Maintenance in a Hostile Environment - RAY H. MACNAIR, GRETA HAWTHORNE - pp. 27
• An Economic Analysis of Economic Inequality - JOHN P. HUTTMAN - pp. …

The Incremental Trail In Developing False Doctrine And Its Consequences In The American Drug Scene, Avron Heiligman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The trail of what has turned out to be the criminalization of drug taking behavior illustrates a major criticism of incrementalism in developing policy-- the acceptance and maintenance of specific values and attitudes. The effects of false doctrine accepted more than fifty years ago are with us today and will continue in their effect umtil a radical change is seen in our society. The purpose of this paper is to map the old trail, identify those times where false doctrine was accepted, and to present a radical alternative for the future.

Issues In Evaluative Research: Implications For Social Work, John S. Wodarski, Walter Hudson, David R. Buckholdt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Various issues in evaluative research are reviewed according to their relevance for the evaluation of social work practice. Specific items discussed are: plausible studies, what should be changed and why, the change agent, criteria for positive assessment, traditional research designs, time-series designs, organizational aspects of research, researchers vs clinicians, researcher's distance from populations served, incentives for research, and the dissemination of information and application of relevant knowledge. Where relevant, aspects of certain evaluative studies are discussed to illustrate the items reviewed.