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Social Work, Sociology, And Social Diagnosis, Harris Chaiklin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

A new type of scholar-practitioner is needed; one who can contribute to both sociology and social work. To this point sociology has had the advantage because it has more of the needed people than social work; it just won't let them out of the closet. Social work has always been better than its own self-image. Lack of scholarship has hindered organizing and presenting the hard won knowledge which the field has acquired. The way to bring this scattered information together is by developing typologies which are refined in practice and common to both fields. Only …

Horatio Alger: The Persistence Of A Ghetto Social Welfare Institution, Carol Poll, John M. Goering

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the riots, radical movements and demands for community controls of the 1960's, social scientists and social workers have noted the perserverance of many non-radical, traditional institutions in ghetto neighborhoods. Some of these institutions, like settlement houses, still advance the ideas of hard work, hoensty, competition, and individual achievement which are at the heart of the American dream. These institutions were often around long before the War on Poverty and appear likely to last long after its end. They, therefore, seem to be a reliable potential source of aid for many ghetto residents. The question at the heart of this …

Opinions And Expectations Of Nursing Home Administrators, Jordan I. Kosberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

From a comparative analysis of 214 nursing homes in the Chicago area, it was found that the nursing home field is composed of institutions with great variations in treatment resources available to the residents (Kosberg and Tobin, 1972). While the determination of organizational correlates to the extent of treatment resources was the major objective of the study, an exploration of the attitudes of a sample of nursing home administrators was undertaken in an effort to learn of possible relationships between attitudes and the characteristics of facilities.

There is a commonly-held assumption that not only the academic background of an administrator …

The Sociology Of The Inner City--*Functionality For Practice, Ivor J. Echols

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Many aspects of the future seem imponderable, in the sense that they are impossible of reckoning, and into this category falls the plight of cities. That portion of the cities which is marked by physical blight, continuing property and human deterioration, and myriads of problems of survival-the so-called "inner city" is even more elusive of future prediction and remedy. Theoretician and practitioner alike appear to be enmeshed in an endless web of conceptual gossamer, and palliative ministrations to a relative few targets within their purview.

The intent of this paper, however, is not to castigate but rather to challenge the …

Responses To Social Services Among The Urban Unemployed, William W. Philliber

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In an urban environment the individual is unable to function independent of other people. To fill even basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing, he must successfully become a part of the social system. To assist people in obtaining these, programs have developed in the areas of employment, housing, health, and welfare as well as other areas related to man's life in Ln urbah environment. The provision of these programs does not automatically insure that needs will be met. The individual still must make a positive response before a service can be delivered. A review of the literature shows that …

New Premises For Planning In Appalachia, Richard A. Ball

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Appalachian Region, particularly Southern Appalachia, has lived through several hundred years of frustration related to its history and geography. The history of the area has become better known during recent years, and it is a history of documented exploitation and socioeconomic disillusionment, a "biography of a depressed area" (Caudill, 1962). Geographically, the region has been regarded essentially as a barrier between the settled East and the fertile lands of the West, a place of rugged terrain and harsh conditions of life. This history and geography have played a large part in the problems which now afflict region and which …

Self-Interest, Social Welfare Policy And Social Problems, John P. Flynn

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This writer assumes that there is a reciprocal interdependence between the providers and the receivers of social welfare programs and explores one particular aspect of that exchange. A proposition explored here is that self-interest is a dynamic in social welfare policy formulation and that such a dynamic is founded on the basic assumption of reciprocal interdependence. The perception of newlyfound self-interests obtainable in alternative social welfare policy options is examined here as a factor in inducing purposive policy change.

It Is proposed here that the common characterization of the welfare relationship as a unilateral transfer has obscured the connection between …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 2, No. 1 (Fall 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Social Welfare As Coercive Social Control, Norman N. Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The key concepts which require some basic definitions in the title are "social welfare, social control and coercion". For the purposes of this paper, social welfare is defined as those public programs designed to provide an individual who is in financial need with the resources (financial and/or in kind) to exist in our society. Social control refers to the entire range of actions and pressures which are designed to lead the individual to function within society without threatening to disrupt the social order. These actions and pressures are embodied in sanctions for enforcing group norms as well as in formal …

National Income Insurance: Some Implications For Political And Economic Inequality, John B. Williamson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Several co-workers and I have recently completed an evaluation of sixty-three anti-poverty programs and proposals (Williamson, et. al., 1973, 1974). This paper briefly describes the study and some of our findings by way of introduction to the presentation and defense of a national income insurance proposal, This proposal is a synthesis of three highly rated anti-poverty strategies. It would within a few years have a substantial impact on the extent of the economic inequality in the United States.

An Evaluation Of The Case Against National Income Insurance, John B. Williamson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In an earlier paper I outlined a proposal for a national income insurance plan and discussed the strengths of the approach (Williamson,1974c). Income insurance is a special case of the negative income tax or more generally of the guaranteed income. Negative income tax proposals of any kind are open to a variety of criticisms from both the left and the right. The national income insurance plan is no exception. In the present paper an attempt is made to anticipate and deal with the major arguments against the plan. Many of these arguments are equally applicable to other guaranteed income proposals. …

The Social Welfare Workers Movement: A Case Study Of New Left Thought In Practice, Stanley Wenocur

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the upheavals of the 1960's many human service professions and academic disciplines (e.g. psychology, sociology, law, medicine, etc.) underwent severe criticisms of their goals and methodologies, generated both from within and without. In social work one such critique came from the Social Welfare Workers Movement (SWWM), born out of protest-oriented activities at the National Conference on Social Welfare in new York City, 1969. Although SWWM dissipated after about two years, interest in radical social work is still very much alive today. The intent of this paper, then, is to record and analyze the career of the Social Welfare Workers …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 3, No. 1 (September 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Editorial, pp 2
• The Social Welfare Workers Movement: A Case Study of New Left Thought in Practice - STANLEY WENOCUR, pp 3
• Toward A More Adequate Concept of "Organization" in Social Work Practice - BUFORD E. FARRIS, pp 21
• The Interorganizational Relationships of a Public Welfare Agency - BURTON GUMMER, pp 33
• The Convergence of the Interactionist and Behavioral Approaches to Deviance - STUART A. KIRK, EILEEN D. GAMBRILL, pp 47
• Suicide .... Causation, Indicators and Interventions - FLORENCE W. KASLOW, pp 59
• Protective Services: Coercive Social Control or Mutual Liberation - ALFRED J. FORTIN, pp 81 …

Toward A More Adequate Concept Of "Organization" In Social Work Practice Theory, Buford E. Farris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A generic model of social work practice requires the formulation of frameworks that indicate what is meant by intervention at the "organizational" level. Usually "organization" is put at some midpoint in a hierarchy of social levels (such as individual, small group, organization, local community, society). However, when one looks at the various social work practice frameworks, there is very little development of knowledge about the process of intervention at this mid-level. Since the "macro" levels of community and society can probably be best conceptualized as "inter-organizational" arenas, social work practice knowledge for these levels is also hindered. This article intends …

The Interorganizational Relationships Of A Public Welfare Agency, Burton Gummer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American social welfare field is best characterized as a highly decentralized sphere of activity in which autonomous organizations define and pursue their goals in a fairly independent fashion. The complex nature of modern social problems, however, requires concerted action by a variety of organizations if effective solutions are to be developed. This conflict between the structural nature of the welfare field and the demands of the problems to be addressed has meant that social welfare planners have had to be concerned with the conditions affecting the willingness of independent organizations to engage in cooperative activities with each other. The …

The Convergence Of The Interactionist And Behavioral Approaches To Deviance, Stuart A. Kirk, Eileen D. Gambrill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper compares two theoretical perspectives on deviance, the behavioral and interactionist. Although these two perspectives arise from separate disciplines and intellectual traditions, we will argue that their approaches to the study of deviance in general and to mental illness in particular share many basic similarities, as well as some important differences, and that an analysis of each helps us understand the limitations and strengths of the other.

The behavioral and interactionist perspectives are chosen for examination for three reasons. First, it is our opinion that these two theoretical approaches represent the most creative recent work by sociologists and psychologists …

Suicide -- Causation, Indicators And Interventions, Florence W. Kaslow

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

In this paper an attempt is made to determine what factors propel given individuals toward self destruction. Durkheim's typology of suicides is utilized and an analysis of the social and psychological components of each type undertaken. The social structure is viewed from the vantage point of how it influences and is internalized by members of society. The psychological aspects are handled by looking into what intrapsychic and external forces shape the individual's personality and behavior in such a way that he seeks his own death. In some instances it is hard to draw a sharp …

Protective Services: Coercive Social Control Or Mutual Liberation, Alfred J. Fortin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The area of protective services for children has always been a difficult one for social work. Protective casework has, and is now, both praised and condemned simultaneously from different elements of the community. The stakes in the protective field are usually high and players are subject to various episodes of the "emotional plague" as Wilhelm Reich would have called it. People in protective work exercise their role as worker in a variety of ways and these 'styles' range from being police-like and oppressive to radical and promoting social change. It is characteristic of this work …

Toward Partisan Politics In A Professional Association: Utility Of The Candidates Poll, L. K. Northwood, Howard Crockett

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this paper is to describe the initial efforts of one local chapter, The Puget Sound Chapter; to engage in partisan politics by the conduct of a poll of candidates for election to the Washington State Legislature in 1974. Properly speaking, the Chapter endorsed no candidates, merely rated them from "weak" to "outstanding" on their agreement with NASW policies on relevant programs and their social welfare attitudes. Thus, it is a mild form of partisan politics that will be considered.

The paper will analyze the social and organizational context in which the candidates' poll occurred, and then report …

Interorganizational Conflict: The Case Of Police Youth Bureaus And The Juvenile Court, C. David Hollister, Joe Hudson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Police departments, juvenile courts, training schools, and a variety of welfare organizations together constitute the network of agencies formally instituted to deal with juvenile deviance.I Because each of the organizations has an interest in reducing deviance, it is sometimes assumed that they share the same goals and work closely and cooperatively with each other. The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory study of inter-organizational relations at one link in this network: relations between police youth bureaus and the juvenile court.

A Serendipitous Relationship Between Theory Modification And A Study Of Staff Development, Patricia A. Brown

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There are instances in which the guiding impetus to a study is a very practical problem, the answers to which are expected to have immediate applicability. Although the practical purpose is accomplished, at the study's end comes the recognition that perhaps the most important contribution of the investigation had been the uncovering of theoretical implications.

The above serendipitous process is applicable to the following report of a limited study of staff development in a new youth serving agency. The study is presented in detail so that the main elements associated with the validation and elaboration of a conceptualization of organizational …

Recipients' Attitudes Toward Welfare, Kirk W. Elifson, William S. Little, William Chamberlain

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

While the general plight of welfare recipients has long been recognized, little or nothing to date has been ascertained concerning their views toward the system that largely determines their lives. Many recipients find themselves manipulated by a less than personalized bureaucracy but few researchers have sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of these recipients toward that system. Given the recent figures which indicate a "welfare explosion" (Piven and Cloward, 1971), and the vast expenditures for public assistance programs (Skolnick and Dales, 1969:5), the lack of systematic empirical research in this area is disconcerting. Such information should be of considerable …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 1, No. 4 (Summer 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• Editorial Page - 177
• A Serendipitous Relationship Between Theory Modification and a Study of Staff Development. - Patricia A. Brown - Page 179
• Recipients Attitudes Toward Welfare - Kirk W. Elifson, William S. Little, William Chamberlain - Page 186
• Social Work Practice and the Social Context - Jeffry Galper - Page 199
• Interorganizational Conflicts: The Case of Police Youth Bureaus and the Juvenile Court - David C. Hollister, Joe Hudson - Page 206
• Evaluating a Pilot Social Service Project for Widows: A Chronicle of Research Problems - S. Roxanne Hiltz - Page 217
• Electives and Undergraduate Social …

Social Work Practice And The Social Context, Jeffry Galper

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Any effort to define appropriate tasks and directions for social work practice must necessarily come to grips with some analysis of the particular social-political-historical situation within which that practice is being formulated. Too often it seems as though we attempt to define practice abstracted from the particular period in which that practice takes place. It is true, on the one hand, that it is important to develop generic principles of practice. Similarly, it is true that the definition of the social work task is not a matter left solely to the discretion of the profession. In fact, the profession may …

Evaluating A Pilot Social Service Project For Widows: A Chronicle Of Research Problems, S. Roxanne Hiltz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The decade of the 70's has seen the appearance of a number of publications in the area of "evaluation research", the effort to systematically apply social science research methods to the evaluation of action programs set up for the purpose of helping to solve social problems. Evaluation research is thus one area in which social scientists can be of direct aid in setting public policy about social welfare services.

An excellent primer on the problems that are likely to arise in the course of an evaluation effort and the "conventional wisdom" that has been developed thus far is Carol Weiss' …

Electives And Undergraduate Social Work Education In A State University, H. Wayne Johnson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

From the beginning of its interest in undergraduate instruction, the Council on Social Work Education has stressed the importance of a broad liberal education for baccalaureate social workers . Such emphasis was restated twice in subsequent CSWE documents, and more recently in other materials which enunciate the standards for the new undergraduate accreditation process commencing in 1974. It is much easier to state the notion of a general education than it is to describe its content and character and there is a tendency to become ambiguous. We are prone to resort to a high level of generalization in characterizing a …

Innovation, Involvement, And Contemporary Service Organizations, Frank A. Kastelic

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Purpose of This Paper

Innovation and involvement have come to be ascribed an almost mystical potency for the task of bringing more relevant services and more human relationships to clients of service organizations. Many descriptive

and hortatory articles have appeared in the social welfare and health literature concerning the virtues of contemporary organizations exhibiting these characteristics, but little in the way of hard thinking about their real implications to service organizations has been done. The majority of the articles are reprises of proposals, or accounts of the first year or two of a program, with an emphasis upon positive prospects …

The Significance Of Ethnicity In Staffing Corrections, Alfred J. Kutzik

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

Until recently the total thrust of efforts to improve the staffing of corrections has been towards the recruitment and development of trained personnel. In the past decade it has begun to be recognized that factors other than training have to be taken into account. Largely as a result of California's groundbreaking Community Treatment Project the personality of staff is now considered by some to be as important as their training and in a few programs those with certain types of personality and training have been assigned to work, i.e., "matched", with juvenile offenders who have …

Relief Vs. Rehabilitation: Conflicting Goals Within The American Social Welfare System, Matthew Silberman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There are two distinct orientations within the American social welfare system. The first orientation is a bureaucratic one in which heteronomous agencies are committed to a set of externally imposed regulations designed to provide relief to individuals who require some form of assistance in order to survive (Blau, 1965; Friedlander, 1968: 258-284; Wilensky and Lebeaux, 1965:233-282). Assistance usually takes the form of monetary grants. The second orientation is professional in character (Meyer, 1959). In many agencies, priority is given to the provision of the rehabilitative services to which professionally trained social workers are committed in principle and to which nonprofessionals, …

Academe: Internship: The Delicate Balance, Robert F. Kronick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

There appears to be a battle that heretofore has been a brushfire incursion, but what may now have the possibility of becoming something more involved. This is the raging debate between "traditional" scholars and those now committed to off-campus or experiential learning. Historically, there has always been disagreement over what constituted learning or how to evaluate what was learned. Now the area of disparagement appears to be over the legitimacy of off-campus experiences as learning and, secondly, how to evaluate these experiences as academic enterprises. As always seems to be the case in debates such …