This article compares the professional features of social work in ten countries. It is based on detailed descriptions of the professional features of social work in Chile, Germany, Hungary, India, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Social work in these countries is discussed in terms of eight features, chosen as marks of a profession on the basis of the ‘attributes’ and ‘power’ approaches to professionalisation: public recognition, monopoly over types of work, professional autonomy, the knowledge base, the professional education, the professional organisations, the existence of codified ethical standards and, lastly, the prestige and remuneration of social work.
The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which the person-in-environment approach is part of the professional ideology of social workers in Israel and the degree to which they actualize it in their professional practice. The study examines the perceived importance of various goals of the social work profession and the perceived fittingness of diverse social work activities, actual professional activities, practice levels, and perceived attainment of social work goals. Based on the responses of 400 social workers from a wide variety of social services agencies in Israel, the results indicate that ideologically, the workers place a dual focus on the individual and society, with focus on the individual somewhat stronger. However, in practice the social dimension is marginal and the person-in-environment approach is hardly evident.
Poverty and its etiology have been major subjects of concern for the social work profession throughout its history. This study focused on four causal attributions for poverty: social-structural, motivational, psychological, and fatalistic. More specifically, it examined the differences between social workers' and service users' perceptions of the causes of poverty. Participants were 401 service users and 410 social workers located in a variety of human services agencies in central Israel. Findings showed that although social workers and service users expressed similar levels of agreement with regard to motivational and psychological attributions, service users attributed more importance to social-structural causes and to fatalistic causes compared with social workers. Attributions of poverty were associated with economic status among the service users but not among the social workers. The implications of these findings are discussed.
The notion that social workers should engage in the policy process to further social justice is embedded in the professional discourse. However, little is known about social workers’ actual engagement in policy processes. This article presents a scoping review of the research literature published in English in order to understand the nature of current research and ascertain what is known about three modes of social workers’ policy involvement: voluntary political participation, holding elected office, policy practice. The review identified 51 studies published between 1964 and 2015. The studies focus mainly on social workers’ levels of involvement, their activities and the factors associated with the level of engagement. The review describes the main findings emerging from the research and underscores some methodological limitations in the existing studies and the continuing gaps in our knowledge on the policy engagement of social workers. Implications for future research, practice and education are presented. Key Practitioner Message: • Social workers’ engagement in policy processes in order to further social justice and the well‐being of service users is a core mission in the social work profession. However, it is much less clear whether and how social workers, both as citizens and professionals, have heeded this call; • The article offers a scoping review of the research on three modes of social workers’ policy involvement: voluntary political participation, holding elected office, policy practice; • The review identifies 51 studies that shed light on the levels of engagement, the wide range of policy activities undertaken by social workers and the individual, organisational and macro factors associated with the level of engagement.
Knowledge on street‐level bureaucrats as policy entrepreneurs is in its infancy. This article contributes to this emerging field by examining three cases of successful efforts by social workers employed by local social services in Israel to introduce local policy change. These processes varied in the issues that they addressed and the length of time that the policy process took. In each case, a small number of low‐ and meso‐street level community social workers were identified as policy entrepreneurs. Despite their limited resources, formal authority and political capital, the social workers invested efforts over long periods of time into furthering policies they believed would help the communities they worked with. The strategies adopted included seeking legitimacy; creating and disseminating knowledge; participating in policy arenas; and generally eschewing subversive tactics. The interplay between professional affiliation and institutional context informed their motivation to address specific social problems and the strategies they adopted.
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