History and Philosophy of Social Work PDF

1 Subject Name Social Work Paper Name History and Philosophy of Social Work Paper Coordinator Dr.Ruchi Sinha Content Writer/Author (CW) Prof.Murli Desai Content Reviewer Prof Manish Jha Module Name/Ti...

1 Subject Name Social Work Paper Name History and Philosophy of Social Work Paper Coordinator Dr.Ruchi Sinha Content Writer/Author (CW) Prof.Murli Desai Content Reviewer Prof Manish Jha Module Name/Title Conceptual Framework of History and Ideologies of Social Work Module ID 1 Objectives To introduce the concepts of and linkages among: 1) History of social change in ancient, medieval, modern and the postmodern stages; 2) Religious and secular ideologies that have influenced social change; and 3) Origin and paradigms of social work profession. Keywords Conceptual Framework, History, Ideologies, Social Change, Social Work Profession Introduction Social work practice is based on ideologies and it is impossible to understand the ideologies of social work of today, without the knowledge of its roots in the historical ideologies of social work. On the other hand, ideologies of social work, at any point of history, are influenced by the ideologies of social change of that time. As Katherine Kendall (2000) noted, social work, more than any other profession, is deeply rooted in the beliefs and social climate of the times in which it is practised. What seemed right in one period may appear wrong in another, she states. The conceptual frameworkfor the course on history and ideologies of social work therefore links the three constructs of historical context,ideology of social change, and ideology of social work profession. This framework helps to understand the varying paradigms of social work profession. All people have beliefs based in some ideologies, due to their socialisation, whether they know it or not. They see the social issues around them through the ideology or the veil of ingrained beliefs, opinions and assumptions (Heywood, 2007). The ideological elements of moral, ethical and metaphysical factors are for the most part intrinsic to every person and comprise the basic attitudes, beliefs and values - the “self”. These are usually unstructured, unquestioned and unarticulated. It is necessary that a social work student bring one’s ideology and that of the profession into cognition. This revelation will lead itself to conscious deliberation and then resolution (Goldstein, 1973). This course facilitates such revelation. 2  3 Learning Outcome 1. Examine the concepts and history of social change and historical stages according to Marx’s theory of historical materialism; 2. Review the concept of ideology as different from philosophy, and the difference between religious and secular ideologies that influence social change; 3. Analyse the concept of social work profession as different from charity and its origin in the modern period linked to the modern ideologies of social change; and 4. Understand the knowledge, attitude and skill objectives of the course based on the above conceptual framework. Concepts and History of Social Change History and Social Change History: History is a discipline that studies the chronological record of events (as affecting a nation or people), based on a critical examination of source materials and usually presenting an explanation of their causes (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001). Social Change: Social change in the broadest sense is any change in social relations. In this sense, social change is an ever-present phenomenon in any society. In order to give the concept a more restricted meaning, it has been defined as change of the social structure (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001). History of Social Change: History of social change is a study of the development of human society (social structure) and its relationship to the present. It emphasises the socio-cultural, political and economic context of events. Historians have become interested in theories of long-term social change, and many sociologists and anthropologists increasingly turn toward history for the empirical testing and refinements of their theoretical viewpoints (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001). However, the limitations of a historical study of social change are, sources are scarce, many activities and thoughts of ordinary people plus other useful data were never recorded and much that was written down has been lost or destroyed  4 through the years. Thus the past has to be reconstructed based on fragmented sources (The World Book Encyclopaedia, 1988). Historical Stages Periods of time form the chief divisions in the study of history. Historians divide Western history into three periods: ancient period, medieval period and modern period. These stages may be further qualified by Marx’s theory of historical materialism. Accordingly, in every stage, the general ideas and social systems correspond to the mode of production. Each social system contained a ruling class whose position is derived primarily from controlling the economic surplus. The dominant ideas and institutions are those that aligned with the interests of ruling class. The transformations of modes of production occurred over long historical eras, and led toclass conflicts that resulted in revolutions. Once the rising class had defeated the ruling class, it set about transforming the social relationships in conformity with the new mode of production (Newman, 2005). According to the mode of production, history may be divided into the hunting and gathering phase of the prehistorical period, agriculture and horticulture phase, during the ancient and the medieval periods, the modern period of industrialisation and the post industrialisation phase of the postmodern period. Prehistorical Period: In the prehistorical period, the productive means were hunting and gathering, for which people had to join efforts. Everything they procured was just enough to survive, which they shared among themselves equally. Such a primitive-communal/ tribal system may have existed for over tens of thousands of years (Berbeshkina, Yakovleva, &Zerkin, 1985). In such tribal systems, natural resources were communally owned and property was more or less evenly distributed among the tribal members. However, the tribal chief, selected because of his hunting skills, had considerable political power and the Shamans, or the medicine men lived off the surplus production of their followers. This system had a hierarchy, which was based on merits such as competence in hunting and could not be inherited (Grusky&Takata, 1992). Agriculture and Horticulture Period: Agriculture and horticulture developed during the ancient period. It led to surplus of products, resulting in breakdown of clans into families. There was limited need for a joint economy and the family became an independent economic  5 unit. People who farmed no longer had to travel in search of food. They could thus build permanent settlements. In this phase, need for labour led to the practice of slavery and feudalism, institutionalising inequality. These practices were justified in terms of religious or quasi-religious ideologies such as natural and social inferiority (Grusky&Takata, 1992). Monarchies supported the slavery as well as the feudal systems, though they differed from one another in the degree to which power was centralised (Belov, 1986). In the slavery system, those who were impoverished and became economically dependent on their kinsmen or fellow tribes folk, through debts, were turned into slaves. Prisoners of war became another source of slaves. Slaves were property of their owners for whom they worked and got shelter, clothes and food, but no pay. Slaves could not marry, have family, or own property (The World Book Encyclopaedia, 1988). Slavery made it possible to build huge buildings and roads, in the ancient period. Contempt towards manual labour spread among exploiters who regarded it the fate of people of a lower sort (Berbeshkina et al., 1985). Slavery gave way to feudalism, which became an important feature of the medieval period. The term feudalism is derived from the Latin word feudum, which means a piece of land which is granted in return of services (Kundra, 1997). In the feudal system, in return of protection, the serfs had to hand over their land and labour to their landlords and pay them their produce as levy. They had to necessarily send their paddy crop for husking to the rice mills owned by the landlords. Surplus produce had to be sold to the landlords alone. It was considered an offence if the serfs revolted against them (Growth of Human Civilization, 1993). Industrialisation Period: With the change in the predominant production process from agricultural to industrial, in the modern period, industries needed labour that was tied to the land. The political control of feudal lords and monarchies was challenged by the emerging middle class through revolutions that resulted in the liberal democraticnation-states (Ram, 1999), supported by the industrialists. Individual merit was considered the determinant of status in the new class stratification of the capitalist and the labour. However, this does not happen in practice, since the majority have already been deprived of the means of production and, therefore, also of the fruits of production (Kappen, 1994). The pre-eminence of the nation-states grew as agencies of centralised social and political control, representing the interest of the capitalists against the people. The Industrial Revolution made European  6 nationalism aggressive and expansionist, promoting exploitative international trade and colonisation of Asian and African countries.Globalisation in the post-industrial period is neo- colonisation, placing a few global corporations above all the people of the world. Concepts ofIdeology Difference between Ideology and Philosophy This course was earlier taught as History and Philosophy of Social Work (Wadia, 1961) and changed to History and Ideologies of Social Work in the 1990s. (Desai, 2002). It is therefore important to distinguish between the concept of “ideology” and the concept of “philosophy”. Philosophy: Philosophy is an academic discipline that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence and reality. It tries to discover the nature of truth and knowledge and to find what is of basic value and importance in life. It also examines the relationship between humanity and nature and between the individual and society. It is a form of interpretation and speculation. Philosophy is divided into five branches: metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics and aesthetics. Ideology: According to Heywood (2007, pp. 11-12), "An ideology is a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides the basis for organized political action, whether this is intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing system of power." All ideologies therefore have the following features: 1) They offer an account of the existing order, usually in the form of a world view. 2) They advance a model of a desired future, a vision of the good society. 3) They explain how political change can and should be brought about - how to get from the existing order to a desired future. Heywood (2007) stated that because ideology is deeply embedded within a set of normative or prescriptive beliefs, it has a powerful emotional or affective character; it is a means of expressing hopes and fears, sympathies and hatreds, as well as of articulating beliefs and understanding. According to Hunt (1978), the most important element in ideology is the inevitability of choice and its urgency. People, who accept an ideology, usually reject all  7 other systems concerned with the same content. It is the ideological perspective that leads to development of paradigms, on which scientific activity is built, and scientific revolution brings about a paradigmatic change (Kuhn 1970, cited by Payne, 2005). According to Freeden (2003), ideologies order the social world, direct it towards certain activities, and legitimize or delegitimize its practices. Ideologies exercise power, at the very least by creating a framework within which decisions can be taken. Ideologies formed at one moment in history can subsequently acquire shapes very different from those of their origins. They therefore need to be contextualised by their historical stage of origin and the contemporary regional/ geographical/ social environment (Amin, 2008). As this course focuses on understanding the social context of social work profession and its changing paradigms, it focusses on ideologies rather than philosophies. While linking different ideologies, the critique and implications of the previous ideology are also examined, as these are often the context for a new ideology to emerge. The construct of ideology comprises the perception of people and of social problems, the ideals and the ethics. The course on history of ideologies for social work may examine the ideologies that have justified unequal societal structures, ignored them, or tried to change them. Types of Ideologies Ideologies arebroadly divided into Religious and Secular Ideologies. Religious Ideologies:Ideology originated in religious questions, that concerned the nature and purpose of life and death and the relationship of human to superhuman powers, or a divine creator. The subject matter of every religion comprises of the nature of ‘God’, cosmology or the science of creation, the nature of human beings, and the science of life after death. Every religion proclaims the existence of an immortal spirit, beyond body and mind and emphasises moral and ethical preparation for success in spiritual life. Most human beings are partisan with reference to religion; in the sense they believe only in their own religion and do not accept the truth of another. A synthetic approach recognises that all religions are true and that diversity of religions is a law of nature (Swami Ghanananda, 1987).  8 Like ideologies, religions also need to be contextualised by their historical stage of origin and the regional/ geographical/ social environment. Different religions therefore have commonalities as well as differences. The religions of the world fall into two well-defined groups, the eastern religions and the Judeo-Christian religions. The eastern religions either owe their origin to India or are profoundly influenced by the Indian religious thought. The Vedic religion of India was followed by the non-Vedic Jainism and Buddhism, in the ancient period; and mysticism and Sikhism, in the medieval period. The Judeo-Christian religions owe their origin directly or indirectly to Judaism, an ancient religion of Israel. Judaism gave birth to Christianity and less directly to Islam, in the medieval period. In each case, there are religions originating in adjacent lands and ultimately assimilable by the two great religious streams, in the former case, Taoism and in the latter, Zoroastrianism (Zaehner, 1959). In India, all these religions have influenced each other and the society at different points of time. Religion provided the majorsource of ethics/ morality/ ideology for the society and for philanthropic work for a long time. However, religions have also justified social inequalities. Atheism and agnosticism, both, are forms of religious unbelief. Atheists say that they do not believe in the existence of God or Gods while agnostics say that they have inadequate knowledge to reach conclusions on the subject (Graves, 1995). Secular Ideologies:The secular ideologies affect the social, economic and political aspects of society. The cultural movement of Renaissance overlapped the end of the medieval period and formed a transition between medieval and modern periods. The ideology of secular humanism formed the intellectual core of the Renaissance which revived the importance of human beings in the religion-dominated feudal society of the medieval Western world. The modern period was launched off by the ideology of rationalism, a philosophic outlook that ushered in an Age of Reason or Enlightenment for humankind. Rationalism influenced scientism, welfarism, liberalism, democracy, utilitarianism and Social Darwinism. These ideologies known as the classical ideologies are useful to contextualise development of social inequality as well as the origin of social work profession. The contemporary ideologies of social justice and human rights; neo-colonialism, neoliberalism and post-democracy; critical theory, postmodernism,and post-colonialism;and feminism, ecologism, multiculturalism, etc. are also known as the new ideologies that aim at identifying and countering social inequality.  9 Contextualizing History and Ideologies for Social Work Profession All religions have promoted charity. Liberalism has promoted freedom and welfare and socialism has promoted equality and meeting of basic needs. All the religious and secular ideologies have influenced social work profession. Ripple (1969) defined the word profession to mean a public pronouncement or avowal of a belief or a promise. The promise is to attend in the most responsible, that is the most knowledgeable way, the attainment of certain goals. According to Merton (1960), the following three social values are fused into the concept of a profession: 1) The value placed upon systematic knowledge and the intellect: knowing; 2) the value placed on technical skill and training capacity: doing; and 3) the value placed upon putting this conjoint knowledge and skill to work in the service of others: helping. Thus, The Western modern ideologies have led to requirements of a profession, such as social work, in terms of secularisation of help and importance of scientific knowledge, formal education and specialisations. Influenced by different ideologies, different paradigms have dominated professional social work, at different points of time in different places, such as charity, welfare, clinical, ecological and radical/ progressive. Desai (2010) organised the concepts of history, ideology and social work in a conceptual framework, in order to analyse as well as make comparisons across social work paradigms. The history of origin and development of an ideology or social work paradigm is first examined in its sociological/ cultural/ political/ economic context. For the construct of social work, the additional variables examined are, status of the benefactors and their motives for being benefactors, their goals for social change, their approach to social change/ intervention, and their relation with the beneficiaries. Summary  10 The module first examines the concepts and history of social change and the historical stages according to Marx’s theory of historical materialism. It reviews the concept of ideology as different from philosophy, and the difference between religious and secular ideologies that influence social change. It discusses the concept of social work profession as different from charity and its origin in the modern period linked to the modern ideologies of social change. Finally, it identifies the knowledge, attitude and skill objectives of the course on History and Ideologies of Social Work, based on the above conceptual framework.