Introduction to Social Work



Chapter 8. Macro Practice, Social Development and Social Pedagogy

Social workers uses these three approaches bring together people with similar interests or needs in order to identify shared concerns and then work together to overcome them. Those people may be in a particular locality or joined by similar interests or needs. As a result, the approaches focus on social and educational rather than psychological interventions. Ideas from the three form a bridge between problem-solving and empowerment objectives.

Terminology

Activation By activating people, those who are not making progress in their lives undertake instead personal development thus increasing their motivation and the likelihood taking advantage of opportunities.

Capacity-building This increases the understanding and skills required by excluded individuals, groups, and communities to increase their level of participation in society.

Community work The international term for what is called in America macro practice with an emphasis on social change; practices that help people come together to identify issues of concern and take action.

Macro practice The American term for the international term community work that emphasizes policy change. Macro focuses on changing or building social organizations for the benefit of those excluded from society.

Social capital The development of social capital allows an increase in community and social infrastructure resources for individuals, groups, and communities.

Social development theory This approach organizes ideas about macro social work into a system of practice for developing strength and resilience of social institutions mainly in local communities of resource-poor areas.

Social exclusion These focus on approaches to helping stigmatized and disadvantaged communities play a stronger role in society by providing them with resources and opportunities for participation.

Social pedagogy This is a significant tradition in mainland Europe and sees social work as a positive educational process for individuals and groups; social pedagogy is largely absent from English-speaking countries.

Key Ideas

Macro practice/community work help people identify and take action on problems.

Both areas have been influenced by social development (formerly community development) practices in resource-poor countries.

Social development is the main form of social work in resource-poor countries.

Social development incorporates social progress with economic development in areas where economic development takes political priority. Social development has been influenced by community work methods.

Social pedagogy focuses on individual and self-development/education interaction.

The practice is found to be particularly useful with children in residential and day care in Europe and in other countries. The practice emphasizes community work in which there is an interaction between individual and collective self-development and education.

A number of issues contribute to the separation of community work.

While all three have been integral social work as a whole and useful to practitioners generally, a number of issues contribute to a separation between community work and other areas of social work practice. Therapeutic work with individuals and families focuses on tight timetables and interpersonal objectives while community practice uses longer timeframes and broader social objectives. As a result, practitioners in either area often feel that they do have not the expertise or mandate to work in other. More generally, many practitioners of one group see the ideals of their work as being in opposition to the objectives of the other. Those methods are commonly regarded as separate professional activities such as separate professional careers for Western workers in international non-governmental organizations. Finally, these approaches have emerged in different geographical areas and in fact have generated separate national and international organizations.

There are both differences and similarities among the three areas.

Since all of these practices draw on similar skills, values and theoretical ideas the differences among the separate theoretical sources for them are not substantial. Community and macro originated to improve social participation of excluded people in developed countries. Social development came about to develop wide and supportive networks of relationships in resource-poor country economic development. Social pedagogy began as an educational development process. Community work and social development have shared a shared origin; macro is an American version of community work ideas; and social pedagogy clearly overlaps with social work professions and community practice.

What role does participation have in macro, social development, and community work?

All three approaches relate to participatory approaches in all kinds of social services. For example, they all require skills in interpersonal and group communication that relate closely to social work skills and so to empowerment practice. All three also can apply self-help approaches with local grassroots organizations so as to help personal education and development as well as giving priority to local opinions. Participation of course may not address the role of the state in modern life. In addition, participation practice may focus attention on local solutions when consultation might bring about knowledge of other approaches. Participants may also be manipulated or the fact that participants are living in the same locale may be assumed to have similar interests but in fact not.

Do these theories focus more on social change or social order?

Macro, social development, and social pedagogy focus on social change but are generally used within state services where therapeutic and problem-solving practices are the main form of practice. This practice accepts the existing social order and seeks to reform and improve society rather than bring about extensive social changes. While many defend these theories as focused on social change (such as improvements in human rights, peace, and social justice), the changes imply an evolution rather than a transformation of society as called for by critical theory. Overall, macro practice, community work practice, social development, and social pedagogy are more focused on acceptance and maintenance of existing social orders and critical and empowerment theories are more focused on social change.

There are multiple major components of macro practice.

Macro practice attempts to achieve lasting change by altering the economic, political, and social environment. Macro practice attempts to help people excluded by powerful interests in society from participating in major decisions that affect their lives. The goals include achieving increased influence and capacity to achieve individual and collective life goals. Macro social work focuses on small groups (such as teenage offenders); families, parents, and mothers who can come together to deal with problems (such as behaviorally disturbed children); and areas where there are cultural issues (such as different ethnic groups). This is particularly useful when new communities are being formed; issues of particular work communities (such as health and safety); concern about the environment (such as new infrastructure projects); or issues concerned with shared spiritual concerns (such as isolated faith groups).

The central value issue in macro practice is to manage intrusion.

The central value issue in macro practice is to manage the intrusion of the agency and the practitioner into the objectives of the group, organization or community that the practice is designed to help. For example, practitioners have to manage the tendency on the part of the agency to control or even set the aims and methods that the group, organization or community will follow. This tendency is common in government policy, which at times may impose professional or political ideas about what the members should achieve rather than the members identifying should they achieve.

The major components of social development promote individual well-being.

Social development aims to promote individual well-being by social changes so that problems are managed, needs are met, and advancement made possible. The concept implies accepting the idea that knowledge and social institutions move individuals forward to a social ideal. Social development aims at broader groups, such as communities, and the social relations in those societies. It is universalistic rather than selective; the development of the welfare state and social planning provided extensive social interventions for the general benefit in industrialized societies, for example. As a result, social development is a process where interventions occur in a connected and planned series such as education and literacy working to overcome traditional male attitudes; these may operate on three levels—individualistic, collectivist, and statist. The risk in these efforts is that they may control freedom and have other adverse effects stemming from government interventions or capitalism.

What are the major components of social pedagogy?

Social pedagogy aims at the social aspects of education that focus on the poor. The theory emphasizes that education can combat social exclusion; develop social identity; and bring about personal and social growth by problem solving rather than just the resolution of personal problems. Social pedagogy was developed by German philosophers and of particular use in non-English-speaking Europe where it is often applied in child welfare settings. One advantage of this approach is that the subjects learn from social pedagogues how to handle themselves. In some countries of Europe, social pedagogy practitioners form a separate professional group who focus varies from country to country.

‘Community work’ applies large public agency strength to the needs of small communities.

This largely British practice, strongest in the 1970s and 1980s, organized the services of large general public agencies to focus on the needs of small communities who lacked resources or the skills to apply those resources. In doing so, it sought to link social work with a range of social care services in order to provide locally responsive services meeting identified needs, while engaging those communities in volunteering and mutual support.

Social entrepreneurship aims at trying to help improve the social work profession.

In the early twenty-first century, social entrepreneurship developed by persons seeking to build business-like professional attitudes and organizational structures among the social professions.

Final Thoughts…

Together the ideas described in this chapter suggest a range of approaches that social workers in rich and resource-poor countries have applied to help individuals, groups, and communities engage people with similar interests to come together, identify problems, and work together to overcome them. Although these ideas tend to be more oriented to supporting rather than changing the social order, the effectiveness of these approaches is well established in multiple settings and many of the techniques accessible by most social workers. [pic]

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