Linking Social Welfare Policy and Global Problems

This article is a case study of an advanced social welfare policy seminar that explored the interconnections between global threats such as violence and warfare, environmental degradation, poverty, and immigration, and the current and future endeavors of the social work profession. The author describes the theoretical underpinnings and format of the seminar, examines four propositions or lessons that emerged from the course, and analyzes the implications of these lessons for social work practice, research, and education.     

Dimensions of Social Welfare Policy

The present study reports the outcome of an attempt to integrate a graduate research seminar with fieldwork and clinical methods courses. Findings show, however, that students in the nonintegrated research seminar displayed more positive attitudes toward and gained greater knowledge of the research process when compared to students in the integrated seminar. Interpretation of the findings and implications for building integrated educational structures also are discussed.     

National Information Infrastructure Policy and the Future of the American Welfare State: Implications for the Social Welfare Policy Curriculum

The development of the information society will have important future ramifications for the U.S. economy and for the social welfare system. The nature of work, work organizations, government, and other institutions will be changed by the growth of the information sector. An important part of this sector will be the National Information Infrastructure, or “Information Superhighway.” This network will help to determine the winners and losers in the new economy and will have major consequences for the evolution of social policy. These ramifications are explored and implications for social work education are discussed. The article argues that social service programs need to deal realistically with the oncoming changes, and that social work education will have to prepare students to function within this new social welfare system.     

International Federation of Social Workers: International Policy on Refugees

The initiators and the advocates of the Australian Assistance Plan claim they are creating a new framework—a framework which is more sensitive to and aware of the needs of the individual and the community. As Knight and Wallace point out in the March issue of Australian Social Work, the key concept is participation.¹ The Social Welfare Commission, who initiated the A.A.P., describe it as:     

Before the Welfare State: Public Health and Social Policy

Les changements apportés en matière de politique sociale de 1880 à 1920 ont joué un rôle déterminant dans l'établissement et la nature de l'État-providence. La santé publique était au premier rang de cette evolution. L'État a commencéà pénétrer dans les foyers par de nouveaux moyens, comme les programmes de visite à domicile lancés durant cette période. Dans notre étude, nous décrivons ces nouveaux programmes dans le contexte d'une transformation plus globale des politiques sociales, qui a amené l'État à assumer de nouvelles res-ponsabilités dans le domaine de la natalité.
Social policy developments in the period 1880–1920 played a crucial role in shaping the foundations of the welfare state. Public health was at the forefront of these developments, introducing new home visiting programmes that brought the state into the household in new ways. This paper sets these new programmes in the context of a broader transition in social policy in which the state began to assume new responsibilities in the reproduction of the population.     

Social Policy Practice

This paper identifies and discusses issues for a school of social work in the context of collective bargaining. Attention is given to the implications of collective bargaining on a professional social work program. The paper is based on a theoretical framework and an experience of approximately three years in the advent and development of collective bargaining in a large midwestern public university. Major substantive areas discussed have to do with intragroup and intergroup relations among students, community professionals, faculty and administration; the definition of “work” and “work load”; and the reward system for promotion, tenure, and recognition of merit. Major implications relate to the concerns of professionalism, the balancing of. democratic participation and responsible management, and the codification in contract of social work's historical role in participatory decision making.     

Social Welfare Policy as a Specialization in the Graduate Social Work Curriculum

This paper describes a new student/teacher evaluation system that helps students monitor and evaluate their progress in each course or unit of instruction. Because it produces a learning curve for each student and for the class as a whole, it is useful to both students and teachers in the assessment and evaluation of joint learning-teaching activities and achievements. Its major purpose is to help maximize learning gains.     

Teaching Policy Practice in a Global Context

Abstract

Rapid global change, massive world migration, and increasing political and economic uncertainty demand that policy practice be taught from a global perspective. If social work students are to be effective policy practitioners and advocates, they need skills to consider local, national, international, and global issues as the context for policy analysis and action. This paper focuses on implementation of a new policy practice course built on the foundation of international human rights emphasizing comparative policy analysis and principles of liberty, equality and justice within a social development perspective. Recommendations include assignments, suggested texts, and classroom activities.     

International Migration,Immigration Policy and Welfare Spending

Increasing immigration is often linked with the public pressure for lower levels of publicly funded social expenditures. However, the empirical evidence on the effects of increasing immigration on social expenditures is discordant and depends on which countries are studied. This article argues that the employability of new immigrants as well as their entitlement to public benefits explains the observed impacts of immigration on social expenditures. Moreover, these same features can help to explain the increasing stringency of immigration policies.