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Social Work as a Social Movement
During the early part of the 20th century, social work was a way of helping individuals, but did little to question the status quo of larger groups of people. However, beginning in the 1950s, broad-based social movements began to challenge relationships that had previously been seen as private. While the underpinnings of these movements began in the 1950s, they became prominent in the 1960s. These movements made issues that had previously been considered private, such as the relationship between the sexes, public issues. In fact, it is fair to say that social movements politicized previously private issues, bringing broader attention to certain inequities. This led to some change, though not as much change as movement-leaders sought. Galeano and Klein both discuss the idea of social work as a social movement, and the relationship between the everyday work of helping individual people and the larger-concept of helping groups of people.
Galeano's view of the 20th century is a pessimistic one,...
He likens social work to charity, which is an apt comparison in a welfare state. Moreover, there can be little question that parts of lower-class America function as a welfare state, not simply because they receive assistance, but because policies and programs seemed aimed at keeping them from ever achieving autonomy. Galeano is very critical of that type of assistance. According to him, "charity is top-down, humiliating those who receive it and never challenging the implicit power relations. In the best of cases, there will be justice someday, high in heaven. Here on earth, charity doesn't worry injustice, it just tries to hide it" (Galeano, p.312). He contrasts this to solidarity, which is unifying and that helps to illuminate the difference between something like a communist/socialist society and a welfare state; though the two are often bandied about as similar concepts, they are actually very dissimilar, but the differences between the two are meaningless if there is…
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS & INTELLIGENCE Intelligence On a basic or fundamental level, social movements are changes made mostly by the people and not a government or law enforcement agency. Social movements are not immediate and take years and often decades to yield results. Social movements are often but not always a response to unfairness, injustice, intolerance, and imbalance within a culture and/or society. In recent global history, the decade that saw a great
Social Movement: The Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s The civil rights struggle in American history is one which is littered with numerous famous events and rulings and which marked the fierce battle of African-Americans to fight for equality. One of the most famous protagonists of the civil rights era was Rosa Parks, the tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white
Women's health, sexuality, motherhood, and other issues became of real importance. They were talked about instead of just hushed. Both men and women benefited from the women's movement. Society, however, was the major benefactor, as women's perspectives were able to influence everything from government to entertainment. The continuation of the women's movement would have a similarly strong impact. This movement would encourage the complete equality of men and women in
King called upon Black churches to challenge the status quo and to change the pervasively oppressive social order. Racism, economic and labor exploitation and war were named by King as the three greatest evils of American society and they needed to be fully eradicated to resolve social disparity. King's idea of integration was complex; he struggled to eliminate or reduce poverty by linking political power, wealth, and poverty...."King's unfinished search
The perspectives presented in the first instance by the two main candidates for the Democrat nomination is essential. Their presence of the ballots raises serious questions that in the end target defining issues for the American society. On the one hand, Hilary Clinton addresses the issue of women in the society and in the political and civil arena; on the other hand, Obama underlines the existence of the African-American community,
There are definitely similarities between the two works. They are each a collection of essays that cover a multitude of complicated topics and opinions within the redefinition of modern social movements. The idea that social movements and political power are continuing to change is the main concern of both works. For Rose, it is the advanced liberal that is molding social movements and political discourse within the Western world, whereas