Social Work and Community Development

Social work has its roots in the social and economic upheaval wrought by the Industrial Revolution, in particular the struggle of society to deal with poverty and its resultant problems. Because dealing with poverty was the main focus of early social work, it is intricately linked with the idea of charity work, but it must now be understood in much broader terms. For instance, it is not uncommon for modern social workers to find themselves dealing with the consequences arising from many other “social problems” such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and discrimination based on age or on physical or mental ability. A closer working partnership might be of mutual benefit, contributing some more effective working methods to community development and enlarging the horizon of social work by forcing it to apply its knowledge and skills on a broader scale. This work, encyclopaedic in nature, covers all important issues pertaining to the theme.