The current state of social work professional development is characterized by two realities. There is a great deal of traditional social and psychological research being carried out primarily by university-based researchers and by researchers based in institutes, foundations, or social service agencies. Meanwhile, the many social work practitioners continue to look to their own experience for knowledge. This is a continuation of the debate that has persisted since the outset of the profession in the first decade of the twentieth century. This book describes the role of social workers and social organisations in the field of rural development based on case studies carried out in India and abroad.

The basic concerns of social welfare—poverty, disability and disease, the dependent young and elderly—are as old as society itself. The laws of survival once severely limited the means by which these concerns could be addressed; to share another’s burden meant to weaken one’s own standing in the fierce struggle of daily existence. As societies developed, however, with their patterns of dependence between members, there arose more systematic responses to the factors that rendered individuals, and thus society at large, vulnerable. The social work profession draws on theories of human development, social theory and social systems to analyse complex situations and to facilitate individual, organizational, social and cultural changes. The book endeavours to provide all requirements of students, teachers, social workers, social work institutions to enable them to achieve success in social work and related activities.

The current state of social work professional development is characterized by two realities. There is a great deal of traditional social and psychological research being carried out primarily by university-based researchers and by researchers based in institutes, foundations, or social service agencies. Meanwhile, the many social work practitioners continue to look to their own experience for knowledge. This is a continuation of the debate that has persisted since the outset of the profession in the first decade of the twentieth century. This book describes the role of social workers and social organisations in the field of rural development based on case studies carried out in India and abroad.

The basic concerns of social welfare—poverty, disability and disease, the dependent young and elderly—are as old as society itself. The laws of survival once severely limited the means by which these concerns could be addressed; to share another’s burden meant to weaken one’s own standing in the fierce struggle of daily existence. As societies developed, however, with their patterns of dependence between members, there arose more systematic responses to the factors that rendered individuals, and thus society at large, vulnerable. The social work profession draws on theories of human development, social theory and social systems to analyse complex situations and to facilitate individual, organizational, social and cultural changes. The book endeavours to provide all requirements of students, teachers, social workers, social work institutions to enable them to achieve success in social work and related activities.