Is “social work” synonymous with “social justice?”
response by Jennifer Swezey:
The vocation of social work can be defined as, “…a practical profession aimed at helping people address their problems and matching them with the resources they need to lead healthy and productive lives.” By definition, social justice is, “the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political, social rights, and opportunities” Overall it appears that social justice is the root of the profession as social workers strive to provide equal opportunities and equal access to resources for all and in reality it is. When approaching at it from a different angle however, the terms take on a different meaning. For instance, take both of these nouns and turn them into verbs on a micro level (case advocacy). Let’s “do social work” and let’s “do social justice”. Now you have two very different things, in my mind. Starting with social work in the present day, American context- How do social workers determine those “in greatest need”? Typically social workers make a needs-assessment of the situation, but there’s the problem. How do we define those relative terms such as “need”, “poverty”, “hunger”, and “abuse”? Being very subjective in nature, we leave it to policy to answer those questions. Turning the tables to social justice- there is no needs-test. In my mind it takes walking with someone, learning their story, letting them assess for themselves what those relative terms mean. It requires those of us who have received much, giving much even though we may or may not agree with the allocation and distribution. Social work in general is an institution with boundaries whereas social justice is loosely fitted together under one’s ideological perspective. There is a book that addresses the issue of vocational calling into social work rightly entitled: The Call to Social Work by Craig LeCroy. You can read an excerpt from it online if you Google the title, but if anyone wants to read it, I have it so just let me know.
