When the state punishes criminals or removes children at risk, its power is immediately apparent. However, power is also at stake when the state seeks to educate, advise, or empower citizens, and this book encourages reflection on the exercise of professional power in these less coercive encounters.
Rather than simply asserting that all social policies in all capitalist societies exist to maintain capitalism and serve the long-term interests of the capitalist class, PRT examines the nature and impact of social policies and the level and types of social inequality in a variety of advanced capitalist nations.
First published in 1982, Professional Power and Social Welfare examines the nature, extent and significance of professional power in the broad area of social welfare. Paul Wilding fills a major gap in the literature of the welfare professions. He looks at the power of the professions in policymaking, in resource allocation, their power over people, their power to define needs and problems, and their limited accountability. He analyses the basis of this power, and reviews criticism of the claims, achievements, knowledge and ideals of the professions. His conclusion is that the only satisfactory relationship between professions, clients and society must be one of partnership: a balance of professional, political, bureaucratic and consumer power. This book will be of interest to students of sociology and political science.
Traces the course of the constitutional controversy over the spending power and the role of that power in driving an expansion in federal activity and authority from 1787 forward.
A collection of essays about women and welfare in America, this book discusses how welfare programmes affect women and how gender relations have influenced the structure of such programmes. Issues such as race and class are also discussed.
Social welfare text that challenges the dominance of economic rationalist thought and develops new theories of citizenship, democracy and empowerment. Would be useful as a reference for tertiary students as well as for professionals. The author is Professor of Social Work at Melbourne University.
This book shows the workings of power in the micro dynamics of welfare encounters. By staying close to real world welfare encounters, the book contributes to the broad scholarly field of welfare studies that either takes a Foucauldian perspective on governance, Weberian approach to the bureaucracy or contributes to the sociology of professions.