Summary
Contents
Subject index
The Handbook of Community Practice is the first volume in this field, encompassing community development, organizing, planning, and social change, and the first community practice text that provides in-depth treatment of globalization—including its impact on communities in the United States and in international development work. The Handbook is grounded in participatory and empowerment practice including social change, social and economic development, feminist practice, community-collaboratives, and engagement in diverse communities. It utilizes the social development perspective and employs analyses of persistent poverty, policy practice, and community research approaches as well as providing strategies for advocacy and social and legislative action.
Evolution, Models, and the Changing Context of Community Practice
Evolution, Models, and the Changing Context of Community Practice
Human organizations and social relationships form the basic domains of social work practice. Collective human activity occurs in a range of human groups, including, for example, villages, neighborhoods, women's cooperatives, a worldwide coalition focusing on HIV/AIDS, a national environmental group, and a farm workers' union, all of which are communities. Social workers, responding to the “importance of human relationships … engage people as partners in the helping process” as they “strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision-making for all people” (National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 1996, pp. 5–6). Community practice, a concept developed in some depth through the work of members of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), is currently discussed in the Journal of Community Practice, which ACOSA sponsors. The journal, along with the burgeoning community practice literature and historical treatments, provides a focus and documentation of the varied models and approaches to social work with communities that have evolved throughout social work history.
Community Practice in Social Work History
During different historical periods we have referred to aspects of community practice as settlement house work, community organization, locality and community development, Community Chest and United Way work, agricultural and economic development, community planning, civic and social action, social development, community intervention, and social administration (Betten & Austin, 1990; Brager & Specht, 1973; Christenson & Robinson, 1989; Cox, Erlich, Rothman, & Tropman, 1970; Ecklein & Lauffer, 1972; Fisher, 1994; Garvin & Cox, 2001, pp. 65–100; Harper & Dunham, 1959; Kramer, 1966; Murphy, 1954; Ross, 1955, 1958; Rothman, 2001, pp. 27–64). The process and purpose of community practice has a focus on four primary concepts: development, organizing, planning, and change (Weil, 1996). As a major method of social work, community practice embodies the profession's empowerment tradition and social justice values (International Federation of Social Workers [IFSW], 2003; NASW, 1996; Simon, 1994).
The traditions of community practice are rooted in the settlement house movement, the Charity Organization Society movement, the rural development movement, theories of democratic participation, and the organizing and development histories of diverse ethnic and racial groups (Betten & Austin, 1990; Carleton-LaNey, 2001; Rivera & Erlich, 1998; Rubin & Rubin, 2001; Weil & Gamble, 2002).
Murray Ross (1955, 1958), Canadian community scholar, was one of the first scholars to formulate differential social work approaches in community-focused practice. He grounded his work in social science theory and formulated principles of practice with communities. His presentation of approaches or models provided clarity of focus and defined purposes for social work community practice. Differentiation in approaches provides useful guidance for workers in selection of planning, organizing, and action methods. Ross notes,
There are numerous goals and consequently numerous approaches which are useful in community work. Only when we have decided what we are trying to accomplish can we decide which approach is the proper one and which methods are consistent with the end we have in mind. (1958, p.
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