Portal:Social Welfare and Social Work

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Social Welfare and Social Work

Social welfare and social work are both terms that refer to the development and provision of public or private social services to promote social justice amongst individuals and groups of individuals. While the term social welfare refers more generally to the well-being of groups and individuals as well as the system of social service delivery, the term social work refers more specifically to the professional practice of delivering these social services. The scientific study of social welfare involves the application of physical science, social science, and technology to the goals of informing social work practice and improving human well-being.

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Brief History of Social Welfare and Social Work

In many respects, the promotion of social justice and human well-being is a very natural feature of human existence. Cooperation and the promotion of equity, a key aspect of social justice, was certainly observed in early hunter gatherer societies in the form of food sharing; a practice still observable in primate communities such as those of the bonobo. However, as societies have grown beyond small hunter-gatherer tribes, such sharing has grown impracticable. As such, in order to promote a relative level of equity in post-hunter-gatherer societies, various combinations of public and private efforts have been established over the centuries in order to redistribute resources in societies. Early examples of such efforts can be seen in the promise of Pericles in Ancient Greece to care for orphans created by The Peloponnesian War and the efforts of Caesar Trajan to provide grain for the poor in Ancient Rome. Modern social welfare systems seen in most of the developed world began in the late 19th century under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck in Germany. These systems have continued to evolve over the 20th and into the 21st centuries but tend to be characterized by a largely public system of finance and varying combinations of public and private delivery systems throughout the world.

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