Raymond Plant - Social and Moral Theory in Casework (Routledge Revivals)

First published in 1970, the aim of the book is to map the logical geography of an important set of concepts which enter into the theory of social caseworkthose concerning the individual and society. Concepts examined include the individually orientated values of self-direction and acceptance, and those of role, adjustment and integration, which express the individuals relation to society. The authors main concern is to see whether a coherent theory of the relationship between individual and society can be given in terms of these concepts and to argue that such a theory is fundamental to casework discussion. Mr Plant also discusses what, if any, social or political commitments the activity of casework presupposes, and evaluates the view that casework is apolitical.

First published in 1970
by Routledge & Kegan Paul

This edition first published in 2009 by Routledge
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

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1970 Raymond Plant

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ISBN 0-203-09227-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 13:978-0-415-55744-3 (hbk)
ISBN 13:978-0-203-09227-9 (ebk)

ISBN 10:0-415-55744-5 (hbk)
ISBN 10:0-203-09227-9 (ebk)

GENERAL EDITOR: NOEL TIMMS

Lecturer in Social Science and Administration
London School of Economics

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism

ISBN 0-203-09227-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0 6808 5 (C)
ISBN 0 7100 6809 3 (P)

The Library of Social Work is designed to meet the needs of students following courses of training for social work. In recent years the number and kinds of training in Britain have increased in an unprecedented way. But there has been no corresponding increase in the supply of textbooks to cover the growing differentiation of subject matter or to respond to the growing spirit of enthusiastic but critical enquiry, to the significant theoretical contributions so far made to its understanding, and to some of the outstanding problems. Each volume will suggest ways in which the student might continue his work by further reading.

This essay on the moral and social presuppositions and implications of casework revolves around the concern of the social worker for two welfaresthat of the individual and that of society. It is divided into three main chapters. The first is concerned with our understanding of the central casework concepts of individualization, self direction and acceptance. It is argued that these are all part of the concept of respect for persons, and the question of justifying this concept is considered. It appears, however, that the particular use made of the concepts of responsibility and self direction by social casework theorists also requires justification. Finally, in this chapter, the adequacy of the formulation of ideas in terms of the individual and society is questioned in a consideration of the work of Raymond Williams. In the second chapter the author criti-cally assesses concepts of mental health as part of an attempt to judge scientifically the kind of society that will help people to experience their social life as members of a community. It is concluded that casework involves moral and social commitment, and the final chapter is concerned with discussing the three kinds of commitment that are opentherapy, reform or revolution.

This book is primarily concerned with social casework, but much of its analysis is equally applicable to social groupwork and community work. Other books in this series have a similarly general orientation, but they are focused on developing psychological and sociological understanding of social work and the problems it attempts to solve. The present work contributes to the freshly acknowledged need to develop an adequate philosophy of social work. The philosophy of social work is still taken to refer to a list, as it were, of principles of action or uplifting ideas concerning the justification of social work. Raymond Plant demonstrates the results that can be obtained by applying the activity of philosophizing to some of the crucial terms in social casework. Such activity produces no new list of principles or any self-evident justification for social work, but it makes an essential contribution to the process by which the profession can begin to know itself. Self-knowledge, so often extolled in terms of the individual social worker, has meaning in terms other than the psychological for the profession as a whole. The book links, as the author indicates, with others in the Library and, more important, with the world outside the usually drawn boundaries of social work. As the text suggests, the principles of casework appear to be characteristic of morality itself; they are not as it were the private property of the casework profession and subject to professional interpretation and, possibly, change

NOEL TIMMS

My thanks are due in particular to Dr Gordon Rose of the Department of Social Administration in the Victoria University of Manchester who, by inviting me to lecture to third year students in that department in the academic year 19689, provided me with both the incentive and opportunity to produce the reflections on casework theory which constitute this monograph. I also have a debt of gratitude to those students who forced me to clarify my too often confused ideas. Noel Timms, the editor of the series, suggested to me many improvements, most of which I have adopted, and for which I am very grateful. I should like to thank Mr M.B.Yeats and Macmillan & Co for permission to quote from Among School Children by W.B.Yeats, and also Faber and Faber, Ltd for permission to quote from T.S.Eliots The Waste Land.