What is social welfare? Social welfare can be described in a
multitude of ways, but, at its core refers to the well-being of people living
in collective societies. This concept ideally should apply to everyone
living in a community. People’s levels or “amounts” of social welfare
often relate to systems of stratification and access to adequate shelter and
food, health care, employment, sanitation, and guarantees of clean air, water,
and safe food. Many would also include in their description services such
as education and transportation, and social conditions such as public safety,
freedom from discrimination, freedom of expression, and freedom to practice any
religious belief (or no religion). This expanded definition incorporates
some of the fundamental concepts of (universal) human rights. While all
societies provide for varying degrees of social welfare, some often promote the
social welfare of different social groups to the detriment and social exclusion
of other groups.
What
is social justice? Social justice is a powerful ideal, but
its meaning is many-sided and highly contested. As a moral ideal, one’s beliefs about social
justice and one’s definition of it are rooted in one’s ideological stance. Yet our personal conceptions of a just
society – and the ways we believe it can best be achieved – make no sense
unless they are connected to the larger social and political ideologies that
inform them: ideas about the economic structure of society; the nature of the
state’s responsibility to its citizens; the extent of citizens’ obligations to
one another and to the state; and citizenship itself.
All
of us have been raised in different community contexts that shaped our
understanding of and beliefs about the role of government in ensuring the
social welfare of its people and promoting a just society. Family,
education, mass media, religious institutions, and peer groups are primary
influences on our beliefs about social problems and the proper function of
government (especially its role in promoting social welfare).
This
assignment asks you to reflect on your own values and beliefs about the role of
economics, government, and the relationship between social problems and social
welfare (policy) in the United States. In a short essay address the
following three items:
1.
Describe your own economic and political “philosophy,” especially in relation
to social welfare policy and key social problems like poverty and
inequality. Explain how your own values and beliefs resemble and/or
differ from the viewpoints described in the readings for sessions 2, 3, and
4. Your paper must refer to and incorporate insights from a
minimum of three of these readings, but potentially more.
2.
Explain the ecological factors and your individual experiences that have
influenced the development of your own economic and political
“philosophy.” Incorporate those sensitizing events in your life that have
either changed your views or reinforced them on the topic of social welfare,
poverty, the role of government, etc.
3.
What stance has social work historically taken on social welfare issues? Based
on the SW Code of Ethics, what political philosophies seem most consistent with
our professional values. What area of contradictions do you see between the
values our professions espouses and the translation of those values into practice?
Include a brief description of the direction our field should ideally be moving
in, based on our core values.
Evaluation
Your
ability to identify and discuss your own personal values and
beliefs—your own “philosophy” of social welfare—in this paper is
critical.
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