Community Planning for Social Welfare

During the Progressive Era many social workers advocated that government develop plans to organize and place the provision of public services on a more rational and secure basis. Community planning has its origins with the Charity Organization Society and settlement houses, and continued with Councils of Social Agencies and cooperative fundraising. Many planners typically see their work as providing a service to their clients as professional experts who advocate or plan for people in the same way that lawyers advocate for clients or doctors treat patients. Many public planners exercise rational problem solving to resolve conventional planning problems on their own or make plans for people independently of community members. Moreover, even civic-minded professionals who seem to be committed to community citizen based planning often typically respond to community controversies and conflict by appealing to neutral, technical solutions, say Bellah et al. 

 

 

 

Readings

Brueggemann, W. G. (2014). The Practice of Macro Social Work (4th ed.). Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.

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