Origins of Social Work in Australia Paper Example

Introduction

Three main events happened in England and the US that greatly influenced the adoption of social work in Australia. These events are: change in the political system, the introduction of Poor Law, and an increase in population.

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Political System

During the Industrial Revolution, the political powers also shifted from the hands of the few elite people to a more democratic society. The elite few who previously held power used it to foster their interests and benefits at the expense of the protection of the general public and resolution of social issues. These few elites were also tasked with maintaining social order and security, but they hardly did anything to foster this. However, all this changed during the Parliamentary Reform Act in 1832 when a democratic parliament was formed (Blumer, 2018; Chenoweth and McAuliffe, 2012). As the political power shifted, government efforts also moved from maintaining law and order to more involvement in social order and welfare issues. Democracy meant that people wanted equal rights and deserved fair treatment. It is this motivation that resulted in social movements being born to fight for the rights of the poor (Healy, 2008). These movements aimed to defend the poor against discrimination, prejudice, and exploitation. This motivation began the social work movement.

Poor Laws

After the Feudalism era, the poor people were perceived as direct threats to the order of the society, and so the governments formulated the Poor Law as well as an organized system to provide care for them. Although industrial revolution brought about great scientific and technological advancements in society, the great movements towards urban areas throughout the entire Western World led to an increase in social problems and also social activism (Zastrow, 2016). It is during this time the social rescue organizations were established to provide support and also resolve the issues of poverty, prostitution, mental illness, disease, and many other social afflictions. Additionally, government officers had to ensure social order in whatever form especially relief (Lawrence, 2016; McDonald, Harris, and Wintersteen, 2003). They had to ensure that workers opted for assistance as opposed to the lowest paying jobs. Poor Law officers had a lot of duties to perform such as carrying out assessments, exercising judgment, understanding human needs and problems, and carrying out financial administration duties (Thane, 2018; McNutt, 2008). Because of all these duties, officers were overwhelmed, and their work quality was reported to be generally poor and inconsistent. Social advocates argued that these officers would be better off with some training and so in response to this, the National Poor Law Officers Association was started to fight for the interests of the officers. These issues began the social movement in labour.

Changes in Employment

The industrial revolution brought about many changes in the family structures from subsistence work to factory work. The invention of machinery brought about shifts in jobs from farms in to factories. People now opted to work in factories, and many migrated to urban areas in search of work, thus causing overpopulation in urban settings (Pierson, 2012). Industrialization also transformed the employment industry because of the decline of fishing, agriculture, and forestry. Industries such as mining, manufacturing, and coding started emerging. These industries further led to a large pool of migration to urban centres (Blumer, 2018). This overpopulation largely contributed to the deterioration of living conditions. There was overcrowding, shortage of housing, poor sanitation, an outbreak of diseases, worker exploitation and increased rates of poverty (Mendes, 2005). Poor people were not able to look after themselves, and the children were exploited, abused, and malnourished (Zastrow, 2016). This situation called for attention for immediate action. Social movements were formed to help these exploited workers and improve living conditions within urban settings, and this led to the formation of social movements and social work.

Many countries adopted social work and establishment of social movements following these events that took place in the US and the UK. These practices primarily informed social work in Australia because similar issues were present in Australia. Australia social entrepreneurs saw how social work had worked to improve the livelihoods of people in the UK and the U.S. and therefore they also established foundations in the country.

References

Blumer, H. (2018). Industrialization as an agent of social change: A critical analysis. Routledge.Chenoweth, L. & McAuliffe, D. (2012). The road to social work and human service practice (4th ed). South Melbourne, Victoria Australia: Cengage.

Healy, L. M. (2008). Exploring the history of social work as a human rights profession. International Social Work, 51(6), 735-748. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872808095247

LAWRENCE, R. (2016). Meeting the Social Challenge of Industrial Society.In Professional Social Work in Australia (pp. 3-18).ANU Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bgzbpk.6McDonald, C., Harris, J., &

Wintersteen, R. (2003).Contingent on context?Social work and the state in Australia, Britain, and the USA. British Journal of Social Work, 33(2), 191-208.

McNutt, J. (2008). Social work practice: History and evolution. T. Mizrahi and LE Davis (Eds.-in-Chief), Encyclopedia of social work, 138-141.

Mendes, P. (2005) The history of social work in Australia: A critical literature review, Australian Social Work, 58:2, 121-131, DOI: 10.1111/j.1447-0748.2005.00197.xPierson, J. (2012). Understanding social work: history and context. Berkshire: McGraw Hill.

Thane, P. (2018). The origins of British social policy. Routledge.Zastrow, C. (2016). Empowerment Series: Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare: Empowering People. Cengage Learning.