Link to Village 900 radio station of Camosun College
Community Self Management, Empowerment and Development
Sociology
Lecture Notes
Link to Village 900 radio station of Camosun College
La versión española de este documento.
.
Community Based Social Work
Questions
Phil Bartle

The shortest distance is not always a straight line
.
What essay type questions could be asked in a course on community based social work?
...
1.  It has sometimes been claimed that community participation is simply a cheap way to obtain resources from target communities, and agencies are simply exploiting the communities by calling for it.  Argue an alternative point of view.

2.  Explain why setting up a social work office in a community does not constitute a community based approach.

3.  The profession of social work is supposed to assist in the solving of social problems, yet the approach (as indicated in text books) has often being in the form of assistance to individuals, especially in Western societies.  What arguments can you use to support a social approach in Canada?

4.  Sometimes the solving of an individual problem hinders the solving of a social problem.  Explain, in reference to one of the following:
  (a) poverty;
  (b) physical disability;
  (c) drug addiction; or
  (d) street children.

5.  In order to develop a community approach to social work, it is important to know something about the social nature of communities.  How does any one of the following contribute to that understanding?
  (a) the “super-organic;”
  (b) a tree transcends the atoms which compose it; or
  (c) the six cultural dimensions.

6.  Social change is inevitable, therefore social problems are inevitable.  Explain

7.  The interface between the social level and the individual level can be found in the sociological concept of “role.”  Please explain the nature of “role” and how it links individuals to society.

8.  Two types of social “glue” hold a community together, gemeinschaft and gesellschaft (do not translate these words from the German).  In what ways do these differ, and how can a modern community have elements of both?

9.  If people do not own both the problem and the solution, it remains unsustainable.  What does the word “own” mean in this context?  How does this community development principle apply to social work?

..
...
Related Pages: Change and the Dimensions. Cities and Urbanization. Constructed Communities. Dialectical Materialism. Cultural EvolutionNeo Gemeinschaft. So You Want to Preserve Your Culture? Social Change.   Weber on Change.
...
.
This is the bottom of the page
Key Words by Alphabet
.Key Words for Mobilisers
Acronyms and Abreviations
What is Community?
Training Modules
Hub of this module..
Writing Errors
Socioligy Topics, Short Papers
Link to Notices and Notes
Link to the home page of this web site
The site map lists (and links) to all web pages (in English) on this web site.
.Sociology Glossary
Link to Sociology Home Page
Go to the People
2007.03.28.
Following the path of least resistance makes all rivers and some men crooked