Social Action in Group Work

240 Pages·1992·8.06 MB·English

by  Abe Vinik

Social Action in Group Work
Social Action
in Group Work
Abe Vinik
Morris Levin
Editors
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NEWYORK AND LONDON
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SocialActionin Group Work hasalsobeenpublishedasSocial Work with Groups,Volume 14,
Numbers3/4 1991.
© 1991 byTheHaworthPress,Inc. Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced
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Social action ingroupwork/AbeVinik, Morris Levin,editors.
p. em.
Also ... published asSocialworkwith groups, volume 14, numbers 3/4, 1991"- T.p.
U
verso.
ISBN 1-56024-211-6(alk. paper).-ISBN 1-56024-212·4(pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Socialgroupwork. 2. Socialaction. I. Vinik, Abe. II. Levin, Morris.
HV45.S613 1992
361.4- de20 91-39986
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butpointsoutthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalmaybeapparent.
Social Action in Group Work
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
Abe Vinik
Morris Levin
IDEAS OF SOCIAL ACfION
Social Action, the Group and Society 7
Ben Zion Shapiro
Social Change and Citizen Action: A Philosophical
Exploration for Modern Social Group Work 23
Elizabeth Lewis
Social Action, Empowerment and Social Work-
An Integrative Theoretical Framework for Social Work
and Social Work with Groups 35
Silvia Staub-Bernasconi
Advocacy and Social Action: Key Elements
in the Structural Approach to Direct Practice
in Social Work 53
Gale Goldberg Wood
Ruth R. Middleman
Barriers to Effective Social Action by Groups 65
Charles GalVin
ADVOCACY AND EMPOWERMENT
The Critical Role ofSocial Action in Empowerment Oriented
Groups 77
Enid Opal Cox
Reflections on Social Action Practice in France 91
Margot Breton
Some Aspects of Empowerment: ACase Study of Work
with Disadvantaged Youth 109
Eamonn Keenan
John Pinkerlon
Empowerment Through Social Action Group Work:
The 'Self-Directed' Approach 125
Audrey Mullender
David Ward
The Role of Structure in Effective Agency Advocacy 141
Eleanor D. Taylor
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
Mobilizing Women's Strengths for Social Change:
The Group Connection 153
Alice M. Home
The Use of the Group and Group Work Techniques
in Resolving Interethnic Conflict 175
AlexJ. Norman
Action and Reflection in Work with aGroup
of Homeless People 187
Jerome Sachs
The Relevance of Stages of Group Development Theory
to Community Organization Practice 203
Jacqueline B. Mondros
Toby Berman-Rossi
BOOK REVIEWS
Effective SocialAction by Community Groups,
by Alvin Zander 223
Reviewed byJohn F. Longres
Group Work: A Humanistic Approach, by Urania Glassman
and Len Kates 225
Reviewedby Maeda J. Galinsky
andJanice H. Schopler
Index 231
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Abe Vinik and Morris Levin have shared more than forty years of
professional practice together as colleagues, collaborators and
friends. Both studied social group work with Grace Coyle at Case
Western Reserve University in the 1940's and pursued their careers
in neighborhood based agencies, retiring in the 1980's as executive
directors with the United Jewish Community Centers in the San
Francisco Metropolitan Area and the Jewish Community Centers of
Chicago. Each has taught group process at the University of Chi
cago and other schools of social work in the U.S. They have held
board leadership positions in NASW and other professional organi
zations and institutions, written extensively- with primary focus on
group work theory, board and staff development, agency planning
and administration, and served as coo.sultants for the State Depart
ment in Europe and Israel. Since their retirement they have concen
trated their consultation to local and national organizations in the
areas of executive development, evaluation of agency structures
and programs, and continuing education for professional staff.
Preface
The health and vitality ofthe group work sectorofthe profession
of social work is embodied in this volume on Social Action in
Group Work. It was conceived as a much needed special issue of
the journal Social Work With Groups. The Co-Editors of the jour
nal, the late Beulah Rothman and myself, knew that the subjectwas
aworthyone when we invited Abe Vinik and Morris Levin to work
on it, but the intellectual process and the outcome were beyond
expectation. Guest Editors Vinik and Levin are to be honored for
the manner in which they have engaged many distinguished social
group work professionals in exploring the subject. A new level of
consideration ofthe commitment to social change and participatory
democracy that is inherent in social work's societal mission is
opened up for the profession. This is a worthy volume to be pre
sented not only as a double issue of the volume but also to be in
cluded in the Haworth Social Work With Groups Series, and thus to
be available as a text for the education of social workers and the
dissemination of professional knowledge. Vinik and Levin present
a timely challenge for an ongoing discourse on social action in this
social group workjournal and in all professional social work litera
ture during the treacherous decade that is closing the twentieth cen
tury.
In the immediate past issue ofSocial Work With Groups, Volume
XIV (2) Summer 1991, conceptual and theoretical discussions of
empowerment as asignificant social workobjective word presented
and illustrated. Of the three levels of empowerment- individual,
interpersonal and political-political empowerment seemed the
most unlikely to be actualized in the various practice papers pre
sented in that issue. In the Editorial the question was asked:
"Why?" Is it present but not reported? In the life ofagroup is the
progression from personal through interpersonal to political em
powerment an epigenetic process? Does the key to the realizationof
© 1991 byThe Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. xi
xii SOCIALACTIONINGROUP WORK
political empowerment in the group rest with the committment of
the worker? ,
Considering political empowerment and social action as closely
related concepts, several categories of suggestions or clues for an
swering such questions are to be found in the manuscripts presented
in this serial issue under the guest editorship of Vinik and Levin.
1. Some populations, e.g., groups of women, may be particu
larly ready and eager for social action.
2. Sometheoreticalorphilosophicalperspectives for groupwork
are highly suggestive and productive of empowerment of
members, e.g., liberation theology and conscietization.
3. Some aspects ofa worker's behavior and attributes facilitate
an outcomeofempowerment in the group, e.g., equalityin the
professional stance of the worker.
4. Some professional skills which encourage an empowerment
outcome can be identified.
Again Vinik and Levin are to be thanked for uncovering such a
wealth of professional material to foster social action and political
empowerment in group work practice and in research.
With this issue ofSocial Work With Groups- and with this Edi
torial-the era of the original and present co-editorship is drawn to
aclose. Beulah Rothman and Ihad decided early in the fateful year
of her illness and death that we were ready to yield to others the
excitement of editing the social group work journal. In April of
1990 \ve wrote to Bill Cohen, Publisher of The· Haworth Press,
Inc., resigning as Co-Editors and proposing persons to replace us.
Our suggestions were graciously accepted and with the completion
of this issue, Number 3/4 of Volume 14, our responsibilities are
terminated.
The new Editors are Roselle Kurland, Professor ofSocial Group
Work at Hunter School of Social Work, and Andrew Malekoff,
Coordinator of the Suburban Family Life Center and the Alcohol
Treatment and Prevention Services at the North Shore Child and
Family Guidance Center. Volume 15 (1992) is being prepared by
them in their new roles.
When we were asked in 1976 to co-edit a journal on groups in
social work, a form of social work service traditionally present at