Social Welfare Policy

Catalog description

This course surveys the history of social welfare policy, services, and the social work profession in the United States. It explores current social welfare issues in the context of their history and analyzes the values and assumptions that support different approaches. Existing welfare programs and institutions are examined in the social, economic, political and cultural contexts in which they have evolved. The course examines the development of cash assistance and social service programs in light of the long legacy of poverty, racism, sexism, and other forms of structure oppression, and their enduring effects on U.S. society today. This examination provides perspective on the source of conflict and consensus in American history. The course also traces the roles that social workers have played in the formulation and implementation of social welfare policy-as well as their role in promoting social movements opposed to existing policy-and links these historical examples to contemporary policy practice.