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Download this Document for Free SOCIOLOGICAL MEANING SOCIAL WORK /C.O. MEANING It refers to an individuals social In the C.O. work, it is abehavior which i s intended to group/collective/ organized effortinfluence the actions of one or to change social andmore persons. economic conditions, Any expenditure of effort by a group as such; all- conscious or unconscious, concerted orcollective effort. The term social means interaction of individuals in society, mutualrelations of men or classes; it also includes political economic, cultural and ethical aspects.Used as a prefix to action, it carries the connotation of a collectivity and an organizationworking to achieve an end. The element of spontaneity and consciousness is particularlystressed by the term social. Lobbying is the practice of influencing decisions made by government. It includes all attempts toinfluence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents or organized groups. A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a member of alobby. Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL ACTION Compiled byS.RengasamyMadurai Institute of Social Sciences Social action is not an alien concept to India, even though its origin is attributed to the west. Thehistory of social action in this country dates back to eighteenth and nineteenth centuries whenreformers fought against the evils of sati, child marriage, widowhood practices for women and

Understanding Social Action - Social Action for Social Workers -_S.Rengasamy 2 ASSUMPTIONS OF SOCIAL ACTION

1). Assumption regarding the present power structure.2). Assumption regarding the nature of social welfare delivery mechanism3). Assumption regarding the economic growth.4). Assumption regarding the welfare state5). Assumption regarding the nature of human problems.6). Assumption regarding the human rights We claim that democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.But in reality democracy seems to be thegovernment off (silence) the people, buy thepeople (to get votes) and far (away from) thepeople the devadasi system. Mahatma Gandhi with his principle of nonviolence used social action toraise the status of women and dalits and brought about fundamental changes in socialrelationships in India. This legacy still continues as various contemporary, voluntary and professional groups are joining hands to oppose, or promote public policies and programsaffecting the common people.Of late, social welfare discipline in India realized that it cant makeany dent in the field of mass poverty. Social was thus conceived as a method of social work whenthe inadequacy of welfare measures led to the need of social reform in the beginning of the present century in the west and around the 1960s in India 1. ASSUMPTION REGARDING THE PRESENT POWER STRUCTURE : The advocates of democracy feel that contemporary democratic system operating for the benefit of most groups and consider theexisting social structure fundamentally soundand responsive to the peoples needs. Whether it is true? Experience shows that Government isinaccessible to most of the people. Governmenthas become a power center, with a vestedinterest to maintain the status quo of themicroscopic minority. Politics and Government is a power center, through which the rich and the powerful exercise control over the weak and the poor. This alienated men from the society become nonparticipants in the social life. This is not a healthy situation. To overcome this, thedisadvantaged segments of the community need to be organized to gain more power to equitablydistribute the resources and to attain the principles of democracy and social justice. 2. ASSUMPTION REGARDING THE NATURE OF SOCIAL WELFARE DELIVERY MECHANISM: Industrial revolution brought many benefits. Some gained the benefits. Many people fell behind.They became the victims of industrial revolution and they needed help to survive. Social work offered this help through provision of services. Social workers helped, enabled and evenmanaged the victims of the system to adjust to it. Which is the right path? Advising the victimsto adjust with the sick society or changing the system to adjust to the needs of the members. 3. ASSUMPTION REGARDING THE ECONOMIC GROWTH:

There has been rising standard of life as a whole. But the distribution of income, it was felt wasincreasingly to the disadvantage of the poor section of the population. The oft quoted Mattheweffect, i.e. rich are becoming richer and poor are becoming poor was felt keenly. Improvingeconomic condition along with social and psychological conditions of the poor was urgentlysought, so that the poor could play equal and effective role in the society. 4. ASSUMPTION REGARDING THE WELFARE STATE: The welfare state is said to include all government functions that lead to intervention in thesociety for the sake of securing human well being with the exception of military intervention.But what is the nature of these interventions? The social services are products of, and responsiveto a social order that values economic growth and political stability above human well being and

Understanding Social Action - Social Action for Social Workers -_S.Rengasamy 3 From this we can derive three hypotheses1. Welfare is a power game; through which the rich and the powerful exercise control over the weak and the poor.2. The rich corner the gains of the welfare, but for that the poor has to pay.3. There is no way to alleviate the situation unless one socializes the welfare and the clients of thesystem take over its administration.

uses social services and other helping professions try to preserve and strengthen the ideologies, behaviors and structures of the status quo. Impoverished group remains despite the welfare state. 5. ASSUMPTION REGARDING THE NATURE OF HUMAN PROBLEMS Welfare needs of the people can arise not because of any personal draw backs or shortcoming of the needy, they are caused by the inherent defects in the social system. Social action situates the problems of human rights and injustice in a systemic perspective. Personal troubles and publicissues are interlinked. It must be understood in terms of public issues. 6. ASSUMPTION REGARDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS Welfare services should be provided to the people as a matter of right, which they may be able toclaim. BASIC ASSUMPTION OF SOCIAL ACTION There is a certain power center with a vested interest, which controls the policies andadministration of welfare services in each country, which needs to be corrected. SOCIAL ACTION MEANING AND DEFINITIONS The term social means interaction of individuals in society, mutual relations of men or classes; it also includes political economic, cultural and ethical aspects. Used as a prefix toaction, it carries the connotation of a collectivity and an organization working to achieve an end.The element of spontaneity and consciousness is particularly stressed by the term social. DEFINITIONS: 1. DICTIONARY OF SOCILOGY : Any expenditure of effort by a group as such; all-conscious or unconscious, concerted or collective effort 2. MARY RICHMOND (1922) Social action is mass betterment through propaganda and sociallegislation; a method of bringing about a change in the social environment of the clients. 3. PETER LEE (1937): Social action seems to suggest efforts directed towards changes in law or social structure or towards the initiation of new movements for the modification of currentsocial practices.4.

LR GRACE. L. COYEE: Social action is the attempt to change the social environment in ways,which will make life more satisfactory. It aims to affect not individuals but socialinstitutions, laws, customs and communities.5. Social action is a systematic, conscious effort directed to influence the basic social conditionand policies out of which arise the problems of social adjustment and maladjustment to whichour service as social workers is addressed.6. Social action is described as an organized group effort to solve mass social problems or tofurther socially desirable objectives by attempting to influence the basic social and economicconditions or practices.

Understanding Social Action - Social Action for Social Workers -_S.Rengasamy 4 7. Social action is a term applied to that aspect of organized social welfare activity directedtowards shaping, modifying or maintaining the social institutions and policies thatcollectively constitute the better adjustment of the social environment.... To meet therecognized needs of the individuals and to facilitate those relationships and adjustmentsnecessary to its own best functioning.8. Social action may be defined as efforts to bring about change or to prevent change in currentsocial practices and situations, through education, propaganda, persuasion or pressure on behalf of the objectives believed by the social scientists to be socially desirable.9. Social action has been viewed by professional social workers as a means for improving massconditions, enhancing social welfare, solving mass problems, influencing basic socialconditions and policies out of which arise the problems of social adjustment andmaladjustment; and changing the environment.10. Social action may be defined as a public promotion of a cause, measure or objective in aneffort to obtain support or official action. Ordinarily social action involves organized effortsto influence public opinion or official policy or executive action through enlistment of thesupport of groups or individuals.11. Organized effort to change social and economic institutions as distinguished from social work or social service, the fields of which do not characteristically cover essential changes inestablished institutions. Social action covers movements of political reform, industrialdemocracy, social legislation, social justice, religious freedom and civil liberty. Its techniquesinclude propaganda, research and lobbying.12. Social action is an individual, group or community effort within the framework of socialwork philosophy and practices those aims to

achieve social progress, to modify social policies, and to improve social legislation and health and welfare services.13. MV MOORTHY: Social action is a series of endeavors concerned with awakening the peopleto see, as well as to foresee their own problems and attack them through the swift course of combined action or legislative enactment.14. Social action as a strategy of limited social change at the intermediate and macro levels of society that is used in non consensus situations and employs both norm adhering and normtesting modes of intervention.15. Social action is an organized and learned activity that attempt to influence social distributionof status, power and sources. 16. PHILIP KOTLER: Social action is defined as an undertaking of collective action tomitigate or resolve a social problem. 17. KK. JACOB: (1963) Social action is essentially an effort at initiating suitable changes andreforms to improve socio-economic conditions and to better the social climate.18. TRESSIE ARANHA (1984): Social action is a type of social work intervention, where thechange agent system (individual/group/organization) acts on behalf of the client system, toredress the injustice it is suffering, by seeking through a legitimate authority to bring about

Understanding Social Action - Social Action for Social Workers -_S.Rengasamy 5

change in the social structures that are causing injustice.19. G.A.A. BRITTO (1980): Social action is the method of social work which is used for/ with /byany unit of society larger than the sociologically defined communities. 20. G.A.A. BRITTO: Social action is a conflictual process of varying intensity, initiated andconducted by the masses or by a group of elites, with or without the participation of themasses in the action against the structures or institutions or policies or programs orprocedures of the government and /or relevant agencies and/or power groups toeradicate/ control any mass socioeconomic political problem with a view to bringingbetterment to any section of the under privileged at a level larger than that of asociologically defined communities. 21. NANAVATHY (1965): Social action as a process of bringing about desired changes bydeliberate group and community effort.... Social action does not end with the enactment andsigning of social legislation, but that the execution of policies is the real test of the success or failure of social action. 22. SUGATA DAS GUPTA: Social action is applied to that aspect of social welfare activity which isdirected towards shaping or modifying the social institutions and policies that constitutes thesocial environment in which we live. 23. R.R. SINGH: Social action may be defined as a process of individual, institutional and/orgroup effort, spontaneous, self initiated or directed- which is designed at the grass rootsor macro levels. To consciously and collectively deal with a situation consideredunsatisfactory, through marshalling of appropriate resources and timely use of variousparticipatory action strategies either within the legal framework or outside it.

24. H.Y. SIDDIQUI: Social action should be seen as an endeavor to bring about or prevent changein the social system through a process of making people aware of the socio political andeconomic realities conditioning their lives and by mobilizing them to organize themselves for bringing about the desired change, or to prevent the change that adversely affects them,through the use of whatever strategies they may find workable, with the exception of violence. In the process of social action, group work knowledge and skills will be utilized soalso the techniques of community organization. But the process require additionalknowledge and skills of bringing a wide variety of people and interest groups together inorder to work for a common purpose; therefore the relevant skills would have to bespecifically identified; this requires a very thorough understanding of the political andeconomic forces operating in a society and a very clear understanding or the goals to beachieved and probable strategies to be followed. SCOPE AND GOALS OF SOCIAL ACTION: Scope of social action. is limited by the scope of social work Scope of social action is limited by the understanding of the causative factors of human problems Scope of social action. is determined by the convictions of the Social Worker

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