good afternoon we need a little bit of energy in the room it's been a really
long week good afternoon and welcome to those of you who I have not met I'm
Deborah Gorman Smith I'm the interim dean of the University of Chicago School
of Social Service administration which is always hard to say after a long week
it's a great honor for our school SSA and for a social service review to be
part of this important symposium and it's my distinct honor to introduce the
organizer of this event my SSA colleague mark Courtney it's no surprise that mark
has masterminded this symposium marks list of contributions to the Social Work
profession is long and distinguished he has received honors from swor the
American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and the National
Association of public child welfare administrators among others and just
last month the University of Chicago appointed him the Samuel Doe h
professorship at ssa an honor once held by sofonisba Breckinridge our school's
founder an original thinker and visionary who helped revolutionize the
Social Work profession Breckinridge was also the founding editor along with
Edith adda Abbot SSA is first Dean of the Social Service review which mark now
edits today under marks leadership SSR retains its remarkable tradition in
examining a broad array of topics and critically assessing the professions
capacity in navigating and responding to social welfare challenges now through
this symposium mark applies that keen editorial spirit to help us confront the
landscape facing the profession in its second century he has identified the
issues that require nimble thinking new tools and nuanced solutions and the
presenters who will share their insights and how we can continue to enact
meaningful change as many of you know mark scholarship and advocacy have
helped to reset agendas and rewrite affecting foster care profoundly
impacting and enhancing the lives of tens of thousands of youth in that same
spirit this symposium is a chance to examine debate and reset the agenda
guiding the future of Social Work this will be an essential and
thought-provoking afternoon thanks to all of you for being part of this
discussion and hats off to mark for leading this far-reaching dialogue thank
you mark I'll turn it over to you thank you for that very generous introduction
so welcome everyone I want to thank the other work and I mean yes I take a lot
of responsibility for this but it clearly wouldn't have been possible
without the American Academy of Social Work and social welfare as partner and
the Society for Social Work and research also we owe deep thanks to Michael
sawsan the the late and long-term editor of social service review who is the
quest to the school made the funding for this possible my charge today really is
to is to start the symposium by answering a question at least in my
satisfaction hopefully yours why now why celebrate the 100th anniversary the
profession now haven't we had a few of those already some many years ago and
then secondly if we're going to do that and think going forward what questions
are being asked in tentatively asked are tentatively answered at the symposium so
this is the first page of the National Conference of Social Work in 1917 but
two years before that the National Conference of charities and Corrections
that that conference received considerable attention in histories of
American Social Work do the discussion there whether social work was at the
time in fact a profession probably the most attention focused on a speech by
Abraham Flexner he had been invited by the organizers of
the conference because he was an author of an influential report on medical
education in United States to speak at the annual conference in the topic is
social worker profession he famously answered that social work did not meet
the criteria that he believed to find a profession criticizing in particular
the lack of a single coherent purpose the diffuse scope of his activities and
inadequate development of a specialized professional body of knowledge less
attention that has been paid to the address by Porter Lee one of the
organizers of the conference and then director of the New York school of
philanthropy which would ultimately become the Columbia University School of
Social Work his speech entitled the professional basis of social work asked
the following question if it is or is to be a profession has a definite
characteristics which will admit all those who claim the name or which will
automatically exclude some the announcements of this conference
described this is the greatest gathering of social works social workers on the
continent and I've asked you to think about this list and how long it is and
how long the list would be now if we try to do the same thing
our membership includes public officials institution officers play leaders parish
workers charity organizations secretaries probation officers placing
out agents nurses settlement workers medical social service workers prison
heads friendly visitors truant officers matrons teachers as special groups
members of boards of directors tenant inspector tenement inspectors public
welfare directors social investigators executives of agencies for social
legislation industrial betterment leaders those who work with immigrants
factory inspectors and to avoid omitting any many others is the tie which gives
coherence to this group a professional one I'll repeat that question because I
think it's still timely is the tie which gives coherence to this group a
professional one flexion airs characterization of professions is
consistent with how functional sociologist talk at Parsons first and
then scholars like and Social Work like Ernest green wood or the sociologist
Nina Turin described professions and from that perspective professions are
occupations that exhibit characteristics to help them carry out their function in
society more recently however scholarship has focused more on
professionalization as a process our will be the most influential scholarship
on professions is the 1988 book the system of professions by the sociologist
and rabbit key elements of history include the following observations the
appropriate perspective on the development and change of professions is
ecological to understand professions one must study jurisdictions or areas of
work over which occupational groups of a high professions themselves constitute a
system the struggle between professions occurs at three levels the workplace
culture and public opinion and legal and administrative rules and regulations the
most consequential struggles concern issues of competence and theory and
successful professions maintain what Albert referred to as quote a strategic
heartland monopoly over a chorus diction Stanley Winokur and Academy of Social
Work and social welfare member Michael Rice's book from charity to enterprise
the development of American social work in a market economy post a year after
Abbott's book makes a similar argument in many ways but frames the development
of professions and the Social Work profession in particular much more
strongly within a political economic frame it's quote from the book we view a
profession as a quasi corporate enterprise whose members have obtained a
substantial degree of control over the production distribution and consumption
of a needed service commodity the degree of control is never complete its nature
and extent vary over time with socio-political economic ideological and
technological developments within the enterprise itself and the broader
society so how from this modern view of professions as processes of turf
claiming and maintenance might we view the 1915 National Conference of
charities and Corrections where Flexner and and Lee spoke seems to me that the
observations of the outside are Flexner and the insider Lee both speaks as
fundamental questions that the creators of American social works struggle with
at that time and that Social Work scholars educators and practitioners
often struggle with today is social work really a profession if so what are the
boundaries of its professional turf and what knowledge does a profession need to
claim and maintain that turf so two years later you'll notice a difference
here it's no longer the National Conference of cherries in Corrections
it's the National Conference of Social Work and so the members of the National
Conference of cherries in Corrections answer the question posed and
19:15 resoundingly yes by renaming their gathering the National Conference of
Social Work 1917 was a fundamental turning point in the evolution of Social
Work profession in the United States arguably the true birth of the
professional enterprise to be sure the fairly distinct core groups that made up
the nascent profession the managers of state and local institutions that care
for marginalized populations the developers and purveyors of scientific
charity and the social reformers of the settlement movement had been meeting
together for many years at the conference and often at the state and
local level some but not all of them even refer to themselves as social
workers and there were a few educational programs training individuals for work
in charity civics and philanthropy and the National Conference had begun to
make space for the kind of critical self-reflection the professionals are
known to engage in such as the sessions devoted to the talks by Flexner and Lee
and this event today in other words the aspiration of many of the participants
in the National Conference to professionalize their work was clear
before 1917 nevertheless it was in 1917 that the string cadres of would-be
professional social workers agreed to formally renamed their collective
enterprise social work this was not a trivial change for the organization nor
did it simply represented enough effort to catch up with changes that already
taken place in the field founded Knights 1874 the National Conference of
charities and corrections had borne its name for over four decades prior to the
1917 meeting the educational programs training individuals to work in
charities administration a social reform did not routinely start calling
themselves schools of social work and so after 1917 the association of training
schools for professional social workers later the American Association of
schools for social work and still later the Council on social education did not
form until 1919 similarly social professional associations such as the
American Association of Social Workers came together after the 1917 conference
both the 1917 conference in our conference today take place in periods
of rapid change and uncertainty I'm gonna read now from the preface to the
conference proceedings to give a sense of that conference convened the day
after the initial military registration so think about that it's
that time now but at least we didn't you know enter a war the day before the
meeting started much of the subsequent development of national organization
official and voluntary had not yet been projected the stripping effects of war
on our domestic life could only be imagined who could foretell the
transformation of social movements and organizations and their new
relationships under the circumstances of the war
I would submit you could ask a similar question about the circumstances that
our profession is in these days continuing to read from the proceedings
that the conference met is indeed an important fact to be observed this was a
signal for all agencies represented in its councils to hold firmly to their
courses the need for consultation was evidenced by an unprecedented attendance
more than four thousand delegates registering pretty impressive partner to
get around back down finally it will scarcely escape notice that the name
which is say served this organization for 44 years has been changed to
National Conference of Social Work and that for the simple rules of procedure
which since 1893 have served the purposes of the conference have been
substituted a detailed Constitution and bylaws so they they went from just being
meeting to an organization and the membership organization of that that
only cost three dollars to join 58 dollars in today's terms pretty good
deal in the preamble of the Constitution the mission of the organization's laid
out is the National Conference of Social Work exists to facilitate discussion of
the problems and methods of practical human improvement to increase the
efficiency of agencies and institutions devoted to this cause and to disseminate
information the Constitution also talks about divisions of the organization the
programs of the conference shall be grouped under divisions at which the
following shall be continuous from year to year
children delinquents in correction health public agencies and institutions
the family industrial and economic problems and the local community again
sounds rather familiar now a century later it seems timely to consider how
well Social Work is faring across its diverse professional turf in many ways
that turf is expanded in other ways when I say as presidency in Corrections as we
months might but the American Academy has a grand challenge too
that problem it also seems appropriate members of the Academy of Social Work
and Social Welfare Society for Social Research paused to assess the
professional enterprise since our jobs as academics are
dependent on the existence and health of the profession and we play key roles in
the reproduction of that profession memberships of the Academy of Social
Work and social welfare dominated by scholars employed by social risk schools
and departments at elite research universities its legitimacy and seeking
to a common accomplish its mission of achieving excellence in the field of
Social Work in Social Welfare through high-impact work that advances social
good is largely dependent on its ability to help maintain an excellent profession
through scholarship and the same I believe must be said for the much larger
membership of the Society for Social Work and research that's the boards of
the Academy hence were enthusiastically embrace the idea of a symposium to take
stock of the profession in the case to me that there's a great interest on the
part of leading Social Work scholars in doing so so in keeping with that I'm
very excited about social service reviews role in organising the symposium
and and our masthead has changed at some point I want to go back and figure out
when that happened but if you look at the first issue published back in 1927
it it describes the organization as a quarterly devoted to these scientific
and professional interests of Social Work so I think I would say that's a
great mission for all scholars of Social Work frankly scientific and professional
interests of Social Work so what questions seem important to ask as we
assess the state of the profession questions guiding the symposium are what
is the state of scholarship in the profession itself in the core areas of
Social work's professional turf what are the central roles of the profession in
this area of our professional turf what the Social Work bring to this area
that's unique or essential to other professions don't what can be said about
how well the profession is filling those roles today what are promising
directions for the profession the second century and the kinds of scholarship
necessary to sustain the professional enterprise going forward and sort of sum
that up how well our Social Work Scholars helping to my in the
professional store before turning it over to the first speaker I want to make
a few things clear first of all we we went into viewing this symposium not as
the the answer to these questions but really the beginning or perhaps a
renewal of a conversation within the profession about its status and
promising future directions while I consulted with Academy members and other
colleagues about potential presenters and discussions I made the final
decision so the buck stops would be in that regard but I'm quite happy with the
folks that have been willing to participate in this and I also want to
acknowledge that these questions are far too broad for anyone to do justice to in
a single paper let alone its way med presentation again we hope to spur
further consideration of the questions raised by the symposium