Reconstructing Meaningful Life Worlds: A New Approach to Social Work Practice

by Oshita, Yumi, Ph.D.; Kamo, Kiyoshi, Msw

• ISBN13: 9781462006175
• ISBN10: 1462006175
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-28
• Publisher: Author Solutions

Excerpts

What is social work? In Japan, the answer is unclear, and because of this, there is great confusion in this field. For example, many of our graduate school students have reported on the disastrous situation which social workers in Japan face. They have reported that a lot of social workers experience burnout in Japan, because they have to help a wide variety of clients without the benefit of a consistently effective method. Their descriptions of the problems which social workers in Japan face was impressed us and motivated us to closely review academic publications of social work in recent years. We examined many academic journals and other publications of social work. We reached the conclusion that the theories and the skills of current social work is stuck in a blind alley. This conclusion is what motivated us ten years ago to embark on the theorization of a new social work approach. We began a re-construction of the social work approach with consideration of the basic social theory, skills, and empirical measurement. The foundation we developed is an elucidation of a concept of the social world and concept of social work which form the main components of an adequate social work theory.