Social Science and Social Welfare: Toward a Society for the Solution of Social Problems

Authors

Andrew Billingsley, Howard University

Abstract

Excerpt from the full-text article:

Do existing social work texts contribute to a student's recognition of professional values and issues and of the implicit ideological bases for these? The following study contends that they do not, and that their failures are quite similar to those found by Mills in his examination social pathology texts.

Our concern today with social science and social welfare policy is in keeping with the purposes and conceptions of the founders of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. In those early days these men and women were idealists- -they were reformists, but they also found themselves in an acute state of embarrassment. As humanitarians, idealists and reformists on the one hand, they were concerned about improving the conditions of society to make life more livable for all the people in the society. On the other hand, they were scientists-even though social scientists and they felt a mandate from their profession and their disciplines to eschew social reforms.

Recommended Citation

Billingsley, Andrew (1974) "Social Science and Social Welfare: Toward a Society for the Solution of Social Problems," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.1022
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol1/iss2/2