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Chapter 8. Macro Practice, Social Development and Social Pedagogy
Social workers uses these three approaches bring together people with similar interests or needs in order
to identify shared concerns and then work together to overcome them. Those people may be in a particular
locality or joined by similar interests or needs. As a result, the approaches focus on social and educational
rather than psychological interventions. Ideas from the three form a bridge between problem-solving and
empowerment objectives.
Terminology
Activation By activating people, those who are not making progress in their lives undertake instead
personal development thus increasing their motivation and the likelihood taking advantage of
opportunities.
Capacity-building This increases the understanding and skills required by excluded individuals, groups,
and communities to increase their level of participation in society.
Community work The international term for what is called in America macro practice with an emphasis on
social change; practices that help people come together to identify issues of concern and take action.
Macro practice The American term for the international term community work that emphasizes policy
change. Macro focuses on changing or building social organizations for the benefit of those excluded from
society.
Social capital The development of social capital allows an increase in community and social infrastructure
resources for individuals, groups, and communities.
Social development theory This approach organizes ideas about macro social work into a system of
practice for developing strength and resilience of social institutions mainly in local communities of
resource-poor areas.
Social exclusion These focus on approaches to helping stigmatized and disadvantaged communities play a
stronger role in society by providing them with resources and opportunities for participation.
Social pedagogy This is a significant tradition in mainland Europe and sees social work as a positive
educational process for individuals and groups; social pedagogy is largely absent from English-speaking
countries.
Key Ideas
Macro practice/community work help people identify and take action on problems.
Both areas have been influenced by social development (formerly community development) practices in
resource-poor countries.
Social development is the main form of social work in resource-poor countries.
Social development incorporates social progress with economic development in areas where economic
development takes political priority. Social development has been influenced by community work
methods.
Social pedagogy focuses on individual and self-development/education interaction.
The practice is found to be particularly useful with children in residential and day care in Europe and in
other countries. The practice emphasizes community work in which there is an interaction between
individual and collective self-development and education.
A number of issues contribute to the separation of community work.
While all three have been integral social work as a whole and useful to practitioners generally, a number of
issues contribute to a separation between community work and other areas of social work practice.
Therapeutic work with individuals and families focuses on tight timetables and interpersonal objectives
while community practice uses longer timeframes and broader social objectives. As a result, practitioners
in either area often feel that they do have not the expertise or mandate to work in other. More generally,
many practitioners of one group see the ideals of their work as being in opposition to the objectives of the
other. Those methods are commonly regarded as separate professional activities such as separate
professional careers for Western workers in international non-governmental organizations. Finally, these
approaches have emerged in different geographical areas and in fact have generated separate national and
international organizations.
There are both differences and similarities among the three areas.
Since all of these practices draw on similar skills, values and theoretical ideas the differences among the
separate theoretical sources for them are not substantial. Community and macro originated to improve
social participation of excluded people in developed countries. Social development came about to develop
wide and supportive networks of relationships in resource-poor country economic development. Social
pedagogy began as an educational development process. Community work and social development have
shared a shared origin; macro is an American version of community work ideas; and social pedagogy
clearly overlaps with social work professions and community practice.
What role does participation have in macro, social development, and community work?
All three approaches relate to participatory approaches in all kinds of social services. For example, they all
require skills in interpersonal and group communication that relate closely to social work skills and so to
empowerment practice. All three also can apply self-help approaches with local grassroots organizations
so as to help personal education and development as well as giving priority to local opinions. Participation
of course may not address the role of the state in modern life. In addition, participation practice may focus
attention on local solutions when consultation might bring about knowledge of other approaches.
Participants may also be manipulated or the fact that participants are living in the same locale may be
assumed to have similar interests but in fact not.
Do these theories focus more on social change or social order?
Macro, social development, and social pedagogy focus on social change but are generally used within state
services where therapeutic and problem-solving practices are the main form of practice. This practice
accepts the existing social order and seeks to reform and improve society rather than bring about
extensive social changes. While many defend these theories as focused on social change (such as
improvements in human rights, peace, and social justice), the changes imply an evolution rather than a
transformation of society as called for by critical theory. Overall, macro practice, community work
practice, social development, and social pedagogy are more focused on acceptance and maintenance of
existing social orders and critical and empowerment theories are more focused on social change.
There are multiple major components of macro practice.
Macro practice attempts to achieve lasting change by altering the economic, political, and social
environment. Macro practice attempts to help people excluded by powerful interests in society from
participating in major decisions that affect their lives. The goals include achieving increased influence and
capacity to achieve individual and collective life goals. Macro social work focuses on small groups (such as
teenage offenders); families, parents, and mothers who can come together to deal with problems (such as
behaviorally disturbed children); and areas where there are cultural issues (such as different ethnic
groups). This is particularly useful when new communities are being formed; issues of particular work
communities (such as health and safety); concern about the environment (such as new infrastructure
projects); or issues concerned with shared spiritual concerns (such as isolated faith groups).
The central value issue in macro practice is to manage intrusion.
The central value issue in macro practice is to manage the intrusion of the agency and the practitioner into
the objectives of the group, organization or community that the practice is designed to help. For example,
practitioners have to manage the tendency on the part of the agency to control or even set the aims and
methods that the group, organization or community will follow. This tendency is common in government
policy, which at times may impose professional or political ideas about what the members should achieve
rather than the members identifying should they achieve.
The major components of social development promote individual well-being.
Social development aims to promote individual well-being by social changes so that problems are
managed, needs are met, and advancement made possible. The concept implies accepting the idea that
knowledge and social institutions move individuals forward to a social ideal. Social development aims at
broader groups, such as communities, and the social relations in those societies. It is universalistic rather
than selective; the development of the welfare state and social planning provided extensive social
interventions for the general benefit in industrialized societies, for example. As a result, social
development is a process where interventions occur in a connected and planned series such as education
and literacy working to overcome traditional male attitudes; these may operate on three levels—
individualistic, collectivist, and statist. The risk in these efforts is that they may control freedom and have
other adverse effects stemming from government interventions or capitalism.
What are the major components of social pedagogy?
Social pedagogy aims at the social aspects of education that focus on the poor. The theory emphasizes that
education can combat social exclusion; develop social identity; and bring about personal and social growth
by problem solving rather than just the resolution of personal problems. Social pedagogy was developed
by German philosophers and of particular use in non-English-speaking Europe where it is often applied in
child welfare settings. One advantage of this approach is that the subjects learn from social pedagogues
how to handle themselves. In some countries of Europe, social pedagogy practitioners form a separate
professional group who focus varies from country to country.
‘Community work’ applies large public agency strength to the needs of small communities.
This largely British practice, strongest in the 1970s and 1980s, organized the services of large general
public agencies to focus on the needs of small communities who lacked resources or the skills to apply
those resources. In doing so, it sought to link social work with a range of social care services in order to
provide locally responsive services meeting identified needs, while engaging those communities in
volunteering and mutual support.
Social entrepreneurship aims at trying to help improve the social work profession.
In the early twenty-first century, social entrepreneurship developed by persons seeking to build businesslike professional attitudes and organizational structures among the social professions.
Final Thoughts…
Together the ideas described in this chapter suggest a range of approaches that social workers in rich and
resource-poor countries have applied to help individuals, groups, and communities engage people with
similar interests to come together, identify problems, and work together to overcome them. Although
these ideas tend to be more oriented to supporting rather than changing the social order, the effectiveness
of these approaches is well established in multiple settings and many of the techniques accessible by most
social workers.