SOCIAL ACTION AND SOCIAL WORK

AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCING SOCIAL ACTION

MARY RICHMOND WAS THE FIRST SOCIAL WORKER TO USE THE WORD SOCIAL ACTION IN 1922. SOCIOLOGICAL MEANING: IT REFERS TO AN INDIVIDUALS SOCIAL BEHAVIOR WHICH IS INTENDED TO INFLUENCE THE ACTIONS OF ONE OR MORE PERSONS. SOCIAL WORK MEANING: IT IS A GROUP/COLLECTIVE/ORGANISED EFFORT TO CHANGE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.

Social Action Is Not An Alien Concept To India, Even Though Its Origin Is Attributed To The West. The History Of Social Action In This Country Dates Back To Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries When Reformers Fought Against The Evils Of Sati, Child Marriage, Widowhood Practices For Women And The Devadasi System. Mahatma Gandhi With His Principle Of Non-violence Used Social Action To Raise The Status Of Women And Dalits And Brought About Fundamental Changes In Social Relationships In India. This Legacy Still Continues As Various Contemporary, Voluntary And Professional Groups Are Joining Hands To Oppose, Or Promote Public Policies And Programs Affecting The Common People Of Late, Social Welfare Discipline In India Realized That It Cant Make any Dent In The Field Of Mass Poverty. Social Action Was Thus Conceived As A Method Of Social Work When The 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.

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 to action, 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: MARY RICHMOND (1922) :Social action is mass betterment through propaganda and social legislation; a method of bringing about a change in the social environment of the clients.

MV MOORTHY: Social action is a series of endeavors concerned with awakening the people to see, as well as to foresee their own problems and attack them through the swift course of combined action or legislative enactment. G.A.A. BRITTO (1980): Social action is the method of social work which is used for/ with /by any unit of society larger than the sociologically defined communities. TRESSIE ARANHA (1984): Social action is a type of social work intervention, where the change agent system(individual/group/organization) acts on behalf of the client system, to redress the injustice it is suffering, by seeking through a legitimate authority to bring about change in the social structures that are causing injustice.

OBJECTIVES AND GOALS OF SOCIAL ACTION

The objectives of social action is the proper shaping and development of socio cultural environment in which a richer and fuller life may be possible for all the citizens. Following goals of social action has been identified : Prevention of Changes considered as negative. Solution of mass problem. Improvement in mass conditions. Influencing institutions, politics and practice. Introduction of new mechanism or programmes. Redistribution of power and resources (human, material, moral). Decision making. Effect on thought and action structure and Improvement in health, education and welfare.

PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL ACTION

Activeness of group or community. Democratic working. Democratic leadership. Arrangement of resources. Co-ordination between problem and resources. Co-operation. Public opinion.

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL ACTION

SKILLS INVOLVED IN SOCIAL ACTION

The skills needed by the social workers for social action are no different from the general skills; professional social worker uses these skills by combining the ethics and principle of professional social work. However the social worker using social action as a method of social work requires certain skills; the more important among these are briefly below: Relational skills. Analytical and research skills. Intervention skills. Managerial skills. Community skills. Training skills

RELATIONAL SKILLS

The social worker should have skills for building rapport with individual and groups and skills for maintaining these relations. He/she should be able to develop and maintain professional relationship the clients. The social worker should have the ability to identify the leadership qualities among the clientele and should be skillful to harness these qualities for social actions.

ANALYTICAL AND RESEARCH SKILLS

The social worker should have the ability to objectively study the socio-cultural and economic characteristic of the community. He/she should be able to find out the pressing problems and needs of the clientele. He/she should be able to analyses the social problems, the factor contributing to the social problems and its ramifications on the social, economic. Political, ideology, cultural, ecological aspects of life. Also should be able to conduct research and understand the impact of research studies in a functional sense.

INTERVENTION SKILLS

Intervention skills: After need identification, the social worker should have the ability to help the clientele chalk out practical intervention strategies to deal with the problem. The social worker should provide various options to the clientele. Social action may require confrontation with authorities.

MANAGERIAL SKILLS

The social worker also needs the knowledge and ability to handle organization, which may be the outcome of the institutionalization of peoples participation. He /she should be able to coordinate and collaborate with various groups and local leaders so as to unite the clientele for the require intervention.

COMMUNITY SKILLS

These skills are highly crucial for social action. The social worker should have the ability to develop effective public relations with local organization and leaders. He/she should be effectively able to communicate verbally and in writing as well. The social worker should have skills to educate, facilitate, negotiate and persuade for necessary actions at needed place.

TRAINING SKILLS

The social worker should be able to train local leader and identified leaders for taking up the charge of mass mobilization and confrontation with the authorities. He/she should be able to train selected people at the local level aimed at imparting knowledge about the social issues taken up for action and modalities of carrying out the intervention including the confrontation process.

STRATEGIES OF SOCIAL ACTION

Strategy in term of social action means to organize strike. Boycott, persuade, negotiate, bargain, etc. There is hardly any consensus on the strategies that are possible and available, which can form the core of social action practice. However, three main strategies indentified by Lees are: Collaboration. Competition, Bargaining, Negotiation, Advocacy. Disruption, and confrontation

PARTIAL LIST OF SOCIAL ACTION MOVEMENTS IN

INDIA

Chipko movement Save Silent Valley Narmada Bachao Andolan Anna Hazare's Movement Against Corruption Baba Ramdev's black money movement

CONCLUSION
Thus we can say, Social action can be viewed by professional social workers as a means for improving mass conditions , enhancing social welfare, solving mass problems , influencing basic social conditions and policies out of which arise the problems of social adjustment and maladjustment; and changing the environment. Social action is an individual, group or community effort within the framework of social work philosophy and practices those aims to achieve social progress, to modify social policies, and to improve social legislation and health and welfare services.

Presented By Group-V Okram Victoria, Roll no.39 Parijat Bhattacharjee, Roll no.40 Pomi Patikar, Roll no.41 Priyanka Das, Roll no.42 Rahul Chanda, Roll no.43 Rajalal Barman, Roll no.44 Rajashree Roy, Roll no.45 Rajiv Chanda, Roll no.46 Ringsawmile Newme, Roll no.47

Prepared By Rajashree Roy

Department of Social Work, Assam University, Silchar