The Historical Roots of

Macro Practice

Prof. Helen Liu

16th September 2021
  The field of social work has been polarized by a
divide between a focus on the individual versus a
focus on the community since the very beginnings
History of of the profession.
Social Work’s  In the late 1800’s, two competing modes of what
came to be called ‘social work’ began vying for
Micro-Macro recognition: the Charity Organizations Society
Divide (COS) ( 慈善組織會社 ) and the settlement house
movement ( 睦鄰運動 ).
 These two models of care to the poor exemplify
the micro-macro divide, especially as it relates to
the role of the social worker in the change
process.
  Transition from an agriculture and rural spaces
to big cities and industry (Industrialization).
 The problem of dependent individual grew
Pre-Civil War
Period (1800- -mentally ill
1860) -disabled
-elderly
-orphans
 Residential
Institutions
Emerged as a
Solution
 Two Movements in Social Welfare Services Emerged

In the late
1800’s
  COS focused attention almost exclusively on individuals
and sought to provide charity and services to the poor;
 the COS model viewed the role of the worker as the
‘expert’ in the process of aid and change.
In the late 1800’s  By contrast, the settlement house movement focused
on the environment and communities in which the poor
lived by moving into the immigrant and oppressed
areas and developing an understanding of the issues
leading to an individual’s poverty;
 Settlement house workers then sought to work in
collaboration with the poor to achieve community
change, viewing the role of the worker as a facilitator in
the process of change.
Settlement
Movement
  Immigrant workers formed unions, demanding
better conditions and wages.
 Women became involved in the work force and
Tremendous fought for the right to vote and access to
Change higher education.
 African Americans organized and formed the
National Urban League in 1910 and the NAACP
in 1912.
  1900 to WWI-time of prosperity
 Sterilization of persons with
developmental disabilities, epilepsy, and
Progressive those deemed insane was constitutional
Era 進步時代  Child labor laws were reformed
(1890 -1920  Mother pensions to poverty stricken
year) widows
 Mental hygiene movement 心理衛生運動
 Aid to the blind, people with disabilities
  Roosevelt’s Federal Emergency Relief Act
and National Industrial Redevelopment
Act of 1933
Great  Settlement House’s influence in major
Depression policies (Social Security Act and
and New Deal unemployment insurance) and national
organizations (national Child Labor
Committee, NACCP, National
Consumer’s League)
  Significant social welfare policy shifts
 Human rights given more priority
The Impact of  The federal government’s involvement in social
welfare and the nations economy were
the Great cemented
Depression
 These changes helped to push forward the
development of professional social work
  War resolved economic problems
 Role of the Federal Govt. expanded
 African American and women’s movements
World War II progressed
and Postwar
Era between
1939 and 1945
  The profession experienced another period of
conflict between the micro and macro focus in that
period.
 community change efforts within the field met with
World War II resistance from many who associated community
social work efforts with Eurocentrism, colonialism
and Postwar and paternalism (( 歐洲中心主義，殖民主義和家長
Era between 主義 ), both nationally and internationally.
1939 and 1945  Modernization Theory and Marxist Dependency
Theory, both of which focused community
development as a process of assimilating oppressed,
resource-poor communities into the Western
industrialized model of ‘success’, are seen as largely
responsible for this resistance to community social
work (Payne, 2005).
  The country seemed to be stable and prosperous
 John F. Kennedy elected and discovered the misfortunes of many
Americans living in poverty.

Social Reform  Designed 2 major social welfare policy initiatives:

-the civil Rights Act
(1960-1970)
-the War on Poverty-Economic Opportunity Act (created VISTA,
Community Action, Food Stamps, Head Start, Medicare and
Medicaid)
  American social work saw yet another strong debate
between micro and macro interventions, this time
specific to the mode and location of therapy.
 As a result of the Civil Rights movement, Americans
experienced an increase in public awareness about
In the 1960’s and 1970’s oppression and concurrent trend toward engagement
with government, advocacy, and social change.
 Community Mental Health Centers began to emerge in
at-risk areas, and the profession refocused on the
person-in-environment.
 Yet, as the anti-war movement grew so did a return to
professional conservativism, which resulted in the
beginnings of the accreditation of social work programs
nationwide and a major shift in focus toward
psychodynamic therapy interventions.
  The growth in popularity of Liberation Theology in
that period directed the social work profession
once again toward macro level change.
In the late 1980’s and  Liberation Theology “focuses on movement from
1990’s oppression to liberation within concrete issues in
family life, rather than accepting oppression. Both
personal and ‘social’ sin (namely structural
oppression by social institutions) must be
overcome by non-violent social change through
personal empathy with other and their social
situation” (Payne, 2005, 210-211). (to be
continued)
  This required social workers to operate
their clinical practices in the context of
the larger society.
In the late 1980’s and  Liberationists sought to link individual
1990’s problems directly to “isms” within
communities and society, thus
addressing societal issues of racism and
oppression was essential to addressing
the individual needs of a client.
Trends
Underlying Social Conditions
the Ideology
Emergence Oppressed and Disadvantaged
of Social Population
Work
 Population growth and
Social Conditions
immigration
Industrialization
Urbanization
Change in institutional
structures
 Social Darwinism
Ideology Manifest Destiny
Progressivism
 Native Americans
Latinos
Oppressed and African Americans
Disadvantaged Asian Americans
Population
Women
Persons with disabilities
LGBT
  COS-New York School of Philanthropy
(1898) and Boston School of Social Work
(1904)-Social Diagnosis published in 1917
 Settlement House-Chicago School of
Social Work Civics
Education  Philanthropy (1907)- - First textbook on
community organizing published in 1921.
 Following Abrabam Flexner’s speech in
1915, social workers wanted to legitimize
the profession and needed a band wagon
to hop on-Freud and medical model.
Current  Social Conditions
Practice of  Ideology
Macro Social  Oppressed and Disadvantaged
Work Populations
  Poverty and Welfare reform
 Income inequality
 Affiliation and identification with
Social
community
Conditions
 Changes in organizations and delivery
systems
 Information age
  Native Americans
 Latinos
Oppressed and  African Americans
Disadvantaged
Population  Asian Americans
 Women
 Persons with disabilities
 LGBT
  the current social problems in Macau—
inequalities, problems in urban housing, traffic
and transportation, air pollution, crime and
deviant behaviour, and education.
Oppressed and  It does not focus on one social problem in
Disadvantaged detail; rather, it attempts to offer a broad
Population in picture of the issues from a sociological
Macao perspective.
 To help solve these problems, it seems that
Macau has to build a stronger civil society and
continue to democratise its political system.
 How Macau deals with these problems will
determine the identity that people in Macau
want to build for themselves
  1938 Public Charity Society ( 救濟及慈善委員會 ),
provided the poor citizens with “relief” (in cash or in
kind) service; its major service was to provide all the
social organizations that carried out relief service with
The financial assistance
transformation  1947 Public Relief Society ( 公共救濟總會 ) ， target
of social population-individual’s poverty and people with leprosy
orphan and abandoned babies, misfortunate
welfare policy adolescents, pregnant women, and baby.
in Macao  It established a system of social relief card to conduct
an economic and social investigation on all the poor
families and persons who claimed for assistance; the
social relief card would be delivered after investigation
and approval to increase the utilization efficiency of
resources and to put the limited resources into the
hand of persons who had such a need. (p127)
  Macau became a refugee center during WWII
causing its population to climb from about 200
thousand to about 700 thousand people within
In the war era II a few years.
between 1939  Most refugees refuge in rural China but many
benefited from the neutral status of Macau. By
and 1945 in that time, everyone suffered privations during
Macao (p.127) a war. Because of that, residents helped take
care of each other and tolerate each other.
 In these circumstances, the increased needs of
helpers evoked and develop support groups for
mutual support (p127).
  1955- 青洲區木屋大火造成二千多貧民無家可
歸，中華總商會、工聯會、鏡湖慈善會、同善堂
等四大社團鞋中蟲見災區及救助災民的工作
 1957- 颱風襲澳、菜農損失慘重
Regional
 1964- 台山牧場街火災
organizations
 1976- 青洲石仔塘大火
participations
The move towards community social work was the
in Macao start of development of community social work as a
method of social work .
 1956-resident established community-based
organization in Macao, including 澳門街坊福利
會、台山坊眾互助會、青洲坊眾互助會、望廈坊
眾互助會。
  1960- 澳門政府的公共救濟總會重組為公共
救濟處，其服務不斷發展，相繼出現更多不
同類型的社會服務，如膳食服務、災民服
務。同時相繼出現更多不同類型的社會服務
Regional 設施的建設，如飯堂、災民中心、復康中
organizations 心、盲人中心等。社會房屋及經濟房屋。
participations  社區發展工作 - 房屋政策，直接將生活貧困
in Macao 的木屋區居民，遷移至較新的地區，這亦帶
動了人口遷移的行動。
 同時，澳門各地居民紛紛以聯誼會，互助會
名稱成立以社區為本的組織。
  1960-1970- 共 16 間坊會成立，為居民提供各
類康樂及與民生相關的服務
 Public Relief Society was reorganized as Public
Regional Relief Branch and its services were developed
with many different types of services such as
organizations meal service, service for victims of disaster, etc.
participations And it gradually promoted the construction of
in Macao Macao social service facilities such as canteen,
centre for victims of disaster, rehabilitation
centre, and blind persons centre. The
administration also devoted itself to build
public houses.
  1967-e 公共救濟處又再重組，改稱為社會救濟處，
加強提供教育和康復服務對盲人及聾啞者以及貧
民。
 In accordance with the Legislative Decree No.1755 in
1967, Public Relief Branch was reshuffled to become
Regional Social Relief Division with improved services, for
organizations example, it strengthened the service to provide the
participations deaf and blind people with education and
rehabilitation services. It continued to be involved in
in Macao poverty fight and provided the citizens with financial
assistance. In addition, Social Relief Branch was
responsible totally for the health cost of the poor
persons and provided the poor students with half
amount of financial assistance for their tuition fee and
meal cost. The Branch was also involved in work of
stopping drinking, giving up drug and solving other
social problems for the citizens.
  Afterward, 多元服務 - 澳門各地的老人院
舍、殘疾者之家、幼兒院。
 More and more homes for the elderly, homes
Regional for the disabled and nurseries had been
organizations established. Later on, the canteen of Social
Relief Branch provided the students with free
participations meals. One of the priorities of the Branch at
in Macao that time was to develop and build houses for
the poor families. The Branch did not provide
only single relief service; it began to develop in
the direction of diversified social services.
  Social Relief Division was reorganized according to
27-C/79M Decree of 1979 and was officially named
as Macao Department for Social Welfare. The
services provided by the Department were
improved and upgraded to professional ones and it
required that staff being engaged in social welfare
must be at adequate educational level. The
Reform Policy Department would solve difficult problems for the
1980 citizens and develop social services by means of
professional interference.
 1979- 社會救濟處改組為社會工作司。
 社會工作司職權包含救助、協助處理、解決社會
問題、向社會服務的私人機構提供協助 ( 物資支
助 ) ，其活動包含組織參與與社區活動。這意味
社工司的工作已具社區理念 (p130)
  1986- 進一步改組，服務宗旨是透過提供金
錢物質、或技術支援，向經濟貧困的人士及
團體提供社會援助。推廣個人以及家庭社會
Reform Policy 褔利，進行社區發展工作。
1980  1989-establishment of community center- 接訪
總會於望廈區。
  1999-Macao’s return to China, 澳門社會工作
司改名為社會工作局，並將社區估做納入家
庭暨社區服務廳管轄。
Professional  There was a gradual increase in the number of
Development Community-from 8 center before the return to
14 centers in 2009.
  Please read the following questions and discuss
with your groupmate and choose one of the
following question to answer. Please summarize
and word count must be between 100-300 words in
length.
 1) Have you heard from any social action in Macao’s
Discussion community organized by residents or regional
organizations? If yes, please specify…
 2) Due to Wuhan coronavirus, schools stay closed
and offices remain shut down. In addition, residents
have been told to stay at home. NGOs in Macao are
looking into providing additional support in the
community. Give us some example of this action.