Social Work as a Profession: A Comparative Cross-national Perspective

£15.95

This volume is a pioneering study, offering a systematic global comparison of the professional features of social work. Intended for students, researchers, teachers and social work practitioners with an interest in the professional characteristics of social work and the sociology of the professions, it provides a broadly-based examination of trends in social work in diverse social and political contexts. The book takes a cross-national comparative perspective and includes in-depth analyses of the social work profession by national experts in ten countries with very different histories and practice settings: Chile, Germany, Hungary, India, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The country analyses examine a range of parameters of professional practice, from models of professional organization, application of a code of ethics and training requirements through to issues concerning monopoly over fields of practice, the degree of autonomy social work enjoys, and the level of remuneration and status that it is accorded. The book provides ample evidence of the existence of common professional characteristics for social work globally, but also underscores marked differences in the autonomy, monopoly and prestige of the profession across the world.