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Community work

  • Chapter
Social Work

Abstract

‘Community work has a long history as an aspect of social work’ (Payne, 1995, p. 165). Essentially, community work brings a focus upon helping ‘people with shared interests to come together, work out what their needs are among themselves and then jointly take action together to meet those needs, by developing projects which would enable the people concerned to gain support to meet them or by campaigning to ensure that they are met by those responsible’ (Payne, 1995, p. 165). Community work has generally been associated with holistic, collective, preventative and anti-discriminatory approaches to meeting social needs, based on value commitments to participation and empowerment.

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Further reading

  • Beresford, P. and Croft, S. (1993) Citizen Involvement: A Practical Guide for Change (London, Macmillan). A discussion of user involvement.

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  • Bulmer, M. (1987) The Social Basis of Community Care (London, George Allen & Unwin). The background to sociological and social policy debates.

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  • Carman, C. and Warren, C. (eds) (1997) Social Action with Children and Families (London, Routledge). Readings in community social work with children and families.

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  • Dominelli, L. (1990) Women and Community Action (Birmingham, Venture Press). Issues of gender, race and class in community work.

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  • Popple, K. (1995) Analysing Community Work (Buckingham, Open University Press). A textbook on community work.

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Authors
  1. Marjorie Mayo
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, UK

    Robert Adams (Professor of Human Services Development) (Professor of Human Services Development)

  2. Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, UK

    Lena Dominelli (Professor of Social and Community Development) (Professor of Social and Community Development)

  3. Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

    Malcolm Payne (Professor of Applied Community Studies) (Professor of Applied Community Studies)

Copyright information

© 1998 Marjorie Mayo

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Mayo, M. (1998). Community work. In: Adams, R., Dominelli, L., Payne, M., Campling, J. (eds) Social Work. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14400-6_13

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