Strict Slaves of Slogans

Abstract

The corruption of the social work enterprise is not simply episodic but systemic and long-standing including education, research, governance, and practice. Reform is unlikely since the constituency within the field and outside of it that wishes to change the situation is small and ineffective. The corruption of social work reflects the unfortunate social values of the nation that refuses to allocate sufficient resources to address deep social problems, notably economic and social inequality. Social work should severely cut back: eliminate bachelor of social work programs and reduce master’s education to no more than 20 programs that also offer doctorates but only jointly with social science departments. There are too many social workers and not enough good ones.