Social work: a beginner's text

The view of social work taken in this book reflects the authors' commitments about social work in South Africa and the need for a developmental approach in social service delivery and in social work practice. In other countries and at other times in the historical development of social work, different views and approaches have been taken. These often emphasised individual and interpersonal helping rather than community and social development. For the authors, social work's mission is derived from its social purposes rather than from any particular theoretical perspective. Theoretical perspectives change but social work's purposes do not.