Social work practice aims to protect human dignity and worth and solve social problems by developing a balance of micro-methodologies that focus on the individual and macro-methodologies that seek social change.
Social welfare is premised on the idea that “everyone should be able to live as a human being without compromising their dignity and worth”. In modern society, this ideology is embodied in various attempts to protect individual rights and eliminate social inequalities. To this end, various methodologies for social work practice have been developed, which exist to realize this ideology.
Social work methodologies comprise the specialized knowledge and skills needed to help people who are suffering to live as human beings, and they can be divided into two main categories. One is micro-methodology, which focuses on the individual in need and individualizes the problem to find a solution. For example, individual counseling, therapeutic interventions, and psychological support. These approaches focus on deeply understanding the individual’s problem and providing individualized solutions. The other is the macro-level methodology, which looks at the problem collectively and tries to solve it at the level of society as a whole. This approach considers the impact of social structures and policies on individual lives and seeks to solve problems through social change or institutional improvement. This includes social movements, legislative action, and improving public policy.
Social work professionals use this methodology to identify problems in people in need, diagnose their causes, and help them solve their own problems. For example, if a family is facing financial difficulties, a social worker using a micro methodology might analyze the family’s financial situation and provide a customized financial plan or help them access the resources they need. On the other hand, a social worker using a macro methodology might analyze the structural causes of economic hardship, such as low minimum wage levels or rising housing costs, and pursue policy interventions to address these issues. In other ways, they may help solve problems by influencing government policies or institutions. For example, improving welfare systems or introducing new support programs for the poor.
These two methodologies also differ in their relationship to the social system. Social work professionals who utilize the micro methodology are less interested in the social system itself, and therefore less likely to be involved in the formulation and implementation of social policies. Instead, they are interested in finding effective ways to help individuals within the social system, and in strengthening their expertise in their clinical area. For example, if a professional dealing with mental health issues focuses on individual therapy, they are primarily aiming to stabilize the individual’s psychological well-being and may not give much thought to the impact of social factors on the problem.
On the other hand, professionals who advocate a macro-level methodology attach great importance to government policies or the social system itself as it affects the lives of individuals. This is because they believe that by changing government policies or influencing social systems, they can ultimately help individuals. They seek to promote change in society as a whole by working with policymakers, organizing social movements, and raising public awareness. They are interested in the dynamics between social forces in the development of society. They seek to develop their knowledge and skills in social work methodology based on their knowledge of government policy processes and the policy environment surrounding them.
Historically, social work methodology has developed around micro-methodologies. Much of what currently constitutes social work methodology has been borrowed from neighboring disciplines such as sociology, psychology, social psychology, psychiatry, and group dynamics. These have been combined with the action-oriented specialized knowledge and skills needed to help people. As a result, social work methodologies have been successful at addressing problems at the individual level, or at least at equipping practitioners with the specialized knowledge and skills needed to effectively deliver social services. For example, psychological counseling techniques and personal assistance programs have developed as a result of this knowledge and technology.
However, we tend to overlook issues such as the relationship between the person receiving help and the social system, the process by which the needs of marginalized people are reflected in policy, and the biases inherent in the social system. This one-sided development of social welfare methodology has focused attention on the delivery of social welfare services alone, making it difficult to achieve the original goal of social welfare, which is the maintenance and preservation of human dignity and values, because it is difficult to criticize government policies that affect social welfare practice and to propose creative alternatives.
Recently, various attempts have been made to overcome these limitations. For example, integrative methodologies that combine micro and macro approaches are being developed, emphasizing welfare practice that takes into account the interaction between individuals and social structures. These approaches focus on understanding an individual’s problems in the context of their social, economic, and political backgrounds in order to create more effective solutions. There is also an increased effort to engage social work professionals in the policymaking process to ensure that welfare policies reflect the voices of the field.
In this article, we have reviewed the evolution of social work methodology. By examining the development of micro social work methodology, we can learn that micro social work methodology alone is limited in achieving the ideology of social welfare. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a balance of micro and macro methodology. This is because clinical knowledge is necessary to solve social welfare problems, but also activities to formulate or improve social policies are necessary. In the end, only the development of a social work methodology that includes both micro and macro methodologies can effectively advance the ideals of social welfare.
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