Community Social Work and the Learning Circle

Abstract

Outlines an approach for introducing students to Community Social Work by use of clear, engaging stated objectives. Approach is called the Learning Circle and was devised as a tool to enhance student participation and to stimulate networking, dialogue and conversation about social work commitment to community intervention and community‐based services in the light of social work history, international issues, and local statutory and policy contexts.

Keywords:

• Community social work
• learning circle

Notes

1. Concord Video, Training for Neighbourhood Work Skills, Concord Video, 201 Felixstow Road, Ipswich IP3 9BJ, United Kingdom. Copy No. 8.

2. Lynd (1927, 1938) Middletown and Middletown Revisited and Gans (1965) Urban Villagers which provide an account of the sociological and anthropological roots of attempts to present authentic, living portraits of a society.

3. For a useful contextual framework in which to assess the Chemielewski, et.al. (1993) study, see Charles Nordhoff (1875) The Communistic Societies of the United States, republished with a new introduction by Mark Holloway (1966), New York: Doer Publications, Inc. and John Humphrey Noyes (1870) The History of American Socialisms, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Co. Noyes work was largely concerned with the Owenite and Fourierist societies while Nordhoff examined the German sectarians, giving a great deal of attention to the Shakers, some to Icarians. Both books overlap on the Oneida. See also Barry Shenker (1986) Intentional Communities, Ideology and Alienation in Communal Societies, London and Boston.