The End of Social Work

Abstract

Three factors will account for the demise of social work in the next century. Bold new hypertechnologies will make interventive skills obsolete. The grand narratives that have supported social work’s knowledge base will completely collapse. Finally, radical dislocations in the social structure, brought on by totalizing forces from the corporate sector, will obviate traditional human service delivery systems. Without demand for functional skills, without a firm foundation for action-based knowledge, and without sanction or auspice, social work will fade away.