The Path to Social Justice Goes Through Politics and Economics

Abstract

Social work policy practice theory must be reformulated if the profession wants to make a major contribution to social justice goals in our society because in the United States the path to social justice goes through politics and economics. Changes in American social polices the past forty years show how politics and economics can frustrate and impede the realization of social justice. Social work needs to acquire intervention skills that emphasize collective action because the damaging problems distorting our society with growing political inequality and huge income gaps can be addressed most effectively using the activities, processes, and strategies available in electoral politics and economics. Assimilating electoral politics and economics into social work education could successfully integrate the person-in-environment paradigm, providing practitioners with robust new tools to pursue social justice.

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