Social Work and the Convergence of Politics and Science

Abstract

The development of the human services professions has become intertwined with the use of scientific inquiry. To some extent, the use of science has provided a means of legitimating social work and related professions. At the same time, the political conservatism and contraction of resources in recent years have led to an emphasis on the monitoring of social interventions. As a result, a particular ideology about science and objectivity has emerged during the past quarter century. Science as systematic monitoring and as an evaluation strategy became a valued tool embedded in a larger set of values and assumptions. The introduction of selected scientific processes for monitoring the social services occurred in a climate of clear preferences concerning desirable and not-so-desirable populations, problems, and program strategies. Concerns about the influence of the political and cultural context within which human services are provided diminished, due to a belief that evaluation as a scientific process introduced objectivity. Yet when scientific inquiry and methodology are applied outside such a context, the picture they provide is incomplete.

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