Knowledge Of Historical Information When Working In Human Services?

Social work has the reputation of being balky of technology, of being Luddites. However, with each new innovation the profession has given considerations to the challenges and opportunities that emerged. This happened early in the 20th century when the phone became widely bachelor and it became used every bit a tool in crisis intervention and counselling. The same happened near the stop of the century when the personal computer became popular and social workers effectually the globe started wondering what the implications would and could be for their daily work. Comport in mind those were not the computers we use now, but bulky machines with footling retentiveness, floppy disks, one-colour screens that were humming all day. Of course at that place were concerns most loss of privacy and erosion of the warm face-to-face contact, but also nervous excitement nearly data-at-your-fingertip and expert systems that would capture social work noesis.

In 1985, the numerous pocket-size initiatives exploring these challenges and opportunities constitute each other and gained momentum. In the USA, Dick Schoech launched the first issue of the Computers in human services journal with the support of people like Walter LaMendola. This was an expansion of the already existing Reckoner Use in Social Services Network (CUSSN). The journal was later renamed to Journal of Engineering science in Human being Services. Likewise in 1985 in the UK, Bryan Glastonbury published his Computers in social work.
These people, together with east.g. Hein de Graaf (NL), Jackie Rafferty (UK), Rob MacFadden (Canada) and Jan Steyaert (NL & B) launched HUSITA (Human Service It Applications) and ENITH (European Network for It and Human Services) and organized a series of near yearly global or European conferences. The American journal was complemented past the UK-bases Reckoner Applications in Social Piece of work journal. Information technology was later renamed New Technology in the Human being Services and ceased to be published in 2003.

Past the end of the 20th century both the applied science every bit well equally its relation to social piece of work had profoundly changed. Engineering science was more user-friendly, cheaper and more than powerful through the widespread availability of internet at abode. The relation betwixt engineering and social piece of work changes in 2 means. Starting time, there were the worries nearly a digital split up, where private buying of a computer and home admission to internet would be the base of operations for new social inequalities. Community technology centres and public libraries tried to remediate this. Secondly, there was focus on what citizens would do with all this engineering at home in terms of neighbourhood websites and communities of interest. With the appearance of web 2.0 this also brought interest in citizens equally sources of data (Wikipedia, …) and the edifice of social networks (Facebook, …). Would all this result in more social quality, or proof to exist an erosion of social capital?

Inside social work, computers can now be found near everywhere. Not merely for the average role tasks, but also to support (online) counselling and the maintenance of customer records. Only like in 1985, respect for privacy of client information and the wish to avoid bureaucracy are still on the agenda.

This text was written past Jan Steyaert
Date of starting time publication: 06-2013
Appointment of latest revision: 06-2019

Additional data

Glastonbury, B. (1985), Computers in Social Work. London, Great britain: MacMillan Publishers
Schoech, D. (1999), Human being services technology: agreement, designing and implementing computer and cyberspace applications. New York: the Haworth press.
Steyaert, J., & Gould, N. (2009), Social work and the irresolute face of the digital divide. British journal of social work 39(four), p. 740-753