Social Work for Sociologists: Theory and Practice

Conclusion ● 173

groups and need to be confident to offer a genuinely culturally sensitive ser-
vice. The ally model proposed by Bishop (2002) and discussed in chapter 6
offers a coherent approach for sociologists to use as part of a bicultural or
multicultural practice. This model allows workers to stand alongside groups
facing multiple forms of oppressions; it helps workers reflect on their own
privileges and power and explains how workers can, ultimately, share power
with the groups they serve (Bishop 2002). Most frameworks from social
work—including the ally model, critical reflection, and empowerment
orientations—encourage human service workers to be self-aware and self-
critiquing. Sociologists might ponder the need to become more self-aware
and self-critical as they are employed in the human services or in social activism
and community development related occupations.
Social work prioritizes working with people, particularly vulnerable people:
individuals, families, groups, communities, societies, and minority ethnic
groups who are relegated to the margins of communities and are excluded
from opportunities. Social workers and human service workers tend to “get
their hands dirty” in the complex and messy world of dealing with real, every-
day problems. Most of the chapters in this book illustrate how social work
copes with this real, messy world and, moreover, finds solutions that recognize
people’s strengths and offer hope. There are lessons here for sociology students
who wish to make a career in human service work: be prepared, be skilled, be
ethical, and be reflective; if you are, then you will find a rewarding career. The
following statement appeared in a recent article (Armstrong 2014, 758):

With different goals and different epistemological assumptions, scholarship in

sociology and social work, even when addressed to the same social problem,

have divergent implications.

Ponder this statement. Do you agree with it? Has this been your own expe-
rience of sociology and social work? We, the editors, believe that the disciplines
have much more in common than is generally realized and moreover that the
aspirations of students pursuing the study of social work and sociology usu-
ally also have more in common than not. Each discipline can be challenged
to learn from the other. In this book, an imbalance in the direction of that
learning is corrected by suggesting not only that social workers can learn from
sociological theorizing but also that sociologists can be challenged to apply
social work derived knowledge to pursue social justice aims that many share
with social workers. Sociologists themselves recognize that applied sociology
has historically been neglected (chapters 5 and 9) and suggest that sociology
graduates need to have the skills to work with vulnerable people and commu-
nities. The chapters in this book demonstrate that social work knowledge can