18 ● Kate van Heugten and Anita Gibbs
theories and frameworks should be developed in order for practice to achieve
humanitarian goals. However, the early divisions that had arisen between
casework and psychotherapeutic approaches, on the one hand, and settlement
and other community work methods, on the other, were never fully recon-
ciled. Many social workers struggled to find a balance between the ideals of
advocacy and the demands of government-funded jobs that might require
them to pass judgment on and take control over service users’ lives. The
seemingly more scientific methods of psychological diagnosis and microin-
terventions were associated with the prestigious medical profession, and this
association provided more status than did community work with the poor. A
focus on work with individuals and families also enabled practitioners to avoid
the risks inherent in political activism, which might require speaking out against
employers and powerful political stakeholders. Micropractice approaches,
dealing with individuals and families rather than with societal structures,
began to predominate (van Heugten 1999).
For a brief time during the 1960s and 1970s, there was a temporary surge
in radical anticapitalist and other critical civil rights and social justice oriented
social work and community work practices, alongside the politicization of
other social sciences (Banks 1995; Davies 1991). The achievements of advocacy
and community development work were, however, difficult to prove. Further-
more, critiques of social work practices abounded during this time, alleging
that social workers might be harming rather than helping service users (Domi-
nelli 1996; van Heugten 1999). This critique hit radical social workers hard.
In the face of these challenges, many social workers retreated from political
activism to microlevel practice. Change on a smaller scale, with individuals
and families, seemed more achievable and led to fewer conflicts for social
workers in their workplaces (van Heugten and Daniels 2001).
Australasian Developments
As previously noted, academic sociology and social work programs developed
relatively later in Australia (from the 1940s) and in New Zealand (from
the 1950s). As had happened elsewhere, the disciplines frequently evolved
together, in joint departments in universities. In New Zealand, for example, at
Victoria University of Wellington, sociology emerged after, and was initially
based within, the country’s first department of social work/social policy. At
Massey University in Palmerston North and at the University of Canterbury
in Christchurch, it was social work that emerged later, during the 1970s; it
was initially taught within departments of sociology (Crothers 2008; Nash
and Munford 2001). By the 1980s, joint departments began to separate.
Although these movements occurred more than half a century later than in