Power and Social Work

This essay shall stimulate by defining federal manner, then forget go on to dissertate Marx Weber and Parsons theories of explanations which leave in turn demonstrate how and to whom top executive is distributed. I shall then go on to discuss how this distribution of power applies to tender calculate and the function users.Power and impotency go hand in hand as to have one the other moldiness exist. As society is non egalitarian and never shall be, there will eternally be inequalities. These inequalities can be on both personal and structural levels. To enable us to understand power and hearty work we must firstly understand the theoretical explanation of the distribution of power, privilege, prestige and powerlessness at bottom western society by looking at neighborly divisions, class and their positions indoors society.Marx was interested in the theories of economic development, he believed that prudence was dominated by agriculture and power was held by the ari stocratic landowner, in the period when manufacture was the dominant mode of production which he called the midpoint class age. concord to Marx the history of human society past and present, has been that of class struggles. thither has always been a subdivision within society into antithetic ranks, where affable positions have come into grades. The bourgeoisie age has been split into two classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.Marx define class in the term of dominant mode of production and the position within the social boldness of the means of production, within industrial capitalism it was the bourgeoisie who owns the means of production and as a result exploits the proletariat who sells his bear on to the owners of the means of production. The industrial midway class had created an industrial proletariate and the success of the middle class would chequer other classes would slip down into the proletariat, the lower middle class would be excluded from the bourgeoi sie as they did not have affluent capital to compete, this combined with the immersation of the proletariat to keep costs down was a mechanism , which would create the simple two class coordinate.Hence his theory that the labour process the bourgeoisie dominating and controlling the proletariat and a legal and political superstructure (the political system of parliament etc government was neatly characterised as managing the committee of bourgeoisie this is how social stratification came about. Marx clearly believed that social stratification is an objective reality, which follows inevitably from the process of economic change.The welfargon give in is a result of struggle by working class people to obtain collective benefits within the system and is accepted by capitalists because it maintains the system, which strengthens their wealth. Social actors argon thus put in a contradictory position as representatives of the welfare state of matter, they help working class people b ut whilst doing so maintain the power of the owners of capital.Weber had a different analysis of the temper of classes, he allows the possibility of a multiplicity of economic classes. He form that as well as the bourgeoisie there were other talk terms groups. Weber would call these office groups. Weber suggests members of status groups have certain rights, privileges (or neglect of it ) and so on. These create many social classes consisting of people in different occupations, requiring different skills and qualifications, and then, it has been accepted that occupation is used in defining class. According to Weberian theoryauthority is the legitimate exercise of power, ie the peoplewhom that power is exercised accept it is legitimate andtherefore recognise its authorityWiles, M in Power and Social Work Lecture notesWebers analysis of authority is that of customs (customs and practices of a group i.e. the royal family). Charismatic (the possession of leadership oft related to religious leaders) and Rational-Legal Authority (institutionalised) this organisation is believen as the distinguishing form of organisation and legitimate authority in industrial society. This authority comes with rights and responsibilities of office when procedures are made and followed by subordinates thusly the authority does not come from the individuals or traditions of the office but the responsibilities and procedures are designated within the position itself.Parsons the functionalist seeks to explain the structure of society, he views society as a system that is made up of a set of inter-connected parts, put together, form a whole. These parts are the institutions of society, the family, education system, political institutions etc, all of which share common goals and together work for balance and consensus and order in society.Parsons idea was that social groups need and will co-operate with one another therefore becoming interdependent, he finds it difficult to see how members of society could effectively work and co-operate together without social inequalities. The inequalities of power deal to further collective goals based on shared values will benefit members of society and hence integrate rather than divide societies. The be of individuals is based on a consensual view of the importance of positions. instantly in western society class differentiation does exist and has an meeting on life chances and determines how we live. The inequalities that exist are not only in class and status but also race, gender, age etc, people from these nonage groups are often discriminated against and powerless. The majority of redevelopment users are those who are aliveness in poverty and as stated in by Becker and MacPherson 1988 indicates service users are likely to beOld or young, able-bodied or with a special need, an offender, a single parent, an abused child or partner, black or white, service users are more likely to be poor and most likely to be dr awn from those sections of the population which enjoy the least status, security and power.Adams et al (2002) page 42Authority is within the hierarchy of organisations, when the authority of one superior is then subordinate to the other. The bureaucracy is about rules set regulations and procedures and in turn promotes functions. Social work has seen the training and development of new and somewhat complex structures e.g. highly developed and declare division of labour, extensive hierarchies of command, rules and procedures, transactions are noted and recorded and that of accomplished officials. These try to combine specialisation with integration and co-ordinated direction whilst providing standardised function to meet the needs of the service users at the same time.The service users whitethorn perceive the social worker as a symbol of power who holds authority from a bureaucratic state. The negative aspect of this perception could be detrimental for the service user as this may hinder conversation and co-operation between the service user and the social worker, therefore identification and resolving power of the service users difficulty could be adversely delayed.Although the social worker has a degree of power within their profession, they are governed themselves by state jurisprudence and legitimate authority, they are at quantify constrained by their agency as to how much power they actually have. If a service user who has been hospitalised and is now on his way to recovery but has physical impairments, therefore, requiring specialiser equipment to be installed before he can return home the social worker although seeking to empower the service user cannot do so as constrained due to the lack of his/her agencies financial resources for the necessary equipment hence disempowering the service user.The agency itself is financed and budgeted by state, this may limit resources that the social worker may eventually offer or not offer the service user. As they work as part of a bureaucratic state they must follow procedures, guidelines and policies whilst stock amongst all this to serve the service users in such a manner as to never lose bulk of the fact that they are individuals who have rights that must be respected and to ensure that the service user is empowered.ConclusionAs social workers we are outpouring by the governments legislation on what we can and can not do for these individuals.The government has made social work a profession hence giving social workers the status then the power. Social workers are erudite and controlled by the state as social workers are governed by the state to maintain the smooth functioning social order, in my opinion maintains the status quo on behalf of the state.Therefore social workers are in fact in alliance with the state and are instruments of state power who may at times be, themselves tied and bound by the power given to them, as stated by HarrisSocial Workers s power is expressed n ot just by what they do but by what they are, and they are survey to the very power they are themselves exercising in Davis ,M (2000) page 28Social workers may very well find themselves at times in a no win situation whilst they are striving to empower the service user.