Dictionary Definitions Of Social Work

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Dictionary definitions of social work Abstract English-language dictionary definitions of social work from a range of English language sources are presented and discussed. It is argued that these represent conventional educated understanding of the nature of social work, and will be the basis of understanding for people unfamiliar with it. The definitions present social work as official, mainly state, helping with personal problems with deprived, aged or disabled groups, undertaken mainly by trained personnel with the aim of social betterment. They do not incorporate definitions related to radical social change or community work. Social work practitioners and representative organisations should be aware of and may seek to modify implications of common perceptions of social work.

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Dictionary definitions of social work Malcolm Payne Director, Psycho-social and Spiritual Care, St Christopher’s Hospice, London This paper reports and assesses dictionary definitions of social work. Defining a complex social entity is a dubious undertaking, particularly since postmodernist writers have suggested that social phenomena vary according to their historical and social context, and definition outside of the context is unreliable and impossible. Nevertheless, dictionaries define social work, and how they do so is important for two reasons. First, dictionaries claim to represent the sense of a piece of language as widely understood. They therefore describe conventional educated people’s understanding of what may be, like social work, a specialised term. Second, dictionaries are very widely available and are the place that people who are unknowing about any topic turn for a quick and authoritative statement about what it means, so a dictionary definition may be influential in establishing public views of the nature of social work. Increasingly, people turn to electronic sources of information, and many dictionaries have begun a new life on the internet, where they provide instant answers to the question: ‘what is social work?’ Wordbooks and dictionaries have been produced for many centuries, often relying on the interest and assiduousness of individual scholars. However, the self-confidence of the nineteenth century founders of empire and scientific knowledge led to the production of researched dictionaries. In particular, the Oxford English Dictionary sought to provide a definition of every term used in the English language, based on historical principles (Winchester, 2003). That is, volunteers collected quotations illustrating meanings of every word found in printed English, showing how it was used at different periods and analysed them to produce one or more definitions of usage. Their citations are drawn from general usage rather than definitions made in academic or specialist texts, so they do not represent specialised debate, and their definitions represent the lexicographers’ interpretation of the usage in the linguistic context, not a quotation from different usages. This dictionary claims to be complete and authoritative, at least of written English. That there are alternative ways of creating a dictionary is illustrated by the dictionaries published by Collins (now HarperCollins). These are derived from computerised databases of spoken English. The Oxford Dictionary of English (Soames and Stevenson, 2003) and the Concise Oxford Dictionary (Thompson, 1995) also focus on current English, rather than trying to identify the history of words. English is spoken differently in many nations. American, Australian and Caribbean English are only a few of the many possible variations. The first edition of Webster’s dictionary (originally a personal collection) of American English appeared in 1828 (Winchester, 2003: 33) long before the Oxford dictionary was being compiled, although the Oxford dictionary sought to include American and other national usages within its compass. The Oxford dictionary attempts to describe changes in usage over time in its definitions, different national and dialect usages.

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The paper examines how dictionaries define social work on the basis that this represents how social work is linguistically constructed from educated but nonspecialist perceptions.

Method The on-line database of dictionaries provided at the British Library was searched on 13th August 2004, and all printed dictionaries and encyclopedias available in the British Library Humanities 1 Reading Room at 3.00pm on the same date were searched for their definitions of social work. Comparators of specialised references works available on open access in the social science reading room at 2.00pm on 6th August 2005 and medical dictionaries available on open access at 4.00pm in the science and technology reading room on the same date in the Library were also searched for ‘social work’. One dictionary in an unusual form was included: the latest Oxford edition of Roget’s Thesaurus (Kirkpatrick, 1998), which was the only thesaurus available in the Reading Room to contain the term ‘social work’. The Thesaurus groups terms according to the ideas they represent. It may be consulted to seek terms similar to, but distinguishable from, the selected word. A search for ‘dictionaries’ on Google, the widely-used internet search engine, was carried out on 17th August 2004, and the first 10 results searched to identify dictionaries that contained definitions of social work. The results from printed dictionaries are set out in Table 1, those from internet dictionaries in Table 2. Results from the Oxford dictionaries are listed first, followed in alphabetical order by other dictionaries available. The internet definitions are clustered where they are related, but otherwise they are presented in alphabetical order of the publisher. Some internet definitions are taken from or rely on published dictionaries not available at the British Library on the search day. Other libraries will contain different dictionaries, but it was considered that this method offered access to the definitions of social work provided in short compass in an authoritative library, so the kind of definitions that will be available in most reference sources are likely to be well represented by this search, even if other dictionaries are different in detail. The significance of seeking dictionaries on open access is that only the most up-to-date reference works are provided on open access at the British Library and that this, in turn, will represent currently available definitions, rather than historical material. The tabulations are provided in this article to allow the reader access to judge the outcomes for themselves.

Findings Table 1 Definitions of ‘social work’ from printed dictionaries

Oxford Work of benefit to those in need of help, especially professional or voluntary service of a specialized nature concerned with community welfare and family or social problems arising mainly from poverty, mental or physical handicap, maladjustment, delinquency etc. Hence social worker, one who undertakes social work, especially someone professionally trained Oxford English Dictionary: (Simpson and Weiner, 1989) ---

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work carried out by trained personnel with the aim of alleviating the conditions of those people in a community suffering from social deprivation. Oxford Dictionary of English: (Soames and Stevenson, 2003) --work of benefit to those in need of help or welfare; esp. such work provided by trained personnel for those with family or social problems often arising from poverty, handicap, etc. social worker: a person who undertakes social work, especially on a professional basis. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: (Trumble and Stevenson, 2002) --work carried out by trained personnel with the aim of alleviating the condition of those people in a community suffering from social deprivation. Concise Oxford Dictionary: (Pearsall, 1999) --work carried out by trained personnel with the aim of alleviating the conditions of those in need of help or welfare. New Oxford American Dictionary (Jewell and Abate, 2001) --work of benefit to those in need of help or welfare; especially done by specially trained personnel. social worker a person trained to do social work. Australian Oxford Dictionary (Moore, 2000) --work done to help people in the community with special needs. Canadian Oxford Dictionary (Barber, 1999) --Social work: social care; social worker: reformer, worker, aider, philanthropist Roget’s Thesaurus: (Kirkpatrick, 1998) ---

Chambers Any of various forms of welfare intended to promote the wellbeing of those regarded as socially disadvantaged The Chambers Dictionary: (Brookes, 2003) ---

Collins Any of various social services designed to alleviate the conditions of the poor and aged and to increase the welfare of children (Treffrey, 2000: 1466) ---

Encarta The profession or work of providing people in need with social services. (Rooney, 1999: 1778). ---

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Penguin The activities of any of various professional agencies concerned with the aid of underprivileged or disadvantaged members of society. Penguin English Dictionary: (Allen, 2003) Social work, n. any of various professional services, activities or methods concretely concerned with the investigation, treatment, and material aid of the economically underprivileged and socially maladjusted – compare case work, community organization, group work. Social worker, n. one engaged in social work; specifically a professionally trained specialist in social work. Webster’s New International Dictionary (Gove, 1984). Simpson and Weiner (1989) (Table 1) is the latest comprehensive multi-volume edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, and is an authoritative source of the meaning and origins of words in English in written form. Moreover, it indicates the age of terms in use, by the history of the quotations used to illustrate the usage. Only one definition of ‘social work’ is offered; therefore no usages in particular dialects or nations were identified by the lexicographers at the time the research was done, during the 1980s. The definition therefore must be considered the broad understanding of the term ‘social work’ in educated use in the later twentieth century. The earliest citation is from 1890, a comment in the Girl’s Own Paper. The earliest citation for the derivation ‘social worker’ is from 1904, the Annual Register of the University of Chicago. The earliest UK citation for ‘social worker’ is a publication by F. G. D’Aeth in 1912, an early voluntary sector activist (Poole, 1960). Other Oxford dictionaries rely on this definition, shortening it in various ways. The Thesaurus (Kirkpatrick, 1998) connects social work with ‘social care’. It connects ‘social worker’ with a range of ideas, including reform, aid and philanthropy. Other thesauruses available did not include compound terms such as social work. The nonOxford dictionaries present brief definitions conveying similar ideas to the Oxford dictionaries. Table 2 Definitions of ‘social work’ from on-line dictionaries

American Heritage Organized work intended to advance the social conditions of a community, and especially of the disadvantaged, by providing psychological counseling, guidance, and assistance, especially in the form of social services. Social worker Noun. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, (Houghton Mifflin) http://www.yourdictionary.com/ Organized public work to aid the disadvantaged and counsel those with special problems. The American Heritage Concise Dictionary (1994) http://xrefrplus.com/entry/717480 ---

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Cambridge: social worker: a person who works for the social services or for a private organization providing help and support for people who need it; social work (Advanced Learner’s Dictionary). social worker: someone whose job is to help people who have problems because they are poor, old, have difficulties with their family, etc; social work (Learner’s Dictionary). A social worker is a person who is specially trained to help people who need social services. (Dictionary of American English). Cambridge dictionary online: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ---

Chambers Work in any of the services provided by local government for the care of underprivileged people, e.g. the poor, the aged, people with disabilities etc. Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (2001) http://xreferplus.com/entry/1228996 ---

Columbia organized effort to help individuals and families to adjust themselves to the community, as well as to adapt the community to the needs of such persons and families. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2001. http://www.bartleby.com/65/ ---

Crystal: A term which is usually understood to refer to the occupational activities of the socialwork profession, i.e. the provision of social services to the ‘needy’, including counselling, care, and the general administration of benefits of the state. Social work has its origins in late 19th-century charitable organisations which provided assistance to hospital staff and helped distribute poor relief. Crystal Reference Encyclopedia (2001) http://xreferplus.com/entry/956761 --any of various services designed to aid the poor and aged and to increase the welfare of children Onelook: http://www.onelook.com/; Wordnet: http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/; LookWAYup: http://lookwayup.com/free/dictionary.htm ---

Allwords work in any of the services provided by local government for the care of underprivileged people, eg the poor, the aged, people with disabilities, etc. social worker: An official who carries out social work. Allwords: http://www.allwords.com/index.php ---

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Ultralingua dictionary any of various services designed to aid the poor and aged and to increase the welfare of children. social worker: Someone employed to provide social services (especially to the disadvantaged) http://www.ultralingua.net/index.html ---

Infoplease dictionary social work: organized work directed toward the betterment of social conditions in the community, as by seeking to improve the condition of the poor, to promote the welfare of children, etc. http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/ ---

Merriam-Webster any of various professional services, activities, or methods concretely concerned with the investigation, treatment, and material aid of the economically underprivileged and socially maladjusted Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.m-w.com/ the activities of any of various professional agencies concerned with the aid of underprivileged or disadvantaged members of society. The Penguin English Dictionary (2000): http://xreferplus.com/entry/1174028 ---

MSN Encarta Dictionary provision of social services: the profession or work of providing people in need with social services. http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx ---

Oxford work carried out by trained personnel with the aim of alleviating the condition of those people in a community suffering from social deprivation. Concise Oxford Dictionary: http://www.oxfordreference.conm/ENTRY.html? subview=Mainentry=t23.e52908 work of benefit to those in need of help or welfare, especially done by specially trained personnel. Oxford American Dictionary of Current English: http://www.oxfordreference.conm/ENTRY.html?subview=Mainentry=t21.e29171 --Wordsmyth work that promotes the well-being of society, by assisting the underprivileged or disadvantaged. Derived Forms social worker, n.

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Wordsmyth Online Dictionary: http://www.wordsmyth.net/live/home.php The internet dictionaries (Table 2) present a larger number of definitions. Groups of shared usage may be identified: the American Heritage dictionaries, the Cambridge group of reference works, the Crystal reference works (which are related to Chambers print-based reference works), the latest manifestation of Webster’s dictionary, now Merriam-Webster, and again from Oxford dictionaries. Cambridge dictionaries are unusual in treating ‘social worker’ as the headword, and ‘social work’ as the derivative, rather than the other way round. These dictionaries are widely used, and therefore influenced in their presentation, by non-native English speakers and learners. Consequently, the ‘Learner’s Dictionary’ source presents a simplified definition possibly for younger people, the ‘Advanced Learner’s’ dictionary presenting a slightly more complex definition. The internet dictionaries are internationally available and seek to represent an internationally applicable definition, but some are explicitly sourced from the USA (American Heritage, Columbia, Merriam-Webster, MSN Encarta, Wordnet), while some are more orientated towards the UK (Cambridge, Chambers, Oxford). This distinction is not always apparent on the site, particularly where other website providers rely on lexicography from another source: several were using the Crystal database for this purpose. In the following discussion, no distinction is made between printed and internet sources; they are interrelated.

Discussion This study examined dictionary definitions of social work, on the assumption that these represent conventional educated understandings of the term, and of the work of the social work profession. The fact that the research on which dictionaries are based derives from printed sources or databases of spoken language represents how terms are used generally, rather than in professional contexts. Many of the dictionaries define social work as work in providing various social services. Works deriving from Chambers dictionaries refer to local government services, Crystal more broadly to the state, and the American Heritage Concise definition to ‘public work’. The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary distinguishes social services and private organizations; implying that social services are of the state. Other definitions refer more broadly to positive general aims, benefit to ‘society’ or ‘a community’ and occasionally to advancing or bettering social conditions, or the negative obverse, alleviating social deprivation or disadvantage. Otherwise, the definitions focus firmly on benefit to the welfare of ‘those in need’, ‘those with special problems’, ‘the needy’, the disadvantaged, the underprivileged and the socially maladjusted. To explain these general terms, examples are given, often of ‘the needy’, ‘the poor’, poverty, the aged and the handicapped, not described in sensitive language. Family welfare and the care of children are also occasionally mentioned, as are maladjustment and delinquency. Mostly it is help, occasionally aid or assistance, that is provided, and where this is described care, counselling, guidance and support are occasionally given as examples. Webster (Gove, 1984) is the only dictionary to cross-reference casework, community work and groupwork as methods; these are separately defined connected to social work. Some definitions focus on the organised character of the help.

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The usage presented in the dictionaries is intended to be international; there is no distinction between the British English and American, Australian and Canadian English usage of ‘social work’ presented in the dictionaries and no variations in national or dialect meanings of social work. The dictionaries do not identify historical changes in the usage of ‘social work’ over time. Although the Oxford dictionary cites usage back to 1890, the first edition of its entry ‘social’, published in 1919 but based on work mainly done before the first world war, does not include ‘social work’. Its first appearance is the Supplement published in 1933, based on work done in the 1920s, which provides the same definition as the current edition. Early writings on the meaning of social work (e.g. Attlee, 1920, Devine, 1922; Tufts, 1923; Alden, 1929) apply the term ‘social work’ to broad social activism and concern, including practical help, but by the 1920s when the dictionaries first noticed it, it had become the established term for professional helping activities, especially social casework, rather than the wider social activism that would have been a legitimate alternative twenty years earlier. The dictionary definitions describe a twentieth century word, referring to organised personal help to socially disadvantaged, or maladjusted, people. The help is provided through official and often state organisations. Although the definitions are largely about personal help, they recognise a wider objective of general social or community benefit. The definitions require reference to ideas of ‘social service’ or ‘social services’ and ‘need’. ‘Need’ is often seen as a pre-requisite of provision, so that social work is implicitly not described as a universally available service or one that would be chosen by people who were not ‘in need’. Several of the definitions incorporate an assumption that social work is a profession or a professional activity, or comment that while it may be more widely undertaken, it refers particularly to an established profession or people with a specific training.

Conclusion This paper examines dictionary definitions of social work on the assumption that they provide an indication of the understanding of the nature of social work in an educated, non-specialist public. The aim of doing so is primarily to document, but also to raise questions about, a particular way in which social work is presented to the educated public, by non-specialised sources of information. There are two broad findings that may be contrary to the intuition of many readers specialised in social work: that dictionaries do not distinguish much international variation in the meanings attached to the word ‘social work’, and have not identified much historical change over a century of usage. Many specialists in social work, contrary to the impression given in dictionaries, would think that there has been considerable change over time and there is national variation in understandings of social work in different countries. I suggest that the reasons for the disparity between specialist and general understanding may be fourfold. First, the dictionaries are based on broad educated usage, so the nuances of changing professional debate do not become incorporated unless they achieve a profound change in public perception. Second, the research for dictionaries is expensive and renewed only rarely, so that even a decade or two’s professional debate does not become incorporated. Third, dictionaries and the definitional element of the

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entries on social work in other reference works reflect what the writers think people need to know for practical purposes and as a starting point. Reflecting the complexities of professional debate about social work objectives and characteristics is not the objective. Fourth, the dictionaries may represent a basic and unchanging truth about the nature of social work and its role in society, that its social mandate is mainly about personal helping and not social change. A central issue about the nature of social work for many professionals is the balance between personal helping and social change as objectives, between the psychological and the social, between human rights and social justice as set out in the current definition promoted by international social work organisations (IFSW, 2000). Dictionary definitions are agreed in describing a social work that is a about personal help by officials for needy and maladjusted people. By implication, the social work presented in dictionaries is not a universally available or desirable service, it is only for the ‘needy’. Is this perception true and does it matter? I would argue that it is true in the sense that the dictionary presentation is how social work mainly is in most countries, and this presentation is the main priority in governments and funding agencies supporting it. Dictionaries reflect that reality, because they have to reflect broad truths for a wide audience. It matters if social workers would like to gain acceptance for the social change and social justice aspects of social work as integral to practice. If dictionaries adequately represent public perceptions, they have not achieved this objective, and social work in all its complexity as current professional debate would represent it is not generally accurately perceived. On the other hand, the impression given by dictionaries is of a helping and valuable public service, so the school child or journalist looking for a definition to start their essay or think piece or the relative of a service user asking themselves ‘Well what do these people do anyway?’ will start from a positive position.

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Bibliography Alden, P. (1929) Definition and progress of social work, Proceedings, Volume 1, Paris: First International Conference of Social Work: 597-607. Allen, R. (ed.)(2003) The Penguin English Dictionary, (2nd edn) London, Penguin. Attlee, C. R. (1920) The Social Worker, London: Bell. Barber, K. (ed.)(1999) The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Toronto, Oxford University Press. Brookes, I. (ed.)(2003) The Chambers Dictionary, Edinburgh: Chambers. Brown, L. (ed.)(1993) The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, on Historical Principles, (Vol. 2) Oxford: Clarendon Press. Cheyney, A. S. (1926) The Nature and Scope of Social Work, New York: American Association of Social Workers. Devine, E. T. (1922) Social Work, New York: Macmillan.4 Gove, P. B. (ed./)(1984) Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, London: Bell. IFSW (2000) International Definition of Social Work http://www.ifsw.org/Info/1.def.html Jewell, E. J. and Abate, F. (eds)(2001) The New Oxford American Dictionary, New York, Oxford University Press. Kirkpatrick, B. (ed.)(1998) Roget’s Thesaurus, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Moore, B. (ed.)(2000) The Australian Oxford Dictionary, Melbourne, Oxford University Press. Pearsall, J. (ed.)(1999) The Concise Oxford Dictionary, (10th edn) Oxford, Oxford University Press. Poole, H R. (1960) The Liverpool Council of Social Service, 1909-1959, Liverpool, Liverpool Council of Social Service. Rooney, K. (ed.)(1999) Encarta World English Dictionary, London, Bloomsbury. Simpson, J. A. and Weiner, E. S. C. (eds)(1989) The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn) Oxford, Clarendon House. Soames, C. and Stevenson, A. (eds)(2003) Oxford Dictionary of English, (2nd edn) Oxford, Oxford University Press.

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Thompson, D. (ed.)(1995) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Oxford, Clarendon Press. Trumble, W. R. and Stevenson, A. (2002) Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, (5th edn) Oxford, Oxford University Press. Treffrey, D. (ed.)(2000) Collins English Dictionary, (5th edn.) Glasgow, HarperCollins. Tufts, J. H. (1923) Education and Training for Social Work, New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Simon Winchester (2003) The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, Oxford University Press.