• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-50
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• 2018

Since 2006, the Korean government has introduced a series of policies to create social service related jobs. Facing the new social risk of Jobless Growth, the newly launched Moon Jae-In administration had no choice but to include job creation in the social service sector as one of the 100 National Tasks for the next five years. The primary purpose of this study is to provide based on the last 10 years' experience a critical analysis of the new government's social service job creation policies. It has been proven that containing budget growth and creating jobs are not compatible goals. The government's control over social service prices has been persistent for the last 10 years serving the purpose of containing social service budget. The author argues that low quality jobs and depressed social service market are the results of such policy. The current problems created by the past policies and a number of new problems that the new government's plan to establish so-called Social Service Corporation might create are discussed, and a set of policy tasks including a social insurance for social services are suggested as alternative solutions for the old and new problems.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.91-111
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• 2017

Purposes of this study, summoning thoughts and activities of Toynbee Hall of the UK and Hull House of the US held in between the end of 19C and the early 20C, are two folded: first, it is to examine the momentum and aims for which 'social' work was progressively established at that time; second, it is to look for implications for today's social work practice through understanding their characteristic activities and the context in which 'social' work was devised as an alternative in the two nations. The study method mainly relies on literature review, but further goes on to analyze the spirit of the age when settlement house was constructed as a welfare space and activities, leadership demonstrated in there, and to draw meanings for today, in terms of three dimensions: aim and location, professionality and education, and social action. Some of useful findings are: first, the COS and settlement house need to be considered in a continuum of socially responsive remedies against poverty and social work practice was developed in the process of 'suggestion-performance-critique-alternative suggestion-emergence of social work', rather than contrasting the two as opposite roots of social work practice. Second, settlement house was a socially constructed welfare space that contained intersectional dynamics of class, gender, personal vs. social, private vs. public, surrounding poverty issue. Third, besides differences between the two settlements, both purported for public goods and well-being and tried to realize the 'social' in that society. Lastly, this study explored historical meanings of settlement house as the welfare space with critical questions and discussed implications for social work practice today.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.35-59
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• 2009

This paper presents a formal model of social policy development. The model shows that the development of social policy depends both on the social policy preferences of voters and on the political institution which mediates the preferences of voters. In the direct democracy, median voter's social policy preference is critical because he is Condorcet winner in a pairwise vote. But in the representative democracy, political parties design social policy to win the support of a majority of voters. Hence, the political institution like electoral rule may affect social policy outcome. The model presented in this paper contrasts 3 alternative constitutional features and investigates how they affect social policy outcome. In result, this papers emphasizes that policy preferences of voters and political institution may be key variables to explain social policy development and divergence among welfare regimes.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.119-139
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• 2006

The main purpose of this study is to examine the implications of Habermas's Critical Theory, which has been considered as modern descendant of enlightenment thought, on the social work profession. The focus of this paper is a critical examination on expected perceptual and practical gain provided by communicative theory for the professional relations between social workers and clients. This paper proves that Habermas's theory has failed to sufficiently grasp the scope and functions of social work practice. First, in regard to perceptual gains, Habermas's theory commits some kind of reductionism which considers communicative behaviors as only and original one. It is likely to limit the scope and extent of the function and mission of social work into a kind of communication performed by humans with communicative ability. Second, in regard of practical gains, Habermas's theory does not provide detail procedure of power-free communication nor critical criteria to evaluate the degree of ideal speech situation. Without these ones, Habermas's critical theory might play a role of liberal conservatism, which is trying to replace the substantial contents with procedural formality. In sum, to be a adequate theoretical and practical framework for social work, Habermas's theory needs to combine additional humanitarian considerations into communicative paradigm with more detail requirements and preconditions for ideal speech situations between professional and clients.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.103-130
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• 2013

Although both ecosystem theory and empowerment have become the most prevalent candidate for integrated paradigm for social welfare practices, they could not overcome completely the long-standing and sharp divides between micro and macro practices, that is, between subject and structure as a main explanatory element in social welfare realm. Along with such traditional dualism and tension, a new emerging divide between modernism and postmodernism regarding intrinsic mission and roles of social welfare has urged strongly to develop the overarching theoretical framework for social welfare practice. In this regard, this study aims to recast the ecosystem theory and empowerment through the reflexive modernization theory of critical sociologist Anthony Giddens. With relatively strong emphasis on human capability coined as the reflexivity, Giddens's own creative theory of modernization can be thoroughly expected to provide a solid foundation of integrated paradigm enough to bridge the existing dualisms in social welfare theory and practice. Especially, his unique account of integrated way of how human agency is involved in the construction of social structure and how to transform each other recursively has profound implication for empowerment to be adequate and proper comprehensive framework for social welfare practice.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.35
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• pp.85-105
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• 1998

This article examined the trend of 125 empirical researches which were published in Jr. of Korean Social Welfare from the first issue to no. 33. in terms of theoretical and methodological orientations. The content analysis was employed for the purpose of the study. Since 1979, the number of empirical researches was in the trend of increasing. The findings from this research were as follows. 1) Among 166 authors, 96.4% were majored in social welfare. Also 6.0% were practitioners and the rest of them were in the position of professors or researchers. The outcome of lack of interdisciplinary co-work and researcher-practitioner co-work led the article to conclude that the nature of applied social science of social welfare was not so actively pursued in Korea. 2) It was almost impossible to find researches which studied same theme or employed same analytical framework. This meant that the work of re-verifying and proving the contray could not be done although it was essential for theory-building. In other words, the disciplinary of social welfare was far behind in the process of theory-building. 3) The methodology upon which most of researches were relied was quantitative methodology(92.8%). The article concluded 'paradigm shift' was not begun in the disciplinary of social welfare yet. 4) The study concluded that the particularity of empirical researches of social welfare in Korea was descriptive-configurative study. Whereas 65.5% of 125 empirical studies were descriptive-configurative, 25% were hypothesis - model test and only 6% causal analysis. 5) The most applied statistic models through the period from 1979 to 1997 were descriptive statistics such as frequency, chi square test, Pearson's r. More advanced statistics such as logit regression, probit regression, path analysis, covariance structure analysis were shown since 1990.

• Journal of the Health Care and Life Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.237-242
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to explore an effective learning process by applying PBL to the subject of welfare theory for the disabled. To this end, 'Welfare Measures for the Severely Disabled in the Situation of COVID-19' was conducted as a class on the welfare of the disabled. A total of 20 students participated in the PBL class, and data were collected and analyzed through individual learning activities, group learning activities, evaluation papers, and reflection journals. The analysis results showed the effectiveness of the PBL class in the learners' problem-solving ability, self-directed learning ability, critical thinking ability, and cooperative learning ability. Based on the results of this study, a method for applying problem-focused learning (PBL) to social welfare subjects was suggested.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.267-302
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• 2013

In recent years, partnership has become a central strategy for welfare provision worldwide. Particularly, civil society organisations have obtained considerable attention as the most accountable and democratic partner for public welfare delivery. Yet the mainstreaming of civil society into welfare policies challenges the conventional nature of civil society as an independent sector, and brings into critical question, how the political position of the civil society sector could be redefined in the new era of multi-sectoral partnership. The purpose of this study is to explore the current debates of state-civil society partnership and to propose three theoretical viewpoints (i.e. the mainstream, critical and alternative perspectives) regarding the role of the civil society sector in partnership. In doing so, this article introduces the key literature and scholars in partnership debates and provides analytical frameworks that researchers can use in examining state-civil society partnership cases.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.61-84
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• 2009

There has been a continuous debate on decentralization of welfare. The proponents of decentralization argue that it will enhance the autonomy of local governments and the efficiency in the provision of service. However, the opponents argue that it will lead to the welfare reduction and the increased inequality among localities. This study attempts to deal with the question, focusing on the evaluation of decentralization reform of Roh Government. The main results are as follows: After the decentralization, local governments has undergone hardships in financing the welfare service, while there is no clear evidence that the local autonomy has enhanced. In respect of fiscal role-sharing, local duties has significantly increased because of the insufficient grants-in-aid for decentralization and inappropriate formula in assessing the grants. In respect of functional role-sharing, the decreased role of central government made it difficult for local governments to provide enough residential institution for the elderly and the disabled. To improve the decentralization reform, deliberate reclassification is needed to decide which item should be transferred to localities. Regarding the characteristic of the projects, social services could be transferred in the long run, while central government should take more responsibilities for the income guarantee and protection for the disadvantaged.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.5-44
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• 2010

The main purpose of this study is to critically examine the existing theoretical as well as analytical scope of 'sexual minority' in Social Welfare, and to (re)construct and expand it incorporating feminist theories on sexuality. The body of literature on sexual minority or homosexuality in social welfare in Korea as well as in the West can be characterized as two distinct features: first, medical discourse leaning on pathological perspective which perceives homosexuality as a disease or defect, homosexual as a pervert; and second, human rights perspective premised upon the idea of diversity and multi-culturalism, both which are anchoring at 'essentialism.' Based upon the understanding of sexuality as a social construct, we argue that feminist insight on sexuality can lead to reconceptualizing homosexuality and reorienting theories and practices in social welfare. From radical feminism to postmodern queer theories, feminists have developed diverse ideas and complex theories on sexuality and homosexuality, including the concept of 'compulsory heterosexuality,' 'lesbianism as political resistance,' and 'performative gender.' For feminists, particularly, sexuality which is constructed in the complex power matrix of dominations to producing and maintaining inequalities and discriminations is not merely a distinctive variable, but one of the important organizational principles such as gender, class, race, age, and nationality. This epistemological principle will hopefully shed lights on alternative 'knowledge' on homosexuality in social welfare, and lead to significant contribution to its critical expansion in theory and practice.