SWRK 1000H Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Blackboard, Child Benefit, Ellen Gates Starr
28 Jun 2018
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Swrk1000H Lecture Week Two: Tuesday, September 20th, 2016
Colonialism
⁃began in the late 15th century, when Europe used violence, exploitation, power, and
control to take over and rule 80% of the globe
⁃european colonialism established colonies (restricting individuals to act and be in certain
ways) in over 80% of the globe, including Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Canada was included
in European colonialism and/or “expansion”
⁃“bothering” was used as a major justification for colonial expansion - classification of
certain groups (indigenous populations, women) as inferior, savage, backwards, uncivilized,
heathen, subhuman, abnormal; therefore needing to be “saved”, “helped”, and ruled by imperial
authorities/colonists who considered themselves to be superior, rational, human beings
⁃women need to be considered less so men are considered to be more powerful
⁃control and exploitation of land and of bodies was justifiable because “others” were
deemed to lack qualities and characteristics necessary to survive and thrive in Western, capitalist
civilizations. they simply could not survive without help
⁃populations were surviving and thriving without the Europeans help, but they came in
and told them that they actually could not survive without their help
⁃colonialism was (and still is) the sit of false distinctions/categories which create
colonizers and colonized, superior and inferior, civilized and uncivilized, along the lines of
racialization and race
⁃introduced sexism - women were leaders in indigenous communities and then we
changed the perspective on that
⁃ageism - elderly people are incapable, younger people are not knowledgeable, spot in the
middle where they know everything and are unstoppable
⁃ableism - differently abled people are inferior and lacking, and those who are able are
better than everyone, those while mental health problems need someone to make their decisions
for them, as they are incapable of making decisions for themselves
⁃history of social work is founded on colonialism
⁃always have to keep in mind where structures some in, and how they shape individuals’
experience
Race is the made up assumption that your skin colour matters, even though it doesn’t - if you
don’t have white skin, you are inferior, and therefore you need to be changed
whoever has the power in history gets to tell the story, and they choose what gets put in and what
doesn’t
Orientalism: the study of the east by those in the west - the East is the “other”
Social Work in 3 Phases
Phase 1: The Church
⁃pre-1890, pre-industrial moral reform - 2 types of religious motivation (or 2 “streams”) as
a response to urban poverty in Canada after industrialization:
1. missionary - concern for strangers, outsiders (unchurched) - lead to Charity Organization
Society (COS) and social casework. if you were poor, you were unchurched and didn’t find God,
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
because you didn’t have a Christian faith - nothing to do with industrialization, had nothing to do
with industrial societies being bad for the population
2. solidarity - ‘working with’: lead to settlement house movement, community work, ’social
justice’. held capitalism and industry responsible instead of the lack of service to God.
introduced things like workers health insurance because they believed it would minimize the
impacts of urban poverty.
The “Charity Visitor”
⁃part of the missionary aspect
⁃the role of the “charity visitor” was to promote industry, thrift, and virtue among the poor
⁃charity visitors were elite women and some men whose task was to classify applicants as
either deserving or undeserving, based on strict religious principles
⁃poverty is sinful, and to take up work to relieve poverty meant that you embodied good
Christian principle and high moral character. better than those who were living in poverty simply
because they were helping those who are ‘less’ then them
⁃deserving: good moral character who were “out of luck”, clean and tidy
⁃undeserving: lazy or morally degenerate
⁃poor laws 1601 and reform in 1832 - poorhouses for elderly and sick (deserving),
workhouses for able-bodied who worked for relief. public assistance was made to be cruel and
demanding (undeserving)
⁃immigrants coming into our country have to do the lesser work
Deserving Poor
⁃good moral character
⁃temporarily out of luck through no fault of your own
⁃did not ask for help directly
⁃clean and tidy
Undeserving Poor
⁃deemed lazy
⁃seen as ethically immoral
⁃poverty is a result of their own actions and ethical principles (or lack thereof)
⁃not clean and tidy
The history of social work begins with the power to categorize poor people as
deserving/undeserving.
as a social worker, only identify problems the you and your agency would intervene in
What problems would you identify this family having?
father is a drunk and leaves whenever he blacks out, there is a lack of regular income, no
motherly figure other than the oldest daughter, lots of drugs and drinking, not a lot of supervision
within the household, lives in a smaller house in a bad neighbourhood, six children including one
toddler, don’t have sufficient food, children are exposed to the fathers alcoholism, one child had
a black eye and was trying to drink alcohol (could be seen as abuse), lots of illegal activities
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Swrk1000h lecture week two: tuesday, september 20th, 2016 began in the late 15th century, when europe used violence, exploitation, power, and. Colonialism control to take over and rule 80% of the globe european colonialism established colonies (restricting individuals to act and be in certain ways) in over 80% of the globe, including africa, asia, and the americas. Orientalism: the study of the east by those in the west - the east is the other . Phase 1: the church a response to urban poverty in canada after industrialization: 1. pre-1890, pre-industrial moral reform - 2 types of religious motivation (or 2 streams ) as missionary - concern for strangers, outsiders (unchurched) - lead to charity organization. The charity visitor either deserving or undeserving, based on strict religious principles. Deserving poor good moral character temporarily out of luck through no fault of your own did not ask for help directly clean and tidy.
