SOWK 1011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Ableism, Indian Act, Charity Organization Society

• School: York University
• Department: Social Work
• Course: SOWK 1011
• Professor: Chris Chapman

Document Summary

In this chapter of a violent history of benevolence, the main topic is rehabilitation/eugenics. Personally, i do not have much knowledge on rehabilitation. However, i found this chapter did a good job of explaining rehabilitation and eugenics with relevance and clarity. The chapter also expresses the difference between the two and where it all emerged from. Rehabilitation and eugenics are often known as two very fundamentally different concepts. However, rehabilitation in terms of the chapter is often thought of as helping individuals to fully participate in society and become economically productive (chapman & withers 2019). In terms of social work and medical discourse, rehabilitation is often seen as unproblematically good . The entire philosophy based around rehabilitation is commonly known as situating ourselves within the behaviours, bodies, and minds of individuals in order to bring them to a superior state within normality. Thus, rehabilitation and eugenics are both complementary practices within normalization.