Bryan Glastonbury

Knowledge and Perceptions of the Social Services

This article reports on an attempt to discover the attitudes of members of the public towards a range of personal and family problems, all of which could be seen as relevant to the work of social service departments. The data are drawn from two samples: one of current users of a social services department and the other from the general public. Our outline findings show that although users seem more aware of the potential of social service departments than other members of the community, there is nevertheless substantial confusion and disagreement over appropriate services for different problem situations. It was equally clear that for several quite important problems many people saw voluntary or neighbourhood involvement as more relevant than intervention by a statutory agency. On the basis of these findings we discuss the following suggestions for social service departments. Firstly, education programmes are necessary to improve general knowledge about the personal social services, but structured in such a way as to avoid stimulating demand which cannot be met – we are critical of the Seebohm reports analogy of personal social services with commerce. Secondly, more attention needs to be paid to relationships between social workers and other professionals who may be intermediaries in contacts between the potential client and the agency. Thirdly, social service departments should assess their own priorities with greater sensitivity towards the community viewpoint, since we found not only a significant willingness for people to get involved in social service but a keenness to participate in policy making.

Learning social work with a “well-tempered personal computer”

Abstract Social work education is primarily concerned with training professional social workers through a course which combines academic study and supervised field work. The agencies in which students undertake field training and subsequently take up employment make an increasing use of IT. Hence there is a need to employ curriculum material about the uses of IT in social work, as is specified by the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work in its national curriculum. Social work education has widely varied components, some of which are directed towards the professional development of individual students, and must, therefore, be handled in a direct relationship with teachers. Other elements have considerable potential for CAL, and some developments are underway. Social work is not a high priority area for IT provision in higher education, and as a result most CAL initiatives must work within a relatively low-tech framework. Nevertheless, there is scope to make an impact on the quality of education, and develop materials which are transferrable across the higher education sector (because of the existence of a required national syllabus), and more widely across other human services subjects which need skills in such areas as counselling, communications and anti-discriminatory practice.

Developers, Designers and Distributors

This chapter focuses specifically upon those organizations and individuals who control IT because they know about it, design and produce it. Attention is paid both to the values implicit in the connections of IT companies to the rest of society (that is to the handling of manufacture, distribution, price setting and marketing), and to the more concealed values which are embedded in the types of IT systems and software which are developed. The argument is made that IT, far from being ethically neutral, is substantially value-laden; and while little can be done to alter this at source, because it is integral to the process of IT creativity, the existence and direction of the embedded values should be fully recognized and tackled within the wider society.

The Nature and Meaning of Data

The most important component of the massive information systems which now exist is data about YOU. This data is gathered in a variety of ways, some open, some more devious. It is then drawn together and cross-referenced to create a dossier of personal information. From the point of view of this new information industry the ideal system is one that contains a comprehensive dossier about every one of us.

IT and Big Business

The business world has a long tradition of coping with moral issues, sometimes by attacking, ignoring or evading ethical principles, sometimes by compromising or supporting them. IT has little tradition, either of moral corruption or achievement, and comes into partnership with business organizations with an unusually clean record.

A Bill of Rights

On the basis of the analysis in earlier chapters of the strengths and weaknesses of existing value and legal systems in coping with IT, this chapter summarizes, draws together and argues priorities for the factors which must be taken into account in the construction of a code which is both enabling and protective for IT designers, developers, producers, employers, consumers, data subjects, or those who simply have to live with whatever is set up. From there it moves on to identify a draft Bill of Rights for our information age.

The Ethics Industries

In this chapter we examine more closely the types of societal and cultural responses that may assert intellectual integrity with regard to information technologies, starting from the view of Fromm (1968) that intellectual integrity is supported by what he calls a “humanistic technology”. A humanistic technology is one that meets human needs because we take action in technology development and applications to evaluate, alter and monitor its impact. Simultaneously communities give their support to the formation of those social institutions which will ensure the efficacy and effectiveness of the humanistic input. We make use in this chapter of Masuda’s (1981) work on “ethic industries” in the context of a humanistic technology. What are the ethics industries? What set of vocations and organizations can act as ethical agents? Where are they found? Why are they important to the transition to an information society? We discuss their importance to individualism, decentralisation, democracy, and empowerment, and look at some examples of activities which have subjected IT applications to human valuation and meaningful adaptation to the needs of everyday life. At the saine time we challenge the pessimism of Ellul’s (1964, 1990) warning that technological determinism will swamp human morality, because all the significant pressures in society are pushing in that direction.

Intelligence, Integrity and New Technologies

Human societies have thrived or suffered in relation to the degree of integrity with which our intelligence has been used. Intelligence in itself has often been viewed as threatening, because of its potential for harm, and in consequence a vital role of religions and philosophies has been to emphasise the value of the partnership between intelligence and another human ability, to understand and act according to moral codes. For many centuries human judgement ruled social systems, but the rise of science has undermined human capacities to make right decisions, and put in their place scientific experiment and the accumulation of factual knowledge.

Consumers and IT: a Love/Hate Relationship

Consumers of IT are a mixed group, taking in buyers, users, those who are the subjects of personal data files, and those who, at least as far as they know, have no contact with these technologies. The relationship between IT and the public is complex, and characterised both by mutual dependency and, on the part of the public, suspicion. The value of IT in the organization of our lives is countered by resentment of its dehumanising tendencies. We expect it to provide a dependable infrastructure for our daily lives, so that we can take for granted, without question, that the correct salary cheque will arrive on time each month, the airline booking will be reliable, and the morning weather report accurate. There are many aspects of modern industrial life which depend on IT for their smooth operation, but where we rarely stop to ask if IT even has a presence. At the same time we do get concerned when things go wrong, when the computer has a fault, makes a mistake, or appears to be doing something we do not like.

The Technological Hare and Social Snail

Connectivity is now the buzz word” says a computer journal with a large circulation (Personal Computer World) reflecting a widely held view within IT ranks. It refers to the notion of getting people and their technology linked and working together, and is a direct contradiction of the suggestion in earlier chapters that far from connections existing between IT and societies, there is a gulf and a significant degree of alienation. In their own environment, with their own horizons, computer people can find connectivity: indeed, they can illustrate the substance of its achievement by pointing to the huge expansion of network links. We argue that for the world outside there is less evidence of sympathetic associations, and more of self-centred and mindless exploitation. Even within the IT world there are major divisions, based on underlying principles of computer system organization and functioning, which impinge on the rest of us. This chapter will probe the relationship between IT growth and the condition of society, analyzing the nature and sources of alienation, if indeed it exists, and developing the argument that technology change has outstripped its social integration.