Judith Ann Trolander

Fighting Racism and Sexism: The Council on Social Work Education

This article focuses on the Council on Social Work Educations (CSWE) efforts to fight racism and sexism within schools of social work. Against a backdrop of federal affirmative action policies, funding initiatives, and Supreme Court decisions, the archival records of the CSWE demonstrate strong and varied organizing among its minority and female members. Thus, the CSWE moved from an equal opportunity to an affirmative action approach, initiating changes in accreditation, student and faculty recruitment, and curriculum. Progress continued until the late 1970s-early 1980s when affirmative action policies nationwide met with resistance, or backlash, from nonminority groups.

Social Change: Settlement Houses and Saul Alinsky, 1939-1965

Both Saul Alinsky and the settlement houses worked with the neighborhood as a unit in achieving social change. In many ways, Alinskys methods were opposite those of the settlements. Alinsky emphasized conflict, whereas the settlements traditionally stressed consensus across social class lines. In four cases, Alinsky groups came into contact with individual settlements. While each settlement reacted differently, in no one case could the Alinsky/settlement interaction be regarded as a success by both sides. Nevertheless, both the settlements and the Alinsky-sponsored groups made significant and worthwhile contributions toward achieving social change.

Age 55 or better: active adult communities and city planning.

Active adult, age-restricted communities are significant to urban history and city planning. As communities that ban the permanent residence of children under the age of nineteen with senior zoning overlays, they are unique experiments in social planning. While they do not originate the concept of the common interest community with its shared amenities, the residential golf course community, or the gated community, Sun Cities and Leisure Worlds do a lot to popularize those physical planning concepts. The first age-restricted community, Youngtown, AZ, opened in 1954. Inspired by amenity-rich trailer courts in Florida, Del Webb added the “active adult” element when he opened Sun City, AZ, in 1960. Two years later, Ross Cortese opened the first of his gated Leisure Worlds. By the twenty-first century, these “lifestyle” communities had proliferated and had expanded their appeal to around 18 percent of retirees, along with influencing the design of intergenerational communities.

America's Welfare State: From Roosevelt to Reagan.

This is a book by Canadians for Canadians, an empirical and analytical critique of the Conservative governments policy of trade-led growth through trade liberalization and the economies of scale that follow from increased exports. But it also is timely and relevant for U.S. readers: the Canadian-U.S. free trade agreement is a focal point of the discussion; the Canadian policies and trends under review resemble those current in the United States; and the analysis is based on the theories of the French regulation school, an approach to industrial restructuring generally unheard in this country. The authors argue that a trade-based, business-oriented strategy iswrong for Canada because it (1) generates uneven economic development among industrial sectors and geographic regions, and ties key industries like steel and autos ever closer to U.S. production; (2) polarizes jobs and incomes in both expanding and contracting sectors; (3) makes Canada increasingly dependent on foreign interests and aggravates its trade deficits; and (4) exposes Canadian labor standards and social programs to the erosive effects of lower standards to the south. A major theme of the book is that market systems are neither natural nor neutral but must be consciously sanctioned, established, and sustained by government. Market winners and losers therefore are determined by relative institutional and organizational power as well as by individual endowment and effort, especially during periods of instability and transition. Individual authors who have contributed to this volume favor balanced internal growth strategies over trade-based policies; negotiated trade relations rather than free trade; expansion of the service sector (especially social programs for both middleand low-income Canadians); and an independent approach to Canadas unique situation rather than the apparent imitation of U.S. and British policies. The book is absorbing and challenging reading for Americans interested in exploring alternative explanations of and responses to the new era of global competition.