Advocacy, Activism, and the Internet

Community Organization and Social Policy

Edited by
Steven F. Hick, Carleton University Boston College
John G. McNutt, University of South Carolina, Columbia

Preface

IN THE PREVIOUS CENTURY, THE FIELD OF SOCIAL WORK STRUGGLED against the ill effects of new technology and of the new economic system it permitted. The social fallout from this system was horrific; those on whom it fell were those on whom the abuse of power has always fallen: children, women, the elderly, the poor and uneducated. Social workers fought for the rights of these groups and tended the needs of the disenfranchised and the socially dislocated. One of their most powerful—and empowering—tools was the organizing of communities, which were both a source of support for the socially weakened and an opportunity for the reaffirmation of the individual’s social worth.

This commitment to social and economic justice continues in the social work profession today, and in the educational programs from which its practitioners emerge. Students graduate from BSW and MSW programs with an understanding of the profession’s commitment to advocacy and social change, a knowledge of the issues that face our society and the people we serve, and the methods of community organization and policy practice that make social change possible. These social workers and their abilities are needed no less today than they were 100 years ago—perhaps even more so. For all that the global information economy has simply reinvented the old problems of social dislocation and disenfranchisement, the context of these problems is entirely new. We desperately need new tools in our social work arsenal to meet this challenge. Technology—the very technology whose use has exacerbated such problems in the name of profit—can provide many of those tools, of which the Internet is only one.

The volume you are holding is, in a sense, such a toolkit. This is the first book-length treatment of activism and advocacy over the Internet from a social work perspective; its authors, cutting-edge practitioners and researchers. Their insights will guide your search for the skills you—and those who look to you for help—need. This is not a dry technical manual on how to build a Web site (although it may spark good ideas for the content of one). Instead, you will find here:

• A brief history of the role of technology in the emergence of the present economy;
• Current theory on the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in social work;
• An overview of "teledemocracy," and the social worker’s role in it;
• Discussions of the nature and meaning of the so-called digital divide, and of how to close it;
• Interventions using the Internet and other ICT at the group, local, state, national, and international levels; and
• Discussions of real-life successes and—equally as important—failures in this new field.

In short, this is a thoughtful, stimulating look at a new and vibrant form of practice.

Now is an exciting time to be a social worker. We face both the same challenges our profession has always faced, and others entirely unlike those our predecessors ever encountered. Not only can we shape the present, we can also build the profession of the future and embed in it the knowledge that the commitment will be what it has always been: the struggle for justice.