1. The Future of Social Work
A Lecture by
Brij Mohan
Dean Emeritus
LSU School of Social Work
April 1, 2016, Ag Center , LSU
Retired Social Workers Group
www.brijmohan.org
2. Abstract
• On the cusp of ‘fourth revolution’, a new techno-
dependent culture is emerging out of the ashes
of a feudal-industrial society. However, the
specter of change is fraught with ambiguities of
hope. This presentation explores problems and
possibilities that social work practice and
education confront to adjust to and escape from
realities transforming i) nature of ‘social’ and
‘work’’, ii) artificial intelligence and delivery of
services; and iii) patterns of human-social
development.
3. Basic Assumptions
• Future of Unknowable; Preparation for
Change is Evolutionary Necessity
• Fissures of ‘Democracy’ and ‘Globalization’
will fundamentally change the shape and
function of the Welfare State
• Techno-Digital and Politico-Ideological Forces
metastasize INSTITUTIONS as we know
4. Toward a New Brave World
“Social”
• The ‘Social Contract’
• “Social Contract II” (Mohan,
2011; 2015)
• Devolution of Social
Institutions
“Work’
• Disappearance of ‘Work’
• Obsolescence of “things’
• EVOLUTION of ‘Work’
• (Functional basis of work &
its implications for SW)
5. CONTENTS: Past, Present & Future
1. Being and Becoming of a Social Worker: My
Own Journey Across Nations (ref. latest lectures at the universities
of Delhi & Lucknow, Dec ’15 ).
1. Being might trump the essentials of
Becoming
3.Individual-societal Relationships: Political
Calculus (A new social contract)
6. “Social Work...End of Itself” (Mohan,
1999)
• The GOAL of all problem-solving professions is
to SOLVE problems.
• Social Work, as I held and continue to believe,
ought to be be problem solver---NOT PART OF
THE SYTEM THAT INCUBATES SOCIAL
MISERIES.
• Look at the next slide and see for yourself if
you can really SOLVE any social issue!
7. NASW-CSWE-Aaswsw: Grand
Challenges for Social Work
NASW NEWS, March 2016, 61,3: 9
• 1.ENSURE healthy development for all youth
• 2. CLOSE the health gap
• 3. STOP family violence
• 4. ADVANCE long and productive lives
• 5. ERADICATE social isolation
• 6. END homelessness
• 7. CREATE social responses to a changing environment
• 8. HARNESS technology for social good
• 9. PROMOTE smart decarceration
• 10. BUILD financial capability for all
• 11. REDUCE extreme economic inequality
• 12. Achieve equal opportunity and justice
• Social Work Day (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgxoOWc5Zi8 (Accessed March 24, 2016)
8. “The Radically Simple Solution to
Homelessness” (Tine, March 14,’16: 19)
• Traditional Approach: “Issues
First”/”Treatment First”; “Housing Later”
• Founder of ‘Pathways to Housing’, Sam
Tsemberis , psychologist, reversed the
equation: “Housing First,” “Treatment Later”
• A Therapeutic Society must RETHINK!
10. AI & Human Wellbeing
• AI will Benefit AI WILL DESTROY IT
• Ray Kurzwell Stephen Hawkins
• Sam Altman Nick Bostrom
• Michlo Kaku Elon Musk
• ARCHGENIOUS DAVID GELERNTER / BILL GATES***
• ***See, TIME, March 7, 2016: 44-49
11. EXAMPLARS of COMPLEX ISSUES and
SIMPLE Solutions
• I designed and taught course on Radical Social
Work in 1979-80.
• Simple solutions suggested for complex
problems:
– In US criminal justice systems works for the rich and
guilty; poverty and innocence are punished (N.O.)
– Treat your daughter-in-law as your own daughter
(family violence will stop)
– Stop ‘Opiates’ as the lead to Cocaine addiction
(Legalize medical marijuana)
– Higher Education: Deconstruction of the System
• Tenure; hierarchy; maintenance; excellence vs. diversity
12. TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERINCES
• Self-transformation precedes social
transformation
• 3 Case studies (SP; K; M)
• An ordeal in perspective
• “Be the change you want to see in the
world.” MK Gandhi
• Gandhi Vs. Mohan
14. HALF-EARTH: Our Planet’s Fight for Life
(2016)
• “For the first time in history a conviction has
developed among those who can actually think
more than a decade ahead that we are playing a
global endgame.” —Edward O. Wilson
• In The Meaning of Existence (2014), Wilson
underscores role of HUMANITIES and concludes
that “advances in science and technology may
bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God
stayed the hand of Abraham.”
• How to save man from himself ? This is the
question! To be or not to be.....?
15. CONCLUSIONS
1. When meanings of ‘work’ change, all societal
interactions will re-evolve as a new system--
2. Which will be impersonal, fast, un-bureaucratic
and expensive (or free); and
3. Personal-social services and all ‘communitized’
HELP will become both public and private
enterprises without statist interventive
modalities.
4. The New Social Work will probably be more
effective and but less visible.
