power and social work

The first 200 words of this essay...

Power and Social Work

This essay shall begin by defining power, then will go on to discuss Marx Weber and Parson's theories of explanations which will in turn demonstrate how and to whom power is distributed. I shall then go on to discuss how this distribution of power applies to social work and the service users.

Power and powerlessness go hand in hand as to have one the other must exist. As society is not egalitarian and never shall be, there will always be inequalities. These inequalities can be on both personal and structural levels. To enable us to understand power and social work we must firstly understand the theoretical explanation of the distribution of power, privilege, prestige and powerlessness within western society by looking at social divisions, class and their positions within society.

Marx was interested in the theories of economic development, he believed that economy was dominated by agriculture and power was held by the aristocratic landowner, in the period when manufacture was the dominant mode of production which he called the 'bourgeoisie age'. According to Marx the history of human society past and present, has been that of class struggles. There has always been