Q1
Clearly, Harry Specht and Mark Courtney display an in-depth understanding of the three principle levels of social work practice. According to the available literature, social work practice can be categorized as macro, mezzo, or micro. The first two tend to be proactive while the latter is reactive. Macro and Mezzo systems approach social work from broad levels while micro frameworks target the immediate environment: includes families, groups, and individuals. At this juncture, one can agree with the authors claim since social work at the micro level focuses on dealing with a problem that has already occurred. For instance, a social worker in the micro-level works with a family to solve a gambling problem experienced by one of its members. However, those working on the macro-level would have anticipated such a problem and advised the legal systems to implement betting regulations. In conclusion, social workers should be proactive rather than reactive.
Q2
As the saying goes ‘no man is an island’. Sociological thinkers tend to contemplate on this saying by focusing on the view of the society as a large family. Such a perspective is normally inspired by the fact that most problems including diseases, famine, floods, poverty, and family feuds are experienced by people across the world. From this point of view, one can agree that Mills is more right than wrong.
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Q3
I agree with his claim that such problems can only be solved by alterations of the structures of groups in which the victims exist. Based on the earlier postulation, Mills’ argument highlights the importance of a proactive social work practice. Therefore, the modification of these social structures saves more people from the problem than when approached from an individual basis. Nonetheless, I disagree with his assumption that individual intervention is impossible since not all problems are shared across all societies. For instance, the Ebola virus was uncommon in most European countries; thus, an outbreak would have been solved at an individual basis.
Q4
It should be noted that the mentioned ideas have a significant impact on the social work profession since they provide insight on how workers should implement their practice.
References
Mills, C. W. (2000). The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press.
Specht, H., & Courtney, M. E. (1995). Unfaithful angels: How social work has abandoned its mission. Simon and Schuster.