| Abstract: | Reviews the book, Social intervention: Theory and practice, edited by Edward M. Bennett (see record 1987-98585-000). Scholarly literature in the field of social change is extensive, but knowledge of the nature of that change and the process of how it is implemented and carried out is limited. According to Bennett, this lacuna is due to the fact that writings in the field have dealt with interventions within a system and not with change of the system itself. The scarcity of meaningful study of social intervention, Bennett believes, is due to the unwillingness of social scientists to 1) function together in teams to address what is in essence a problem, 2) to pair-up with practitioners working on social intervention projects in joint ventures, and 3) to address the limitations of the logical positivist traditions of their university bases. To overcome these obstacles, Bennett has called upon both academics and practitioners from various disciplines to present both theory and interventions dealing with social problems. The book contains 14 chapters divided into four parts: I, Introduction; II, Cultural, Ideological and Educational Approaches to Social Intervention; III, Legal, Policy and Political Approaches to Social Intervention; and IV, Community Economic Development Approaches to Social Intervention. This book represents a Herculean task. Any text which would include the diversity of professions and disciplines in an effort to integrate theory and practice relating to social intervention is a challenge few would undertake. In doing so, Bennett has produced a volume which does indeed represent a serious attempt to come to grips with how to change a system instead of just the parts of that system. He has achieved this by insisting on a workable conceptual structure, theme and focus for all contributors regardless of the content areas covered by the authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
