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The Emergence of `Neo-Philanthropy'

A New Discursive Space in Welfare Policy?

Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, k_villadsen{at}yahoo.com

New concepts have emerged in social work and in social policy over the past 10—15 years: `you must meet the clients where they stand', `help must be self-help' and `poverty is spiritual rather than material'. These axioms were core principles for the welfare of the poor that philanthropic and religious societies carried out in the late nineteenth century. Their current proliferation in all types of social work and in social policy discourse demonstrates a profound transformation in the discursive structures of welfare policy — that is, in the way social problems can be visualized and spoken about, in the way that clients can be observed and turned into objects of knowledge, and in the way that professionals can conceptualize such abstract notions as integration, citizenship, community and freedom. This article investigates the genealogy of modern social work to help us reconsider what kind of individual and what kind of community we are now attempting to create.

Key Words: Foucault • genealogy • philanthropy • social policy • social work • welfare state

Acta Sociologica, Vol. 50, No. 3, 309-323 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0001699307080938


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