Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Social work in extremis – disaster capitalism, ‘social shocks’ and ‘popular social work’
- one ‘Popular social work’ in the Palestinian West Bank: dispatches from the front line
- two Samidoun: grassroots welfare and popular resistance in Beirut during the 33-Day War of 2006
- three Grassroots community organising in a post-disaster context: lessons for social work education from Ilias, Greece
- four Grassroots community social work with the ‘unwanted’: the case of Kinisi and the rights of refugees and migrants in Patras, Greece
- five In search of emancipatory social work practice in contemporary Colombia: working with the despalzados in Bogota
- six Addressing social conflicts in Sri Lanka: social development interventions by a people's organisation
- seven International organisations, social work and war: a ‘frog's perspective’ reflection on the bird's eye view
- eight Welfare under warfare: the Greek struggle for emancipatory social welfare (1940–44)
- nine Social welfare services to protect elderly victims of war in Cyprus
- ten Worker's eye view of neoliberalism and Hurricane Katrina
- eleven Social work, social development and practice legitimacy in Central Asia
- Conclusion: Social work in extremis – some general conclusions
- References
- Index
eight - Welfare under warfare: the Greek struggle for emancipatory social welfare (1940–44)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Social work in extremis – disaster capitalism, ‘social shocks’ and ‘popular social work’
- one ‘Popular social work’ in the Palestinian West Bank: dispatches from the front line
- two Samidoun: grassroots welfare and popular resistance in Beirut during the 33-Day War of 2006
- three Grassroots community organising in a post-disaster context: lessons for social work education from Ilias, Greece
- four Grassroots community social work with the ‘unwanted’: the case of Kinisi and the rights of refugees and migrants in Patras, Greece
- five In search of emancipatory social work practice in contemporary Colombia: working with the despalzados in Bogota
- six Addressing social conflicts in Sri Lanka: social development interventions by a people's organisation
- seven International organisations, social work and war: a ‘frog's perspective’ reflection on the bird's eye view
- eight Welfare under warfare: the Greek struggle for emancipatory social welfare (1940–44)
- nine Social welfare services to protect elderly victims of war in Cyprus
- ten Worker's eye view of neoliberalism and Hurricane Katrina
- eleven Social work, social development and practice legitimacy in Central Asia
- Conclusion: Social work in extremis – some general conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Critical social policy and social work studies regularly offer critiques on mainstream welfare systems, institutions and attitudes. But these approaches often leave little space for discussion about what alternative social work and welfare might look like. In the history of social work internationally there have been examples of collective and grassroots alternatives – forms of popular social work. In most cases, however, these have been written out of history and excluded from dominant definitions of social work.
The focus of this chapter is on a specific period of modern Greek history when an organic and democratic welfare network developed as part of a broader movement for liberation and social change. I explore the legacy, influence and vision of this welfare movement, which flourished in Greece during the politically and socially turbulent 1940s. I argue that this experience can inform modern social work practices and demonstrate that alternative social welfare models are not only desirable but possible.
In exploring the welfare and social work developments of this period there are two main points that need to be clarified. The first is related to the use of the term ‘social work’ and the second concerns the boundaries of social welfare during a period of military occupation and popular resistance.
My definition of social work is not restricted to the increasingly narrow perspectives of Anglo-American social work that dominate the literature of international social work. I suggest that social work as an activity can be much wider and organic than those activities shaped by ‘professional’ and ‘legal’ boundaries in the Anglo-American world. Definitions of social work need to embrace various local traditions, collective and democratic processes and grassroots creativity. In Greece the history of social work is split between the emergence of ‘official’ social work in 1946, which was imported by the Americans as part of a multi-dimensional (military, political, cultural and social) intervention into the country during and after the civil war, and the ‘popular’ social work that flourished out of grassroots welfare activities and networks that developed as part of the popular liberation movement first against the Nazi occupation and then within the context of the civil war. The experience of these networks and activities highlighted one of the most creative and inclusive welfare systems in modern Greek history, yet it has been systematically suppressed and ignored within official social work literature.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social Work in ExtremisLessons for Social Work Internationally, pp. 115 - 132Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2011