Macro Social Work Practice

Macro Social Work Practice: Working for Change in a Multicultural Society explores the dynamics and practice implications of increasingly diverse communities, organizations, and social service networks and helps students develop the skills to work successfully in these contexts. The book gives students the foundational skills and knowledge required for effective practice in social service and human organizations, healthcare settings, communities, social networks, and social movements. It emphasizes the relationship between structural and institutional inequalities and the experiences of individuals, families, communities, and organizations.

Through case examples the book illustrates how principles of social justice, empowerment, and cultural awareness can be applied in different cultural contexts. Through various exercises, students will apply critical thinking to resolve practical and ethical dilemmas and make the type of difficult decisions that practitioners confront every day. The book also addresses how recent political events, cultural developments, and social changes have altered both the context and the content of macro social work practice in the United States.

Macro Social Work Practice is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses in social work, family and community development, public health, nursing, and human services.

Michael Reisch is the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He earned his master's degree in social work at Hunter College, and his Ph.D. in modern European history and the history of ideas at the State University of New York, Binghamton. He has held leadership positions in multicultural national, state, and local advocacy, professional, political, and social change organizations His publications have appeared in journals such as Social Work, Social Service Review, the British Journal of Social Work, and the Journal of Social Work Education. His most recent books are Social Policy and Social Justice: Meeting the Challenge of a Diverse Society and Social Work and Social Justice: Concepts, Challenges, and Strategies (co-authored with Charles Garvin). In 2014, he received the Significant Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council on Social Work Education and, in 2016, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.