As we examine “issues of citizenship and democracy as vehicles for creating empowerment”, and “the neglected role of social work theory and practice in the making of citizens who can practice democracy and exercise power in the name of realizing social justice” (per Sandy’s syllabus) John Ehrenreich’s analysis of the intertwined histories of social work and social policy offers essential insights for this discussion.  His illumination of the political, cultural and ideological context of these histories and his conclusions about the often divided or contradictory nature of social work’s roles and motives, characterized by an ‘environmental-change-individual-change dichotomy’, force a reconsideration of the relationship of social work and social policy.  Ehrenreich concludes that situating the personal and political in dichotomous relations is not realistic or useful.   “Only in the practice of a social work as concerned with social justice as it is with the alleviation of the problems of individuals can solutions be found” (p.232).

Ehrenreich identifies the following as perhaps one of the greatest legacies of the sixties to social work practice: “individual, personal ‘powerlessness’ is profoundly linked to objective, social powerlessness, and, conversely, …personal ‘empowerment’ is limited, if not impossible, in the absence of objective empowerment” (p.225).

If, as Ehrenreich concludes, social movements remind us of the existence of injustice and without them there is no social reform, how does this understanding shape issues of citizenship, justice and democracy as they relate to social work and social policy?