Does American Social Work Have a Progressive Tradition?(Report‪)‬

The field of social work has long been identified with a focus on poverty, the welfare of children and families, unemployment, discrimination, and social justice. These areas are also among the constant concerns of progressivism, a political movement stemming from the early 20th century that, at various times, has dominated the political process in the United States during the past 100 years. Given the similarity of the concerns of social work and progressivism, it has been argued that because social work from its earliest days adopted a "tradition" of humanitarian social reform--called the "American tradition" by Cohen (1958)--the profession has essentially become identical with progressivism in all major respects. Furthermore, it has been asserted that this orientation has distinguished social work from other service professions by giving it a predominantly activist and hberal approach to professional activity (Bisno, 1952; Cohen, 1958; Howard, 1954). Because the issue of whether a progressive tradition actually exists in American social work has lately been questioned (Margolin, 1997), this article reexamines that issue from a broad historical perspective. In this way--considering social work and progressivism as interacting trends and not as competing interests--it is possible to gain a more comprehensive view of the subject and not end up merely with a description of a zero-sum game. TRADITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK