ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the changes which have taken place in social administration as a subject of academic study. It focuses on the essential characteristics of the traditional social administration approach – described by many as the Titmuss tradition. The chapter discusses the factors which weakened the dominance of that approach and led to new conceptions of the subject. It examines the nature of what one describes – rather unimaginatively perhaps – as the new social administration, its emphases, insights and preoccupations. The two traditions in social administration are complementary. Together, the two approaches can both enrich our understanding of society and social policy and contribute to the design and implementation of 'better' social policies. There is no necessary tension between old and new. If the people are to build the newer world which was the aim and ideal of the founding fathers of our subject, both approaches are equally vital.
