ABSTRACT
Social work is commonly divided into a number of methods and using any one is usually counted as 'doing social work', though no single method can stand for the whole of social work. In this way of thinking it is not possible to be doing social work unless one is practising one of the methods. How has this come about? The first 'method' to be, as it were, baptised was that of social casework, but this started life much more as a general way of approaching a problem. Casework was the name given to a case-by-case approach; and method was the name given to carrying out whatever seemed appropriate in the individualised situation. In our view the influence of 'method' has not been beneficial to the development of social work. To suggest that the methods of social work are directed at systems of different kinds offers too wide a target for any 'method'.
