ABSTRACT
This chapter explores on theoretical perspectives on the broad social changes that have led to care management. The influence of wider social changes on the organizations that deliver social welfare services both in the UK and elsewhere begins with a discussion of social theory per se. Social theory studies the way that social change affects our everyday lives so it is an active process, a means to an end, and a way of theorizing what is happening around us. The value of social theory, from a social work perspective, is that it is applied. Social work is an applied activity which draws on sociology. Social theory refers to the use of complex theoretical frameworks to analyse macro social structures. Social theory lays the conceptual groundwork for an understanding of the broad features of contemporary society that have led to care management. Care management focuses in terms of material post modernity and the tendency to commodify care.
