ABSTRACT
The phrases 'social welfare' and 'social policy' continue to be open to different interpretations which often determine both the content and the method of investigation. The changes which social welfare has been and is undergoing were described by the European ministers responsible for social welfare in 1972. Social welfare is no longer directed solely towards the most under-privileged. The very breadth of the preventive—rehabilitative-developmental concept of social welfare has been among the main reasons for the continuing vagueness about the meaning to be given to social welfare both in individual countries and in an international context. Social welfare describes a field of human activity whose goals, forms and content change as the society changes. A better grasp of the major factors that present problems for social policy research and of the major questions implied in policy-oriented problems is apparent. A number of authors have indicated what must be taken into account in formulating social welfare policy.
