ABSTRACT
The social distance between parties, problems between parties, and lack of expertise to solve them: these three factors shape the conditions under which the third element can be enlisted. Individuals, community groups, organizations and governments are willing to manage their interaction with their environment and want to solve or tackle any problems they encounter. In social diagnosis Richmond outlines methods for professional social intervention. Richmonds social diagnosis aims to professionalize the new job of social worker and secondly to stress the interrelationship between individual problems and social causes. Litwak and Meyer noted that in order to establish contact with primary groups in the community, the official bureaucracy needed a linking mechanism. Community work can help these groups formulate and enforce their demands. It can serve an advisory function vis-vis the government or set up and supervise an open forum to give representatives of the community a say in matters.
