Honors Theses (Sociology)

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Public Assistance, An Analysis as a Social Movement
(University of Oregon, 1949-06) Ribbans, Eleanor C.
The story of public assistance in the United States reflects the development and growth of American thought in the fields of government, economics, political theory, and related fields, but most especially, the developments in the field of social work. The changes of theory regarding human rights that dominated social work in the various phases of its history can be seen to be based in the culture of the time. At many points social work philosophy was far more advanced than popular notions for the proper treatment of the poor, but by and large, the prevailing ideas were very much the same as the commonly accepted ideas of the functions of the government and individual responsibility. It was only slowly and often painfully that the underlying ideas in government, economics, and human rights changed and allowed the more modern theories, based on scientific investigation and social work, to take hold and become accepted in this country.