Theory and Practice in Voluntary Social Action

This study asks how social and community workers use knowledge and theory in their practice. It is based on research on voluntary action on unemployment in Scotland. The author argues that the usual approaches to the problem of relating theory to practice are misconceived, and proposes an alternative. The research aims to show that practitioners cannot in any simple sense rely on theory to guide their practice, but employ a system of beliefs and dispositions which comprise both much less and much more than theory. The book also considers the lessons to be learned from voluntary responses to mass unemployment. It is shown that practitioners and their organizations were swept along by events and government policies which they were largely powerless to influence. This reality is compared with the claims and aspirations of voluntary action. Conclusions are drawn on the issues now facing voluntary organizations in the new era of unprecedented, but hidden, centralism and government control.