The currency of the thought of Mary E. Richmond in Italian Social Work

Abstract

Hereinafter, an analysis of the contribution that Mary E. Richmond’s thought, as presented in her 1922 work What is Social Case Work?, may provide nowadays to Social Work. After placing her contribution in the Italian context, aspects of her work considered even now as fundamental in the construction of professional knowledge and action will be identified. Attention will be focused on those factors which have persisted and have permitted, if not always in an explicit way, the discipline to flow within the banks of the internal continuity of a research tradition. Among the many areas of reflection that the text offers, the ones that appear most relevant today will be focused upon, despite the challenges we are experiencing due to the contraction of resources and to the guidelines of social politics, e.g. the active position of the individual in the help process, the centrality of the person, confidence in change and the role habits play, active and transformative adaptation, encouragement in working with resources, and finally, connections between people, living conditions and the system of resources.