Slightly more than a decade ago, our text, Clinical Sociology: An Agenda For Action, was published by Plenum Academic Publishers. Since that time (1996), the Clinical Sociology Association has changed its name to the Sociological Pr- tice Association and has merged with the Society for Applied Sociology. This new organization and its joint journal became effective in 2005. Therefore, as we began planning a second edition to our text, we decided it would be only app- priate to change its original title to Sociological Practice: Intervention and Social Change. Intervention to bring about beneficial social change is the theme of this new edition of our text. We have attempted to write a “how to do it” type of book for students who are interested in careers in sociological practice. We emphasize the importance of establishing a theoretical foundation for planning an intervention for each client, followed by an extensive assessment, fact-finding, and dialogue with the client in selecting an appropriate intervention(s), establishing an ethical practitioner-client relationship, and a timetable of expectations and financial costs detailed in a written contract. Every intervention also involves an evaluation in order to determine its effectiveness and feedback for improvement with future clients. We emphasize how critical it is for practitioners to be ethical in all of their interactions as these impact referrals and the reputations of both the practitioner and the profession.
The second edition of this text focuses on how to plan, carry out, analyze, and evaluate interventions at the micro, meso, and macro levels. A sociological practitioner enters into a working relationship with clients to address social problems. The practitioner works with members of a client system to define the specific changes necessary and together they work to construct new social arrangements that will solve or reduce the impact of the problem.
This text outlines and illustrates, with the help of Application Boxes, figures and tables, various approaches to problem-solving. It discusses the various steps in problem-solving from problem assessment, development of objectives and targets for change, to the implementation and evaluation of interventions. A final chapter is devoted to an examination of how principles of ethics apply at different levels of intervention and some of the ethical issues in sociological practice.
The book is primarly written for sociology students at the upper division and graduate levels, but it should also be of interest to applied sociologists who teach, conduct research, and practice their discipline in a variety of contexts. The text could also be useful in the fields of social work, public administration , planning, criminal justice, and to organizational consultants.
