COMMUNITY SOCIAL-WORK IN A MARKET ENVIRONMENT - A BRITISH-AMERICAN EXCHANGE OF TECHNOLOGIES AND EXPERIENCE

Community social work, which flourished in Britain in the late 1970s a nd through much of the 1980s, has been sidelined in recent years by th e combined development of market-oriented policies and managerialism. However, certain recent initiatives in human services in the USA, a co untry which has moved far further towards a contract culture than Brit ain, show that some American practitioners are increasingly critical o f the perceived limitations of their own system and are now seeking to borrow from earlier British experience in making it more integrated, localized and community-oriented. This paper explores the example of a n American county human services agency which has moved in this direct ion and considers its relevance for the survival and future developmen t of community oriented social work and social services in the quasi-m arket environment which is emerging in Britain.