The History of the Professionalization of Social Work: Lesson for the Field of Conflict Resolution

The disciplines of conflict resolution and social work are similar in a variety of ways. Both fields are established on a tradition of altruistic volunteers and professionals, who in seek flexible solutions to complex social problems, and both have an interdisciplinary knowledge base that is grounded in practice as well as academic theory. From 1900 to 1930, the field of social work underwent a transition from a loosely organized, volunteer-driven, disconnected group of dedicated individuals to a cohesive network of paid professionals with standards for practice and education. This paper explores that transition in social work and draws lessons from it for the field of conflict resolution, to project how the process of professionalization could affect conflict resolution