ROSS, SUE;  PHD

                         UNIVERSITY OF KEELE (UNITED KINGDOM), 1987

                         SOCIAL WORK (0452); SOCIOLOGY, INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY STUDIES (0628)
 

                         Available from UMI in association with The British Library. This thesis traces the development of the
                         modern cybernetic systems movement and examines its impact on the social sciences. In particular it
                         focusses on the work of Gregory Bateson the biologist, anthropologist, philosopher and cyberneticist
                         whose research, from the 1950's to 1980 when he died, into the ways systems change, develop, and
                         adapt over time underpins much of the practice of family therapy in Britain, Europe and the United States
                         at the present time. Material from the family therapy literature is described which has applied Bateson's
                         work to develop theory and methods in clinical practice and the work of the 'Milan Associates' is
                         highlighted. Bateson's ideas of how natural systems function and change have rarely been used outside
                         the rather specialised field of family therapy, despite the popularity of much of his published material.
                         Some restricted use of systems theory has been drawn into the literature of Social Work, particularly
                         through the work of A. Pincus and A. Minahan, but this has been so selectively chosen that it has
                         distorted the essential concepts in an understanding of open systems and has omitted many other
                         important constructs in systemic thought entirely, so that its application in Social Work has been severely
                         restricted and is largely an irrelevance to practitioners, managers and policy makers alike. It will be argued
                         that in using only selective concepts of systems theory in social work, writers like Pincus and Minahan
                         have failed to develop a cybernetic and systemic epistemology, which is able to explain and account for
                         the complex interaction within social systems and this has failed to allow the tasks and objectives of social
                         work to be analysed and understood. This thesis will propose such a 'cybernetic epistemology'--a
                         language to describe the interactional and contextual issues involved in the process of change in social
                         systems. It will consider a range of systemic concepts drawn from Bateson and other cyberneticists and
                         suggests some implications of these concepts in conceptualising the social work task in child care. It
                         explores the ways Batesonian concepts can be used to model and shape theory, method and practice in
                         social work with children and families and argues that this is fundamental to being able to change the way
                         in which social work services are organised to ensure a more just and humane response to the problems
                         of our society. It suggests that an 'ecology' of social work practice is possible when a cybernetic
                         understanding of the nature of change in human systems is undertaken.

Social Systems Simulation Group P.O. Box 6904 San Diego, CA  92166-0904 Roland Werner, Principal Phone/FAX  (619) 660-1603