著者

木村 敦

出版者

大阪産業大学

雑誌

大阪産業大学経済論集 (ISSN:13451448)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, no.3, pp.307-327, 2010-06

---

The aim of this study is to express an opinion about "What is the essence of social welfare", and to clarify "social welfare as a subject of investigation", based on that opinion. Recently, the state of social welfare policy has changed greatly, and the term for a person who receives social welfare benefits has changed from "recipient" to "subject" and then to "user". However, the change in name has not improved the recipients' life circumstances. In short, recent social welfare policy has not contributed to "a better life" for people. In this situation, I think that "social welfare policy theory as social science" is necessary in order to contribute to "a better life" for people, i.e., in order to amend current social welfare policy. The aim of this study was decided based on the reasons above. To achieve this aim of clarification of social welfare as a subject, social welfare provisions from the standpoint of the economic theories of Kazuo Okochi and Shoichi Kohashi are first explained. Then, relying fundamentally on Kohashi's theory, arguments regarding these provisions from the standpoint of sociological / functional / movement theory are explained by way of critique. In conclusion, problems are explained which arise when Kohashi's theory is applied to the practice of social work.