Much of my scholarship revolves around the role of government in the economy and society and social responses to people in need, animated by a sense of social justice for economically disadvantaged persons and families. These themes resonate well with the profession of social work, though not exclusively so. The profession afforded me the opportunity both to increase my understanding of human behavior and the social environment and to do something about changing for the better the lives of economically disadvantaged and otherwise challenged individuals and families, and the socioeconomic environment or conditions in which they lived.

My scholarship covers several broad themes related to social welfare provisioning designed to meet need: economic well-being, social justice, discrimination, caregiving, basic income, and adolescents, as well as philosophical and practical themes related to research methodology. I tend to be of a liberally moderate political persuasion, avoiding partisan and sensationalist rhetoric when discussing the nature of these issues and the adequacy and appropriateness of related policy responses. Poverty as a major social problem animated many of my studies, though I learned early on that focusing only on low-income individuals and families to understand the problem and inform policy responses was too shortsighted, that broadening the lens by examining income dynamics, that is, movement up and down the economic ladder, and changing patterns of accumulated wealth over time were more appropriate. As early as the 1990s, I noted the sclerotic character of the American economy, that is, the gradual hallowing out of middle class families and the “stickiness” of affluent families and poor families alike to remain affluent or poor respectively over time. Since the 1990s, especially after the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the related social problem regarding income inequality has come to dominate public discussion. Poverty as a social problem seems to have retreated from public view since the 1990s. I lamented the welfare reform legislation of 1996 which created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program that attached work-related requirements to receiving cash benefits. However, I appreciated the Earned Income Tax Credit program, initially created in 1975 but greatly expanded during the Reagan administration in the 1980s and again by the Clinton administration in the 1990s. These and related topics were subjects of my book, US Social Welfare Reform: Policy Transitions from 1981 to the Present.

My scholarship regarding social justice and discrimination for the most part go together, though not exclusively. Social justice is a key regulative ideal of the social work profession, though my related research demonstrated the ambiguity of the idea, subject as it is to multiple perspectives or interpretations. John Rawls’s idea of justice as fairness is often the starting point of class discussions and research inquiry, given that increase income inequality can be inferred as an acceptable outcome of changes in the income distribution as long as those at the lower-end of the economic ladder are subsequently also better off.

The idea of an unconditional basic income (UBI) guarantee currently receiving lots of attention, notably promoted by several tech sector multi-millionaires, if not billionaires by this point. My related scholarship suggests my ambiguity, intrigued by the prospect of reducing economic insecurity regardless of where one stands on the economic ladder, yet skeptical that it would ever be politically viable or socially acceptable.

Let me end this blog by mentioning a long-standing scholarly concern about the relationship between advocacy and research. I value the scientific method as a means of demarcating what constitutes valid and reliable knowledge from what does not, of adjudicating truth claims. More than alternative modes of inquiry, the scientific method increases the likelihood of knowing when one gets things wrong at least in principle if not in fact. As a result, I caution advocacy-minded practitioners and researchers in the helping professions such as social work to as continually ask themselves how they would know if they got things wrong in their efforts to make the world a better place.