Social Administration in a Changing Society1

This chapter argues that the future of social administration depends, to some extent, on the future of the great experiments in social service which have been launched in Britain in recent years. To this uncertainty must be added, in the teaching of social administration, the awareness of intellectual uncertainty which attends on those concerned with the study of human relations, for only now are people beginning to grope their way towards some scientific understanding of society. Uncertainty, then, is part of the price that has to be paid for being interested in the many-sidedness of human needs and behaviour. The chapter also presents some generalizations about the nature of social change which, by their effect on the individual and the family, affect also the structure and roles of the social services.