Ellen Daly

Research enquiry into the history of social work and social welfare is a vital and ongoing scholarly activity, underpinning our understanding of the past, and illuminating present day practice and policy. 'Memory institutions' like libraries and museums have a key role to play in preserving, and providing researchers with access to, original cultural heritage material

Social work and social welfare services in the developed world have a rich, if relatively recent, history with origins in the social upheavals associated with rapid industrialization and urbanization during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There is a regular flow of scholarly work analysing historical trends in the policies and practices of social welfare agencies.