Book Reviews 89
it will become less important in political maneuverings in future. He discusses the manifestations of
conflict and their effect on the overall situation. For example, in relation to the consumer boycotts he
says "One of the most important effects of the boycotts was that a new politics of negotiation emerged".
Throughout the book, Van der Merwe distinguishes between aspects of conflict and v iolence, and shows
some of the very positive aspects of conflict, how they have been used, and can be used, to bring about
real change. He shows quite clearly that conflict will always be there, but that it can be positive and
should be harnessed to produce positive change.
Being deeply Christian himself, the author examines the attitude of the Christian churches to the
struggle, and the part they play in i t He also underlines the increasing conflict within the Christian
conscience concerning the legitimacy of the use of violence in the conflict. "Church leaders are by no
means unanimous on the issue of violence and its relationship with liberation. But it is clear that support
for the just revolution view will grow. As it does, state-church conflict will escalate".
Seldom is one able to find in one publication such an in-depth study of the unhappy situation in South
Africa, in so concise a form. The author not only describes the complex problems faced by the county,
but also offers concrete suggestions for their solution. The final sentence in the book reads "Our present
task is to work towards constructive accommodation of conflict in our continuing pursuit of justice and
peace. I have argued that this is indeed much more likely than popularly perceived". I believe this to
be true. As the author suggests in his preface, this is not a source book on South Africa, but, in my view,
it is a text book on the conflict in that country which should be considered required reading by those
who share the author's hope and faith in the future.
Reviewed by Mjichael Auret, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Visions for the Future: Social Work and Pacific-Asian Perspectives, Daniel S Sanders and Joel
Fischer, University of Hawaii School of Social Work, Hawaii, 1988 (186pp, price not given).
The first chapter slaps you in the face with a forthright challenge to the American psyche to consider their
sins of omission and commission. These sins, together with abuse of wealth and power, bring untold
misery to millions the world over, and missed opportunities to many American children, especially in
the lower classes. The former Attorney-General of the Unites States of America, Ramsey Clarke, shoots
from the hip as he says " I will ask you what prospects you see for a nation that participates in an arms
race that is the greatest crime against humanity in history, contributing to it more annually than is
available for the sustenance of 60% of the earth's population" (p4). It is from the first chapter that one
identifies the feeling of the whole book.
The book is an outcome of a workshop, held in Hawaii, to consider the issues of social work and
social justice in the Pacific-Asian region. However, its content has a universal applicability that makes
the book both a prophetic message for the future and a scientific guide for the practitioner - the latter
being most clear in chapters 3, 5, 6,9 and 20 which give actual intervention strategies mat have been
tried out in Hawaii and adjoining areas.
Visions for the Future is divided into 14 chapters, organised in 4 parts. The first part is an overview
of the burning issues in social work, now and tomorrow, and builds up a perspective that puts the
remaining three parts, which deal with families and children, the elderly and employment, and income
security, into one mould. Different as the subjects might sound the book manages to successfully show
die differential application of justice and social policy in the United States, and how the questions of
ethics and private interest continue to fuel inequality and distort social service provision. The book
considers these issues in the US context, and in terms of how they impact on the Pacific-Asian region
90 Book Reviews
as a whole. This region is defined as the South Pacific Islands, the island chains which make up
Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia and New Zealand, the US Pacific insular jurisdictions, and
South, Southeast, and North East Asia - ranging from "impoverished Bangladesh to the awakening giant
China and to technologically advanced Japan". One is tempted to wonder if the workshop from which
the book came attempted too much in trying to cover so wide and diverse an area.
However, the general relevance and applicability of the subjects, and the information and
recommendations, make the book a good reference book for social work education, including casework,
family work, community work, social administration, socioeconomics and the use of cross-cultural
research. The book is quite interesting to read and brings a vibrant pulse to the field of social work and
politics. This makes the book relevant not only to the Pacific-Asian region but also to the Third World
in general and to anybody with a sympathy for social justice.
The book begins on a light informal note that is both appetising and informing; with Ramsey Clarke
haranguing the reader with such anecdotes as "There was an Oklahoman -1 come from Texas - who said
that man shifted his ideology from cannibalism to capitalism when he discovered that it is more
profitable to exploit your neighbour than to eat him."
As you get into Chapter 2, which considers "Futuristic Considerations in Social Work", more
specific implications for social work practice are highlighted, viz the development of a "more holistic,
broad-based approach", "change from a remedial to a developmental perspective", "introducing an
international/cross-cultural perspective in social work", putting "greater emphasis on interdisciplinary
efforts", developing "closer linkages between research and practice", and putting "emphasis on ethical
considerations in policy development and practice".
The chapters on family work, children and the elderly get down to the basics of social work. They
ask the basic ethical questions of children in foster care and the children of poor families, and their future
in a nation "that prioritises guns over human life!'.
The elderly are considered a major area of work for social work and caregiving in the future Pacific-
Asian region. Thus the book gives timely advice on the need to indigenise meanings and approaches
to the concepts of "aging, health, illness, trouble and help", and to meet the gap between client needs
and service delivery, especially in ethnically plural communities. Also important is die need to close
intergenerational gaps and to create special programmes for what are referred to in the book as "geriatric
orphans", usually "single males with minimal education or skill training [who have] lost their ties with
their families".
The last section on employment and income security looks at the real issues and root causes of the
problems highlighted earlier. Midgely, in Chapter 11, raises a lot of questions and issues on the elusive
subject of social security, but leaves the subject as open-ended as it currently is. The last chapter is more
specific and pedantic, taking up the impact of Reagan's policies on US poverty, employment and income
security. This chapter argues about the way "advanced capitalism" thrives on "racist policies", whether
overtly or covertly. Concluding the book on the race issue leaves one asking questions about the role
of social work in this problem.
Visions for the Future certainly advocates a new form of social work, but it is perhaps not bold
enough to bring out any radical new directions that diverge from current community development and
so-called "participatory approaches" that are designed/or the people without them. The book skirts over
die real issues of the impact of US imperialism in the Pacific-Asian region, and thus skirts with
socioeconomic analysis, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. In other words the book sometimes
sounds naively objective, for example where it makes blanket comments on the Pacific-Asian region
without making a purposive stand for the poor. Thus oil-rich Brunei with a per capita income in excess
of US$20 000 is covered together with Vanuatu and Tonga with per-capita incomes between US$30
and $500.
These last comments should not detract too much from this invaluable work of goodwill. They are
meant to show the other side of an otherwise excellent piece of work, that would be invaluable for
Book Reviews 91
students, practitionexs or scholars in social work. Available in paperback, it should be reasonably
affordable. The printing is perfect and the references immense.
Reviewed by Tapiwanashe Vengai, Glen Forest Training Centre, Harare.
Adolescent Mothers in Later Life, Frank F Furstenberge Jr., J Brooks- Gunn, and S Philip Morgan,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987 (xiv +204pp, US$29,95 hbk).
Adolescent Mothers in Later Life is a longitudinal follow up study of the original Baltimore research
described in Unplanned Parenthood - the Social Consequences of Teenage Childbearing (1976, and
referred to in this publication). The original research studied between 300 - 400 mostly unmarried
teenagers, over a 5 year period, who had sought prenatal services in the mid 60's, most of whom were
black low income females in their mid teens. The groups' experiences were then compared, in areas
such as education, occupation, income, fextility, and marital decisions, with their classmates who had
delayed child bearing.
The follow up, carried out in 1983-84, looked at the life courses of over 300 families ovex three
generations, and intended to produce results useful for policy makexs and practitionexs concerned with
the issue of teenage motherhood and its role in the maintenance of an underclass in society. The study
also explores the intexconnection between a mother's life decisions and her children's 'life course
trajectories' .
While in many countries today there is increasing concexn ovex the issue of single mothexs and
school girl pregnancies, the authors point out that teenage child bearing was never uncommon in the US,
although only in the mid-twentieth century did a substantial percentage marry and have children. The
prevalence of early parenthood in 1950's, for example, was far more common than today, with nearly
half of all women marrying in their teens and aquartex having a first child before 20. Howevex, by 1970
adolescent pregnancy hadsuddenly emexged as a 'social problem' and increasingly gained wide public
concem into the 80's.
The authors see this shift in public attitudes as largely a longstanding demographic change, with
adult fextility taking a dramatic plunge (as a result of contraception, easiex legislation on abortion, etc)
not seen in teenage lIegnancy. In addition, with the ascendancy of the marriage age in the 60' s, thexe
was a grow~g number of teeIiage births to unmarried women. The shift from early to late marriage
pattexns is partly explained by changing economic opportunities, the doubling of unemployment
between the '60s and '70s, and the viability of early marriage. Highex education also began to be seen
as the vital ticket to the labour market.
Black families in particular expexienced the most dramatic change, with marriage among teenage
blacks virtually disawearing over the last two decades. Howevex, rathex than being viewed as a black
trend, this is now seen as a pace settex for the larger population with the major difference between early
child bearing in the past and present, teenage fextility, now occurring outside marriage. With early
marriage in any case failing to survive, children of teenage motbexs also have a far highex IIObability
of living in single parent families.
The original Baltimore study highlighted the struggle of early parenting both for the mothers and
children involved, with the majority of participants seemingly destined to live a life of social and
economic disadvantage. This book, however, tries hard (perhaps too hard) to disprove the stereotype of
the inevitable povexty cycle, and reliance on welfare, of teenage mother. There is, howevex, little
evidence of the "remarkable and surprising results" of the study in respect oflongstanding adaptation
to early parenthood, heralded in the inside book cover. Rather, while the stereotype may be exaggented.
the evidence found it not wholly wrong. While still well below their counterparts, many were bettex off