The Welfare State and Social Work: Pursuing Social Justice

Josefina Figueira-McDonough, Ph.D., is professor emerita of Social Work and of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. Trained in social work and sociology at the University of Michigan, she has taught in both fields at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Vanderbilt University. She has lectured and/or conducted research in Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, Mozambique, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Ireland. Her work on social justice has focused on deviance and control, the ecology of poverty, policy outcomes, community analysis and curricula. This research has been supported by federal, state, and private grants and disseminated in social science as well as in social work journals. She is presently on the board of two international and interdisciplinary journals, Social Intervention and Social Compass, and is a member of the book committee of the National Association of Social Workers. Her most recent books include Community Analysis and Praxis: Toward a Grounded Civil Society (Brunner-Routledge, 2001), Serviço Social: Profissão e Identidade, with A. Negreiros, A. Martins and B. Henriques (Veras Editora, 2000), and Women at the Margins: Neglect, Punishment and Resistance, edited with Rosemary Sarri (Howard Press, 2002).