Shared Responsibility and Social Intervention in Concepción Arenal and Jane Addams
A Comparative Analysis for Social Work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65598/rps.6071Keywords:
Concepción Arenal, Jane Addams, Social Work, shared responsibility, social reformAbstract
The work of Concepción Arenal (1820-1893) and Jane Addams (1860-1935) constitutes a key reference for understanding the genealogy of shared responsibility and social intervention during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Although Arenal wrote prior to the institutionalization of Social Work as a profession, her proposals anticipate central debates concerning professional responsibility in the face of poverty and the articulation between moral and institutional reform. This article compares, from the perspective of comparative intellectual history, the ethical frameworks of both authors in order to clarify how they ground social obligation, conceptualize the relationship with vulnerable individuals, and situate knowledge within reform-oriented action.
Methodologically, the study employs a thematic analysis of primary sources (selected works by Arenal and Addams) alongside a critical review of secondary literature. The comparison is structured around four dimensions: moral emotions and relational bonds; freedom and responsibility; knowledge and action; and, finally, cooperation, social reform, and institutions.
The findings reveal significant convergences: both authors shift the focus from individual deficit to shared social responsibilities, reject charity understood as almsgiving, and defend human dignity and perfectibility through civic cooperation and public reform. The principal divergence lies in their respective models of agency: Arenal emphasizes virtues and duties requiring moral activation, whereas Addams highlights situated knowledge and democratic co-participation as conditions of ethical legitimacy. The article concludes by discussing implications for contemporary Social Work ethics in contexts of inequality and institutional shared responsibility.
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