The 1998 Revised 3rd Edition of:
A Brief Introduction to Social Role Valorization: A High-Order Concept For Addressing the Plight of Societally Devalued People, and for Structuring Human Services
by Wolf Wolfensberger
In 1983, Wolfensberger formulated Social Role Valorization (SRV) as the successor to the principle of normalization. In 1991, the Training Institute for Human Service Planning, Leadership and Change Agentry published a monograph on SRV entitled A Brief Introduction to Social Role Valorization as a High-Order Concept for Structuring Human Services. It was revised and elaborated, and a 2nd edition was published in 1992. Since then, the monograph has undergone yet another revision and expansion, reflecting the evolving conceptualization and teaching of SRV. This 3rd revised, and greatly expanded 1998 edition has a new title and is described here.
This edition is 139 + X111 pages, single-spaced, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 inches. Though it is much shorter than the approximately 500-page PASSING Manual on specific SRV implications, it is much longer than any of the short article-length overviews of SRV available so far, and almost twice as long as the previous edition. Also, it contains material that is not in either the PASING Manual or any of the shorter articles. The monograph can thus serve as an intermediate-length explanation of SRV. It would be especially useful for those people who want a better understanding of SRV, but are not (yet) prepared to read PASSING, or not able to attend an introductory workshop which rarely lasts less than 3 days. But it also serves as a suitable preparatory reading for people who are planning to come to an introductory SRV workshop.
This monograph is not meant to be a simplication or popularization of SRV. It is aimed at intelligent readers who either have some college background or equivalent intellectual capacity and mental discipline.
Specifically, the monograph addresses the following topics:
- the universal dynamics of social devaluation;
- social devaluation and socially devalued classes in contemporary Western Societies;
- a brief review of the common hurtful things that get done to societally devalued people as a consequence to their devaluation;
- the dynamics of role expectancies;
- how personal experience, role expectancies, and environmental conditions all interact to generate social judgments about the value of people;
- the power of social roles in determining both people's behaviour and their place in society;
- the complex relationship between deformities, impairments and other afflictions, and the holding of valued or devalued roles;
- a definition of Social Role Valorization;
- the importance of image enhancement and competency enhancement in contributing to valued social roles;
- some valued roles which could be sought and fostered for devalued people;
- guidelines for stepwise application of SRV in specific - mostly individual - instances
- a brief review of ten themes which underlie many of the implications of SRV, drawn from social & behavioural science.
Orders in Australia and NZ can be made to the Community Resource Centre (CRU) QLD: cru@cru.org.au; www.cru.org.au.
Orders in Canada and SRV can be made to the Syracuse University Training Institute, 518 James St, Suite B3, Syracuse NY 13203, USA. ph 315/473-2978; fax 315/473-2963