Social Development and its Relevance to Australian Social Work* Mel Gray a & Penny Crofts b a Research Institute of Advanced Study for Humanity, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia b Family Action Centre, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia Abstract This paper presents Midgley’s theory on social development to an Australian social work audience. It explores the concept and theory of social development, examines the relationship between social work and social development, and discusses the relevance of social development to social work in Australia. The paper suggests that although social work and social development may share similar broad goals, their strategic approaches differ, with the former cast within a professional model concerned with welfare broadly conceived and the latter directly concerned with the alleviation of poverty in the less- developed parts of the world. The paper concludes with thoughts on the Australian face of social development and suggests changes that would need to be made if social work were to embrace social development. Keywords: Australian Social Work; CommunityBusiness Partnership Development; Corporate Social Responsibility; Social Development. The paper introduces Midgley’s (1995) theory of social development to an Australian social work audience. Although others in Australia are writing in this area (e.g., David Cox and Manohar Pawar [2006]), they have yet to publish within the Australian social work literature. In their book on International Social Work, Cox and Pawar (2006) talked about social development as an important mode of international social work engagement. They saw social development and international social work as closely related. In this respect, they claimed that theorists in social work have been at the forefront of developing appropriate approaches and methodologies for interven- tion in the poorer continents of Africa and Asia. Elsewhere, they draw on Midgley’s *This article was accepted under the editorship of Christine Bigby and Sharon McCallum. Correspondence to: Mel Gray, Research Professor, Research Institute of Advanced Study for Humanity (RIASH), University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. Email: Mel.Gray@newcastle.edu.au Accepted for Publication 28 July 2007 ISSN 0312-407X (print)/ISSN 1447-0748 (online) # 2008 Australian Association of Social Workers DOI: 10.1080/03124070701818757 Australian Social Work Vol. 61, No. 1, March 2008, pp. 88103