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social service
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Jane Addams, wearing a dark coat with a fur collar and a cloche hat, stands by a railing holding a handbag.
Jane Addams Jane Addams.

social service

Also known as: social work, welfare service
Written by
Robert A. Pinker
Professor of Social Administration, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. Author of The Idea of Welfare and others.
Robert A. Pinker
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

social service, any of numerous publicly or privately provided services intended to aid disadvantaged, distressed, or vulnerable persons or groups. The term social service also denotes the profession engaged in rendering such services. The social services have flourished in the 20th century as ideas of social responsibility have developed and spread. The basic concerns of social welfare—poverty, disability and disease, the dependent young and elderly—are as old as society itself. The laws of survival once...

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