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Resisting politics of authoritarian populism during COVID-19, reclaiming democracy and narrative justice: centering critical thinking in social work
- Authors:
- LEE Eunjung, JOHNSTONE Marjorie
- Journal article citation:
- International Social Work, 64(5), 2021, pp.716-730.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Authoritarian populism that fosters deep hate of ‘Others’ and a desire for obedience and order, has attacked the fundamental principles of social work and democracy. During the global health crisis, another global pandemic – xeno or racism – is evoked to corroborate authoritarian populism. This paper critically analyses the dynamics of populism that shift the focus from ‘people’ to ‘problems’ and how it has been intensified during COVID-19. Using narrative justice as a guiding framework, this paper invites social workers to critically reflect on how this politics has impacted marginalized populations and injuries done to democracy and how social workers can contribute constructing social justice narratives. (Edited publisher abstract)
A Fisher-eye lens on social work reform
- Authors:
- MCGRATH-BROOKE Michael, HANLEY Joe, HIGGINS Martyn
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work, 21(5), 2021, pp.1261-1277.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Summary: Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism, published in 2009, has been recognised as one of the most important contributions chronicling the rise, application and consequences of neoliberalism. However, Fisher’s ideas have until now only garnered passing mention in the study of neoliberalism in children and families social work in England, despite there being extensive research, argument and publication on the subject more broadly. This article attempts to rectify this gap and apply Fisher’s theory to the recent reforms in children and families social work in England. Findings: The article applies Fisher’s commentary on the co-option of language, invoking crisis, bureaucracy and proposing change to implement no change, to the reforms in children and families social work that began with the implementation of Reclaiming Social Work in 2008. Since that time, the original architects of Reclaiming Social Work have gained significant positions of power and influence and been instrumental in introducing neoliberal reforms throughout children and families social work in England. Applications: Through applying the approach and concepts of Mark Fisher, this article concludes that it is possible to determine that the current reforms are, at their core, neoliberal in nature and driven by an ideological imperative to transform children and families social work in England into a neoliberal edifice, with less public sector and state input and oversight and an increase in the influence of ‘not-for-profits’, charities and international for-profit consultancies. (Edited publisher abstract)
The imperative and promise of neo-abolitionism in social work
- Author:
- GREGORY Joshua R
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work, 21(5), 2021, pp.1203-1224.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Neo-abolitionism, the social movement to abolish whiteness, contends that whiteness—not white people—possesses no humane or redeemable quality, in and of itself, but functions solely as the keystone of racialization and systemic racial oppression. Neo-abolitionism has not garnered legitimacy or secured broad commitment from any profession or discipline in the United States. This is unsurprising given the existential anathema, to a society founded upon white supremacy, of such a direct ideological affront and material challenge to the reigning social and institutional order. Practically speaking, though, neo-abolitionism has failed to translate theoretical philosophy to a viable sociopolitical agenda comprised of actionable routes toward social change that might subvert the hegemony of whiteness and erode the social construction of race. As whiteness increasingly inflicts harm and sows division in the contemporary historical moment, social work faces the imperative to seriously consider the merits of neo-abolitionism. (Edited publisher abstract)
Critical clinical social work and the neoliberal constraints on social justice in mental health
- Author:
- BROWN Catrina
- Journal article citation:
- Research on Social Work Practice, 31(6), 2021, pp.644-652.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Despite a strong history of social justice–based social work professional education in Canada, there has not been an intentional integration of direct critical clinical mental health practice with social justice–based theory. Progressive social work has tended to view clinical work as focusing on the individual and failing to contribute to social change. In this article, I elaborate upon a critical clinical social work approach influenced by postmodern critique, and feminist-, narrative-, and collaborative-based practice rooted in critical theory. Critical clinical practice disrupts the individual/social binary through counterviewing unhelpful dominant social discourses and producing counterstories that participate in social resistance. I explore the constraints of neoliberalism on social work mental health practice and its influence on the ability of social workers to practice social justice-based social work. Neoliberalism constrains social workers’ ability to address the social and structural determinants of mental health through its focus on economic rationalization, biomedicalization, and individual responsibilization, alongside rationalized practices that emphasize evidence-based and short-term efficiency-based models. I argue that social work is facing a crisis as a disempowered profession, as it attempts to reconcile its commitment to social justice and the importance of addressing inequity, marginalization, and oppression while often working in settings that demand the subordination of social work knowledge to neoliberal biomedicalism. Under these conditions, a critical clinical approach to mental health practice is needed now more than ever. (Edited publisher abstract)
Social work interventions with survivors of acts of political violence
- Authors:
- SCHIFF Miriam, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work, 21(2), 2021, p.188–205.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Summary: Social workers and students in a large teaching hospital explored the characteristics of psychosocial interventions during acts of political violence. The associations between hospital length of stay, Acute Stress Reaction, and the characteristics of the implemented psychosocial interventions were also examined. One hundred and forty patients (61.4% males) treated during the so-called stabbing intifada/uprising in the years 2014–2015 in Israel in one large hospital were included. Data collection was based on clinical data mining. Findings: The most frequent patient interventions were trauma-focused, while the most frequent family interventions were needs assessment and support-system building. Most of the interventions with the family (but not with the patient) were associated with longer hospital stays. Greater severity of Acute Stress Reaction was associated with greater use of trauma-focused interventions with the patient (but not with the family). Applications: The findings suggest that social workers hold implicit trauma-focused intervention theories that should be written up in order to develop practice-based intervention models in the context of political violence. (Edited publisher abstract)
Rethinking the transformative role of the social work profession in Albania: some lessons learned from the response to COVID-19
- Authors:
- DAUTI Marsela, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Social Work, 63(5), 2020, pp.640-645.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This article provides an overview of the social work response to COVID-19 in Albania. After introducing the country situation, the authors discuss social workers’ engagement in governmental and non-governmental agencies and provide suggestions for advancing the social work profession. The authors call for greater engagement of social workers in political spaces. (Edited publisher abstract)
Disciplining the risky subject: a discourse analysis of the concept of resilience in social work literature
- Authors:
- PARK Yoosun, CRATH Rory, JEFFERY Donna
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work, 20(2), 2020, pp.152-172.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Summary: The concept of resilience has become an established, taken-for-granted concept in social work. This poststructuralist discourse analysis of randomly sampled social work articles on resilience examines the discursive mechanisms through which the concept of resilience has been constructed in particular ways and considers the political effects of such usage. Findings: The study of resilience is always a post facto analysis; markers of resilience are predetermined by dominant ideas of the normal and the normative subject. Systemic risk factors such as poverty and inequality are acknowledged to be productive of subjects in need of resilience. Yet, those structures are relegated to the margins of the manuscript and elided in favor of individualised analysis and intervention; the identified locus of risk and the targeted site of interventions are entirely at odds. Resilience, thus, serves as a designation for risky subjects’ capacity to accommodate—not actively change—their social/political environments, including their interactions with social work and social workers. It functions as a technology of the neoliberal self that allows social workers to construct and manage subjects capable of self-management and productive self-sufficiency. Application: The resilience enterprise thus short-circuits social work’s aims for social justice. Examination of the discourse of resilience for their implications for practice, education, and research is a political imperative for social work and is necessary to open up new sightlines of possibility for a re-energised, more complex social work praxis. Suggestions for future directions are included. (Edited publisher abstract)
Dismantling the Welfare State? After twenty-five years: what have we learned and what should we learn?
- Authors:
- JENSEN Carsten, WENZELBURGER Georg, ZOHLNHOFER Reimut
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 29(5), 2019, pp.681-691.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Dismantling the Welfare State? is a modern classic in the welfare state literature. Yet although the book is widely known, the ‘Piersonian argument’ as it is typically referred to today bears limited resemblance to the book’s highly nuanced and thought-provoking ideas. This review revisits the book and explores some of the lessons it still holds for the research community. (Edited publisher abstract)
Mapping social work across 10 countries: structure, intervention, identity and challenges
- Authors:
- ORNELLAS Abigail, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Social Work, 62(4), 2019, p.1183–1197.
- Publisher:
- Sage
An emerging global consciousness and rising attention given to international social work development has seen the recognition of comparative research within the profession. Understanding the functioning and organisation of social work within various country contexts is critical in order to formulate knowledge around its overall impact, successes and challenges, allowing social workers to learn from one another and build professional consolidation. The profession is mapped out in 10 countries, reflecting on its structure, identity and development. Although the profession is developing globally, it is also experiencing significant challenges. Key insights, conclusions and recommendations for future research are presented. (Edited publisher abstract)
Politicisation, engagement, depoliticisation – the neoliberal politics of care
- Author:
- HOPPANIA Hanna-Kaisa
- Journal article citation:
- Critical Social Policy, 39(2), 2019, pp.229-247.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Many European nations share a political challenge: the ageing population and recessionary economics lead to dwindling resources for welfare services, while scandals and reports of unacceptable deficits in particular in care services for older people arise. In Finland this situation was responded to with a new Care Act for Older People that was passed in 2013. This article tracks the legislative process of the law and demonstrates how this issue of fundamental values and resources was turned into a question of apolitical governance and expert management, resulting in a dubious, status-quo supporting law. It presents a case of how the subsumption of homo politicus in the neoliberal era in practice can happen, and how depoliticisation can function in a context with which neoliberalism is not often associated: namely the care policy of a traditionally social-democratic Nordic welfare state. (Edited publisher abstract)