Rethinking Anti Discriminatory And Anti Oppressive Theories For Social Work Practice

For years anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice have been embedded in the social work landscape. Thinking beyond the mainstream approaches, this book critically examines some of the core concepts and issues in social work, providing fresh perspectives and opportunities for educators, students and practitioners of social work.

For years anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice have been embedded in the social work landscape. Thinking beyond the mainstream approaches, this book critically examines some of the core concepts and issues in social work, providing fresh perspectives and opportunities for educators, students and practitioners of social work.

Feminist social work has clear goals to expose and critically analyse gendered power as a dynamic, historic, and structural concept embedded in our world, and to mobilise and take social action to challenge that power. This is integral to a commitment to the core values of the social work profession, which include a commitment to human rights, social justice and professional integrity. This edited collection brings a range of academic and practitioner scholarship to centre feminist theories, values and knowledge as they apply to social work practice, theory and education. It engages with feminist thinking to re-emphasise and refocus the centrality of gender and its intersections with other axes of identities such as social class, race, disability, sexuality and age, for understanding and analysing social work practice. This collection is a timely reminder of what feminist inquiry has to offer social work to successfully address contemporary challenges and is applicable to practitioners, scholars, educators, students and other key care professionals and policy makers.

Doing Anti-Oppressive Social Work brings together critical social work authors to passionately engage with pressing social issues, and to pose new solutions, practices and analysis in the context of growing inequities and the need for reconciliation, decolonization and far-reaching change. The book presents strong intersectional perspectives and practice, engaging closely with decolonization, re-Indigenization, resistance and social justice. Like the first three editions, the 4th edition foregrounds the voices of those less heard in social work academia and to provide cutting-edge critical reflection and skills, including social work’s relationship to the state, and social work’s responsibility to individuals, communities and its own ethics and standards of practice. Indigenous, Black, racialized, transgender, (dis)Ability and allied scholars offer identity-engaged and intersectional analyses on a wide-range of issues facing those working with intersectional cultural humility, racism and child welfare, poverty and single mothers, critical gerontology and older people, and immigrant and racialized families. This 4th edition of Doing Anti-Oppressive Social Work goes well beyond its predecessors, updating and revising popular chapters, but also problematizing AOP and engaging closely with new and emerging issues.

This book bears testimony to the value of a progressive form of academisation of social work education in most European countries, including former communist countries which had to re-establish social work education. It also manifests the confidence of contributors in belonging to a serious academic discipline, and the fruitfulness of bringing research ‘home’ from neighbouring disciplines such as sociology, psychology, social policy, or pedagogy into the mainstream of social work. The contributions to this book converge on a small number of core issues for contemporary social work. These are methodologically the conceptualisation of different and interacting dimensions of diversity, and practically the defence of professionalism and discretion against encroachment by neo-liberal ideologies and cost-cutting regulations. In so doing, this underscores that theory matters in social work. Authentic social work research can demonstrate that social work practice has no reason to shy away from basing itself on evidence and being professionally accountable as long as its notion of evidence recognises and does justice to the complexity of social problems and acknowledges the value of inter-subjectivity in producing useable and ethically grounded evidence. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Social Work.

Social work is a human profession founded on social justice. It is difficult, however, to negotiate this in the constantly changing context of the 21st century. Drawing on her own experiences and the experiences of others, Jan Fook returns to address the critical tradition of social work, supporting students in their understanding of the possibilities of critical practices in changing contexts. Part One: Critical Potential and Current Challenges sets the historical and current contexts for critical social work, introducing students to what critical social work is and what it means for practice. Part Two: Rethinking Ideas unpicks the major concepts associated with critical social work, including knowledge, power, discourse, identity, and difference, and how these need to be rethought in new contexts. Part Three: Redeveloping Practices illustrates how these new ideas can inform new practices, proving students with all the tools you need to deliver flexible, responsible and responsive social work practice. Celebrating the ageless ideals of the profession, this book throws a life belt to all social work students and professionals looking to engage with the critical tradition of social work to improve their understanding and practice. Jan Fook is Visiting Professor of Professional Practice Research, Royal Holloway, University of London and Chair in Education (Critical Reflection), Kingston University and St Georges, University of London

Puzzled by terminology, skills, law, or theory? Revising for your placement or exam? Then look no further! This series of concise and easy-to-use A-Zs will be your guide. Designed for both students and newly-qualified social workers, this book will introduce you to over 60 key skills in a concise and no-nonsense way. You can test your knowledge and how to apply each skill in practice with Skills in Action, Stop-Reflect and Top Tips boxes.

This reference work addresses the ideas that shape social work. Much of the social work literature addresses questions of theory and ethics separately, so that the body of thought that is represented in social work scholarship and research creates a distinction between them. However, the differences between these categories of thought can be somewhat arbitrary. This volume goes beyond this simple separation of categories. Although it recognises that questions of theory and ethics may be addressed distinctly, the connections between them can be made evident and drawn out by analysing them alongside each other. Social work's use and development of theory can be understood in two complementary ways. First, theory from the social sciences and other disciplines can be applied for social work; second, considered, systematic examinations of practice have enabled theory to be developed out of social work. These different approaches are usually referred to as 'theory for practice' and 'practice theory'. The advancement of social work theory occurs often through the interplay between these two dimensions, through research and scholarship in the field. Similarly, social work ethics draw on principles and concepts that have their roots in philosophical inquiry and also involve applied analysis in the particular issues with which social workers engage and their practices in doing so. In this way social work contributes to wider debates through advancement of its own perspectives and knowledge gained through practice. Social Work Theory and Ethics: Ideas in Practice offers a unique approach by bringing together the complementary dimensions of theory with each other and at the same time with ethical research and scholarship. It presents an analysis of the ideas of social work in a way that enables connections between them to be identified and explored. This reference is essential reading for social work practitioners, researchers, policy-makers, academics and students, as well as an invaluable resource for universities, research institutes, government ministries and departments, major non-governmental organisations, and professional associations of social work.