Abstract
Social Work in Context contains a total of nine chapters themed around the application of sociological theories which support social workers’ understanding of what professional social work is and the various ideologies and discourses which shape their practice. In exploring the ways that these key ideas influence and impact on social work practice with diverse service users, the chapters discuss several important concepts, engaging with both theoretical and professional frameworks to develop themes that consider how policy, research and practice interconnect. Some of the concepts revisited, for example stigma, risk and poverty are familiar ones to social work students and practitioners. Others, however, such as Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and capital and Hayek’s ideas on freedom and the role of the state, are less well known to students of social work and the authors make use of a series of activities, reflective questions and models to help contextualise this knowledge for the reader.
The book may be positioned alongside a cluster of other texts which also critically analyse the impact of neoliberalism on welfare and social work practice (Ferguson et al., 2002; Gray and Webb, 2009) and focus on the impact for both service users and social workers of government policy and legislation. This text is an important and valuable addition to this collection in part because of the authors’ academic and professional backgrounds in social work.
This book is written in a way that is accessible and the authors’ show how particular theoretical definitions can be understood, interpreted and applied. One example of this in the book is Goffman’s concept of stigma, where the authors reshape his original Interactionist analysis of the individual’s ‘spoiled identity’ to incorporate ‘the ways in which institutions and cultural representations of dependency impact upon marginalised groups in the UK’. They highlight these wider social and structural relations and experiences of the ‘discredited and the discreditable’ which maintain stigma.
The book re-examines and reviews the theoretical contributions from a number of academics including the work of Beck, Giddens and Goffman, and re-formulates these analyses alongside contemporary social work research and practice. Deskilling, alienation, power risk and performance management are amongst a number of critical issues illuminated by the authors’ and Sklair’s (2002) critique of global inequality, and the widening gap between rich and poor is amongst several specialist perspectives which the authors’ consider as influential in shaping such practices such as managerialism, specialisation and migration. The result is a text that is grounded in the contemporary relativities of social work practice.
A key feature through the book is the authors’ organisation of the topics and themes. Text boxes, activities, models and case studies are used to summarise, discuss and analyse the key concepts; use of headings and sub-headings help the deconstruction and reworking of the key idea ideas and guide the reader through both the familiar and unfamiliar concepts and contexts.
This is a much needed book in a crowded market. Students new to social work will find the arguments made by the authors of this book thought-provoking and leading to many new questions. Others may consider it a reworking of contemporary practice issues and will enjoy reading about and reflecting on the challenges confronting social work practice today.