Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege: A Critical Approach to Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Theory and Practice

Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege is the definitive guide to anti-oppressive and anti-privilege social work, which is a prominent part of social work theory and practice today. Bob Mullaly and Juliana West examine the many forms that oppression and privilege can take at the personal, cultural, and structural levels. They outline the necessary practices and approaches that social work must adopt to fight against oppression and privilege, and to assist those who have been oppressed. This much-anticipated new edition has been fully updated and revised to include a thorough discussion of privilege. The authors explore the practical implications of anti-oppression and anti-privilege - and share their own encounters with these concepts - in Case Example and Personal Experience boxes. Discussion questions encourage students to look at issues through a critical lens.

Table of Contents:
Note: each chapter includes: - Introduction - Conclusion - Critical questions for discussion - Further readings 1. Oppression: An Overview Diversity, Difference, and Oppression Social Work Approaches to Difference The Nature of Oppression Case Example 1.1 What Is Oppression? Oppression as a Social Justice Issue The Genealogy of Modern-Day Oppression and the Politics of Identity The Dynamics of Oppression Case Example 1.2 "I Have Never Been Oppressed" Forms of Oppression Case Example 1.3 Allies or Enemies? Personal, Cultural, and Structural Levels of Oppression 2. Privilege: An Overview The Nature of Privilege Dynamics of Privilege Personal, Cultural, and Structural Levels of Privilege Why Dominant Groups Do Not See Privilege as a Problem A Taxonomy of Everyday Examples of Unearned Privilege Social Work and Privilege Pedagogy of Privilege 3. Theoretical and Conceptual Considerations Case Example 3.1 Personally Constructed Theory Social Problems: The Great Paradox of the Helping Profession Personal Experience 3.1 Parking Lots and Social Problems Order and Conflict/Change Perspectives Critical Social Theory Critical Social Work Theory Modernism and Postmodernism Personal Experience 3.2 Not All Theories Are Created Equal - In Spite of What the Instructor Implies Major Concepts Associated with Oppression/Anti-Oppression Framework 4. Oppression and Privilege at the Personal Level Case Example 4.1 Patricia and Margaret and Their Car Troubles Normalizing Gaze and Objectified Bodies Acts of Oppression at the Personal Level Case Example 4.2 The Iron Lady Case Example 4.3 A Racialized Space Case Example 4.4 Ungrateful or Unjust? Case Example 4.5 Micro-Aggressions and Privileged Identities Effects of Oppression on the Individual Case Example 4.6 Mohammed and Jeff and Social Scripts Personal Experience 4.1 My Shifting Identity Surviving Oppression: Responses of Oppressed People at the Personal Level Acts of Privilege at the Personal Level Case Example 4.1 continued: Margaret's Privilege 5. Oppression and Privilege at the Cultural Level Culture (The "Poor Cousin" in Social Work) The Dominant Culture Personal Experience 5.1 Media Bias against Social Protest Popular/Mass Culture Critical Social Theories of Culture Case Example 5.1 Simulated Family Life Today Stereotypes as Cultural Expressions of Oppression Case Example 5.2 An Inadequate Mother or Oppressive Expectations? Personal Experience 5.2 An Unconscious Act of Oppression Language and Discourse as Mechanisms of Oppression (and Anti-Oppression) Social Work and Cultural Oppression Case Example 5.3 Social Work Reproduces Gender and Racial Oppression Privilege at the Cultural Level Whiteness and Privilege Privilege as a Category of Analysis, Model of Lived Experience, and Cultural Narrative Social Work and Privilege at the Cultural Level 6. Oppression and Privilege at the Structural Level Social Relations and Oppression Personal Experience 6.1 Attending Multicultural Celebrations The Politics of Difference Economic Relations and Oppression Political Relations and Oppression Case Example 6.1 Two Societies Effects of Structural Oppression Social Determinants of Health Privilege at the Structural Level 7. Internalized Oppression and Domination Psychology of Oppression Inferiority and Internalized Oppression The Master-Slave Paradigm Case Example 7.1 More than 35 Million Slaves False Consciousness Personal Experience 7.1 "Life Would Be a Whole Lot Simpler" Other Perspectives on Internalized Oppression Case Example 7.2 "I Made It without Help. Why Can't They?" Psychology of Liberation Internalized Domination and Privilege Personal Experience 7.2 From Social Leprosy to Social Respectability Case Example 7.3 "Black Is Beautiful" 8. The "Web": The Multiplicity, Intersectionality, and Heterogeneity of Oppression and Privilege Multiple Identities and the Persistence of Domination and Oppression Case Example 8.1 Initial Impressions of an Intake Worker Models of Multiple Oppressions Intersectional Analysis Case Example 8.2 "What Is It about Me?" Heterogeneity within Oppressed Groups Case Example 8.3 A Despicable Political Response 9. Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Social Work Practice at the Personal and Cultural Levels Anti-Oppressive Practice at the Personal Level Case Example 9.1 Gay Pride Personal Experience 9.1 "Don't Take It Personally" Personal Experience 9.2 "Okay, Take It Personally If You Want, but I'm Moving On!" Anti-Oppressive Practice at the Cultural Level Case Example 9.2 Ethics and Culture (Not All Cultural Practices Are Inherently Good) Personal Experience 9.3 A Creative Method of Resistance Case Example 9.3 Freeloaders Case Example 9.4 Gandhi and a Very Good Idea Challenging the Organization Anti-Privilege Practice at the Personal and Cultural Levels: What Can We Do? Case Example 9.5 Sam and His Intersectional Identities Personal Experience 9.4 Using My Privilege to Advance the Cause 10. Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Social Work at the Structural Level with Principles for All Levels Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Practice at the Structural Level Personal Experience 10.1 Working within an Effective Alternative Organization Personal Experience 10.2 Whose Ethics? Selected Principles of Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Social Work Practice Case Example 10.1 Critical Self-Reflection Needed Here! The Constructive Use of Anger

About the Author :
Bob Mullaly is emeritus professor in the Faculty of Social Work at University of Manitoba. Previously, he taught in the Department of Social Work at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, and in the social work program that he founded at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is also the author of The New Structural Social Work (OUP Canada, 2007). Juliana West is assistant professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at Thompson Rivers University. Her work has appeared in publications from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives and the FORUM on Corrections Research. She is a three-time recipient of the University of Manitoba Teaching Services' Teaching Excellence Award (2008, 2011, 2012). Prior to completing her Ph.D, she acted as a policy advisor for both Alberta Mental Health and Correctional Services Canada, and is the former director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary.

Review :
"This text is critical to social work practice in Canada. . . . It provides a thorough theoretical foundation to understand oppression. The chapter on privilege is essential for social work students." --Brigette Krieg, University of Regina "I think this book is excellent. I really like Mullaly's directness re: the importance of theory and [...] criticisms of mainstream practice, the tables and [figures] are well-done, his outlining oppression at personal, cultural, and structural levels is useful, . . . and I like his exploration of privilege and how we harm others without conscious intent . . . I love Mullaly's work." --Susan Hillock, Trent University