Building on the successful 1st edition, this reader brings together some of the most significant ideas that have informed social work practice over the last fifty years. At the same time as presenting these foundational extracts, the book includes commentaries that allow the reader to understand the selected extracts on their own terms as well as to be aware of their relations to each other and to the wider social work context.
There is no settled view or easy consensus about what social work is and should be, and the ideas reflected in this volume are themselves diverse and complex. The world of social work has changed greatly over the last ten years, and this new edition reflects that change with new material on the decolonisation of social work knowledges, the greater emphasis on inter-disciplinarity and co-production and the new concern for identities.
With an accessible introduction to contextualise the selections, the book is divided into three main sections, each presenting key texts drawn from a wide range of perspectives: psychological, sociological, philosophical, educational and political, as well as perspectives that are grounded in the experiences of practitioners and those who use services, which have contributed to the development of:
- the profession of social work
- knowledge and values for social work and
- practice in social work.
By providing students and practitioners with an easy way into reading first-hand some of the most interesting, foundational texts of the subject, it will be required reading for all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and professionals undertaking post-qualifying training.
Table of Contents:
0.Introduction - Reading social work. Part One - The Profession of Social Work. Commentary One. 1.Black History Month: a provocation and a timeline. 2.But is it social work?. 3.The politics of social work. 4.Changes in the form of knowledge in social work: from the ‘social’ to the ‘informational’?. 5.The quest for a universal social work: some issues and implications. 6.The (r)evolution and decolonization of social work ethics: The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles. 7.Human rights practice: possibilities and pitfalls for developing emancipatory social work. 8.The impact of scandal and inquiries on social work and the personal social services. 9.Social work in a risk society. 10.Am I my brother’s keeper?. 11.Research from the Underside. 12.What is Professional Social Work?. 13.The Client Speaks. 14.Service users and practitioners reunited: the key component for social work reform. Part Two – Knowledge and Values for Social Work. Commentary Two. 15.The sociological imagination. 16.Reassessing attachment theory in child welfare. 17.A critique of the adverse childhood experiences framework in epidemiology and public health: Uses and misuses. 18.Resilience: Some conceptual considerations. 19.A Critical Understanding of Social Work by Paolo Freire (1919). 20.There is an alternative: homines curans and the limits of neoliberalism. 21.The social model of disability. 22.The relevance of Nancy Fraser for transformative social work education. 23.Feminism for the 99%. 24.Intersectionality’s definitional dilemmas. 25.Learning to deliver LGBT+ aged care. 26.Towards practicing social work law. 27.What are values and ethics?. 28.Green social work in theory and practice: a new environmental paradigm for the profession. Part Three – Practice in Social Work. Commentary Three. 29.On the nature of practice. 30.‘Radical Social Work’ by Roy Bailey and Mike Brake: A Classic Text Revisited. 31.The critical role of street level bureaucrats. 32.Assessment in the twenty-first century. 33.The significance of African-centered social work for social work practice. 34.Bridging the Past and Present to the Future of Crisis Intervention and Crisis Management. 35.The contemporary context of relationship-based practice. 36.The ecological systems metaphor in Australasia. 37.The strengths perspective in social work practice: extensions and cautions. 38.Personalisation through participation: A new script for public services. 39.Collaboration and partnership in context. 40.A review of Donald A. Schön’s, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. 41.Making things new: Distant Voices and Unbound at Vox Liminis with Padraig O’Tuama.
About the Author :
Viviene E. Cree (PhD) is Professor Emerita of Social Work Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of Sociology for Social Workers and Probation Officers, editor of Becoming a Social Worker and co-author of Social Work: Voices from the Inside, all published by Routledge.
Trish McCulloch (PhD) is Professor of Social Work and Senior Associate Dean in the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at the University of Dundee. She has published widely on justice, social work and, more recently, on social work education and professional learning.
