Revitalising Critical Reflection in Contemporary Social Work Research, Practice and Education
Revitalising Critical Reflection in Contemporary Social Work Research, Practice and Education

Author: Christian Franklin Svensson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-09

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1000810224

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Globally, social work faces increasingly complex cultural, political, economic, legal, organisational, technological and professional conditions. Critically reflecting on the subject, this book heightens critical consciousness among social work researchers, educators, practitioners and students about the structural dimensions of social problems and human suffering; it highlights the inter-relationship between agency and structure and discusses strategies to challenge and change both individual and societal consciousness. Offering the reader an opportunity to gain in-depth understanding of how critical reflection is possible in contemporary social work research, practice and education, it will be required reading for all social work scholars, students and professionals.

Care in Social Work with Children and Families
Care in Social Work with Children and Families

Author: Maria Appel Nissen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-04-21

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 100087303X

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This book analyses the types of and possibilities for care in social work with families in situations where evidence-based programmes, standardised forms of risk-assessment and intervention, performance management and incentives to increase cost-effectiveness take precedence. Offering a new framework for understanding and exploring theories and practices of care in social work with families, it is structured into • A comprehensive introduction to care theory and its relevance for social work. This includes critical reflections on "the missing link" between care theory and social work theory and the need for care theory in research on and social work with families. • A new framework for understanding core elements, dimensions and dilemmas of care in social work. This is based in theory and international research and is illustrated with exemplary "thick" ethnographic cases of statutory social work, homebased social work and family treatment. • Suggestions for enabling social change of the conditions for and practices of care in social work with families. By allowing critical reflection on this topic, this book will be of interest to all scholars, students and academics of social work and other professions dealing with child protection.

Against Critical Thinking in Health, Social Care and Social Work
Against Critical Thinking in Health, Social Care and Social Work

Author: Tom Grimwood

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-08

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13: 1000954560

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This book stages a provocative dialogue between social work, health and social care and contemporary philosophy in order to inform theory and practice in a complex and challenging world. Today, the social world is marked by deep-rooted complexities, tensions and challenges. Health workers and social workers are constantly reminded to employ critical thinking to navigate this world through their practice. But given how many of these challenges pose significant problems for the theories that these subjects have traditionally drawn upon, should we now be critical of critical thinking – its assumptions, its basis and its aspirations – itself? Arguing that health and social work theory must reconsider its deep-rooted assumptions about criticality in order to navigate complex neoliberalism, post-truth and the relationship between language and late capitalism, it examines how the fusion of theory and practice can re-imagine critical thinking for health, social care and social work. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and professionals of social work and health and social care.

Using Language, Fiction, and Story in Social Work Education
Using Language, Fiction, and Story in Social Work Education

Author: Dara Sampson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-01

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1003811744

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This book provides an accessible, research-informed text for social work educators, students, and practitioners interested in the use of story to engender the connection of human experiences with ideas, theories, and skills. A broad lens is also taken to the ways in which fiction has been used as a teaching tool in other degrees, ranging from medicine to engineering to philosophy and economics. Although the research explored is social work specific, this text has applicability for any educator looking for creative methods to teach complex theories, skills, and concepts. Showing how fiction can be used in social work education, it explains why story matters to social work and how fiction can emulate these stories, as well as the capacity of fiction to evoke empathy. Ways in which educators can enlist fiction to create a ‘safe space’ for the exploration of complex emotional terrain are explored, as are the ways in which a community of practice can be created through fiction. Woven within the end of every chapter are some practice examples and author conversations which work to locate the research into a practice context. The text concludes with examples of how fiction has been effectively utilised by the authors, in order to provide a starting point for those interested in exploring this pedagogical approach further.

Social Work, Social Welfare, and Social Development in Nigeria
Social Work, Social Welfare, and Social Development in Nigeria

Author: Mel Gray

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-23

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1000880710

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This groundbreaking book provides a comprehensive account of social work, social welfare, and social development in Nigeria from a postcolonial perspective. It examines the historical development of social work and social welfare and the colonial legacies affecting contemporary social welfare provision, development planning, social work practice, and social work education. Against this historical backdrop, it seeks to understand the position of social work within Nigeria’s minimalist structure of welfare provision and the reasons why social work struggles for legitimacy and recognition today. It covers contexts of social work practice, including child welfare, juvenile justice, disabilities, mental health, and ageing, as well as areas of development-related problems and humanitarian assistance as new areas of practice for social workers, including internally displaced and trafficked people, and their impact on women and children. It seeks to understand Nigeria’s ethnoreligious diversity and indigenous cultural heritage to inform culturally appropriate social work practice. This book offers a global audience insight into Nigeria’s developmental issues and problems and a local audience – social science and human service researchers, educators, practitioners, students, and policymakers - a glimpse of what’s possible when people work together toward a common goal. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, development studies and social policy.

Revolutionary Social Work
Revolutionary Social Work

Author: Masoud Kamali

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-24

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 1000801012

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This book shows how social work can be an active agent for promoting revolutionary changes in order to counter the global neoliberal market fundamentalism which is destroying our planet and reinforcing socioeconomic inequalities, political instability, antidemocratic political ideologies and movements, small wars, conflicts, racism and other forms of oppression. Providing case-studies from South Africa, Chile, Iran, Europe, Australia and the USA written by leading critical and radical social work scholars, this book sheds light on consequences of the global neoliberal racial capitalism and postcolonial oppression. By presenting innovative ideas and suggestions for a revolutionary social work aimed at promoting systemic changes and eliminating the roots of social problems this book will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, community development and social justice more broadly.

Language Discordant Social Work in a Multilingual World
Language Discordant Social Work in a Multilingual World

Author: Hilde Fiva Buzungu

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-04-21

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1000871258

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Based on ethnographic observations of encounters between social workers and people with whom they do not have a shared language, this book analyzes the impact of language discordance on the quality of professional service provision. Exploring how street-level bureaucrats navigate the landscape of these discretionary assessments of language discordance, language proficiency, and the need for interpreting, the book focuses on four main themes: the complexity of social work talk the issue of participation in language discordant meetings communicative interaction the issue of how clarification is requested when needed, and whether professionals and service users are able to reach clarity when something is unclear Based on the findings presented on these different aspects of language discordant talk, the consequences of language discordance for social work are presented and discussed, focusing primarily on issues at the intersection of language, communication, power, dominance and subordination, representation, linguicism, and ultimately, human rights and human dignity. It will be of interest to all social work students, academics and professionals as well as those working in public services and allied health more broadly.

The Body Politics of Glocal Social Work
The Body Politics of Glocal Social Work

Author: Mona B. Livholts

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 100082442X

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This book shapes a situated body politics to re-think, re-write, and de-colonise social work as a post-anthropocentric discipline headed towards glocalisation, where human and non-human embodiments and agencies are entangled in glocal environmental worlds. It critically and creatively examines how social work can be theorised, practised, and written in renewed ways through dialogical and transdisciplinary practices. This book is composed of eight essayistic spaces, envisioning social work through embodied, glocal, and earthly entanglements. By drawing on research-based knowledge, autobiographical notes, stories, poetry, photographs, and an art exhibition in social work education, these essays provide readers with analysis and strategies that are useful for research, education, and practice as well as life-long learning. The book constitutes key literature for researchers, educators, practitioners, and activists in social work, sociology, architecture, art and creative writing, feminist and postcolonial studies, human geography, and post-anthropocentric philosophy. It offers the readers sustainable ways to re-think and re-write social work towards a glocal- and post-anthropocentric more-than-human worldview.

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Residential Care for Children and Youth
Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Residential Care for Children and Youth

Author: Bruce B. Henderson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-01

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 1003809634

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Is residential care 'inherently harmful'? This book argues that this conventional wisdom is wrong and is, itself, harmful to a significant number of children and youth. The presumptive view is based largely on overgeneralizations from research with infants and very young children raised in extremely deprived environments. A careful analysis of the available research supports the use of high-quality residential care as a treatment of choice with certain groups of needy children and youth, not a last resort intervention. The nature of high-quality care is explored through child development theory and research and two empirically supported models of care are described in detail. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of child development, child welfare, youth work, social work and education as well as professionals working within these fields.

International Perspectives on Parenting Support and Parental Participation in Children and Family Services
International Perspectives on Parenting Support and Parental Participation in Children and Family Services

Author: Carmel Devaney

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-08

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1000952886

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This book provides an account of parenting support initiatives in children and family services from a number of jurisdictions, paying particular attention to their impact on both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ outcomes for participants and to the inclusion of parents in the design and delivery of these supports. By focusing on parents who are experiencing challenges outside of the normal day-to-day task of parenting and in receipt of formal support services, their perspectives on the experience of receiving these supports and the difference experienced by children and family members are analysed. Conceptually driven and reflecting the individual theories and frameworks that underpinned the parenting supports, the participatory processes and the research undertaken, this book includes case studies from Australia, Bulgaria, England, Italy, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia and Spain. By highlighting the theoretical, conceptual and practical considerations required when supporting parents in an inclusive manner, it will be of interest to all scholars, students and practitioners working in the following areas: social work and social care, child development, child protection and social policy.