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Low-barrier harm reduction and housing for older people in Vancouver’s opiate crisis: meeting people where they are
Baines D., Braedley S., Daly T., Hillier S., Cabahug F.
Q2
Drawing on recent case-study data, this article explores innovative practices around harm reduction and housing for older people who use drugs. Although right-wing groups call for further criminalisation of drug use, in light of extraordinarily high levels of deaths from opioid overdose in Vancouver, Canada, the provincial government has quietly permitted the development of safe supply, the testing of illegal drugs to avoid poisonings and the provision of low-barrier, inclusive and supportive social housing, including housing specifically for older people. Drawing on crisis theory, the article analyses the provision of low-barrier harm reduction services for this marginalised and highly vulnerable group of older people and reflects on what we can learn about providing supports that are needs based and strengths based and embody meeting people where they are.
Radicalising hope to resist the neoliberalisation of social work
Zufferey C.
Q2
The influence of neoliberalism is taken for granted in social work and has increasingly shaped social work practice, research and education. This article examines hope in social work and the importance of radically theorising hope to challenge the neoliberalisation of social work. Social work has a dual function that both resists and accommodates neoliberal agendas. Hope is a multidimensional concept. Hope is predominantly individualised in social work, but there are also radical and critical notions of hope that align with the broader political struggles of social work. Consistent with ethics of social justice, this article advocates for broadening the use of hope in social work to incorporate radical and critical hope in social work practice, research and education.
Ecological grief: how can we bear this together?
Bailey S., Gerrish N.
Q2
The impacts of human activity on ecosystems are increasingly evident through ecological degradation and climate change. Despite this, in many jurisdictions across the world, action to address and curtail destructive human activities is slow and resisted at all levels. In this article, we suggest that this resistance is connected to deep ecological grief. We introduce a dual approach to understanding ecological grief, using concepts of unprecedented and unacknowledged grief. Unprecedented grief is felt in response to the loss of our ecosystems and unacknowledged grief connected to the anticipated loss of lifestyle necessary to curtail destructive human behaviour. Drawing upon an ecosocial work praxis, this article then explores how we can use these understandings of ecological grief to take action and make radical changes to prefigure healthier relationships with each other and our ecosystems.
“I feel like it’s capitalising on the poor”: electronic gaming machines, neoliberalism and the invisibility of social work
Bowne N., Jarldorn M.
Q2
Electronic gaming machines are normalised business within Australia’s hotels and clubs. Concentrated within low socio-economic and disadvantaged communities, this high-intensity form of gambling creates the often-hidden addiction of problem gambling and the associated widespread social harms. This qualitative study uses radical social work thinking to explore gaming venue employees’ perceptions and experiences of implementing ‘responsible gambling measures’, ostensibly aimed at mitigating the social consequences and harms of problematic gambling. Our analysis reveals that neoliberal ideologies mean that gaming venue employees support ‘freedom of choice’ narratives, which ignore the structural influences at play when an individual becomes an ‘irresponsible’ consumer/gambler. Social workers must be cognisant of the ways in which the notion of the ‘(ir)responsible gambler’ skews how problem gambling and problem gamblers are viewed. The social harms from electronic gaming machines are complex and widespread, and deserve more recognition and attention in social work practice, policy and research.
Promises and pitfalls for advancing the human right to education of children with disabilities in South Africa
Manomano T.
Q2
In South Africa, the right to education is guaranteed by Section 29 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. The government is therefore obliged to develop policies, pass laws and establish programmes that promote and fulfil the right to education. Contrary to this, it has been argued that children with disabilities benefit less from the human right to education, as reflected by the number of children with disabilities currently attending school. This article aims to examine the gap between the promises made on the advancement of the human right to education of children with disabilities and the pitfalls experienced in fulfilling those promises. A literature review method was used to assess the access to education, and findings identify that inequalities in opportunities continue to occur not only because the government has not managed the key drivers of poverty but also due to a persistent lack of activism to address these issues.
Parity of participation: social justice and women’s experiential knowledge in contemporary family violence policy and service development
Hunt M., Vassos S.
Q2
At a time when public participation in policy and service development is presented as progressive and innovative across many social policy areas, this article critically examines public participation and the inclusion of lived experience as potential sites for social justice. Using Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice and parity of participation, the article explores the inclusion of lived experience within existing systems and structures of gender hierarchies. Focusing on the Australian family violence sector, the article argues that without a critical analysis of power and the systems that support inequality, the inclusion of lived experience can be tokenistic and disempowering, particularly for women who have experienced family violence. This analysis highlights the need to critically examine public participation measures and the inclusion of lived experience to ensure that there is transformational intent to disrupt power hierarchies, with implications extending beyond the family violence sector.
Unmapping social work scholarship about gender self-designation: reconstructing the basis for engagement
Howe R.
Q2
For a half-century, transgender studies and theory have existed alongside but disconnected from social work scholarship on providing services to people with self-designated genders. This article utilises unmapping as a methodology for tracing connections between normalised assumptions and power/knowledge hierarchies across four journal articles that present theoretically focused recommendations for social work in this area. Unmapping the academic discipline of social work as a space organised in particular ways reveals practices that discount and place limits on accepted knowledges. I argue that social work scholarship brackets itself off from broader transgender studies scholarship and transgender theory, and, in doing so, perpetuates social relations of dominance experienced by people with self-designated genders. I suggest that a premise of becoming consciously responsive enables continuing reflexivity, accountability and anti-colonial social work scholarship and practice.
Developing inclusive, diverse and collaborative social work education and practice in Australia
Afrouz R.
Q2
The Australian social work accrediting body has set diversity as an agenda for education and practice. Universities and the social work field have also attempted to adhere to principles of diversity. However, despite progressive approaches and improvement, diversity has been challenged by the whiteness of Australian social work and the neoliberal agenda across both workplaces and universities. The dominant narrative of Australian social work still reflects Western values, power and privileges. This article argues that embracing diversity in social work education needs the ongoing adoption of critical pedagogy, including critical theories, and maintaining inclusiveness for diverse students. Social work practice settings also need progressive approaches to include diverse groups of marginalised people, a commitment to diversity and support for social workers to develop cultural competency and humility. Transnational relationships within different countries and nations can help social work move from ethnocentrism to multiculturalism.
From rhetoric to action: confronting whiteness in social work and transforming practices
Yassine L., Tseris E.
Q2
Is being ‘culturally competent’ a sufficient response by social work to racialised oppressions and injustices, particularly in the context of Black Lives Matter? The social work profession has acknowledged the problem of racism within Australian society. Nevertheless, decades of scholarship has demonstrated social work’s ongoing involvement in policy and practice frameworks that reinforce and contribute to racialised oppressions. This article critically engages with this concerning disconnect between rhetoric and practice. In order to move beyond an acknowledgement of racial injustices and towards transformed practices, we argue that whiteness within the social work profession must be more thoroughly examined, including problematising notions of social work’s ‘professional innocence’ in relation to racism and white supremacy. We demonstrate the benefits of moving beyond rhetorical commitments and performative allyship, highlighting opportunities for new directions in social work education and policy, in addition to the importance of engaging with anti-racist grass-roots activism.
‘Resistant to change?’: using critical reflection to analyse positionality within a neoliberal academic environment
Robinson K., Macfarlane S.
Q2
A growing body of literature has outlined the deleterious impacts of neoliberalism on higher education in the Western world. These critiques are far-ranging and include effects on students, curriculum, educators and the purpose of higher education itself. Some of this literature has focused specifically on social work education, highlighting ways in which neoliberal agendas run counter to the profession’s focus on social justice and a critical approach to education. In this article, as social work academics based in Australia, we use a structured process of critical reflection to deconstruct and reconstruct a challenging incident that embodies and reflects key tenets of neoliberal discourse. The authors draw on a combination of theories that inform critical social work, such as feminism, critical theory and postmodern thinking. We argue that critical reflection can enable us to name and unpack the discourses and power dynamics at play within academic and other settings in order to more clearly and consciously resist managerial processes and to generate alternative discourses based on social work values. The endeavour is aimed not at prescribing practices of resistance, but rather at considering possibilities for creative responses in subtle spaces.
Prospects for and factors that militate against decolonising education in social work in South Africa
Manomano T., Nyanhoto R., Gutura P.
Q2
The effects of both colonialism and the apartheid that succeeded it resulted in the indigenous peoples of South Africa being displaced, marginalised, excluded and exploited. For many generations, indigenous population groups were disenfranchised, their destinies were taken out of their hands and their socio-economic status was predetermined. As colonisers tended to perceive the knowledge systems of indigenous peoples as being inferior to their own, colonised countries inherited most of their infrastructure and administrations from their colonisers, and their influence continues to be felt in many post-colonial countries even today. The discipline of social work has often been criticised for being dominated by white, Western and middle-class discourses. Although education in social work in South Africa needs to be sensitive to African world views, attempts to decolonise it and to replace Western modes of thinking, being and feeling with modes that are relevant to African cultural experiences have yielded some undesirable consequences.
‘Social justice for all!’ The relative silence of social work in abortion rights advocacy
Beddoe E., Hayes T., Steele J.
Q2
Social work has been largely silent on matters of reproductive rights, particularly in relation to abortion. This may partially be explained by abortion being secured as a part of health care in many countries. However, elsewhere, abortion remains in criminal codes with service access controlled via medico-legal barriers. We make a case for the increased visibility of reproductive justice within education and professional activity, employing case studies from Australia, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand to illustrate recent social work advocacy on abortion rights. Social work abortion activists report two themes: professional bodies have varied their approach to advocacy for abortion rights due to political sensitivities; and social work involvement in campaigns has reflected individual and grass-roots advocacy. Improved education about reproductive justice for social workers, alongside greater collective professional advocacy, are needed to contribute to campaigns together with women’s and human rights groups, as well as public health champions.
Social work as revolutionary praxis? The contribution to critical practice of Cornelius Castoriadis’s political philosophy
Ablett P., Morley C.
Q2
Social work is a contested tradition, torn between the demands of social governance and autonomy. Today, this struggle is reflected in the division between the dominant, neoliberal agenda of service provision and the resistance offered by various critical perspectives employed by disparate groups of practitioners serving diverse communities. Critical social work challenges oppressive conditions and discourses, in addition to addressing their consequences in individuals’ lives. However, very few recent critical theorists informing critical social work have advocated revolution. A challenging exception can be found in the work of Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–97), whose explication of ontological underdetermination and creation evades the pitfalls of both structural determinism and post-structural relativism, enabling an understanding of society as the contested creation of collective imaginaries in action and a politics of radical transformation. On this basis, we argue that Castoriadis’s radical-democratic revisioning of revolutionary praxis can help in reimagining critical social work’s emancipatory potential.
Literacy: a sustainable justice tool for refugee emancipation
Worland S.
Q2
This article relates to ongoing research that began in 2012, which first explored the related meanings attached to the dual constructs of literacy/non-literacy and the development of displaced Karen living in refugee camps and villages along the Thai–Myanmar border zone. The research expanded to a participatory community developmental model to develop, implement and evaluate adult literacy programmes aiming at emancipating refugees to be active participants in the current United Nations High Commission for Refugees roadmap for repatriation to their homeland, Myanmar. Research findings demonstrate the value of grass-roots adult literacy programmes to achieve sustainable justice, emancipating refugees to confidently build more resilient communities in these changing times.
Child protection and family group conferencing curriculum for social workers in Palestine
Costello S., Kanyi T., Dalling M.
Q2
This article describes a United Nations Children’s Fund project to develop a child protection curriculum in social work schools in Palestine conducted over 2016, 2017 and 2018. The curriculum was delivered in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as to a delegation from Palestine in Melbourne. The article discusses the challenges and highlights in introducing a rights and strength-based, child-focused, family-inclusive, and trauma-informed child protection curriculum in the context of occupation, poverty and patriarchy. It emphasises the need for critical reflection for foreign educators in relation to culture, gender, human rights and anti-oppressive practices when teaching in the Middle East and other collective cultures. The key outcomes were new collaborations between Palestinian academics from Gaza and the West Bank, as well as their preference for family group conferencing over traditional Western case management models of child protection to promote peaceful, inclusive societies.
Technicist education: paving the way for the rise of the social work robots?
Morley C., Ablett P., Stenhouse K.
Q2
This article seeks to explicate one form of technical rationality (ie the technological development of robotics) in social work education and practice. As advances in robotics evolve, questions are raised about the role of technicist education in reducing social work practice to a set of tasks that are repeatable, formulaic and linear (ie tasks that robots are capable of performing). We conduct a critical synthesis of the literature to explore how these parallel processes potentially create a seamless transition for social robots to replace the human social work workforce. Our analysis suggests that social workers need to reclaim a broader understanding of social work education and practice if we intend to retain human social work practitioners into the future. We argue that this is vital because critical social work practitioners are more capable than robots of meeting the espoused social justice values of social work.
Welfare words: Critical social work & social policy
Morley C., McFarlane S.
Q2
The gender dynamics of climate change on rural women’s agro-based livelihoods and food security in rural Zimbabwe: implications for green social work
Muchacha M., Mushunje M.
Q2
The impact of climate change is not gender-neutral. In this article, we argue that its impact on rural women’s agro-based livelihoods and food security in Zimbabwe is underlined by unbalanced social and power relations and structural factors such as unequal access to the means of production. To that end, we involve green social work as a better positioned framework and practice to address the gendered implications of climate change surrounding rural women’s livelihoods and food security in Zimbabwe. Its significance relates to its holistic nature, which can enable social workers to tackle various multidimensional issues that underlie environmental crises, such as gender inequality and poverty. Additionally, green social work has a crucial focus on policy formulation, political engagement, the protection of the environment and strengthening the resilience and coping strategies of communities.
Black History Month: a provocation and a timeline
Williams C., Bernard C.
Q2
Interest in collecting social work histories has gathered pace with collections held by the Social Work History Network in Edinburgh University and Kings College, and several writers offering historical accounts of the development of social work. Few systematic accounts exist that specifically track the history of social work and social work education for engagement with black lives and with black communities, though there exists a considerable body of literature from which this history can be gleaned, some rapidly going into attrition. Here, we set out a timeline through a black British history that charts significant events, key moments, landmarks and publications, and legislative and policy turns that have relevance to the story of social work education in the UK. The timeline offers a mere snapshot, but nevertheless a useful one, in prompting deeper exploration of context, analysis and interpretation. We have consulted widely in the development of this timeline and offer it here as our contribution to Black History Month 2018.
The challenges, triumphs and learning from participating in an Australian social work students’ activist group
O’Connor D.J., Thomas E., White K., Morley C.
Q2
This article traces the emergence of a student activist group called the Social Work Action and Advocacy Network for Students at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. The article exhibits three founding members’ experiences of working collectively to achieve emancipatory goals: showcasing achievements; grappling with ethical tensions of working within a group; and demonstrating students’ capacity to re-author the identity of social work in a way that positions activism as central.
The challenges, triumphs and learning from participating in an Australian social work students’ activist group
O’Connor D.J., Thomas E., White K., Morley C.
Q2
This article traces the emergence of a student activist group called the Social Work Action and Advocacy Network for Students at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. The article exhibits three founding members’ experiences of working collectively to achieve emancipatory goals: showcasing achievements; grappling with ethical tensions of working within a group; and demonstrating students’ capacity to re-author the identity of social work in a way that positions activism as central.
Intergenerational trauma framework for programme efficacy studies: child trauma recovery in occupied Palestine
Barron I., McInnes J., Abdallah G.
Q2
This article argues for a shift in the conceptualisation of child trauma recovery programme efficacy studies in occupied Palestine. Nearly all prevalence and programme evaluation studies in Palestine focus on current traumatic events and resultant symptoms, especially post-traumatic stress disorder. To date, no child trauma recovery programme has been evaluated from an intergenerational trauma perspective. Where intergenerational trauma has been explored in the literature, this has been at a conceptual rather than empirical level. In response to this omission, the current article explores intergenerational trauma as a conceptual framework for evaluative research into child trauma recovery programme efficacy in occupied Palestine. Following a review of the intergenerational trauma literature within and beyond Palestine, a framework for evaluation is developed, which includes: historical trauma; collective and individual loss; current-day traumatisation; micro-aggressions; resultant symptoms; and the transmission of intergenerational trauma. Recommendations are provided for future research, practice and policy development in Palestine and beyond.
Promoting activism through critical social work education: the impact of global capitalism and neoliberalism on social work and social work education
Morley C.
Q2
The impacts of global capitalism and neoliberalism on higher education can reduce the social work curriculum to competency-based skills acquisition rather than critically reflective, transformative learning. This encourages the promotion of establishment social work approaches aimed at accepting the status quo, rather than critical forms of social work that critique the dominant social structures and power relations that cause broad social divisions. The marginalisation of critical approaches reshapes social work towards conservative, market-led demands, yet an explicitly critical social work curriculum is pivotal to the claim of social work as an emancipatory project. This article presents original research that discusses the impact of an Australia critical social work programme on students’ development as agents of change. The findings suggest that developing a curriculum based on critical social science, and using critical pedagogical processes, assists students/graduates to work effectively for social justice and promotes their participation in collective social action.
Reviving social work through moral outrage
Williams C., Briskman L.
Q2
Inspired by Hessel’s (2011) call in Time for outrage and drawing on the concept of ‘moral outrage’, we argue in this article that addressing contraventions of human rights and social justice issues demands an emotional connection with the nature of injustice. We propose that contemporary social work in Western liberal democracies has lost touch with the moral imperative, sentiment and affective encounter as a positive impetus for collective action. We consider competing interpretations of why this might be the case and look beyond the incursions of neoliberal market methodologies towards a consideration of the complex relationships between power, subjectivities and collective emotion. Western epistemologies have viewed emotion as the antithesis of rationality and discouraged this type of thinking as somehow risky, tricky and dangerous. We seek to reconfigure this political and ethical (mis)appropriation of emotions and argue for its centrality within the social justice mandate of social work.
