Critical social work
Encyclopedia
Critical social work
is the application of social work from a critical theory
perspective. Critical social work seeks to address social injustices, as opposed to focusing on individual people's problems. Critical theories
explain social problems as arising from various forms of oppression
.
This theory is like all social work theories, in that it is made up of a polyglot of theories from across the humanities
and sciences, borrowing from many different schools of thought, including marxism, social democracy and anarchism.
and oppression. For radical social workers this implies working towards the transformation of capitalist society towards building social arrangements which are more compatible with these commitments. Mullaly & Keating (1991) suggest three schools of radical thought corresponding to three versions of socialist analysis; social democracy
, revolutionary Marxism and evolutionary Marxism. However they work in institutional contexts which paradoxically implicates them in maintaining capitalist functions.
Social work theories have three possible aims, as identified by Rojek et al. (1986). These are:
, the Frankfurt School
of Critical Theory
and by the earlier approach of Radical social work, which was focused on class oppression
. Critical social work evolved from this to oppose all forms of oppression.
Several writers helped codify radical social work, such as Jeffry Galper (1975) and Harold Throssell (1975). They were building on the views expounded by earlier social workers such as Octavia Hill
, Jane Addams
& Bertha Reynolds
, who had at various points over the previous 200 years sought to make social work & charity more focused on structural forces.
people from oppression and allow individual liberty
to prevail.
“A dialectical approach to social work avoids the simplistic linear cause-effect notion of historical materialism
and the naïve romanticism associated with the notion of totally free human will." (Mullaly and Keating, 1991). "Dialectical analysis helps to illuminate the complex interplay between people and the world around them and to indicate the role of social work within society” (Mullaly, 2007:241)
Social work
Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...
is the application of social work from a critical theory
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
perspective. Critical social work seeks to address social injustices, as opposed to focusing on individual people's problems. Critical theories
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
explain social problems as arising from various forms of oppression
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
.
This theory is like all social work theories, in that it is made up of a polyglot of theories from across the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and sciences, borrowing from many different schools of thought, including marxism, social democracy and anarchism.
Introduction
Social workers have an ethical commitment to working to overcome inequalityEconomic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
and oppression. For radical social workers this implies working towards the transformation of capitalist society towards building social arrangements which are more compatible with these commitments. Mullaly & Keating (1991) suggest three schools of radical thought corresponding to three versions of socialist analysis; social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, revolutionary Marxism and evolutionary Marxism. However they work in institutional contexts which paradoxically implicates them in maintaining capitalist functions.
Social work theories have three possible aims, as identified by Rojek et al. (1986). These are:
- The progressive position. Social work is seen as a catalyst for social change. Social workers work with the oppressed and marginalised and so are in a good position to harness class resistance to capitalism and transform society into a more social democracy or socialist state. ( Bailey & Brake, 1975, Galper, 1975, Simpkin, 1979, Ginsberg, 1979)
- The reproductive position. Social work seen as an indispensable tool of the capitalist social order. It’s function is to produce and maintain the capitalist state machine and to ensure working class subordination. Social workers are the ‘soft cops’ of the capitalist state machine. (AlthusserLouis AlthusserLouis Pierre Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy....
, 1971, Poulantzas, 1975, Muller & Neususs, 1978) - The contradictory position. Social work can undermine capitalism and class society. While it acts as an instrument of class control it can simultaneously create the conditions for the overthrow of capitalist social relations. (Corrigan & Leonard, Phillipson, 1979, Bolger, 1981)
History
Critical social work is heavily influenced by MarxismMarxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
of Critical Theory
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
and by the earlier approach of Radical social work, which was focused on class oppression
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
. Critical social work evolved from this to oppose all forms of oppression.
Several writers helped codify radical social work, such as Jeffry Galper (1975) and Harold Throssell (1975). They were building on the views expounded by earlier social workers such as Octavia Hill
Octavia Hill
Octavia Hill was an English social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a family with a strong commitment to alleviating poverty, she herself grew up in straitened circumstances owing...
, Jane Addams
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
& Bertha Reynolds
Bertha Reynolds
Bertha Capen Reynolds, born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, was an American Social Worker who was influential in the creation of Strength Based Practice, Radical social work and Critical social work, among others.-Life:...
, who had at various points over the previous 200 years sought to make social work & charity more focused on structural forces.
Focus of critical social work
Major themes that critical social work seeks to address are:- PovertyPovertyPoverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, unemploymentUnemploymentUnemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and social exclusionSocial exclusionSocial exclusion is a concept used in many parts of the world to characterise contemporary forms of social disadvantage. Dr. Lynn Todman, director of the Institute on Social Exclusion at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, suggests that social exclusion refers to processes in which... - RacismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and other forms of discriminationDiscriminationDiscrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be... - Inadequacies in housing, health careHealth careHealth care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and educationEducationEducation in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts... - CrimeCrimeCrime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and social unrest (although the critical approach would be more focused on the structural causes than the behaviour itself) - AbuseChild abuseChild abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
and exploitationExploitationThis article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
Sub-theories of critical social work
As critical social work grew out of radical social work, it split into various theories. They are listed below, with a selection of writers who have influenced the theory.- Structural social work theory ( Ann Davis, Maurice Moreau, Robert Mullaly)
- Anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressiveAnti-oppressive practiceAnti-oppressive practice is an anti-oppressive social work practice theory. It seeks to acknowledge oppression in societies, economies, cultures & groups and aiming social work to remove or negate the influence of the oppression.-References:...
social work theory (Neil Thompson, Dalrymple & Burke) - Post- colonial social work theory (Linda Briskman)
- New structural social work theory (Robert Mullaly)
- Critical social work theory (Jan Fook, Karen Healy)
Dialectic explanations of free will
While critical social work has a strong commitment to structural change, it does not discount the role of free will. Critical analysis in social work looks at competing forces such as the capitalist economic system, the welfare state or human free will as all affecting individual choices. Therefore, according to critical theory the aim of social work is to emancipateAnti-oppressive practice
Anti-oppressive practice is an anti-oppressive social work practice theory. It seeks to acknowledge oppression in societies, economies, cultures & groups and aiming social work to remove or negate the influence of the oppression.-References:...
people from oppression and allow individual liberty
Positive liberty
Positive liberty is defined as having the power and resources to fulfill one's own potential ; as opposed to negative liberty, which is freedom from external restraint...
to prevail.
“A dialectical approach to social work avoids the simplistic linear cause-effect notion of historical materialism
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
and the naïve romanticism associated with the notion of totally free human will." (Mullaly and Keating, 1991). "Dialectical analysis helps to illuminate the complex interplay between people and the world around them and to indicate the role of social work within society” (Mullaly, 2007:241)
Practice models
Some of the practice theories that critical social work utilises include:- Working collectively
- Building cooperation and consciousness
- Helping people to understand the social consequences of the market system
- Helping people deal collectively with social problems rather than individualising them
- Making alliances with working class organisations and recognise social workers as ‘workers’ themselves
- Civil disobedience, such as the intentional and surreptitious violation of agency policies that perpetuate capitalist oppression http://wustl.academia.edu/CabreraNguyen/Papers/347411/An_examination_of_the_persistence_of_the_residual_child_welfare_system_in_the_United_States_Addressing_charges_of_radical_theoretical_myopia_with_implications_for_social_work_practice
See also
- University of Denver Graduate School of Social WorkGraduate School of Social Work at the University of DenverThe Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver , is the oldest graduate school of social work in the Rocky Mountain Region. Founded in 1931, GSSW is currently ranked 36th by US News and World Report...
- University of Denver Social Work Doctoral Program