The poverty of postmodern human services

Abstract

Postmodernism cannot or will not tell the difference between truth and falsehood, reality and simulacra, principle and dogma, or right and wrong. As a corollary, it is unable or unwilling to make any ‘veritable‘ difference to the nature or order of things. Indeed, there is no escape from, nor anything outside of, the ’panopticon of language’. Accordingly, there is no significant probative difference between the practice and experience of genocide, and talking or writing about it. All one can do is be sceptical about discourses, even those concerned with ethnic cleansing and the like. As ludicrous as this sounds, it has not prevented postmodernism from monopolising discourses about significant aesthetic, cultural, economic, intellectual, political and social practices and sensibilities. Postmodernism manifests itself in a host of disciplines, and its presence is being increasingly felt in human services education and practice. If, as I shall argue, postmodernism is such a thoroughly baseless, reductive and inert doctrine, then why persist with it? The poverty of postmodernism prompts a timely return to the rich legacy of Marxism.     

The Christian difference: Surviving postmodernism

Abstract

Drawing on the work of Nicholas Boyle, this paper argues that postmodernism represents the intellectual style we should expect as part of developing global capitalist regimes. Accordingly, I argue that postmodernism is not a friend but an enemy to Christianity just to the extent the former tempts us to lose our history. In that respect, the challenge of postmodernism is no different than the challenge of modernity. It becomes the Christian task now to narrate modernity and postmodernity on our own terms rather than those offered by the postmodernists. But for Christianity to be capable of such narration, it must rediscover in its own life the significance of the church which is capable of surviving in a world which is in many ways quite accurately described as postmodern.     

Boundary oscillations: Epistemological and genre transformation during the 'method' of thesis writing

In this article I offer an account of some of the 'boundary oscillations' I experienced during the writing of my doctoral thesis, and attempt to illustrate my personal struggle with the presentation of qualitative data. This struggle evolved through my search for an appropriate style to [re]present both voice and experience as a text, resulting in my turning towards genres alternative to those normally adopted in social science research. And it was during that process that I experienced both change and conflict in my epistemological position, as I moved from positivism, through postpositivism and towards postmodernism.     

Confronting Uncertainty: Lessons from Rural Social Work

Abstract

Communities in Australia and internationally are experiencing massive change. Climate variability is an aspect of change that social workers in Australia, particularly in rural areas, are grappling with. Vulnerable populations will be at increased risk as extreme weather events increase in frequency. Communities will be facing social challenges hitherto unknown. The experience of uncertainty and fragmentation as characteristics of postmodernism has exposed the ambiguous and contested nature of much of social work practice and contributed to a crisis of confidence for the social work profession. The move towards rationality and linear approaches in the postwelfare state is often at odds with the complexity and uncertainty of human situations that has always been social work terrain. It can be argued that social work, with its ethical base, person-in-environment approach, expertise in ambiguity and complexity, and recognition of context, is well-placed to manage postmodern uncertainty. Using the 2009 Victorian bushfire example, I argue that an uncertain future is an opportunity for social workers, those working in rural areas in particular, to reassert social work's moral purpose in working with communities facing change. Implications for social work policy, practice, and education are briefly explored.     

Postmodernism: A Dead End in Social Work Epistemology

Postmodernism continues to have a detrimental influence on social work, questioning the Enlightenment, criticizing established research methods, and challenging scientific authority. The promotion of postmodernism by editors of Social Work and the Journal of Social Work Education has elevated postmodernism, placing it on a par with theoretically guided and empirically based research. The inclusion of postmodernism in the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards of the Council on Social Work Education and its 2015 sequel further erode the knowledge-building capacity of social work educators. In relation to other disciplines that have exploited empirical methods, social work’s stature will continue to ebb until postmodernism is rejected in favor of scientific methods for generating knowledge.     

One cleans,the other doesn't

ABSTRACT

The title of this article conveys the idea which shapes it: that the positioning and identities of ‘the one’ and ‘the other’ are affected by the performance of different social practices. The highly symbolic activity of cleaning inverts the distribution of groups that would usually be divided according to the one/other dichotomy, in that gendered, class and racial others usually clean for their social ‘betters’. This redistribution allows for a look at the dynamics of social and psychic identification within an altered or inverted frame. In three different discursive locations — psychoanalytic theory, feminist film and theory, and advertising and popular culture — I examine diverse representations and implications of cleaning scenes. Each scene symptomatically collapses or merges sexual difference with other social distinctions conventionally marked by the labour involved in cleaning. As each of these discourses is concerned with articulations of identity, whether explicitly or critically (psychoanalytic theory and feminism) or implicitly (advertising and popular culture), these scenes reveal crucial links between social and symbolic practices and the vicissitudes of gender identity. In effect, gender emerges as a cleaning strategy, a representational system that masks or obfuscates the significance of other social differences.     

Five sketches of postmodernism

Abstract

There is a long history of work in systems thinking and operational research (henceforth referred to as ‘systems/OR’) geared to facilitating organizational change and/or wider social improvement. Recently, however, the ‘improvement’ agenda has been subject to a sustained critique from people who take an explicitly postmodern stance. This paper presents five ‘sketches’ of postmodernism, and draws out some implications for systems/OR. The first sketch is of a dogmatic postmodernism that places conversation at the forefront of its agenda, but fails to enter into a conversation itself. It therefore collapses under the weight of a contradiction between its theory and practice. The second is of a more open postmodernism that is prepared to recognize its own status as a conversational device, and thereby its own transitory nature. This suggests the need for the systems/OR community to act as participants in debate, continually developing their own and others’ views. The third sketch focuses on the central contradiction of a postmodern meta-narrative condemning all meta-narratives but its own. This raises some interesting issues, not the least of which is the realization that the term ‘meta-narrative’ is usually used pejoratively. We may therefore need to moderate the use of such language to facilitate productive debates on key issues of concern for the future of systems/OR. The fourth sketch looks at the irony of inevitable contradictions in postmodern theory, and the consequent move away from the notion that the role of rationality is to harmonize ideas. Several possible consequences for systems/OR are identified: further rational (harmonizing) explanations of ‘inevitable contradictions’ in postmodern theory may be provoked, or the shift away from a traditional notion of rationality may liberate systems/OR from a relatively narrow range of analytical methods. The fifth and final sketch examines the political consequences of postmodernism as expressed in liberalism. A disturbing picture is presented of the ‘privatization’ of forms of solidarity which are not legitimated through dominant ideologies, leading to powerlessness and alienation amongst those who experience largely unrecognized oppression, or who feel solidarity with the oppressed. A key implication is drawn out: there continues to be a crying need for new ideas in social theory to address the shortcomings of liberalism and inform the practice of systems/OR. People advocating postmodernism, amongst others, may make a useful contribution to the development of these new ideas.     

Risk and Social Work Practice

Abstract

Risk assessment and risk management have emerged as central organising principles for an increasing number of health and welfare programs. As a consequence, the language, technologies and imperatives of risk have assumed considerable prominence in the practice of many social workers. The present paper addresses three significant and contemporary explanations for the rise of risk in the day-to-day work of many social workers. In the context of these approaches, the paper examines some of the challenges risk presents to professional and ethical social work practice. Four issues with particular meanings and impacts for social work are discussed, namely the priority of risk over need, changing professional roles, relocation of responsibility to individuals, and the culture of blame.     

POSTMODERN THOUGHT IN SYMBOLIC INTERACTION:

Perspectives in sociology are currently being reassessed in light of postmodernism, which has been associated with the abandonment of faith in the social self and scientific inquiry. As an emergent problematic, postmodernism stands in sharp contrast to a modernist pragmatic (and innocent) conception of symbolic interactionism — which is centered in the Meadian conception of prosocial selves. However, this article identifies some "late-modern" interactionists — Goffman, Stone, Becker, Lemert, and Mills— who, in providing a corrective for an innocent pragmatic inquiry into the self, created a foundation for contemporary inquiry into the social. This corrective entailed a reconceptualization of the self as the focal point of the situated act and, specifically, its changing definition from cooperative and reflective to strategic and imaginary. While we suggest that their work represented a loss of innocence in interactionism, it did not create a loss of faith in scientific inquiry into the self and social action. Rather, the work of the late modernists has inspired a reconstruction of scientific inquiry into the social that encompasses, but is not encompassed by, postmodernism.     

Feminist Standpoint as Postmodern Strategy

ABSTRACT

Postmodern critiques of standpoint theory have been particularly influential in feminist theory, but I maintain that they are often mistaken. In this essay! will briefly review the most common criticisms and show how Hartsock's formulation addresses many of them and indeed shares many features of postmodernism through the notion of multiple feminist standpoints. Though several feminists have urged such pluralization,! identify a more intractable difficulty with such a strategy and argue for a new way of conceptualizing the “materialist” dimensions of “experience” that may be more palatable to postmodern notions of discursiveness without giving away Hartsock's methodological foundation.     

Serving our (in)visible elders: The impact of a LGBTQ+ aging presentation on a rural college campus

ABSTRACT

As the number of individuals 65 and older continues to grow, so too does the richness and complexity of their identity. Specifically, the culture of aging within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community has received little attention in the literature. In order to best serve this population, human service professionals must understand the reality of aging within diverse communities. This article explores the impact of an invited campus speaker focused on LGBTQ+ aging on a rural college campus. Results indicate a general increase in overall knowledge and appreciation for issues directly impacting the aging LGBTQ+ community. Recommendations for practice, grounded in a social justice framework, are shared.     

Requisite conditions for the formation and viability of a counter‐cultural community

Many scholars have noted that religion is essential for a counter‐culture or utopian community to survive. It has also frequently been maintained that any religion will do, that the content of the religion is inconsequential. This article focuses on the formation and viability of alternative societies and concludes that either harsh circumstances or a particular religious orientation is necessary. Three social conditions and four characteristics of the religious world‐view are specified as being necessary for the formation of an “intentional counter‐culture community.” Each of the predisposing structural factors and each of the characteristics of the world view must be present for the formation and viability of this type of alternative culture. In the “circumstantial counter‐culture community,” religion is much less important; oppressive conditions serve as a functional alternative to the specific religious outlook.     

Oh no! not more isms: Feminism,postmodernism, poststructuralism and social work education

In this article we explore how perspectives drawn from feminism, postmodernism and poststructuralism can usefully be applied to debates in social work education. Within this framework we highlight the centrality of issues related to power, knowledge, difference and subjectivity. We do not seek to offer a new set of ‘isms’, but to suggest a range of possibilities about the ways in which knowledge is produced and used within social work.     

Rural studies of power and the power of rural studies: a reply to Philo

We seek to clarify some of the issues raised by Chris Philo [(1993), Journal of Rural Studies 9, 429–436] in his reply to our paper entitled ‘Rural studies: modernism, postmodernism and the ‘post-rural’’ [Murdoch, J. and Pratt, A.C. (1993),Journal of Rural Studies 9, 411–427]. We argue that a sociology of postmodernism would allow orthodox sociological tools to be used in the analysis of a changing social situation. These tools should be used reflexively and should be employed to show how the rural is the outcome of multiple sets of power relations. Sociological and geographical analyses can also be considered as social processes which give rise to particular conceptions of the rural. Thus, the practice of rural studies is also the practice of power.     

Postmodern rural geography? A reply to Murdoch and Pratt

Jonathan Murdoch and Andy Pratt's thoughtful response (Journal of Rural Studies9, 411–427) to Philo (1992) (Neglected rural geographies: a review. Journal of Rural Studies8, 193–207) is considered. Their suggestions about the engagement between rural studies and the intellectual currents of ‘postmodernism’ are important ones, and offer both an extension of the claims made by me and a critique of my own lack of self-reflexivity. I outline my partial agreement with their analysis, but offer certain qualifications arising from a different understanding of ‘postmodernism’. I indicate my approval of their call for a ‘sociology of postmodernism’ alert to the making of ‘the rural’ as a concept in circulation, but argue that central to this call is the necessity of investigating the senses of rurality held by all manner of ‘other peoples’ beyond the academy. In this respect, then, the approach of Murdoch and Pratt may be more consistent with my own ‘postmodern rural geography’ than it might first appear.     

The New Media and social culture demoralized and demoralizing in China

ABSTRACT

Since sometime in the 1990s, the Internet- and digital technology-based New Media has been on a rapid increase and is now profoundly affecting the daily life of contemporary Chinese people, who are at once enjoying its various benefits and suffer constantly from its problems. It is no surprise that the New Media should have its peculiar liabilities, but in China, in particular, its downsides are extensively and acutely felt. Based on close-range observation of current Chinese life, an in-depth interview and a discussion of a few typical ‘media events’, this paper reviews the disordered and demoralized Chinese social culture, proliferated and amplified by the New Media, in perspectives of media biases, ‘media events’, and communicative strategies and their functional inversion, to explore the correlation between the New Media and cultural derailment and disruption. It suggests that amorality, the absence of deep thinking, and the ever-demoralizing mass culture that mark contemporary China can be, to a large degree, attributed to the technological revolution embodied in the New Media. In short, the demoralized New Media culture is demoralizing the whole social culture.     

Social work and hospitality: An oral history of Edith Stolzenberg

ABSTRACT

Edith Richman Stolzenberg (1913–2004) was the first woman to be hired as a social worker in Hartford Public High School in Hartford, Connecticut. In a career that spanned 60 years and much of 20th-century social welfare history, she was motivated by the social justice tradition of her Jewish upbringing and the religious value of hospitality to advocate for children and families. As we enter a harsh new era for social services, this oral history explores the radical possibilities for integrating social work goals and religious values.     

Job Interview Social Skills Training for Asian-American Immigrants

Abstract

A social skills training program was designed to teach former Asian refugees the values and practices of Western culture, and to utilize this knowledge in seeking higher level employment. In a repeated measures multiple baseline design, comparison of pre-and post-performance measures of social interview skills found improvement in participants' performance. Social validity measures indicated self-improvement in several dimensions including understanding of Western social customs, personal confidence, and securing better employment. The implications of using these types of educational and social skills programs are discussed.     

Occupational Level and the Love of Money

Abstract

As an alternative to the embourgeoisement hypothesis, Goldethorpe, et al., have advanced the notion that the modern working class is privatized in social relations and money-oriented in culture. The present paper addresses itself to this latter point of money-orientedness. Presenting data from a 1973 national survey, the findings support the idea that semi-skilled and unskilled workers place a greater emphasis on money than do other occupational levels. Differences in emphasis on the importance of money are not explained when income is used as a covariate. A part of these differences is explained by education. When both education and income are controlled, differences between occupational levels vanish except for the difference between the semiskilled/unskilled and all other levels. The findings tend to support Form's hypothesis of the ‘internal stratification of the working class” with increasing industrialization.     

Families and the Moral Economy of Incarceration

SUMMARY

The experiences of families of prisoners barely register in contemporary debates over criminal sanctions. But the accounts of families of prisoners demonstrate that mass incarceration does far more than punish and deter. By pitting the moral and economic interests of families against one another, it erodes the fundamental norms of social life itself. As family members are pressed hard to withdraw their care and concern from one another, the effect is more than the impoverishment of individuals: As over-incarceration increases the costs of caring relationships, the loss becomes a moral one and, in time, we impoverish our culture as well.