'Anti-oppressive practice': emancipation or appropriation?

Summary This article offers an initial critical discussion of the conceptof anti-oppressive practice - AOP - from the perspectives ofservice users. Whilst acknowledging the emancipatory aspirationsof anti-oppressive practice, it also considers its regressivepotential. AOP has become central in social work theory andpractice and indeed is sometimes presented as a key approachand theory of social work. This discussion highlights the failureso far significantly to involve service users and their organizationsin the development of anti-oppressive theory and practice. Itconsiders how the ideology and structures of anti-oppressivesocial work impact upon service users; the problems raised by'expert' appropriation of users' knowledges and experiencesand the issues raised by the failure so far to address the useof social work and social care services as an area of differenceand category of social division. Finally, the article examinesalternatives to existing notions of anti-oppressive practicebased on the equal involvement of service users.     

Organizational Research and Social Work: Issues in Application Illustrated from the Case of Organic and Mechanistic Systems of Management

Summary An increasing number of social workers are concerning themselveswith the organizational context of social work and with theapplication of organizational research material to their sphere.This article focuses upon a particular industrial study andcritically examines the recommendations by three writers, ofthe introduction in social services departments of an organizationalform identified in the study. As well as suggesting some implicationsof the study for social work, the discussion illustrates thekinds of issues and complexities which can arise in the applicationof such material     

Personal Construct Theory and Psychological Changes Related to Social Work Training

Summary This paper summarizes Personal Construct Theory and its mostdeveloped experimental investigating technique, the Role ConstructRepertory Grid. Issues in professional training in adjacentprofessions are examined for relevant parallels to social workin ‘personal change’. The specific notion of emotionas change in the mode of information processing is introducedthrough the neuropsychological model put forward by Pribramand Melges. Personal Construct Theory is presented as congruentwith that model for dealing with uncertainty, and as particularlysuitable for examining personal change in social work training.Studies comparing the Personal Construct Systems of social workstudents through training, with professionally qualified socialworkers are reviewed in some detail. It is concluded that theprocesses involved in social work education are corrigible and,because of the nature of their characteristics, may lead a personto develop desirable, sensitive, articulate and imaginativeways of construing people and personal problems, or to oversimple,rigid, impersonal and finally incompetent modes of construing,Suggestions are made as to how an understanding of PersonalConstruct Theory can help social workers involved in training,to deal with this problem.     

Social Work As The Privatized Solution of Public Ills

Summary This paper takes the motivation of the social work recruit asthe point of departure for an exploration of some aspects ofthe low-key politics of social work. Attempting to cut paststereotypical and occupationally agreed conceptions of why socialworkers enter their occupation, it suggests that the socialwork recruit's choice is most usefully understood as an attemptedsolution to central cultural problems in advanced capitalistsocieties, and it directs attention to the moral-political rootsof social work. While the choice of social work as a careerrepresents for some a sort of primitive political rebellion,the implications of this 'rebellion' are not grasped, and itbecomes the privatized solution of a privileged minority     

Social Work and the 'Missionary Zeal to Whip the Heathen Along the Path of Righteousness'

Correspondence to Amon Bar-On, Department of Social Work, University of Botswana, Private Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana. Summary Ever since Western forms of social work were first importedto Africa, a serious debate has been raging on whether theyfit the African context Most of this debate has concentrated,however, on the techniques of Western social work as opposedto the ends to which they are put, which, being underpinnedby Western values, are essentially alien to African culture.Applying Western social work in Africa can be viewed, therefore,as continuing the work of the missionaries who sought to remakeAfricans in their own image. Following a summary of the argumentswhy Africa might require a form of social work of its own, thisarticle explores the chances of such indigenization and concludesthat it might be nigh impossible unless research involving reflectivelearning by African social workers with their clients is placedat the centre of social work practice.     

No more than Contact: An Outcome of Social Work

Summary This study of the experiences of eight sets of clients withtheir respective social workers illustrates how the outcomeof each case is a reflection of each party's interpretationsof crucial aspects of their meetings. In many respects it isa one-sided picture of social work but part of its purpose isto emphasize the process whereby past events and present circumstancesaffecting both parties' perspectives make it probable that manyclients will fail to obtain help and will regard their meetingswith social workers as being little different from passing contactswith other 'officials' who feature in their lives.     

Work Satisfaction in Probation and Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Martin Davies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ. Summary The design and preliminary development of a research instrumentintended to provide comparable measures of work satisfactionwithin different social work settings is described. The resultsof administering it to two separate samples of social workersand probation officers are presented. It appears that probation officers feel themselves more highlyregarded by members of the general public and are less likelyto say they are badly paid; they enjoy more job autonomy; rathermore social workers tend to feel alienated at work, but mostbelieve that they have better chances of career advancementthan is the case in the probation service. There are broad similarities between the two work settings sofar as work with clients and attitudes towards colleagues areconcerned; it is argued that the emergence of these similaritiesis methodologically reassuring because it suggests the stabilityof the data overall, and therefore increases the likelihoodthat the findings regarding agency differences are a valid reflectionof social reality in each setting.     

Service users' knowledges and social work theory: conflict or collaboration?

Summary So far, service users have not been systematically involvedin social work theorizing. However, disabled peoples's movements,mental health service users/survivors and other service usershave developed their own knowledges based on direct experienceand they have generated their own conceptual frameworks andbodies of theory. There are fundamental problems in social workseeking to interpret service user knowledges. Their developmentsand interpretation require the direct involvement of serviceusers and their organization in social work theorizing. Thereare strong practical, philosophical and political argumentsfor involving the knowledges and theories of service users andtheir organizations in the process of social work theory-building.This paper considers an inclusive approach to social work theorizing.While highlighting the importance of service users and theirorganizations being effectively included in social work theorizing,it also argues the need for them to have support and opportunitiesto develop their own prior and separate discussions about theory,including social work theory.     

The Operation of Economic 'Laws' within Social Work: A Critical Appraisal

Summary In planning and administering social work services, economictheory has had a strong impact in recent years. The authorsexamine the application of economic theory, in particular pricingtheory (as used by Judge and others), to social work services.They conclude that there is an ideological function in applyingmicroeconomic theory to social work and that there are seriouslimitations in the contribution that such economic theory canmake to resolving social problems.     

The 'Subject' in Social Work

Summary Theories of social work are usually defined by reference totheir oppositions regarding the subject in social work and theaims of practice. This position connects up with a dominantview of theories of social work which regards them as opponentsengaged in a struggle to dominate the field. This paper characterizesthis view as a ‘gladiatorial paradigm’ It assaysthe vaidity of this paradigm. lists the main defects, and setsout the case for a structuralist approach to social work.     

Social Work Education: Tackling The Theory--Practice Dilemma

Summary The integration of theory and practice has long been a topicfor debate and concern amongst social work educators. A longitudinalparticipant observation study of one cohort of social work studentsconfirmed that the ideal of theory—practice integrationwas also high on their own list of self-established priorities.Students' efforts towards attaining this goal were also hamperedby the perspectives which they themselves brought to bear ontheir training. Attempting to resolve the conflict between theirown perspectives and their perceived demands of professionaleducation students appealed to and reconstructed afresh variousmodels of theory application endorsed both by social work educatorsand practitioners. These models, however, are essentially contradictoryand pose serious problems for the development and maintenanceof social work standards.     

Cognitive-Behavioural Social Work with Children

Correspondence to: Dr Tammie Ronen, The Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel Summary The paper aims to explore the complex and important links betweeninterventions with children, cognitive therapy, and social work.Although children comprise about half of the referrals to socialwork services, they do not generally receive direct treatmentin these settings. Social workers are involved with childrenin the roles of mediator or counsellor and as the supervisorwho is concerned with the placement of the child in appropriatesettings. When the need for direct therapeutic interventionarises, children are usually referred to educational or clinicalpsychologists. Social work as a profession has been foundedupon a psychodynamic approach; however, social workers havealways been concerned with effective treatments, the definitionof clear goals, and the clarification of client needs. Thesefeatures link social work to cognitive-behavioural therapy.Cognitive therapy, although not frequently used with children,is presented in this paper as a means for conducting directinterventions with children which fulfil social work's basictargets and needs.     

Preventive Intervention as a Working Concept in Child-Care Practice

Correspondence to: Rosalind Hargreaves, Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Work Studies, Keynes College, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NP. Summary Prevention persists in social work despite criticism of theterm. In 1975 and 1990 identical surveys were carried out todiscover what social workers were trying to prevent in sampledindividual pieces of work. The study elicits the assumptionsunderpinning their thinking about prevention and notes differencesbetween the two surveys. The findings are then discussed inrelation to the 1989 Children Act. A model for individual preventivepractice is presented and the discussion of issues concludesthat the usage of the term will continue despite a change offocus in child-care legislation. Prevention can provide a morevaluable framework for practice with the benefits of greaterspecificity and clarity of thinking on the part of practitioners.     

The Independent Social Work Agency: A Report on the First Year of an Experiment in Social Casework

Summary The authors present an account of their experiences in organizinga research project to explore aspects of the need and demandfor social work through the use of an independent fee-payingagency. Some of the problems encountered in setting up the projectand the agency are discussed, along with some observations onthe first year's work in the agency.     

Social Workers Talking to Clients: A Comment

Summary I read Baldock and Prior's article with interest in view ofthe shortage of studies examining day-to-day practice in socialwork, but the authors' analysis leaves me reflecting uneasilyupon the state of uncertainty into which social work has fallen.The authors conclude by describing as ‘skilled’,practices which they say resulted in confusion for clients andwhich only apparently reflected social work principles. We arenot told whether the authors checked their analysis with workersor clients and it is possible that the clients were not as confusedas we are led to believe, given their long term contact withthe workers. If, however, the picture is an accurate one, shouldit really be described as representing skilled social work?Baldock and Prior do so but neglect to examine the ends towardswhich interviewing skill should be directed in social work.The result is a strangely ambiguous statement about practice,particularly in the light of research findings on effectivenessand client satisfaction, and one which offers little scope forcomplacency.     

Toward Generic Social Work Practice--a Review and Some Innovations

Summary This essay reviews the development of the generic concept andoffers three models and several concepts that are seen as relevantto the progress of generic theory for social work practice.A major gap in professional social work has been identified.The generic approach is seen as having exciting potential foreducating and training multi-skilled social workers, but a greatdeal of head and heart work is necessary before the idea ofgeneric social work can become a practical and viable reality     

Social Work as Uncommon Sense

Summary Social work needs to resist pressures to identify itself solelyat a superficial level of common sense responses to social problems.It has to go beyond this to recognize its use of ‘uncommonsense’ as the means by which social workers cross therelationship gap and respond to their client's needs. The importanceof doing this in the early stages of relationship, as in crisisintervention, are considered, and stress is placed on holdingtogether both the explicit task-related aspect of the relationship,and the less obvious emotional interchange. By means of theiruncommon sense, social workers are enabled to reflect for, andshare with clients their areas of pain, in such a way as torender them more tolerable.     

Theory and Practice in Social Work: A Re-examination of a Tenuous Relationship

Summary This article discusses the need for an agreed framework withinwhich a genuinely reciprocal relationship between social worktheory and practice could be developed. After pointing out theinconsistencies of the present relationship, the author goeson to conclude that three main obstacles stand in the way ofthe achievement of this goal. He cites firstly, the presentdesign of the social work curriculum, with particular referenceto the underlying principle of eclecticism; secondly, the negativeattitudes held by many in the profession towards science asa means of evaluating competing concepts; and thirdly, the lackof an acceptably rigorous field work evaluation procedure whichsocial workers could use to register their impact on the morenebulous aspects of their work. Suggestions are made as to howthese obstacles might be overcome.     

Compulsory Persuasion: A Problem for Correctional Social Work

Summary Social work risks being misused as a technique for controllingundesirable behaviour, regardless of clients' expectations orchoices. This approach to social work involves certain underlyingassumptions about human nature which raise considerable ethicaland practical difficulties. Recent trends in the probation andafter care service are considered, together with some researchstudies of the effectiveness of social work in reducing offendingbehaviour. From these it is argued that social work servicesfor offenders are more likely to be effective when the emphasisis on helping with perceived problems and difficulties ratherthan on crime prevention.