Beyond Social Constructionism: Critical Realism and Social Work

Summary Theories within the social and psychological sciences continueto shape social work practice. However, recent debates withinthese sciences on the shortcomings of ‘social constructionism’,and the attempt to overcome them through a critical realistposition, have so far failed to capture social work's attention.This paper provides a critical overview of these theoreticaldebates, highlighting the shortcomings of social constructionismfor social work. The critical realist challenge to social constructionism,as articulated by the British philosopher Roy Bhaskar, is consideredand its relevance to social work formulated in terms of a returnto ‘depth’ in practice.     

Learning from a Murri Way'

Summary Under the modernist project indigenous social welfare work approacheshave been silenced and relegated to the periphery as deficittheory and practice in the landscape of social work. This positioninghas promoted the belief that indigenous expertise and cultureis only of relevance for culturally-sensitive practice. Rejectingthis view, I utilize the findings of a study of intra-grouphelping amongst Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders—a‘Murri way’—to argue that social work theoryand practice has much to learn from indigenous peoples aboutthe interpersonal helping process. I call for recognition ofa space of possibility between indigenous and non-indigenouspractitioners that the indigenous telling creates. This is aspace in between these players who do not share a common understanding,a space where players may participate in a dance of difference(dialogue) to help map a common space of understanding.     

Notes on Theory and Practice in Social Work: a Comparative View

Please address reprint requests to Robert van Krieken, Department of Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. Summary There are still a number of problems surrounding the relationshipbetween theories of social work practice and that practice itself.This paper examines the factors underlying those problems andemphasises their roots in the failure to examine the diversityof social work theories and practices. We refer to one attemptto resolve the problems—the distinction between ‘practicetheory’ and ‘theory of practice’—pointout some difficulties with it and suggest an alternative, three-folddistinction within theorising: between (a) materialist socialtheory, (b) strategic practice theory and (c) working concepts. As an example of how those distinctions can be used, we thenbriefly discuss the work of Oskar Negt and its introductioninto the Dutch welfare context, as it was the issues raisedby that which stimulated the ideas in this paper. We concludeby arguing that only this kind of perspective on theorisingcan produce ideas which are of real use to progressive socialwork practitioners.     

The Changing Conditions of Social Work Research

Summary This paper seeks to make a contribution to the current debateabout the changing nature and purpose of social work research.It identifies several approaches to social work research evidentin the UK and further afield and, in particular, examines differentways of engaging with research participants in the researchprocess. The changing role and relations of research arisingfrom the use of more inclusive practices are then considered;first in terms of the relevance of research for practice, andsecondly, in relation to knowledge claims in the developmentof social work theory and practice. With the ever-growing developmentsin information and communication technologies, where Westernideas and initiatives continue to dominate in relation to bothmodels of social work and research approaches, an argument ismade for dialogue throughout the research process, the centralityof negotiating skills and reflexivity, and a more creative useof conventional research skills. Dialogue, in the form outlinedhere, provides a means of encouraging a ‘connectedness’between research, practice and theory, at all levels—theparticular location where the research takes place, the widernational context and the international or global stage.     

Rethinking Empowerment: A Postmodern Reappraisal for Emancipatory Practice

Summary This article is concerned with the implications of the postmodernchallenge to critical theory for the practice of empowerment.How do we conceptualize empowerment from a postmodern perspective?It is argued that the modernist concept of power upon whichempowerment rests, can have unintended disempowering effects.By conceptualizing power as a commodity, identities are forcedinto a powerful–powerless dualism which does not alwaysdo justice to diverse experiences. Thus we can sometimes contributeto dominance in spite of our liberatory intentions. It is arguedthat social workers need to become more aware of the self-discipliningand self-regulatory processes involved in professional workto address the social relations of power embedded in professionalpractices. Foucault's analysis of how marginalized knowledgesare affected by dominant cultural practices suggests a redefiningof empowerment as the insurrection of subjugated knowledge.The implications of this redefinition for practice is illustratedby reference to work with indigenous people in Australia.     

'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.     

A Political Critique of Kantian Ethics in Social Work

Correspondence to Stephen A. Webb, Department of Social Work, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN. Summary This paper addresses the Kantian theory of the subject whichis found in contemporary social work discourse on ethics andvalues. It is argued here that the Kantian idea of persons as(i) rational, (ii) autonomous, and (iii) ends-in-themselvesis wholly inadequate to the social work doctrine of ‘respectfor persons’. To show this, we counterpose a Foucauldianview of history, moral codes and theory of the person, and themeaning this can have in the social worker-client relation.This alternative reading claims that social work is essentiallya political practice which is constructed by various discursiveand institutional strategies of power. Therefore, it is suggestedthat social work needs a political reading of its own discourse.To this end we outline a Foucauldian micro-political analysisof the social work ‘subject’ or person as a pointwithin a field of discursive-knowledge based strategies.     

Towards an Alternative Model of Social Groupwork

Summary This paper arose from our disagreement with some of the suggestionsin an earlier article in this journal (Brown et al., 1982).Before and since, we have both worked in and studied numerousexamples of groups of a type which, according to Brown and hiscoauthors, scarcely exists in British social work practice.This paper explains what we believe to be the actual significanceof the type of group work we refer to as ‘self-directed’,together with our view of its place within wider social work,community work, and groupwork practice. We also give examplesof such groups and conclude that their proliferation would enableworkers to go beyond the alleviation of individual distressinto the achievement of external change.     

Practitioners as Rule Using Analysts: A Further Development of Process Knowledge in Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK. E-mail M.Sheppard{at}plymouth.ac.uk Summary A new paradigm of ‘process knowledge’ has emergedin recent years, distinct from the dominant ‘product knowledge’paradigm in social work. While the latter refers to existentknowledge, which may be applied, the former refers to the developmentof knowledge about the ‘methodology of practice decisionmaking’, focusing on the processes by which judgementsare made. At its heart is the emerging idea of a reflexivityfor practice, but studies have been, until recently, theoretical.A very small number of empirical studies have begun to identifysome key elements of process knowledge. These have developeda range of concepts relating to critical appraisal, hypothesisdevelopment and hypothesis testing which characterize socialwork process knowledge. These include, for example, focusedattention, querying information, causal inferences, partialcase, procedural, and speculative hypotheses. A process of quasitriangulation is characteristic of social work practice methodology,together with a combination of inductive and deductive thinking.This paper seeks to develop our understanding by focusing onhow social workers develop and appraise hypotheses, and in particularhow the substantive content of hypotheses emerges (these enablesocial workers to make sense of, define, and respond to, situations).To understand this, the notion of rules is used, and socialworkers emerge as analysts employing three types of rules: substantive,application, and practice rules. A significant link betweenprocess knowledge and the content of product knowledge is identifiedin the form of technical language. The concept of ‘probabilisticcausation’ is identified as a key epistemological dimensionin the conduct of rigorous practice.     

From Hollis to the Orange Book: Developing a Holistic Model of Social Work Assessment in the 1990s

Correspondence to Margaret Lloyd, School of Social Work, University of Manchester, Dover Street, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary Amidst questioning of its essential identity, social work iscurrently developing new procedures and training programmesin assessment, traditionally one of its core activities. Thedemand for this redevelopment has been created by the changingprofessional climate in both probation and social work practice,in particular the response to legislative changes such as theNational Health Service and Community Care Act 1990. This paperexamines the established model of social work assessment inhistorical context and identifies its shortcomings for practicein the 1990s. It argues that despite the apparently diverserange of assessment tasks now undertaken by social workers andprobation officers, there remains an identifiable, common setof skills. Moreover, unless social work anchors these assessmentskills in a conceptual framework, retaining a sense of its ownhistory, the essential character of social work assessment willbe lost amidst mechanistic procedures and competing philosophies.This paper suggests a typology for making sense of the rangeof assessment tasks in current practice, arguing that this mustbe rooted in a holistic theoretical and philosophical model.The term ‘social work’ is used in its generic senseto include probation practice.     

The State of Welfare

Summary The word ‘welfare’ is difficult to define becauseit combines within it a range of ideologies and actions. Twoconclusions are drawn from this: first, that social servicesshould be regarded as contributors to, but not providers ofwelfare; second, that the study of social work and social administrationshould be concerned not only with the relationship of ‘service’to ‘need’ but also with societal movements and pressureswhich determine the emergence of both. The article reviews theprofessed values of the welfare state, particularly ‘socialequality’ and the problems associated with its achievement,namely public attitudes, and the discontinuity between intentionand practice in the welfare services. The implications for socialwork education and practice are considered.     

Some Implications of an Integrated Model of Social Work for Theory and Practice

Summary This paper is an attempt to assess the significance of the introductioninto this country of an ‘integrated’ or ‘unitary’approach to social work. An attempt is made to clarify the relationshipbetween paradigms, theories and models. The author claims thatan integrated approach to social work may represent a shiftfrom a predominantly individualistic conceptual model of practiceto an interactionist one. These conceptual models are comparedand critiques of the integrated model are examined. The questionis posed: is it possible to have an integrated model of practicewithout an integrated theory? Some suggestions are made concerningthe essential characteristics of such a theory and the possiblecontribution of sociology to its development Finally, some implicationsof the model for practice and for social work education arediscussed.     

Social Work Values: The Moral Core of the Profession

Correspondence to Cynthia Bisman, Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, USA. E-mail: cbisman{at}ada.brynmawr.edu Summary This paper argues that an emphasis on the profession’sknowledge base has come at the expense of attention to socialwork's values and mission. The discussion examines the relativeimportance of knowledge, values and skills in an effort to understandthe shifting emphases of the profession within a social andhistorical context. The consequences of these shifts for theprofession and for its relationship to society are also considered.Concepts from the intellectual struggles of social work andfrom an interdisciplinary perspective suggest ways to groundthe profession’s skills and knowledge in its values ofhuman dignity, service to humanity and social justice. At itscore, social work must respond to the moral imperative of caringfor the neediest among us. This entails re-claiming and buildingon the commitment of early social workers ‘to work withforces that make for progress . . . to forward the advance ofthe . . . common people’ (Richmond, 1899, p. 151). Thepaper concludes that for social work to have a future, the professionmust take pride in its moral core, define its contemporary meaningand work for the social welfare in ways that are relevant toboth social workers and non-social workers.     

Social Work Tomorrow: Towards a Critical Understanding of Technology in Social Work

Correspondence to Bob Sapey, Department of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE Summary This paper makes use of theoretical ideas that have been developedto understand the impact of new technology on organizationsand applies them to its use within social work agencies. Thesedeveloping theories employ ideas that are familiar to socialworkers—organization theory, decision making theory, andcommunication theory. The paper therefore argues that socialworkers are in a good position to understand and influence theuse of computers within welfare agencies and do not need tobe inhibited by a lack of technological knowledge. It is furtherargued that, unless social workers do become involved in theways in which new technologies are used within organizations,they will fail to influence its impact upon their clients andmay further fail to control the way in which computers affectthe nature of social work itself in the future.     

Values in Social Work: investigations of the practice of family placement

Professor Noel Timms, University of Leicester, School of Social Work, 107 Princess Road East, Leicester LEI 7LA. Summary This study explores values in social work distinguishing valuesat the levels of practice and of rhetoric A small scale projectwas undertaken in family placement work in two local authoritiesand four voluntary agencies. A pattern of activity was foundcommon to both voluntary and statutory workers engaged in familyplacements. Workers in both agencies rendered comparable accountsof a distinctive practice which stressed virtuoso skills inthe collection, appraisal and use of knowledge. The practicedepended on confidence in the ability to make good within theform of work known as family placement, and on the recognitionof what people are owed. The work was undertaken in a socialcontext which acknowledged—in the eyes of the social workers—theobvious (rhetorical) goods of the proper flounshing of children,and respect for rights. Beliefs about certain aspects of thesocial context, particularly in relation to religion, differedbetween the two groups, but such differences could not be seento reverberate in the practice.     

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.     

Tracing the contours of postmodern social work

Summary Postmodern ideas and the ferment of debate generated by themcontinue to influence and challenge social work policy and practice.Recent discourses within the social science literature haverarely acknowledged earlier contributions concerning the developmentof social work in the context of the debate between modernistand postmodernist epistemology. This paper examines some ofthe links between earlier and more contemporary ideas, and inso doing highlights their complementary nature and the potentialcontributions they offer to the shape and texture of socialwork in the future as it seeks to define itself in a postmodernworld. Examining these debates in this way enables them to beperceived as helpful resources for social workers to draw upon,rather than choices from which to exclude. It is therefore possibleto begin to map the contours of changing practice as it evolveswhilst understanding something of its origins, traditions andconnections. This paper concludes by recommending a broaderintellectual panorama and less allegiance to opposing theoreticalpositions by social work policy makers and practitioners whofeel constrained to choose between either postmodernist or modernistepistemology.     

At the Edge of the Frame: Beyond Science and Art in Social Work

Correspondence to Dean Emilia E. Martinez-B raw ley. School of Social Work, Arizona State University, PO Box 871802, Tempe, Arizona 85287–1802, USA. Summary The central argument in this article is that social work hasalways been a practice at the fringes. The phrase is used inits best sense and in at least two meanings: (1) that socialwork has been at the edges of the mainstream of scientific discourse,not because of any intrinsic deficiency in the profession butbecause of the nature of the practice; (2) that, in the postmodernsense, social work has been a collage where science, art, rationalityand intuition, systematic and asystematic knowledge meet. Inthis latter sense, this article proposes, social work can representa very desirable convergence of paradigms that needs to be acknowledgedand celebrated. Perhaps the most significant contribution ofpostmodernism is that it accommodates this possibility.     

Improving the Interpersonal Skills of Social Work Students: The Problem of Transfer of Training and What to do About it

Correspondence to Dr David Dickson, Head, SST Centre, Dept of Communication, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Co Antrim, N Ireland, BT37 0QB. Summary Interpersonal skills which enable the worker to engage meaningfullywith the client, lie at the heart of effective social work practice(Cournoyer, 1991). The acceptance of this proposition has importantand obvious implications for the preparation of would-be socialworkers. While the increasing popularity of structured approachesto training in this domain has been commented upon (Sowers-Hoagand Thyer, 1985), it is, perhaps, surprising that relativelylittle has been published by way of a systematic explorationof current social work education/training provision in promotingskilled professional interaction. This paper critically reviews some of the research investigatingthe effects of structured training on interviewing performance.While reported outcomes have been largely positive, methodologicalweaknesses are identified and discussed. The issue of trainingeffects persisting and being applied outwith the training environmentis dwelt upon. Contrasting paradigmatic perspectives on theprocess, reflected in such labels as ‘transfer of training’and ‘generalization of outcome’, are considered.These differing conceptualizations are synthesized in the illuminationof factors that seem to be pivotal in the transfer process.Finally, recommendations are made for improving interpersonalskill training procedures for social work students.