The Rise of Relativism: The Future of Theory and Knowledge Development in Social Work

Correspondence to Colin Peile, Department of Social Work and Social Policy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia Summary This paper explores a range of paradigms evident in recent debatesabout social work theory and epistemology, including the positivist,post-positivist, interpretivist, critical, ecological, feminist,poststructural and creative positions. While applauding theopenness generated by these competing approaches, concerns areraised about the emergence of a meta-paradigm of relativism.After identifying the evidence of this move towards relativismin various paradigms, the potential problems and limitationsof this trend for social work are explored. Relativism has,however, played an important role in undermining dogmatic attachmentsto certain positions and the paper attempts to rescue this usefulquality of relativism while combining it with a constructivecommitment to creative action.