| Abstract: | Correspondence to Michael Lavalette, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Studies, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool. E-mail: M.Lavalette{at}Liverpool.ac.uk Summary This paper argues for the relevance of the Marxist concept ofalienation to the development of an emancipatory social workpractice. As the concept has often been misinterpreted withinthe social work literature to refer primarily to a psychologicalstate, the first part of the paper seeks to establish the materialbasis of the theory as developed by Marx, and identifies fourkey aspects of alienation—from the product of labour,from the labour process, from our ‘human nature’and from our fellow human beings. Alienation theory is thenapplied to the experience of both social workers and serviceusers and it is argued that the notions of loss of control (inthe case of social workers) and powerlessness (in the case ofservice users) have greater explanatory power, and provide afirmer basis for a radical practice, than currently fashionablepower discourses, derived from postructuralism, which oftenmirror the individualism of the New Right approaches they seekto challenge. Finally, examples are given of the ways in whichthe concept of alienation might contribute towards the developmentof a new, emancipatory social work, central to which is likelyto be the development of more collective approaches. |
