Book contents
- Engaging with Social Work
- Acknowledgement of Country
- Engaging with Social Work
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword to the second edition
- About the authors
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- 1 The critical potential of social work
- 2 Contemporary practice contexts: Enduring social forces
- 3 The new normal: Contemporary and emerging challenges and opportunities for social work
- 4 What can we do? A critical response to social contexts
- 5 How did we get here? The history of critical social work
- 6 Values and ethics for critical practice
- 7 Theories for practice
- 8 Social work practice
- 9 Diversity, power and knowledge
- 10 Fields of practice: Challenges and opportunities
- 11 Advancing critical social work into the future
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
2 - Contemporary practice contexts: Enduring social forces
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2025
Book contents
- Engaging with Social Work
- Acknowledgement of Country
- Engaging with Social Work
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword to the second edition
- About the authors
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- 1 The critical potential of social work
- 2 Contemporary practice contexts: Enduring social forces
- 3 The new normal: Contemporary and emerging challenges and opportunities for social work
- 4 What can we do? A critical response to social contexts
- 5 How did we get here? The history of critical social work
- 6 Values and ethics for critical practice
- 7 Theories for practice
- 8 Social work practice
- 9 Diversity, power and knowledge
- 10 Fields of practice: Challenges and opportunities
- 11 Advancing critical social work into the future
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
In this and the following chapter we explore the importance of context for social work practice. Ife et al. suggest that context is vital because it impacts on how social workers understand the issues they are working with and how they will respond. Social work does not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, we focus on a number of powerful social forces that shape our social contexts. These consist of far-reaching (sometimes global) social structures and discourses. Social structures, as noted in Chapter 1, are the enduring social patterns, divisions and institutional arrangements that can give rise to inequality and harm. Discourses, on the other hand, are sets of ideas or language about a particular topic with shared meanings and assumptions that reflect and reinforce particular power relations. In other words, discourses are never neutral descriptions of reality, but actively justify certain asymmetric social structures; in turn, these structures promote discourses favourable to their maintenance.
Keywords
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- Information
- Engaging with Social WorkA Critical Introduction, pp. 29 - 67Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further reading
Cohen, C. 1997, ‘Punks, bulldaggers, and welfare queens: The radical potential of queer politics?’, GLQ, 3(4), 437–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, K. 1999, ‘Patriarchy’, in Tierney, H., ed., Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Hendrix, E., Barusch, A. & Gringeri, C. 2021, ‘Eats me alive!’: Social workers reflect on practice in neoliberal contexts’, Social Work Education, 40(2), 161–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, C. & Ottmann, G. 2020, ‘Right-ring populism nationalist populism: Some definitions and features’, in Ottmann, G. F. & Noble, C., eds, The Challenge of Right-wing Nationalist Populism for Social Work: A Human Rights Approach, Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pease, B. & Nipperess, S. 2016, ‘Doing critical social work in the neoliberal context: Working on the contradictions’, in Pease, B., Goldingay, S., Hosken, N. & Nipperess, S., eds, Doing Critical Social Work: Transformative Practices for Social Justice, Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Zuboff, S. & Schwandt, K. 2019, ‘August 9, 2011: Setting the stage for surveillance capitalism’, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Profile Books.Google Scholar
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