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
7 - Theories for practice
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
This chapter will introduce you to some of the key formal social work theories that underpin practice. We begin with the individualistic and systems-based theories that originated in psychology and conservative sociology respectively. As was evident in Chapter 5 on the history of social work, these establishment theories generally dominated social work before the emergence of critical social work theories. We then shift our attention to the development of critical theories, such as Marxist, radical, structural, feminist and anti-oppressive perspectives that aim for social justice and autonomy, and discuss the more recent contribution of poststructural and queer theories to the evolution of critical theories and to critical social work. The newer critical theories developed out of critiques of the older establishment theories, so it is necessary to have some familiarity with the principles of both. Finally, we draw on research with our first-year students to demonstrate the application of theory in relation to a case study.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Engaging with Social WorkA Critical Introduction, pp. 194 - 235Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further reading
Carniol, B. 1992, ‘Structural social work: Maurice Moreau’s challenge to social work practice’, Journal of Progressive Human Services, 3(1), 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healy, K. 2022, ‘Four waves of systems theories: From general systems theory to ecosocial work’, in Social Work Theories in Context: Creating Frameworks for Practice, 3rd ed., Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Hicks, S. & Jeyasingham, D. 2016, ‘Social work, wueer theory and after: A genealogy of sexuality theory in neo-liberal times’, British Journal of Social Work, 46(8), 2357–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullaly, B. & West, J. 2018, ‘Theoretical and conceptual considerations’, in Challenging oppression and confronting privilege: A critical approach to anti-oppressive theory and practice, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Payne, M. 2020, ‘Psychodynamic perspectives’, in Modern Social Work Theory, 5th ed., Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Thorpe, C. 2017, Social theory for social work: Ideas and applications, Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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