The renaissance will not be televised
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol29iss2id376Keywords:
radical social work, liquid modernity, social justiceAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Brave new social landscapes painted in the watercolours of liquid modernity challenge the possibility of a renaissance of radical social work. The consequences of modernity’s liquefaction for the project of taking a political stance challenge radical social work conceived as a retrieval of solidarities and mobilised collectives of the past.
APPROACH: Principles of radical analysis are used to explore theoretical and institutional factors affecting the contemporary articulation of a radical project, and to consider the implications of liquid modernity for such an articulation.
CONCLUSIONS: Radical strategy can no longer take the form of “speaking truth to power”, for power no longer feels obliged to listen. Future radical social work can succeed through the creation of new strategic responses to reconstituted fields of practice, state–global interfaces, and the injustices they create. This entails a critical reappraisal of the language of radical practice, a reorientation to the dynamics of new social landscapes and a reframing of the radical position.
References
Bailey, R. & Brake, M. (1975). Radical Social Work. London: Edward Arnold Ltd.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Z. (2010). Education in the world of Diasporas. Policy Futures in Education 8(3-4), 398-407.
Bauman, Z. & Bordoni, C. (2014). State of Crisis. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1998). The Essence of Neoliberalism Le Monde Diplomatique http://mondediplo.com/1998/12/08bourdieu.
Campbell, C. & Baikie, G. (2012). Beginning at the Beginning: An Exploration of Critical Social Work. Critical Social Work 13 (1).
Carey, M. & Foster, V. (2011) Introducing ‘Deviant’ Social Work: Contextualising the Limits of Radical Social Work whilst Understanding (Fragmented) Resistance within the Social Work Labour Process. British Journal of Social Work 41, 576–593. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcq148 Advance Access publication February 2, 2011.
Fawcett, B. & Plath, D. (2012).A National Disability Insurance Scheme: What Social Work Has to Offer. British Journal of Social Work first published online October 7, 2012 doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcs141.
Ferguson, I. (2009). Another social work is possible! Reclaiming the Radical Tradition. in V. Leskoše (Ed).Theories and Methods of Social Work: Exploring Different Perspectives. (pp. 81 - 98). Ljubljana: Faculty of Social Work.
Ferguson, I. & Lavalette, M.(2013). Critical and radical social work: an introduction. Critical and Radical Social Work 1(1), 3–14.
Ferguson, I. & Lavalette, M. (2014) Editorial. Critical and Radical Social Work 2 (2), 137–40.
Fook, J. (2002). Social Work: critical theory and practice London: Sage.
Greenslade, L., McAuliffe, D. & Chenoweth, L. (2015). Social Workers' Experiences of Covert Workplace Activism. Australian Social Work 68(4), 422-437. DOI:10.1080/0312407X.2014.940360.
Hamilton, C. & Maddison, S. (2007). Silencing Dissent. Australia: Allen and Unwin.
Hick, S. & Pozzuto, R. (2005). Introduction: Towards ‘becoming’ a critical social worker. In S. Hick, J. Fook, & R. Pozzuto (Eds.), Social work: A critical turn (pp. ix-xviii). Toronto: Thompson Education Publishing.
Ioakimidis, V. (2013) Beyond the dichotomies of cultural and political relativism: arguing the case for a social justice based ‘global social work’ definition. Critical and Radical Social Work 1 (2), 183–99.
Ioakimidis, V. (2016). A guide to radical social work. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2016/may/24/radical-social-work-quick-guide-change-poverty-inequality
Jacobsen, M. H., & Tester, K. (2013). De-familiarize the familiar and Familiarize the unfamiliar: Interview with Zygmunt Bauman. The Essayist. Retrieved from: http://www.the-essayist.org/2013/04/de-familiarize-the-familiar-and-familiarize-the-unfamiliar/
Lavalette, M. (Ed). (2011). Radical Social Work Today: Social Work at the crossroads. Bristol: Policy Press.
Lyotard, J.F. (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge Manchester: Manchester University Press.
McDonald, C. (2006). Challenging social work: the institutional context of practice London: Palgrave Macmillan.
McKendrick, D., & Webb, S. A. (2014). Taking a political stance in social work. Critical and Radical Social Work 2(3), 357-369. doi:10.1332/204986014×14096553584619.
McMahon, A., Thomson, J. & Williams, C. (Eds). (2000) Understanding the Australian Welfare State: key documents and themes. Victoria: Tertiary Press.
Marston, G. & McDonald, C. (2012). Getting beyond ‘Heroic Agency’ in Conceptualising Social Workers as Policy Actors in the Twenty-First Century. British Journal of Social Work first published online May 24, 2012 doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcs062.
Marston, G. & McDonald,C.(2013). The Australian welfare state: who benefits now? Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mendes, P. (2003). Social workers and social action: a case study of the Australian Association of Social Workers' Victorian branch. Australian Social Work 56, 16–27. doi:10.1046/j.0312-407X.2003.00053.x
Porter, C. (2016). Investing in people – improving lives. Media Release, Department of Social Services, 20th September 2016. Retrieved from: http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/media-releases/investing-in-people-improving-lives.
Pusey, M. (2003). An Australian Story: The Troubling Experience of Economic Reform. Presented as a lecture in the Department of the Senate Occasional Lecture Series at Parliament House on 20 June 2003. http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Research_and_Education/pops/~/link.aspx?_id=6F7B19F24405402F8F8880A57A4A5C83&_z=z
Rawling, M. (2015). Regulating Precarious Work in Australia: A preliminary Assessment Alternative Law Journal 40(4), 252-256.
Ryan, W. (1971). Blaming the Victim. New York: Pantheon Books.
Stiglitz, J. (2002). Globalisation and its discontents New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Tuck, E. & Wayne Yang, K.(2012). Decolonization is Not a Metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society 1, 1–40.
Wacquant, L. (2004) Critique as solvent of doxa. Constellations 11(1), 97 – 101. DOI: 10.1111/j.1351-0487.2004.0034.x
Walter, M., Taylor, S. & Habibis, D. (2011). How White is Social Work in Australia? Australian Social Work 64(1), 6-19. DOI: 10.1080/0312407X.2010.510892.
Webb, S. & Gray, M. (2013). The New Politics of Social Work London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Yeatman, A. (2009). Individualization and the Delivery of Welfare Services: Contestation and Complexity London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Woodward, R. (2013). Some reflections on critical and radical social work literature. Critical and Radical Social Work 1(1), 135-140.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.
