The new social work radicalism

Authors

  • Iain Ferguson University of the West of Scotland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol29iss2id404

Keywords:

radical social work, neoliberalism

Abstract

On a cold January morning in 2017, a group of social workers, service users, claimants, psychologists, counselors and others gathered outside the annual meeting of the British Psychological Society (BPS) taking place that year in Liverpool. Those present represented a wide variety of grassroots organisations including the Social Work Action Network, Psychologists against Austerity and the Mental Health Resistance Network (SWAN). They were there to protest the BPS’s involvement in the UK government’s use of “psycho-compulsion” as a tool for getting people off benefits.

References

Friedli, L., & Steam, R. (2015). Positive affect as coercive strategy: Conditionality, activation and the role of psychology in UK government workfare programmes. Medical Humanities, 41(1), 40–47. Retrieved from http://mh.bmj.com/content/41/1/40

Harris, J. (2014). (Against) neoliberal social work. Critical and Radical Social Work, 2(1), 7–22.

Jones, C. (2001). Voices from the front line: State social workers and New Labour. British Journal of Social Work, 31(4), 547–562.

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Published

2017-07-26

How to Cite

Ferguson, I. (2017). The new social work radicalism. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 29(2), 131–132. https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol29iss2id404

Issue

Section

Commentary