Competent solidarity: the alternative for professional social work
| Dublin Core | PKP Metadata Items | Metadata for this Document | |
| 1. | Title | Title of document | Competent solidarity: the alternative for professional social work |
| 2. | Creator | Author's name, affiliation, country | Alastair Russell; Auckland Action Against Poverty; New Zealand |
| 3. | Subject | Discipline(s) | |
| 3. | Subject | Keyword(s) | competent solidarity; radical social work; activism; neoliberalism; welfare |
| 4. | Description | Abstract | There is very little evidence of radical politics within social work and community development in Aotearoa/New Zealand where social workers here are caught in the constricting grasp of professionalism. Community development is strictly confined through funder capture and the “no politics” embargo of the Charities Commission. These realities sit comfortably within the oppressions perpetrated by neoliberalism. Professionalism is not compatible with a fight against the neoliberal status quo. The fight against poverty and its social consequences should be the focus of social work and community development. Within the professional paradigm, social workers have become increasingly irrelevant to the people they work with. An alternative paradigm is needed to make social work relevant. The paradigm shift advocated here is to replace professionalism with competent solidarity. This extended viewpoint article provides a definition of competent solidarity and considers the implications of competent solidarity in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It will then discuss the problems that emerge within professional social work and apolitical community development. Competent solidarity case studies from within Auckland Action Against Poverty are provided and opportunities for future action are discussed. |
| 5. | Publisher | Organizing agency, location | ANZASW |
| 6. | Contributor | Sponsor(s) | |
| 7. | Date | (YYYY-MM-DD) | 2017-07-26 |
| 8. | Type | Status & genre | Peer-reviewed Article |
| 8. | Type | Type | |
| 9. | Format | File format | |
| 10. | Identifier | Uniform Resource Identifier | https://anzswjournal.nz/anzsw/article/view/406 |
| 10. | Identifier | Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | http://dx.doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol29iss2id406 |
| 11. | Source | Title; vol., no. (year) | Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work; Vol 29, No 2 (2017): Special issue |
| 12. | Language | English=en | en |
| 13. | Relation | Supp. Files | |
| 14. | Coverage | Geo-spatial location, chronological period, research sample (gender, age, etc.) | |
| 15. | Rights | Copyright and permissions |
Copyright (c) 2017 Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |