Chapter 9: Modern Critical Social Work: From Radical to Anti-Oppressive Practice

Karen Healy (2005) has written a book that that offers a broad discussion about various approaches to social work and the significance of postmodern theory to practice. The book revolves around theories of social construction and dominant discourses in Health and Welfare which include biomedicine, economics and the law. This is future shaped by service discourses from psychology and sociology. While these define the filed there is an interplay with alternative service discourse that include consumer rights and spirituality. Her focus in the book are key discourses and contemporary theories that inform current practice, considering approaches such as problem-solving, system theories, the strengths perspective, and postmodern practice. The fifth approach is discussed in chapter 9, Modern Critical Social Work: from Radical to Anti-Oppressive Practice. This chapter attempts to put anti-oppressive practice in context by offering a historical view of the movement form radical social work tot critical practice models. She concludes the chapter with a number of practice principles intended to guide social workers in the application of this approach.

In the broadest sense, “critical social work is concerned with the analysis and transformation of power relations at ever level of social work practice” (p.172). In this chapter she take a modernist approach to social work, in chapter 10 where she considers postmodern forms. “These perspectives draw on critical social science theories and focus on understanding and addressing the impact of broad social structures of the problems facing service users and the social work process itself. For Healey, this approach is grounded in sociological discourses, especially critical social sciences ideas and concepts from consumer rights movements that supposedly addresses clients need and appropriate social work response to them.

The chapter continues with a general discussion of modern critical social work which includes Marxist social work; radical social work; structural social work; feminist social work; anti-racist social work; and anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory social work. The key features relevant include the claim that macro-social structures shape social relations at ever level of social life. From a Marxist perspective there are the “haves’ and have not’s, making the interest of these groups irreconcilable in their maintenance of power, privilege and property . Another feature of this approach is that view that the oppressed re complicit in their own oppression which is secured by dominant ideologies that present the current social order as just. Critical social workers are expected to assist in raising consciousness of the service user, helping them to see that the causes of the problems they face are not in themselves but are the result of unjust social structures.

Social Work has its historical roots in the work of Jane Addams, who worked in the settlement House Movement in Chicago in the late 19^th century. Even at this time there were elements of critical social work which focused on socioeconomic conditions that linked social movements with labor conditions and union movements. Radical social work did not emerge as a distinctive practice until the late 1960s and 1970s, shaped by the growing influence of critical sociology. At this time, many oppressed groups began to voice their opposition to the oppressive power structures and unfair treatment of the social welfare system, these groups includes women, people of color, gays and lesbians and the disabled. Social workers followed the movement and began focusing on uses of racial, economic injustice with focused on community development. In the 1980s and 1990s social workers began to move away from this approach in favor of more positivist science and neoliberal policy which focused on individual responsibility. Ideally, social workers would recognize their privileged status, at least I contrast to service users, and emphasize the social work roles as intensely political that attempts to work with the oppressed in gaining access to power and institutionalize democratic change to the system. The principles that Healey believes will guide practice include:

· Critical reflection on self in practice

· Critical assessment of service users experiences of oppression

· Empowering service users

· working in partnership, and

· minimal intervention

Healey concludes with some critical reflections that include a strengths and weakness analysis. Some of the strengths include the importance of social justice and collaborative work with community. Some of the limitations include ‘high-risk’ decision making that involves significant risk of death or serious injury to participants. Another limitation is the oppositional stance in which battle lines are drawn and involves a opposition to power. She concludes by bridging this approach to postmodern practice by stating “yet, as we shall see in the next chapter, postmodern approaches to critical social work urge social workers to adopt a skeptical attitude towards many of the claims on which modern forms of social work, including anti-oppressive practice, are formed.

Healy, K. (2005). Social Work Theories in Context: Creating Frameworks for Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.