Key Concepts and Theory in Social Work

David Hodgson, Lynelle Watts

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781137487834
• eBook ISBN: 9781350313033
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Social work is a discipline committed to social justice and human rights, and to improving the well-being of individuals, families, communities and societies. But the world is changing, with environmental disasters, an increase in violent conflict and the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis impacting negatively on human and ecological well-being. Social workers are often working at the forefront of these and other challenging situations, and they must apply knowledge and skills to their practice in a thoughtful and ethical way. What kind of knowledge and skills will social workers need to succeed in this intellectually and emotionally demanding job? Broad-ranging in scope and depth, this highly readable text introduces readers to the key concepts in social work – such as empathy, reflective practice and notions of risk – and provides both a focus on the theory and research literature that informs each one, and an examination of how each will aid practitioners in their day-to-day work. With the help of engaging practice examples that contextualize the topics under discussion, the book also draws on ideas and literature from other disciplines – including philosophy, sociology and psychology – in order to promote the open-mindedness and depth of understanding required for practice with people from all walks of life. An accessible text that brings all of the major social work concepts together in one place, Key Concepts and Theory in Social Work is an essential book for students and practitioners alike.

1

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Social work is an important role, and one well worth pursuing. It is committed to social justice and human rights, and improving human well-being for individuals, families, communities and societies (International Federation of Social Workers, 2014). Social work is a diverse profession working with different groups and individuals and it operates across many different arrangements for the delivery of welfare and social care. Social work largely grew up within the ambit of the many welfare states of advanced liberal nations and has since spread as a profession across the world. We think the diversity of activities we can call social work is to be celebrated, and given the wonderful variety of ways in which human beings live, work and create communities, we cannot see that it could be any other way. What unites social work across the world, however, is a commitment to the realisation of social justice for all people, and the fact that our work is primarily with people who experience exclusion, disadvantage, stigma and marginalisation.

Our professional commitment to social justice amidst the situation of increasing global change was a theme recently raised by Professor Alastair Christie (Child and Family Research Centre & Christie, 2014) in a keynote presented at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. We agree with him that in the last few years there have been enormous political changes to nation-states, of all political persuasions. In some cases, this has included changes to the relationship between welfare and the State. At the same time, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has not resulted in any significant changes to underlying financial systems, but, rather, we have seen the burden of recovery being borne by those least able to do so. Then there are the effects of global warming and the impact of environmental disasters on human and ecological well-being. Increasing levels of violence have been occurring across many places in the world. Consequently, large numbers of people have become displaced as a result of violent conflict and environmental destruction. As we know, these changes often affect those least able to withstand the impact; these are the people with whom social workers practice. Thus, Professor Christie’s challenge to his audience, and to us, is to think through what kinds of knowledge and skills social workers will need as they locate themselves as a profession in this changing world. It is for these reasons that social work can be seen as an intellectually and emotionally demanding job.

This book attempts in its own way to take up this challenge by presenting a number of concepts for social work practice and exploring them in depth. The choices of what to include in this book have emerged from years of conversation between ourselves, with students and social workers about the ideas and skills that seem to be recurring themes with social work. For example, power (Chapter 4) seems to be ubiquitous to a social work perspective. Empathy (Chapter 12) seems to be an expectation of good practice. We are both social work educators, and have spent a great deal of time discussing these ideas with students, fellow educators and practitioners. Over time, we have found that these common concepts and ideas are held as crucial to respectful and effective practice. Values such as dignity and worth, human rights, social justice, and the need for hope never stop being central to social work. Notions about risk, the relation between theory and practice, knowledge about poverty and disadvantage and how to work with difference and diversity also seemed to us to be ideas central to social work. Lastly, we think there are particular markers of effective social work practice, somewhat regardless of organisational setting or social work role. These include reflective and reflexive practice, engaging in professional judgement and assessment that is respectful, and being able to negotiate the complexities of organisational life.

We recognise that what is contained in this book is not an exhaustive list. However, we contend that the concepts discussed in the following chapters would be relevant and applicable to any field, role or context of social work. In this respect, some of these ideas will, no doubt, be familiar to many of you already. We have found that many of these ideas have become a kind of disciplinary common-sense in social work, and the ideas presented in this book are typically covered in social work education curricula. Yet, we also find that the meaning of some ideas becomes taken-for-granted, even in many texts and discussions in our discipline. In our teaching roles we have found that it has often been useful to take a rather genealogical approach to exploring these concepts and presenting the theoretical underpinnings and practical implications for students. This can assist in developing a nuanced and critical understanding of concepts that are important to the thinking and practice of social work.

Hence, in presenting these ideas in this book, our approach overall is to engage in a discussion and description of the theoretical underpinnings of each concept. Our goal is to create depth of understanding through a process of explanation and interpretation of the key ideas, as a form of systematic reflection. Each chapter clarifies the definitions of the key concepts being discussed, and reading them and learning them can help with grasping their central meanings and main insights for social work. In this way, the chapters offer an introduction to some key concepts in social work. At the same time, the chapters then go beyond definitions to explore the theory, and, where relevant, the research literature and backgrounds that inform these concepts. This is the approach we have taken in this book. We have started with social work research and literature to create understanding of the topic from a social work disciplinary perspective. We have then extended the discussion by drawing on ideas and literature from other disciplines to deepen and broaden the theoretical perspective of each concept discussed. In doing so, we have drawn on relevant knowledge from philosophy, sociology, psychology, neuroscience, politics, nursing, education, business and anthropology. There are, of course, limitations to the extent to which we can discuss and critique the various concepts and theories included herein. Therefore, the challenge when approaching these concepts and theories is to engage with them critically, to think about their application to practice, and to consider what their limitations may be. There is no theory of everything and no one right way to approach the question of knowledge for, and about practice. It is our hope that exploring these ideas in depth and from different perspectives will contribute to building upon social work’s repertoires of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2009) and help us engage with the complex problems and situations now facing us all.

Overview of this book

In this section we provide a general overview of this book and explain the topic in each chapter. But first, a note on language. In the world of social work many terms are used to describe the people that social workers work with, such as client, consumer, patient, customer, service user, community member, participant, and so on. All these terms are problematic in some way. In this book, we take our lead from Wilson and Beresford (2000, p. 553) and adopt the term ‘service user’ throughout, except where it is used in quoted material. Service user is a more encompassing term than some of the others mentioned above. As Wilson and Beresford (2000) explain, service user describes people who, either voluntarily or involuntarily, interact with or use services that social workers and others provide.

As mentioned earlier, each chapter in the book addresses a single topic, usually beginning with the social work literature and expanding from there to draw out the broader theoretical ideas. At the end of each chapter are critical thinking questions, tutorial exercises and suggested readings and web-links. You can read the book from the beginning to end, or alternatively, you may read it according to your interest in the topics. There are significant links between the topics and in some respects we are aware that the boundaries between one topic and another have been maintained primarily for the purposes of focus. In practice, we know that there are many connections and overlapping elements. For example, theory and practice is relevant to nearly all other topics but in that chapter the focus is on the relationship between reasoning, in the form of theoretical thinking and practice, rather than the application of theory to any specific practice fields. Likewise, the topic of risk can be read in relation to assessment, but for ease of presentation we have treated these as distinct topics.

In thinking about how this book is organised, it might be helpful to see that the chapters in this book are grouped loosely in terms of broader contexts, certain social work values, and some general skills. For example, Chapters 2–5 take theory, practice, power, risk, poverty and disadvantage as examples of the broader contexts that influence and shape general orientations towards knowledge and practice. Chapters 6–10 take difference, dignity, respect, social justice, fairness, human rights, spirituality and hope as important social work values. Chapters 11–15 contend that working in organisations, empathy, judgement, decision-making assessment and critical reflection are skills that can be learnt and developed for practice. Let’s look at the outline of chapters in more detail.

Chapter 2 is about theory and practice, and as mentioned, we have included a discussion about how to approach theory and we offer a categorisation that organises the main theories important to social work. The purpose of Chapter 2 is not so much to outline the main theories in social work, as there are many texts that do that very well. Instead, the purpose is to engage in a discussion that will help you learn how to think about theory in social work.

Chapter 3 considers the topic of risk and its relationship to social work practice. Risk is such a pervasive idea throughout society and especially in the human services. But it is a problematic concept that needs interrogation. In this chapter we also introduce ideas about resilience, which we think are increasingly important in an uncertain world.

As mentioned earlier, power is relevant to all forms of social work practice. However, it is a tricky concept to grasp and there are many different theories of power. We discuss power in Chapter 4 by exploring structural and post-structural theories of power. It is a complex topic, but understanding it offers social workers a crucial analytical tool for social work practice.

In Chapter 5 we turn our attention to a major focal point of social work: poverty and disadvantage. Inequality, poverty and disadvantage are key drivers of human suffering and poor well-being. Amidst the fall-out of the GFC and rising austerity measures, we think a discussion of poverty and disadvantage is important.

Difference and diversity are examined in Chapter 6 especially with regard to the important contribution feminists have made to our understandings of this aspect of social work practice. The point we make in this chapter is that difference is a normal part of the human condition. However, differences are often the point through which oppression and inequality find expression. Hence, we discuss different theories that can help social workers think critically about difference in ways that can support their thinking within an ethical perspective.

We open Chapter 7 with a discussion about the values of respect and dignity, and a contemporary social theory view about what matters to people. Importantly, the chapter outlines a theory of human social being (Sayer, 2011), that helps social workers discern between universal and particular needs that humans might share, and how respect can be conveyed as part of these commonalities and differences.

Chapter 8 describes social justice from a social work standpoint, but also through the considered philosophy of Iris Marion Young and John Rawls. In this sense, both distributive and critical theories of justice that underpin social work ethical codes are explored. The chapter also explains why social justice matters, not just in terms of moral principle, but as a condition that is elementary to human well-being.

Chapter 9 extends the discussion of political philosophy by concentrating on the topic of human rights, asking the question: can social work be considered a human rights profession? The background to human rights in social work is explained through the lens of philosophy, and we give examples of social work’s engagement in human rights practice.

We then pick up the topic of hope and spirituality in Chapter 10. This is a somewhat neglected topic, but we think desperately important for addressing human flourishing and for understanding the meaning of suffering for the people we work with. Both hope and spirituality are attracting increasing interest in social work amidst a context of human suffering, and a search for existential meaning. This is a contested area of social work knowledge, and so the debates and criticisms are outlined and explained.

Chapter 11 positions organisations as a key driver of social work possibilities for action, particularly for advanced liberal states. We hope the chapter provides some ways to navigate this complex aspect of contemporary social work practice. The chapter addresses practice in organisations largely from an empowerment perspective, by drawing on individual attributes and systems thinking in outlining how social workers might contribute to building civil organisational climates.

In the next chapter, 12, we consider empathy from a range of perspectives including anthropology and cognitive neuroscience. We find this topic to be increasingly relevant in light of recent developments in understanding how empathy works. The purpose of empathy is explained; however, some cautions and criticisms of the use of empathy in practice are also offered.

Chapter 13 outlines the topic of professional judgement and decision-making in practice, paying particular attention to what we know about factors that impede or support good judgement. Social workers often have wide latitude to exercise professional judgement and decision-making, and this autonomy is to some extent a marker of the professional role. However, how, and on what basis, social workers make judgements and decisions is an important question, and so this chapter explores the most recent research on human judgement and decision-making.

Chapter 14 picks up this theme of the skills of judgement and decision-making by considering what is meant by assessment in social work, and by outlining different approaches to this important aspect of professional practice. Assessment is such a key part of social work practice, and so the concepts, methods and steps to assessment are outlined. Importantly, the chapter includes a critical thinking perspective, which aims to assist the social worker to be more critically minded when undertaking assessment roles in their practice.

Finally, the book concludes with Chapter 15 on reflective practice and critical reflection, which is now considered a core skill of respectful and effective social work practice. The chapter explores the antecedents to reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity in social work and distinguishes between these concepts. The chapter also offers a model of different kinds of systematic reflection for social work.

Conclusion

It is our hope that the book might provide a mental space in which to engage with ideas, both familiar and strange, in the spirit of learning to consider other perspectives. We hope to contribute to the development of the kind of open-mindedness and depth of understanding that is needed for practice with people from all walks of life. We have also presented many examples aimed at illustrating the ideas being discussed. We hope these contribute to your learning from the experiences of others, but also through how they might resonate, or not, with your own experience. While we are presenting social work theoretical knowledge throughout the book, we have also tried to represent these ideas in ways that do justice to them. In this respect, we have strived to offer an engaged critique in the sense of a thorough evaluation, ‘not from everywhere or nowhere, but from within …’ (Jongerden, 2016, p. 102). This is in contrast perhaps to the more usual forms of criticism where the point is to find fault. You will find our own social work values are on display, evident in the choices we have made here. Hence, you may note that overall we are arguing for a pluralist approach to knowledge. Pluralism is the idea that toleration and respect for difference are possible on the basis that there is no single way of being hu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Lists of Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Theory and Practice
• 3 Risk
• 4 Power
• 5 Poverty and Disadvantage
• 6 Difference
• 7 Respect and Dignity
• 8 Social Justice and Fairness
• 9 Human Rights
• 10 Spirituality and Hope
• 11 Organisational Contexts
• 12 Empathy
• 13 Professional Judgement and Decision-Making
• 14 Assessment
• 15 Reflexivity, Reflective Practice and Critical Reflection
• References
• Index