Janet L. Finn

Just Practice: Steps toward a New Social Work Paradigm

The 21st-century challenges to social justice, human rights, and citizenship posed by transnational capital, growing global inequality and social exclusion, and multiple forms of violence confront the limits of the social work imagination and call for creative and critical interventions that focus on social justice. In this article we contend that the dominant theoretical approaches to social work practice are inadequate, and we consider the possibilities and limitations of alternative approaches informed by critical social theory. We argue for the Just Practice Framework, a social justice-oriented approach to social work, as a corrective to current models.

Text and Turbulence Representing Adolescence as Pathology in the Human Services

This article examines constructions of adolescence and pathology and their relation to human service intervention. The author locates a history of discourses of adolescence and pathology along a trajectory of 20th-century capitalism. Particular attention is paid to racialized, gendered and classbased aspects of this history. The historic context sets the stage for a close reading of representations of youth pathology used to market treatment facilities to human service professionals. The author argues that the youth treatment industry may not be preparing adolescents for healthy adulthood but rather for their place in a continuum of care, control and containment.

Child welfare policy and practice: Rethinking the history of our certainties

This paper presents a critical retrospective examination of the policies and practices in child welfare as these relate to the declining well-being of children today. There are four key structures around which child welfare is organized: family, state, market and charity. The development of child welfare practices over time follows a cyclical process modulated by the power relations among these key structures that has favored systemic maintenance over transformational change. It is suggested that child welfare policy and practice is informed by three “certainties” or accepted truths that are embedded in broader cultural understandings and that come to be seen as constants rather than as variables. The certainties we address here are: the dichotomy of public and private; the primacy of autonomous individualism and the capacity of corrective intervention. Acting on these certainties not only limits the scope of problem solving in child welfare, but more fundamentally, it constrains the formulation of critical questions about the nature of child welfare policy and practice. The future of practice must explore a new set of critical questions that challenge these certainties if truly empowering models of child welfare practice are to be developed.

Burnout in the Human Services: A Feminist Perspective

This article reviews the literature on burnout, using tenets offeminism as a frameworkand value base forcritiquing the literature. It contends that burnout is not inevitable, that personal adaptation or cosmetic changes in organizations are not adequate, and that the integration of the individual and institutional aspects of burnout is essential for defining and solving the problem. Furthermore, it presents strategies for change that incorporate feminist values.

Contested Caring: Women's Roles in Foster Family Care

The foster care system is a microcosm of the larger social welfare system in the United States and reflects the same gender, class, and racial inequities. Women, as key actors in the foster care system, struggle with conflicting expectations of mothering, representations of family, and definitions of expertise that are inherently disempowering. This article examines womens roles as birth mothers, foster mothers, and social workers; outlines a conceptual framework for analyzing the problems women confront; and proposes a reorientation of thinking and practice in foster family care from a feminist perspective.

Working for Equality and Economic Liberation: Advocacy and Education for Welfare Reform

This article chronicles the history of Working for Equality and Economic Liberation (WEEL), a Montana-based grassroots advocacy and educational organization that emerged in response to welfare reform. It discusses the development of WEEL, the feminist principles that undergird it, andWEELs accomplishments, challenges, and links to a broad-based network of other groups.

La Victoria Comprometida: Reflections on Neoliberalism from a Santiago Población

The marketing of neoliberalism in Chile has been premised on a sanitized view of history, erasure of collective memory, and erroneous claims of reason. This article examines neo-liberalism in Chile from the perspective of La Victoria, a working-class Santiago poblacion, with a rich history of activism. The author shows how residents have been impacted by both economic policies and state violence, and how they have contested dominant ideology, neoliberal practices, and their problematic perspectives on time, memory, and reason. Victorianos reject collective amnesia and bring a moral imperative grounded in social justice to bear in constructing an alternative common sense.

Raíces: Gender-Conscious Community Building in Santiago, Chile

This article discusses the history, activities, contributions, and challenges of Raíces, a womens collective based in Santiago, Chile, whose participants promote community change through popular education. The article explores the philosophical foundations of Raíces and locates the collective in its political and historical contexts. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Raíces has confronted the tensions and contradictions of emergent democracy in a neoliberal economy, officialist feminism in state-sanctioned womens organizations, and everyday life for poor and working-class women who are marginalized by both. The implications for feminist social work practice are addressed.