Lena Dominelli

Anti-oppressive social work theory and practice

This book, by one of the leading theorists of social work, tackles a subject of crucial importance to students and practitioners alike: how social workers can enable their clients to challenge and transcend the manifold oppressions that disempower them (whether through poverty, disability, mental illness, etc.). It moves from a discussion of social works purpose and ambitions to an exposition of theory and, from there, to the practice arenas of working with individuals, in groups, within organisations, and within a wider social and political context.

Feminist social work theory and practice

Feminist theories of social work have been criticised in recent years for treating women as a uniform category and displaying insufficient sensitivity to the complex ways in which other social divisions (those of race, age, disability, etc.) impact on gender relations. This major text by a leading writer in the field seeks to develop a new framework for feminist social work that takes on board postmodernist arguments to do with difference and power yet retains a commitment to collective solidarity and social change. As such, it will be essential reading for students, educators and practitioners alike in social work.

Globalization and the technocratization of social work

Few commentators have focused on how globalization has impacted on social work practice. This article demonstrates the significance of global ization on the process of intervention and the labour process in social work. As a result of global market forces, needs-led assessments and re lationship building have given way to budget-led assessments, increased managerial control over practitioners and bureaucratised procedures for handling consumer complaints. Led by the purchase-provider split in service provision as the British states response to the market discipline imposed by the privatization of the welfare state, these changes seek to reorient social work away from its commitment to holistic provisions and social justice towards technocratic competencies which are the purview of the externally direct bureaucrat.

Anti-oppressive practice in context

The role and purpose of social work has been hotly contested since its inception. The diverse answers which have been provided can be categorised as follows into roughly three types: therapeutic helping approaches; ‘maintenance’ approaches; emancipatory approaches.

Globalization, contemporary challenges and social work practice

Globalization has had a profound effect on social work practice, changing service delivery; altering the labour process for professional social workers; creating new social problems for practitioners to address, such as people-trafficking and environmental issues; and producing demands for indigenization, or the development of locality specific forms of theory and practice. This article considers globalization in terms of these issues and the impact of the current financial crisis on a more closely connected and interdependent world. It also explores the role of the state in these developments and considers the implications of these for social work practice in the 21st century.

The impact of globalization on social work in the UK

Since the late 1980s social work in the UK has undergone a period of unremitting change affecting its organizational structure, value-base, and service users. There has been a regrettable narrowness of scope in the social work literature on such changes, as analysis has been limited to policy and service delivery issues, which treat such changes as if they were simply new technical responses to the problems of reorganizing social services. We argue that such analyses do not engage sufficiently with the complex dynamics driving these changes and that there is a need to contextualize change in social work against the wider political and economic context. The transformative nature of the contemporary period is posited with reference to the impact of global macro-level forces and the ways that these interact with national and political variables on micro-level forms of social work practice. This paper reviews selective literature on globalization and draws linkages with changes in social services at the agency and practitioner level in the UK.

Globalization, Contract Government and the Taylorization of Intellectual Labour in Academia

There is a distinct climate of anti-intellectualism in Britain today. It is important therefore, that intellectuals once more become the subject of serious sociological analysis. This paper makes a start in the re-examination of the role of intellectuals which must be sustained by further systematic research.

Father-daughter incest: patriarchy's shameful secret

came to light, and as feminists began to challenge both the cherished myths concerning incest and the role of the helping professions in the matter. Using a feminist perspective, this article examines incest as it is commonly perceived and traditionally handled by social workers. I argue that the traditional handling of incest reinforces patriarchal relations within the Western heterosexual nuclear family. As such, it forms a link in the chain legitimating the continuation of all forms of violence against women and children. To counteract society’s traditional response to incest, feminists must publicly expose the patriarchal dynamics underpinning incest and work for the abolition of patriarchal relationships. Incest forms part of a contium of sexual abuse, 93% of which is directed

Women rebuilding lives post-disaster: innovative community practices for building resilience and promoting sustainable development

Disasters result in devastating human, economic, and environmental effects. The paper highlights womens active participation in community-based disaster recovery efforts drawing from the results of the ‘Rebuilding Lives Post-disaster: Innovative Community Practices for Sustainable Development’ by an international research partnership. Two case studies are presented from Pakistan and the USA to demonstrate how women contribute to building resilience and promoting sustainable development in diverse post-disaster contexts. The policy and practice implications are relevant for discussions regarding the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and framework.

Mind the Gap: Built Infrastructures, Sustainable Caring Relations, and Resilient Communities in Extreme Weather Events

Abstract Climate change debates seldom link the insights derived from the physical sciences to the concerns of social scientists. Understanding how failures in built infrastructures increase the caring burden on women is one of these instances. This article draws on a pilot study on climate change and older people to demonstrate that women who provide informal care services are called upon to fill the gap between declining levels of formal care provisions and care needs when the infrastructures serving a community fail. This research challenges policymakers, emergency planners, and practitioners to think about the increased care burdens that women are expected to undertake during disasters involving extreme weather events like heat waves, cold snaps, and flooding, and reconsider policies that pass this responsibility down to the level of community without the necessary support services and built infrastructures being in place. This issue acquires additional urgency in the context of declining levels of care being publicly funded through the age of austerity as public expenditure cuts begin to bite.