Mel Gray

The quest for a universal social work: some issues and implications

What debates and issues are involved in moves to generalise about social work across the globe? This paper attempts to examine some of these major debates and, in so doing, to suggest some directions for a flexible approach. Crucial to these debates are several tensions around the issues of Westernisation, localisation and indigenisation in social work. It is also important to seek clarity around the complexities of international social work. The political implications involved in these movements are discussed and possible approaches to finding a flexible framework which allows for differences yet provides for accountability, responsiveness and connectivity are suggested.

Implementing Evidence-Based Practice A Review of the Empirical Research Literature

The article reports on the findings of a review of empirical studies examining the implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) in the human services. Eleven studies were located that defined EBP as a research-informed, clinical decision-making process and identified barriers and facilitators to EBP implementation. A thematic analysis of the findings of the 11 studies produced a list of barriers to EBP implementation grouped in terms of inadequate agency resources dedicated to EBP; skills and knowledge of practitioners; organizational culture; the research environment; practitioner attitudes; and inadequate supervision. Given the limited and exploratory nature of available research on EBP implementation, tentative findings suggest that to facilitate the uptake of EBP in social work and human services practice, strategically driven, adequately resourced, multifaceted approaches to EBP capacity building in organizations are needed.

Pursuing Good Practice?: The Limits of Evidence-based Practice

• Summary: Many of the profession are pursuing ways to develop and promote good and accountable practice. One of the most popular courses suggested is evidence-based practice. Locating our discussion within the context of neo-liberalism, we argue here that evidence-based practice has arisen not only in response to the ongoing desire to promote scientific practice, but also to increase social work’s ‘fit’ with the current context. • Findings: We conclude that social work is an extremely complex set of activities and that evidence-based practice is too conceptually narrow and theoretically limited, particularly in its constrained capacity to take up many of the developments in social theory. Finally, we suggest that the conceptual objectives of evidence-based practice can be met by the integration of ethical reasoning in practice, which we suggest is a strategy of mature professionalism that can be more readily applied in the diverse contexts and forms of social work practice. • Applications: The ethical intent (and indeed, the cognitive discipline) of evidence-based practice can equally be realized through deployment of ethical reasoning as a mode of good practice.

Social enterprise: is it the business of social work?

The paper explores the relevance of social enterprise to social work practice and policy development. Social enterprise refers to a broad set of approaches that use business acumen to address social goals. A marginal activity in social work for a long time, recently social enterprise has been thrust into the spotlight in debates about the future of social policy and community services. It is important that social workers understand the meaning and implications of social enterprise if they are to apply it critically and reflectively in practice and participate in contemporary debates about its relevance in promoting individual and community empowerment. The paper provides an overview of the meaning of social enterprise, outlines the reasons for the renewed focus on social enterprise and related concepts in social policy debates, particularly community economic development, and examines its underlying values. It concludes with a discussion of questions and concerns surrounding the implementation of social enterprise in Australia.

Back to Basics: A Critique of the Strengths Perspective in Social Work

This article takes an in-depth look at the strengths perspective, examining its philosophical roots, its core characteristics (according to its key proponents), and its limitations. It suggests that the strengths perspective is underpinned by a mix of Aristotelianism, humanistic individualism, and communitarianism. The article highlights the synergies between the strengths perspective and contemporary neoliberalism and suggests the need to go back to basics to achieve some distance from the harsher aspects of welfare reform policy, which affect most domains of social work practice. It ends with some suggestions as to how the limitations of the strengths perspective might be addressed, in order to devise a more complete theory for social work practice.

‘Indigenization’ and knowledge development: Extending the debate

This article attempts to extend the discourse on ‘indigenization’ from a marginal movement in social work to chart its course as a field of knowledge development that uses knowledge, training and resources that is particular to a culture and in which increasing numbers of leading researchers creatively pursue culturally and locally relevant research. It argues for the development of truly indigenized and culturally appropriate social work knowledges that are free from the restrictions and expectations of positivistic western worldviews.

There are no Answers, Only Choices: Teaching Ethical Decision Making in Social Work +

Abstract In teaching students about ethical decision making in social work, it is essential that the students are able to recognise the moral implications of their work and develop a deep understanding about ethical issues and their personal responsibility for making ethical choices. Thus, more than a “how to do it” approach is needed and teaching students about values and ethics is an essential thread that runs through our experience-based social work education program. The present paper describes a learning unit that sought to teach students about ethical decision making as a critical thinking process and, in so doing, to integrate students’ knowledge and experience of values, ethics, policy, and research in the final year of study. The relationship between values, ethics, policy, research, and social work practice provided an ideal context within which students could learn to integrate their knowledge and experience and apply it directly to their fieldwork practice. The paper ends with our critical reflection on this teaching experience and a critique of decisionist ethical frameworks.

The political participation of social workers: a comparative study

This article reports on a comparative study that examined the political participation of social workers in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, the state of New South Wales (excluding the Hunter region) in Australia, and New Zealand. Each of these contexts had roughly the same number of social workers, that is, approximately 1,200. It was found that social workers in New Zealand tended to be more politically active than their counterparts in New South Wales and KwaZulu-Natal, and the reasons for this are examined. In the process, New Zealand is presented as a case study of the way in which social work has responded to its political context. Finally, conclusions are drawn as to the engagement of social workers in the policy cycle and of the need for them to become more active politically.

Perspectives on Neoliberalism for Human Service Professionals

This article provides an overview of recent perspectives on neoliberalism, which serve as a foundation for the assessment of neoliberalism’s influence on human services practice. Conventionally, neoliberalism has been conceived of as an ideology, but more recent perspectives regard neoliberalism as an art of government, a thought collective, and an uneven but path-dependent process of regulatory development. We argue that these new perspectives have the potential to contribute to our critical capacity and open avenues for the analysis of contemporary transformations of public policy and its delivery.

Social work in South Africa at the dawn of the new millennium

The article examines recent developments in social policy and its implications for social work education and practice in South Africa. It traces the changes from the birth of democracy in South Africa to the dawn of the new millennium as these crucial years marked the beginning of a new era in South Africa’s welfare history. It examines the challenges to social work and provides an example of the integrated, holistic developmental interventions, which are needed to combat social problems such as crime, AIDS and poverty. It ends with an examination of the implications of developmental welfare policy for social–work education as social workers are called to address mass poverty, unemployment and social deprivation through greater use of diverse social work methods, such as advocacy, community development, empowerment, consultation, networking, action research and policy analysis.