Stan Houston

Response: Reviewing the Coming Crisis in Social Work: A Response to Longhofer and Floersch

This response recasts the issues highlighted by Longhofer and Floersch in terms of the continuing dynamics of the neoliberal knowldege economy, how this impacts on what is researched by the social work academy, how it is researched, and what type of research is recognized. While Longhofer and Floersch’s turn to critical realism is welcomed, this underlaboring position must be focused on the mechanisms driving neoliberalism in the modern world, primarily those associated with the commodification of social work practice and services. In order to more fully understand the nature and impact of these mechanisms, this response valorizes the continuing significance of critical social theory as expressed by theorists in the Frankfurt School. Because of the complexity of oppression under neoliberalism, it is finally argued that critical realist approaches in social work need to use a diversity of methods embracing deduction, induction, abduction, and retroduction.This response recasts the issues highlighted by Longhofer and Floersch in terms of the continuing dynamics of the neoliberal knowldege economy, how this impacts on what is researched by the social work academy, how it is researched, and what type of research is recognized. While Longhofer and Floersch’s turn to critical realism is welcomed, this underlaboring position must be focused on the mechanisms driving neoliberalism in the modern world, primarily those associated with the commodification of social work practice and services. In order to more fully understand the nature and impact of these mechanisms, this response valorizes the continuing significance of critical social theory as expressed by theorists in the Frankfurt School. Because of the complexity of oppression under neoliberalism, it is finally argued that critical realist approaches in social work need to use a diversity of methods embracing deduction, induction, abduction, and retroduction.

Response: Reviewing the Coming Crisis in Social Work

This response recasts the issues highlighted by Longhofer and Floersch in terms of the continuing dynamics of the neoliberal knowldege economy, how this impacts on what is researched by the social work academy, how it is researched, and what type of research is recognized. While Longhofer and Floersch’s turn to critical realism is welcomed, this underlaboring position must be focused on the mechanisms driving neoliberalism in the modern world, primarily those associated with the commodification of social work practice and services. In order to more fully understand the nature and impact of these mechanisms, this response valorizes the continuing significance of critical social theory as expressed by theorists in the Frankfurt School. Because of the complexity of oppression under neoliberalism, it is finally argued that critical realist approaches in social work need to use a diversity of methods embracing deduction, induction, abduction, and retroduction.This response recasts the issues highlighted by Longhofer and Floersch in terms of the continuing dynamics of the neoliberal knowldege economy, how this impacts on what is researched by the social work academy, how it is researched, and what type of research is recognized. While Longhofer and Floersch’s turn to critical realism is welcomed, this underlaboring position must be focused on the mechanisms driving neoliberalism in the modern world, primarily those associated with the commodification of social work practice and services. In order to more fully understand the nature and impact of these mechanisms, this response valorizes the continuing significance of critical social theory as expressed by theorists in the Frankfurt School. Because of the complexity of oppression under neoliberalism, it is finally argued that critical realist approaches in social work need to use a diversity of methods embracing deduction, induction, abduction, and retroduction.