What we think must inform what we do, argue the editors and authors of this cutting-edge social work textbook. In this innovative, expansive and wide-ranging collection, leading social work thinkers engage with social work traditions to bridge social work theory and practice and arrive at social work praxis: a uniting of critical thought and ethical action. Critical Social Work Praxis is organized into sixteen sections, each reflecting a critical social work tradition or approach. Each section has a theory chapter, which succinctly outlines the tradition’s main concepts or tenets, a praxis chapter, which shows how the theory informs social work practice, and a commentary chapter, which provides a critical analysis of the tensions and difficulties of the approach. The text helps students understand how to extend theory into praxis and gives instructors critical new tools and discussion ideas. This book is the result of decades of experience teaching social work theory and praxis and is a comprehensive teaching and learning tool for the critical social work classroom.

This edited collection offers an original critical clinical approach to social work practice, written by social work educators from the School of Social Work at Dalhousie University and their collaborators. It provides a Canadian perspective on the diverse issues social workers encounter in the field, highlighting the practical application of feminist, narrative, anti-racist, and postcolonial frameworks. With the aim of producing counterstories that participate in social resistance, this volume focuses on integrating critical theory with direct clinical practice. Through the use of case studies, the contributors tackle a range of substantive issues including ethics, working with complex trauma, men’s use of violence, substance use among women and girls, Indigenous social work praxis, critical child welfare approaches, counterstorying experiences of (dis)Ability, and animal-informed social work practice.

The Routledge Handbook of International Critical Social Work is a companion volume to the Routledge Handbook of Critical Social Work. It brings together world-leading scholars in the field to provide additional, in-depth and provocative consideration of alternative and progressive ways of thinking about social work. Critical social work is increasingly involved in a global conversation, and as a subfield of social work it is rapidly becoming an interdisciplinary field in its own right and promoting novel forms of political activism. The Handbook showcases the global influences and path-breaking ideas of critical social work and examines the different stances taken on important political and ethical issues. It provides the first complete survey of the vibrant field of critical social work in a rich international context. This definitive volume is one of the most comprehensive source books on crucial social work that is available on the international stage and an essential guide for anyone interested in the politics of social work. The Handbook is divided into sever sections • Thinking the Political • Politics and the Ruins of Neoliberalism • Negotiating the State: Resistance, Protest and Dissent • Race, Bordering Practices and Migrants • Post Colonialism, Subaltern and the Global South • Critical Feminism, Sexuality and Gender Politics • Posthumanism, Pandemics and Environment The Handbook is comprised of 46 newly written chapters (and one reprint) which concentrate on differences between European and American contributions in this field as well as explicitly identifying the significance of critical social work in the context of Latin America. It provides a further vital trajectory of intellectual practice theory via interdisciplinary discussion of areas such as biopolitics, critical race theory, boundaries of gender and sexuality, queer studies, new conceptions of community, issues of public engagement, racism and Roma people, ecological feminism, environmental humanities and critical animal studies. The Handbook is an innovative and authoritative guide to theory and method as they relate to policy issues and practice and focus on the primary debates of today in social work from a critical perspective, and will be required reading for all students, academics and practitioners of social work and related professions.

Welfare, health, education, conflict, security and migration are examples of phenomena that are prevalent across all societies. With chapters from leading scholars from around the world, this exciting new book draws upon the impacts of globalisation, colonialism, and capitalism, to explore the common challenges facing nations across the globe and provide an insight in to the history, theory and practice of a new anti-racist social work.

`Fred Powell argues for social work as civic engagement, promoting inclusion and justice through dialogue and trust. His book is an impressive combination of deep scholarship and fresh, up-to-date analysis of current issues′- Bill Jordan, University of Exeter `An illuminating discussion of the influence of postmodern trends on the practice of social work that also offers a bracing guide for the future of the profession. Social work practice, Powell argues, needs to be anchored in a commitment to an inclusive idea of citizenship, and especially the inclusion of the most vulnerable citizens′- Francis Fox-Piven, City University of New York `[T]his is an extraordinarily useful book for studies of social policy, especially in its presentation of a condensed history of social work′s relationship to social policy... The book is well documented, well written and challenging. It stimulates more thought than is common in professional literature′ - International Social Work The Politics of Social Work provides a major contribution to debates on the politics of social work at the beginning of the 21st Century. It locates social work within wider political and theoretical debates and deals with important issues currently facing social workers and the organisations in which they work. By setting the current crisis of identity social workers are experiencing in international context, Fred Powell analyses the choices facing social work in postmodern society. Fred Powell explores in this text contemporary and historical paradigms of social work from its Victorian origins to the development of reformist practice in the welfare state to radical social work, responses to social exclusion, the rennaissance of civil society, multiculturalism, feminism and anti-oppressive practice. In conclusion the he examines the options facing social work in the 21st century and argues for a civic model of social work based on the pursuit of social justice in an inclusive society. The Politics of Social Work will be essential reading for students on qualifying and post-qualifying social work courses, as well as courses in sociology, social policy, social administration and politics.

This book focuses on educational praxis—connecting work inside schools with work outside school—to produce a revitalized critical theory of education that shows its slide away from Marxism and toward culturalism. The chapters outline a knowledge production process in three connected parts: a critical history; conceptual extensions; and praxis.

Unravelling Research is about the ethics and politics of knowledge production in the social sciences at a time when the academy is pressed to contend with the historical inequities associated with established research practices. Written by an impressive range of scholars whose work is shaped by their commitment to social justice, the chapters grapple with different methodologies, geographical locations and communities and cover a wide range of inquiry, including ethnography in Africa, archival research in South America and research with marginalized, racialized, poor, mad, homeless and Indigenous communities in Canada. Each chapter is written from the perspective of researchers who, due to their race, class, sexual/gender identity, ability and geographical location, labour at the margins of their disciplines. By using their own research projects as sites, contributors probe the ethicality of long-established and cutting-edge methodological frameworks to theorize the indivisible relationship between methodology, ethics and politics, elucidating key challenges and dilemmas confronting marginalized researchers and research subjects alike.

Accessible guide to help the reader develop critical and analytical skills essential for their successful social work education and practice. Provides essential support to the student from the very beginning of their social work journey through to final placement and into practice.

Social work and social development in the Asia-Pacific region continue to grow in new and exciting ways. Social work educators are an essential part of shaping social work and development. In this second edition we hear four new voices, from Cambodia, Fiji, Japan and Vietnam, together with revised and updated chapters from social work educators in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Nepal, and New Zealand. Summaries of each chapter are included in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, as well as in the first language of the author. Despite the astonishing diversity of languages, cultures, philosophies, religions, economic systems and ways that social work is taught and practised in the region, social work in the Asia-Pacific is becoming more internationally cohesive. At the same time it maintains strong foundations in its local contexts. In an increasingly globalised world, international social work belongs in every 21st-century social work curriculum. While this book does not provide all the answers, it will help educators and practitioners ask better questions.

Examining the situations of African Americans in the U.S.A., Lucius Outlaw's essays illustrate over twenty years of work dedicated to articulating a 'critical theory of society' that would account for issues and limiting-factors affecting African-descended peoples in the U.S. Attempting to put politics aside, Outlaw writes from a non-partisan standpoint, in the hopes that the issues he raises in his essays will inspire improvement for the well-bring of African Americans and will also strengthen America's democracy. Outlaw envisions a democratic order that is not built upon racist projections of the past. Instead, he seeks in these essays a transformative social theory that would help create a truly democratic social order.