scholarly journals The Discursive Construction of Risk: Social Work Knowledge Production and Criminalized Women

2020 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-487
Author(s):  
Sandra M. Leotti
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Criminalized Women ◽  
Work Knowledge

Social Work With Criminalized Women: Governance or Resistance in the Carceral State?

Affilia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 088610992110147
Author(s):  
Sandra M. Leotti
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Carceral State ◽  
Neoliberal Governance ◽  
Spaces Of Resistance ◽  
And Control ◽  
Criminalized Women

Drawing on findings from a Foucauldian-inspired critical discourse analysis, this article examines the hegemonic ways in which social work engages with criminalized women. Utilizing the analytic of governmentality, I explore the construction of criminalized women in contemporary social work discourse and ask how those constructions support and shape practice with criminalized women. Results show that knowledge production in social work serves as a significant site through which the profession draws on, but also resists, carceral logics. I begin by discussing contemporary social work as a form of neoliberal governance. Specifically, I illuminate the ways in which social work is implicated in surveillance and control and how this involvement is obscured under the framework of helping. I then describe how bold counter discourses, such as those offered by abolitionist and anti-carceral thought foster spaces of resistance within the profession. I argue that social work should claim a stance of radical imagination in which we take seriously the calls to abolish the varying manifestations of the carceral state.

A contrapuntal epistemology for social work: An Afrocentric perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1154-1168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mbazima Simeon Mathebane ◽  
Johanna Sekudu
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Epistemic Injustice ◽  
Cognitive Justice ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Work Knowledge

The experiences of diverse people present challenges and opportunities for knowledge production. The knowledge base undergirding social work has been found to be dominated by Anglo-American cultural values assumed to be universally applicable. The relevant texts on social work knowledge were examined. The analysis revealed that culture is the cornerstone of any society’s response to social problems, that the hegemony of Eurocentric paradigms remain intact, that there is complicity with the coloniality of power in knowledge production resulting in epistemic injustice, and that decolonisation and indigenisation are critical imperatives towards the achievement of global cognitive justice. A contrapuntal epistemology of social work is recommended.

Slow scholarship for social work: A praxis of resistance and creativity

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502199086
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Wahab ◽  
Gita R Mehrotra ◽  
Kelly E Myers
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Useful Knowledge ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Rapid Production ◽  
Time Frames

Expediency, efficiency, and rapid production within compressed time frames represent markers for research and scholarship within the neoliberal academe. Scholars who wish to resist these practices of knowledge production have articulated the need for Slow scholarship—a slower pace to make room for thinking, creativity, and useful knowledge. While these calls are important for drawing attention to the costs and problems of the neoliberal academy, many scholars have moved beyond “slow” as being uniquely referencing pace and duration, by calling for the different conceptualizations of time, space, and knowing. Guided by post-structural feminisms, we engaged in a research project that moved at the pace of trust in the integrity of our ideas and relationships. Our case study aimed to better understand the ways macro forces such as neoliberalism, criminalization and professionalization shape domestic violence work. This article discusses our praxis of Slow scholarship by showcasing four specific key markers of Slow scholarship in our research; time reimagined, a relational ontology, moving inside and towards complexity, and embodiment. We discuss how Slow scholarship complicates how we understand constructs of productivity and knowledge production, as well as map the ways Slow scholarship offers a praxis of resistance for generating power from the epistemic margins within social work and the neoliberal academy.

scholarly journals Metagoverning social work knowledge structures

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Verner Denvall ◽  
Kettil Nordesjö ◽  
Kerstin Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Structures ◽  
Work Knowledge

Political Social Work: An Essential Component of the Profession

2021 ◽  
pp. 359-381
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Social Work Faculty ◽  
Field Placements ◽  
High Level ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Work Knowledge ◽  
Initial Results

Social workers have played a key role in political settings from the profession’s historic roots to present day. Their knowledge, skills and values position social workers to practice in political settings. Social work faculty and students were interviewed to assess a) how field placements in legislative offices and participation in Campaign School and NASW-sponsored Legislative Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) impacted students’ professional development and perspectives on political social work, and b) social work faculties’ perception of these activities in students’ social work education and necessary political social work knowledge and skills. Initial results demonstrate a high level of support for these activities among faculty and students with opportunities to further include them in the explicit and implicit social work curriculum.

Capturing life histories about movements into and out of poverty: A road with pits and bumps

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tineke Schiettecat ◽  
Griet Roets ◽  
Michel Vandenbroeck
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Social Work Interventions ◽  
A Current

In order to take into account the power imbalances typically implicated in knowledge production about the complex social problem of poverty, social work researchers have increasingly acknowledged the importance of grasping the viewpoints and perspectives of people in poverty situations. In this contribution, we accordingly reflect on a current life history research project that retrospectively explores the life stories of parents with young children with regard to their mobility into and out of poverty that is examined in dynamic interaction with social work interventions. In this article, we discuss methodological and ethical challenges and complexities that we unexpectedly encountered in our research venture, as illustrated by three exemplary vignettes. These examples demonstrate issues of power between the researcher and the research participants that are not only inevitable, but also generate dilemmas, struggles and ambiguities that often remain underexposed in the ways scientific insights are reported. Rather than disguising these pits and bumps, we argue for a reflexive research stance which makes these issues of power in knowledge production susceptible to contemplation and scrutiny.

The Development and Initial Validation of the Empathy Scale for Social Workers

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve King ◽  
Michael J. Holosko
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Empirical Evaluation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Master Of Social Work ◽  
Initial Validation ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Student Training ◽  
Empathy Scale ◽  
Work Knowledge

Empathy is a core principle essential to social work. Despite this emphasis, minimal empirical research of empathy has been undertaken by social work researchers. The purpose of this study was to develop and initially validate the Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW). The ESSW is a 41-item self-report inventory designed to assess empathy in social work practitioners. The sample ( N = 271) consisted of social workers who had attained the Master of Social Work (MSW) degree. Findings revealed promising psychometric properties for the ESSW, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) demonstrated content, construct, and factorial validity. Results were encouraging and they lay the ground work for the continued development of the ESSW. This scale addresses a gap in social work knowledge regarding the empirical evaluation of empathy. Results have implications for social work as the scale may be used to assess student training needs and/or as a screening tool for social work supervisors and practitioners.

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