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.

Discursive decisions: Signposts to guide the use of critical discourse analysis in social work

2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502097905
Author(s):  
Claire Willey-Sthapit ◽  
Sarah Jen ◽  
Heather L Storer ◽  
Odessa Gonzalez Benson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
International Development ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) examines the relationship between language and power in society. By linking micro, mezzo, and macro environments, examining the impact of language on marginalized communities, and providing a lens for critical reflection, CDA aligns with the frameworks and values of social work as a profession. Yet this method has been underutilized in social work research. This paper provides an orientation for social work scholars seeking to use CDA through discussion of four key “signposts” or decision-making points: 1) theoretical framing and rationale, 2) sampling and data generation, 3) data analysis, and 4) dissemination of findings. Drawing on examples from the authors’ experiences with CDA studies addressing diverse research topics and methodological decisions, this paper offers a wide range of research design strategies for conducting similar projects. Examples are varied in terms of theoretical framing, research questions, data sources, analytic strategies, and audience. They include analyses of neoliberal discourse in refugee policy, discourses of culture in international development research documents, constructions of bisexuality among older women, and representations of intimate partner violence in young adult novels and tweets. Along the way, attention is given to communicating about CDA for social work audiences, particularly those less familiar with the epistemological foundations of CDA and its implications for practice.

At the intersection between power and knowledge

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso M. Milani
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Language Test ◽  
Liberal Party ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Academic Production ◽  
Political Rationality

The aim of this article is to analyse a policy document in which the Swedish Liberal Party attempts to substantiate the proposal to introduce a Swedish language test for naturalisation by referring to academic production. Taking this specific text as a case in point, the article draws upon Critical Discourse Analysis and Foucault’s notion of governmentality to show how the rationalisation and legitimation of a particular political proposal is inextricably related to processes of knowledge production. Governmentality will also allow us to understand that language requirements for citizenship are a tangible manifestation of an advanced liberal political rationality in late modernity.

scholarly journals “Writing nutritionistically”: A critical discourse analysis of lay people’s digital correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency

2021 ◽  
pp. 136345932110385
Author(s):  
Karolin Bergman ◽  
Paulina Nowicka ◽  
Karin Eli ◽  
Elin Lövestam
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Food Choice ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Dietary Advice ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Scientific Terms ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
And Control

This article analyzes lay people’s use of nutritionistic discourse in written correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency, an authority responsible for dietary advice. Examining 60 food related written digital messages, we apply a critical discourse analysis to parse the lexical items and grammar people use when constructing “food” in scientific terms. The findings show how message writers place nutrients at the discursive center. Message writers’ grammatical constructions instrumentalize food and eating. This is reinforced by the message writers’ frequent use of terms that indicate preciseness, such as numbers and amounts. Messages therefore emphasize the what, but not the how, of eating, implying a focus on food as subject to regulation and control. As such, eating is discursively reduced to an act of ingesting nutrients that can be decontextualized and managed in isolation—as entities to increase or avoid separately. These discursive features preclude the conceptualization of food choice and eating as subjective experiences of feelings, taste, and tradition.

Representations of Women Subjected to Violence: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Study Guides in Social Work

Affilia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-104
Author(s):  
Helena Hoppstadius
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Study Guides ◽  
Victims Of Violence ◽  
Definition Of

The Swedish government’s efforts to meet the needs of women subjected to violence have intensified since 2007 when it adopted an Action Plan for combating men’s violence against women. The aim of this study was to analyze how women are discursively framed from an intersectional perspective in five of the Action Plan’s study guides. A critical discourse analysis revealed three overall discourses. First, women are divided into various categories, which is likely to lead to an understanding that it is specific groups of women that become victims of violence. Second, women are framed in a heteronormative and a gender-equal context. This neglects nonheterosexual violence and underlines the otherness of ethnically categorized women. Third, the definition of women as agents stresses both their responsibility and their lack of agency. The absence of an intersectional analysis risks an interpretation in social work practice that some social division have a greater impact on violence in some specific groups of women. When women’s individual situation and needs are not taken into account, women risk being given inadequate help and support, which might put victims of violence in danger.

scholarly journals Image of Islam and Pakistan after 9/11: Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistani Urdu and English Newspapers

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (II) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ahsan ◽  
Zahoor Hussain ◽  
Mohammad Arshad
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Belief System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Masses ◽  
And Control ◽  
Selection Of

The study examines the image of Islam and Pakistan post 9/11 scenario documented in Pakistani Urdu and English newspapers. Results are deduced by analyzing headlines while applying the CDA model projected by Fairclough (1989, 1995) with respect to vocabulary items, viewpoints, and newspapers' ideologies. The results from the study indicated that these two newspapers heavily rely on some selected lexical items to manipulate and control the belief system of the masses. It was shown from the data that Nawa-iWaqat, an Urdu newspaper, fervently utilized figurative language to influence the perception of its readers. It is seen from the analyzed data that the selection of words made by Urdu newspaper is mainly based on prejudice toward certain prominent social figures, politicians, and even toward world-renowned political figures and events. The collected data from the two newspapers and their critical discourse analysis indicated that daily 'Nawa-i-Waqt' gave abundant, sentimental coverage to the issues concerned. On the other hand, the daily 'Dawn' newspaper gave little but positive coverage to the issues of that time.

Governmental social work (part 1): the tyranny of transformation

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-163
Author(s):  
John Harris ◽  
Makhan Shergill
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
Children First ◽  
Work Education

Governmental social work refers to a new ‘settlement’ for social work and social work education. A critical discourse analysis of Putting children first (Department for Education, 2016) ‐ considered the foundational text of governmental social work ‐ is undertaken. The analysis suggests the ways in which the transformative strategy of governmental social work seeks to achieve outcomes or objectives within existing structures and practices, especially by changing them in particular ways. Social workers are called on to become free progressive professionals as long as they comply with the form of professionalism that is legitimated by governmental social work. The reforms are represented as the only morally and professionally right responses for those who care about children. This involves a double shuffle: a process of de-professionalisation and re-professionalisation that involves identity change and subjugation for social workers in a compliant profession that increasingly ‘governs itself’ in the required ways and maintains a silence on the circumstances of children’s lives.

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