scholarly journals Fat chat : an exploration of obesity discourses in Canadian media and their impacts on social work

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Abel
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Mother Blame

This Major Research Paper conducted a critical discourse analysis of Canadian Press articles focused on obesity. This research sought to understand how the articles constructed obesity, what discourses were operating, and what power relations were at play. The three main discourses that shaped the articles were mother blame, the medical model, and economics. They became evident through photographs, language used, gendered power relations, medicalized understandings of health and solutions to obesity, and who was profiting or benefitting from these understandings and solutions. Social work practitioners and educators need to consider these discourses when conceptualizing obesity, and strive to contextualize individual experiences of fatness within broader structural and systemic power relations. Social workers also need to be cautious about reproducing oppressive anti-obesity practices, social work is a profession that has historically been an agent of social control and discipline.

scholarly journals Fat chat : an exploration of obesity discourses in Canadian media and their impacts on social work

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Abel
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Mother Blame

This Major Research Paper conducted a critical discourse analysis of Canadian Press articles focused on obesity. This research sought to understand how the articles constructed obesity, what discourses were operating, and what power relations were at play. The three main discourses that shaped the articles were mother blame, the medical model, and economics. They became evident through photographs, language used, gendered power relations, medicalized understandings of health and solutions to obesity, and who was profiting or benefitting from these understandings and solutions. Social work practitioners and educators need to consider these discourses when conceptualizing obesity, and strive to contextualize individual experiences of fatness within broader structural and systemic power relations. Social workers also need to be cautious about reproducing oppressive anti-obesity practices, social work is a profession that has historically been an agent of social control and discipline.

scholarly journals ‘Such a white thing to do’: A discourse analysis of CAMH’s Coping with COVID-19 Campaign

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
McKaila Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
The Ideal

This major research paper is a modified critical discourse analysis of lived experience testimonials from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)’s Coping with COVID-19 campaign. Social work practitioners and researchers must consider the inherent violence in the complex manifestations of sanism and racism (re)produced through discourse and their inextricable confluence with institutions, colonial legacies and realities which operate at this juncture in support of white supremacy. The identified discourses reproduce the ideal neoliberal subject and operate as technologies which maintain the colonial project and white supremacy. If we stake any claim to anti-racist praxis at this juncture, it is necessary to radically disclose our complicity within this colonial project, acknowledge our confluent realities and interrogate any claim to anti-racism. If we fail to interrogate these discourses constructing madness, we not only permit the violent trajectory of sanism but operationalize the deeply entrenched (re)production of violent white supremacy. key words: critical discourse analysis, sanism, racism, white supremacy, psychocentrism

scholarly journals Discourse analysis of lesbian relationships in Canadian mainstream media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Truscott
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Lesbian Relationships ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Intersecting Identities ◽  
Newspaper Articles

In this Major Research Paper, representation of lesbian relationships was examined in Canadian newspaper articles using a critical discourse analysis. Lesbian representation in mass media has mostly conformed to heteronormative norms. This research aimed to illuminate themes present in newspaper articles from 2018 and 2019 about lesbians. Three discourses were present in these articles. They included a focus on sexual assault and sexual behaviour, the word lesbian paired with words that were sexualized or inappropriate, and the stories of coming out and facing isolation. Identifying and examining these discourses will show social workers what assumptions and prejudices lesbians may face in their lives and in representations they see. Understanding these discourses will aid in the knowledge needed to work with lesbians with intersecting identities.

scholarly journals Ageism analyzed and redefined: a critical discourse analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari LeBlanc
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Age Discrimination ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Middle Aged

In this Major Research Paper, I conducted a critical discourse analysis of articles about ageism and age discrimination published in The Globe and Mail in 2015. The research aimed to locate and examine discourses about ageism and older adults. I located three discourses in these articles. First the articles centered a middle aged, white, and successful subject; secondly, older adults in these articles were both privileged and a burden, and finally, older adults were urged to take initiative to prevent aging. It is my hope that my work points to both the underlying discourses that social workers need to consider to do equitable work with older adults and new ways for them to understand ageism in order to center the needs, experiences, and beliefs of older adults with multiply marginalized identities.

scholarly journals Discourse analysis of lesbian relationships in Canadian mainstream media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Truscott
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Lesbian Relationships ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Intersecting Identities ◽  
Newspaper Articles

In this Major Research Paper, representation of lesbian relationships was examined in Canadian newspaper articles using a critical discourse analysis. Lesbian representation in mass media has mostly conformed to heteronormative norms. This research aimed to illuminate themes present in newspaper articles from 2018 and 2019 about lesbians. Three discourses were present in these articles. They included a focus on sexual assault and sexual behaviour, the word lesbian paired with words that were sexualized or inappropriate, and the stories of coming out and facing isolation. Identifying and examining these discourses will show social workers what assumptions and prejudices lesbians may face in their lives and in representations they see. Understanding these discourses will aid in the knowledge needed to work with lesbians with intersecting identities.

scholarly journals Progressive change-makers or agents of Colonialism? Taking another look at the CASWE’s Standards for curriculum accreditation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameena Ashley Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Progressive Change ◽  
Canadian Association ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Schools Of Social Work

This major research paper (MRP) examines how Schools of Social Work (SSW) in Canada reproduce social workers who participate in and perpetuate existing systems of oppression. Social workers either end up continuing to contribute to existing oppressive structures in society or working towards breaking down those structures; and an integral part in making that distinction is the education that they receive. This MRP focuses on critically analyzing the Canadian Association of Social Work Education (CASWE) standards for Masters of Social Work (MSW) curriculum accreditation through an anti-colonial and post colonialism framework with an understanding of the effects of neoliberalism. This critical analysis was conducted through critical discourse analysis to reveal how colonialism and neoliberalism permeate curriculum standards which ultimately shape social work practice today. Main findings indicate that the curriculum accreditation standards have underlying discourses related to professionalism, social justice, surveillance, institutionalization and the absence of race.

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.

scholarly journals ‘Such a white thing to do’: A discourse analysis of CAMH’s Coping with COVID-19 Campaign

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
McKaila Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
The Ideal

This major research paper is a modified critical discourse analysis of lived experience testimonials from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)’s Coping with COVID-19 campaign. Social work practitioners and researchers must consider the inherent violence in the complex manifestations of sanism and racism (re)produced through discourse and their inextricable confluence with institutions, colonial legacies and realities which operate at this juncture in support of white supremacy. The identified discourses reproduce the ideal neoliberal subject and operate as technologies which maintain the colonial project and white supremacy. If we stake any claim to anti-racist praxis at this juncture, it is necessary to radically disclose our complicity within this colonial project, acknowledge our confluent realities and interrogate any claim to anti-racism. If we fail to interrogate these discourses constructing madness, we not only permit the violent trajectory of sanism but operationalize the deeply entrenched (re)production of violent white supremacy. key words: critical discourse analysis, sanism, racism, white supremacy, psychocentrism

scholarly journals Disguised compliance or undisguised nonsense? A critical discourse analysis of compliance and resistance in social work practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jadwiga Leigh ◽  
Liz Beddoe ◽  
Emily Keddell
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Parental Resistance

This article examines how the term ‘disguised compliance’ first emerged and developed into the popular catchphrase that is used in practice today. Using critical discourse analysis, we explore how language affects practice and how social workers draw on a predetermined concept to rationalise concerns relating to parental resistance. We contend that concepts such as disguised compliance are misleading as they do not improve social workers’ abilities in detecting resistance or compliance. Instead, we argue that social workers should be cautious when using popular mantras which, on the surface, appear effective in describing parents’ behaviours but, in reality, conceal concerns relating to risk, accountability and blame. This study differs from the current literature that advocates social workers should be aware of disguised compliance by shifting the emphasis away from the behaviours of parents and towards acknowledging the power such discursive activities can have on practice.

scholarly journals Ageism analyzed and redefined: a critical discourse analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari LeBlanc
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Age Discrimination ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Middle Aged

In this Major Research Paper, I conducted a critical discourse analysis of articles about ageism and age discrimination published in The Globe and Mail in 2015. The research aimed to locate and examine discourses about ageism and older adults. I located three discourses in these articles. First the articles centered a middle aged, white, and successful subject; secondly, older adults in these articles were both privileged and a burden, and finally, older adults were urged to take initiative to prevent aging. It is my hope that my work points to both the underlying discourses that social workers need to consider to do equitable work with older adults and new ways for them to understand ageism in order to center the needs, experiences, and beliefs of older adults with multiply marginalized identities.

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