The social service Reconceptualisation Movement in Brazil from 1960 to 1970

The aim of the current article is to present results of three studies about the so-called Reconceptualisation Movement in Brazil, based on the historical rescue of significant and exemplifying expressions used in the country from 1960 to 1970. The analysed studies have focused on investigating the economic and social significance of the military dictatorship to Brazilian society. They aimed at unveiling the historical background, sociopolitical bases and theoretical-methodological references guiding social service professional projects in the country at that time. The herein conducted analysis was based on documentary and bibliographic sources, collections, and testimonials to identify the strengths of projects that were in compliance with, and in opposition to, each other due to the tense theoretical and ideological dispute for hegemony in the Brazilian social service renewal process.

Serving the state or serving the people? The dilemma of social work graduates in Mainland China

This article reports on the result of an exploratory qualitative study with in-depth interviews conducted with postgraduate students in Chinese universities. The data were collected from five schools of social work, covering three provincial-level administrative regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong. The principal aim of this article is to understand the development of social work and student perspectives on the government’s role in social work development and the function of social work in China. The study shows that Chinese social work is still developing, and the expansion and function of social work education and practice is mandated by the state. Despite a robust authoritarian hold by the government, the study finds hope among the graduate students about the mission and future of social work in China.

Theorising anti-racism in health and social care

The emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 in the context of a COVID-19 pandemic that was already disproportionally impacting on the lives of people from black, Asian and other minority ethnicities in the UK and the US has provoked scrutiny of how racism impacts on all areas of our lives. This article will examine some competing theories of racism, and ask what theoretical tools we need to successfully confront racism in health and social care. In particular, it will scrutinise the different levels at which racism operates – individual, institutional and structural – and ask how these are related. Furthermore, it will argue against theories that see racism as a product of whiteness per se or ‘white supremacy’, insisting instead that racism should be understood as firmly bound to the functioning and perpetuation of capitalism.

Angela Davis: political activist, radical intellectual and an inspiration for social work

For many people, Angela Davis is, first and foremost, an icon of the 1960s, a near-mythic figure of that turbulent era and the many radical social causes we now associate with those years. She has spent five decades writing about racial capitalism, the political economy, woman and the prison–industrial complex. However, behind the icon and the image is a longer and more complicated story, one that today has important lessons for social workers and other activists alike. This article will trace her personal history, examine her political trajectory, provide an overview of a few of her principal writings and briefly discuss her connection with the theory and practice of social work.

Violence by any other name: constructing immigration crises, the threat of the sick refugee and rationalising immigration detention through moral panic

This article is concerned with the employment of pathologising discourses of mental health and trauma by the mainstream media as they pertain to the treatment of migrants in detention in Canada. Using critical discourse analysis, this research contrasts mainstream media coverage of four major publications on immigration detention. It explores the media’s role in the (re)creation of refugee discourse, and as a purveyor of racial ideology, which problematises people of colour and demands state intervention in the form of mental health aid. The resulting discourse pathologises the refugee identity and simultaneously obscures the socio-political conditions and violence that necessitates their departure from their home countries. As refugee discourse is infused with biomedical understandings of mental health, it also legitimises the nation state’s practice of coercive social control for these populations through detention.

Social workers, critical theory and the political sphere: addressing political misrecognition and marginalisation in the Republic of Ireland

Despite the traditional social justice mandate of social work, and critical and radical theoretical traditions that pursue egalitarian and just societies, the engagement of the social work academy with Irish politics has been underwhelming at best. While there are abstract analyses that address sociopolitical theory and ideological wrongdoings related to neoliberalist rationality, attention in social work academia to the nuts and bolts of everyday political life in Ireland, such as democratic party politics and electoral representation, leaves much to the imagination. This article therefore pursues a more grounded reading of social justice in Irish politics for social workers. The supporting proposition is that to effectively interject in political misrecognition and marginalisation, social workers must understand the present political state of play. Towards achieving this, Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition aids thematic critical commentary on the literature.

Performance is Political

Performance management is usually presented as a technical tool to monitor policies and programmes. Performance indicators are presented as neutral and as having been developed in pursuit of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. According to this approach, if properly conceptualised and constructed, performance indicators illuminate the extent to which agencies or services are achieving goals and provide accountability. In contrast, understanding performance indicators as political requires examination of their social as well as their technical aspects. From this perspective, the effectiveness of an indicator as a means to measure performance is not as important as other roles, such as embedding policy and shaping practice. Accordingly, performance management represents a significant technology of control over social work. It acts as a powerful determinant of which forms of practice are approved by deciding which of them are drawn into the accountability framework and are therefore authorised.

Neoliberalism, austerity and social work with children and families: challenges and critical/radical possibilities

In the UK, neoliberalism and associated austerity have dominated social work and welfare provision over the last decade. Consequences include severe financial cuts to social work with children and families, as well as public services generally, and large increases in poverty and inequality. Despite increasing numbers of people in difficulty, the social work and welfare system has become more punitive and presents ongoing threats to social work’s commitment to human rights and social justice. This article examines such developments and includes the views of practitioners. Despite the strength and depth of challenges, it argues that critical/radical possibilities remain for practitioners to work both individually with service users and collectively. Such opportunities need to be taken with a view to working towards a more just and equal society, this being a much-needed antidote to the unequal neoliberal world we currently inhabit.