Existentialism and Social Work by Neil Thompson

Author:Neil Thompson [Thompson, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work
ISBN: 9781351937825
Google: yGdQDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-29T04:12:49+00:00

Radical social work

In Chapter 3 much space was devoted to marxist social theory. Radical social work shares this interest in marxism and uses its tenets as a basis for its practice. We have already covered much of this ground and so this section will be relatively brief in order to avoid repetition.

a) The radical paradigm

There are a number of social work theorists and practitioners who have begun to develop a critique of society in general and social work’s role in the welfare state in particular. The aim of their analysis is to expose the ideological significance of social work and its part in labour history. Bailey and Brake express their view as follows:

A radical, political framework such as socialism can be used to sensitize the social worker to the actual definition of the situation by the client, and also to sensitize the client to problems due to contradictions in the system. (in Brake and Bailey, 1980, p. 23)

Radical social work emphasises the political dimension of clients’ problems and the danger of social workers playing a reactionary political role in their dealings with clients. Social work is inherently political insofar as it reflects the dominance of one class, race or gender over another and the exploitation and alienation this entails. It is therefore crucial for the social worker to be aware of the political dimension of his/her work. Corrigan and Leonard (1978) pose the key question of radical social work:

In assessing their clients and in delivering services, social workers are undertaking a profoundly ideological task on behalf of the established structures; at the same time they are often trying to help clients resist the most oppressive and discriminatory features of the welfare system. How are social workers to understand this conflict in their practice? (p. viii)

Radical theorists emphasise the marxist concepts of class conflict, ideological hegemony23 and the need for a radical transformation of society from capitalism to socialism. They seek to develop a dialectical approach to social work which recognises the contradictions of capitalism. This helps exploited clients to locate themselves within the sociopolitical system and understand their distress as an aspect of a dehumanising social structure rather than personal pathology.

The social worker is caught in a difficult dilemma. He/she represents the state but at the same time attempts to represent the interests of his or her clients. If a value consensus is assumed, there is no conflict, no dilemma and no difficulty but, if the marxist conception of class conflict is accepted, the social worker operates at the fulcrum of opposed interests - the ‘establishment’ status quo versus the oppressed working class.

Radical social work is, in sum, an attempt to find a way out of this dilemma without compromising its clients - a form of social work which can help clients to solve their problems as far as possible, without reinforcing capitalist ideology. It is argued that social workers who lack knowledge of the political dimensions and sensitivity to the political nature of their work unwittingly serve a social control function.

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