Abstract
This book is ‘aimed at social work students who have difficulty in engaging with theory. The book will apply a range of concepts and theories to help students make sense of some key topics in social work’ (p. 12). It is clearly written and certainly makes some quite complex ideas accessible and throughout includes a series of activities for the reader to engage with. It begins with a helpful discussion of the concepts of theory, ideology and discourse and how these ideas are both different from each other and also related. The book then has separate chapters on: Hayek, markets and social work; management and managerialism; risk and social work; Bourdieu and social work; new approaches to stigma; a new culture of poverty and globalisation and social work.
As the opening chapter makes clear, the focus is upon theory at two levels in terms of ideas which help make sense of ‘what social work is’ and ‘understanding the world of the service user in terms of the social context which impacts upon them’ (p. 12) rather than theories which may help social workers more directly in their practice. It should also be made clear that the book is written very much for a British (or even English) audience, which does not mean it will not be of interest to readers in other countries. In this respect, the authors have chosen some interesting topics for discussion, all of which fulfil the criteria they have set themselves. However, it is not clear why these have been chosen and why the discussion has been presented in the way that it has. For example, while contemporary social work in England is very much practiced in a context where the market – both in ideological and more practice terms – has grown in significance over the last 40 years, it is not clear why Hayek has been given such prominence. A similar point could be made about the chapter on Bourdieu. In many respects, the book reads like as a series of, for me, interesting essays on a number of topics and concepts of relevance to contemporary social work in England but which do not very easily hang together. In this respect, I can imagine that some of the chapters could well be used for teaching purposes both in terms of background reading and/or for discussion purposes. However, I would have thought it less likely that the book might be used as a core or basic text. There are numerous books available which deal with a much broader and more systematic analysis of the theory and concepts relevant to social work and which also make a real attempt to place practice in its social context. For example, in relation to theory Pam Trevithick’s Social Work Skills and Knowledge (2012) and, in a much more comprehensive way, Kate Wilson et al.’s Social Work: An Introduction to Contemporary Practice (2011). There were also a few key references which I was surprised were not drawn upon particularly in relation to analysing ‘what social work is’ I was surprised that Mark Philp’s ‘Notes on the Form of Knowledge in Social Work’ (1979) was not discussed.