Abstract
Rogowski’s Social Work: The Rise and Fall of a Profession offers readers a critical insight to the beginnings and subsequent belittling of careers in social work throughout the 19th to 20th centuries in the United Kingdom. The beauty of the text is its thoughtful portrayal of both the macro- and micro-level influence of social, political, and economic forces on the practice and policy of social work. The seven chapters trace social work roots from charitable, “organized helping” through its current status as a managerialized collection of job titles whose primary tasks involve assessing and referring of the majority of the users in the United Kingdom to other agencies and the distribution of meager resources to the remaining individuals.
Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the author’s early career. Locating himself, Rogowski states he held an early fascination with Marx while a student at Leeds University in the early 1970s. The author notes he began his social work career as an employment advisor and then moved into a case management position for a variety of user groups once obtaining his social work qualification. After this generic position, Rogowski settled into his preferred population of children and families. Rogowski indicates his primary interest lay with community social work. This blending of individual user-centered casework with grassroots advocacy allowed social workers the opportunity to acknowledge both micro- and macro-level concerns directly impacting their client base. The first chapter also highlights several theoretical frameworks that are to be referenced throughout the text. The brief descriptions of enlightenment, modernity, and postmodernism provide a foundation for much of the policies developed by later governments in the United Kingdom.
After becoming acclimated with Rogowski’s professional trajectory and general disdain for social work reform, Chapter 2 moves toward chronicling the changes in social work education, practice, and policy throughout several governmental regimes utilizing a Marxist understanding. Acknowledging the underlying value of individualism present in the United Kingdom throughout much of history, Rogowski notes that the rational, self-regulating market provided the basis for all governmental decision making in the early 19th century. Individuals were to utilize thrift and prudence, alongside familial aid, to remain productive members of society. The burden of care also rest with families when it came to the elderly and debilitated. Those who turned to drink or other sins were moral failures—the state was not responsible for individual choices. Providing aid to persons in these circumstances would only foster dependence. The political economy under Margaret Thatcher further developed the notion of the dependency culture; individuals had become too lazy, sustaining on the generous hand of the government. Policy related to social work began shifting from the foundation of caring toward case management and assessment. Programmatic decisions under Thatcherism enforced less public expenditure on social welfare programs. Rogowski offers specific details related to social work with children, the elderly, and criminals and the impact this early neoliberal position had on practice in these areas.
The fourth chapter adds insult to injury as Rogowski notes that the end of the Thatcher regime did not offer relief to the social work profession. Tony Blair’s New Labor rebranded the Labor Party while remaining steadfast in social policy. Further policy pushed social workers to complete targets rather than to treat their users; to replace work with people with paperwork. Managerialism held firm under Blair, and social workers were now inundated with tedious tasks that were time demanding, leaving them further removed from their client base. Rogowoski notes that though wealth ought to trickle down to lower-socioeconomic groups, as the current neoliberal government position holds in the United Kingdom, the policies only create greater inequality among groups. Neoliberalism naturally will lead to unequal distribution, though many will benefit as a result. Social workers are no longer the helping professionals they were in the 1970s zenith; rather, advocacy has since been replaced with acceptance and referrals. Social work education’s early emphasis on academic skill sets have been replaced with task competencies that are applicable across a wide variety of settings. This manageralized approach allows employers to fragment a position requiring a qualified social worker into several smaller segments easily filled by persons without specific training.
Chapter 5 sheds light on the common theme of the professionalism of social work. Rogowski indicates his perspective of a professional social worker requires the unification of a foundation of values, knowledge, and skill set that is gained through an academic and training process facilitated by other social work professionals. In addition to this real-world application of skills, social workers ought to be concerned with advocacy and alliance building. Coursework continues to embrace psychoanalytic foundations; owing many user concerns to individual pathology rather than macro-level causation. Academic theorization was deemed “fashionable” by much of the government ministers and thereby reduced greatly in the course offerings. Critical thinking, research, and understanding is no longer required.
The social work business is covered in Chapter 6. Rogowski continues his critical focus on the continuing replacement of direct, face-to-face practice with users to deadlines, targets, and quotas. Professional social work development is emphasized though standardization under the current neoliberal government. User needs are replaced with employer needs and much supplemental training relates to computer programs and assessment techniques rather than practical face-to-face skill building. Increased rates of privatization and the use of bottom lines as measures of success will continue to impact social workers as free market economic policy takes precedence over individual needs.
The author’s concluding chapter offers future directions and applications for the field of social work. Rogowski offers hope as he notes a resurgence of rallies aimed at reclaiming the profession from its neoliberal desecration in the United Kingdom. International recognition of the role of social work professionals is gaining speed and recent growth in anticapitalization/globalization and social welfare movements across the globe will likely further this progression. The author notes that the British Association of Social Workers awoke from its slumber in 2009 and alongside a push for radical/critical practice, Rogoswki indicates that social workers can link neoliberal policy to mass oppression and decrease fragmentation in the professional field. Social workers will continue to provide services for users across a wide variety of populations under varying circumstances no matter how much individual occupation with well-being is at odds with governmental policy.
Rogowski has the unique ability to interlace history, policy, and practice eloquently in his text. As such, its contents are relevant to all members of the social work continuum: students, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.