Confronting oppression,restoring justice: From policy analysis to social action. 2nd edn Katherine van Wormer,Laura Kaplan and Cindy Juby

Reviewed by: Tanya Shute, York University Faculty of Education, Seneca College, School of Community Services Sessional Faculty, Laurentian University, School of Social Work, Canada

In many ways, this text serves as an effective introduction to social welfare and social policy analysis. It is unique in its anti-oppression and empowerment focus, and could easily function effectively as an introduction to anti-oppression theory and practice as well. Meant as a course text or teaching tool, including notes to instructors and a chapter on classroom activities, it is laid out in two parts. The first half of the book deals with understanding oppression and anti-oppressive policy analysis, including the empowerment tradition in social work, and the second focuses on social action and restorative justice. The authors integrate dimensions of professional core competencies and codes of ethical practice reflective of the U.S. national professional social work body (NASW) and its publisher (CSWE), thus making it a useful text for professional courses.

The authors present a cohesive conceptual framework for understanding oppression and social justice from a social work perspective and based on concepts of economic justice. In its current second edition, and reflective of its economic justice orientation, the current financial conditions of the U.S. and worldwide as a result of fiscal crises and aggressive globalization of capital serve as a significant theme throughout. Presenting a blend of the theory and practice, the authors move from understanding oppression from a critical policy analysis perspective and the requisite skills to empowerment theory and practice, effectively re-establishing the connection between the modern social work profession and its historical activist and anti-poverty legacy. The editors are careful to reinforce that social action is the final stage of policy analysis and social work practice, reflecting the Freirian influence on social work practice and education noted briefly in the book.

As a social work educator who teaches primarily social welfare, policy analysis and anti-oppression practice courses, I was delighted with the structural analysis and economic justice orientation of the book. I felt as though the writing and material would be appropriate for both community college and introductory university social work classrooms. However, as the text is meant for a U.S. audience, it has limited application internationally, despite its inclusion of international sources and material. Even if the economics chapters were not considered, which are understandably centred on the U.S. system and circumstances, the many references to ‘our country’ limit its applicability elsewhere. As a practitioner and educator in the Canadian context, I also found material about Canada in several instances to be inaccurate, such as a reference to ‘supportive immigration policies’ implemented in the last few years in Canada. In reality, immigration policy changes under successive conservative governments in Canada have been numerous and reflect a coordinated and strategic attack on immigration and asylum quotas, services, rights and entitlements.

While the policy analysis chapters are excellent and would be good sources for taking students beyond introductory social welfare or policy courses, however, the latter part of the book focusing on restorative justice seemed out of sync with the rest of the material, and is perhaps more reflective of Katherine van Wormer’s own research and practice interests.

In many ways, this book is progressive in both structural analysis as well as content, however, there is one chapter, ‘Oppression Worldwide’, that is concerning and does not reflect the empowerment perspective evident in the rest of the material. In this chapter, there were several instances of ethnocentric ideas of social circumstances and oppression internationally. For instance, the burqa is described for readers as a ‘suffocating garment’ (p.245) that women are forced to wear to cover their bodies. The only explanation of ‘genital mutilation’ is as ‘an especially brutal form of child abuse’ (p.227) without considering other interpretations, including domestic interpretations in the country or region of practice. At times, the authors make direct connections that are concerning, for example, the deinstitutionalization of ‘mental patients’ as increasing the vulnerability of girls and women to sexual victimization (p.206) without explanation or evidence. If it were not for this one chapter, I would wholly endorse the adoption of this book in social policy and social work classrooms in the U.S. However, the analysis of the international context is parochial and, at times, could be seen as offensive to the transnational identities of many social work students and educators in the U.S. and elsewhere.