Abstract
This article is a follow-up to our article 'Revisiting social work as art' and in part a response to Karen Healy's reply [both published in IJSW 17(2)]. It is, however, also a significant extension of this material since it engages with more general concerns about the critical project that is intrinsic to social work. Social work is not just about self-foundation based on knowledge, values and skills formation, but also about self-assertion. Crucially, it is through this notion of self-assertion that social work can be best understood as an agent of change. This transformative aspect of social work is our central focus. We are not concerned with structural conditions of power and domination but with theorising what a transformative politics would look like for social work using the lens of the French political philosopher Alain Badiou as a conceptual medium for permitting the return of the political for social work.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 111-115 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | International Journal of Social Welfare |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 5 Dec 2008 |
DOIs |
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Publication status | Published - Jan 2009 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Badiou
- Nature of social work
- Ontology of social work
- Psychologism
- Social work as art
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science