Book Review: Social Work in a Corporate Era

SOCIAL WORK IN A CORPORATE ERA

STAR RATING 4/5

An excellent text that takes a critical stand on the position
social work occupies in Western countries, writes Keith
Popple.

Highlighting analyses that consider the extent to which market
relations have been absorbed and extended within social welfare
systems, the contributors discuss how it may be possible to rebuild
an “emancipatory” social work.

The work by the contributors (including Jan Fook, Nigel Parton and
Karen Healey) is divided into three sections: “Theory, reflection
and emotion”, “Cultural politics, language and collectivity”, and
“Narrative, critical consciousness and emancipation”. Overall the
book explores the historical antecedents of the difficulties faced
by social work today while presenting arguments for social reform
and structural transformation. This demand recognises that this
emancipatory strand of social work has to maintain its optimism at
the same time as acknowledging the problem of drawing upon a
radical but usually pessimistic deconstruction of the emancipatory
tradition.

This is a must-read book for those who view social work with a
critical eye. My only complaint is that the book is only available
in hardback and will attract library rather than personal sales: so
failing to reach a wider readership.

Keith Popple is professor of social work, London South Bank
University