The Social Politics of Social Work: Anti-Oppressive Social Work Dilemmas in Twenty-First-Century Welfare Regimes

Abstract

This article sets controversies surrounding Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) and the current standing of the social work profession in a comparative framework to support our central hypothesis that the social politics of social work are related to the welfare regimes in which they are embedded. The article suggests that professional social work ‘practice identities’ in liberal-type welfare regimes, such as Great Britain and Ireland, develop in the context of residual-type welfare regimes, while social work ‘practice identities’ in social democratic-type welfare regimes, as exemplified by the Nordic countries, are embedded in universal-type welfare regimes and social care systems. The article suggests that these welfare contexts enable and constrain the manner in which social work is practised. From a comparative perspective, we contend that it is in the interfacing of welfare regime ideologies and social work/social care practice ideologies that the breadth and possibilities of transformative AOP are embedded and contested. The analysis of AOP contained in this article also addresses relevant contemporary issues in international social work, including globalisation and global care chains. A Taxonomy of Transformative Social Work Practice is offered as a framework for anti-oppressive social work.