contents · relationship-based work 187 evidence-based and pragmatic practices 189 ... for...

Contents

Acknowledgements x

1 The Individual and Society 1Looking both ways 1Agency and structure 4Either–or, and–both 6

2 Order and Change 9Introduction 9Conflict and radical change 10Order and regulation 14Changing and maintaining the order 17

3 Care and Control 20Introduction 20Care 20Control 22Care and control 25

4 Bureaucrats and Professionals 29Introduction 29Bureaucracies 29Professions 31Street-level bureaucrats and welfare professionals 34

5 Certainty and Uncertainty 41Introduction 41Certainty 42Uncertainty 50Good practice in an uncertain world 54

6 Objects and Subjects 57Introduction 57Objective understanding 57Subjective understanding 60Objective outsides and subjective insides 63

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Copyright material – 9781137469465

7 Qualitative and Quantitative 67Introduction 67Quantitative methods 69Qualitative methods 71Research in the round 73

8 Thought and Fe eling 77Introduction 77Thought 78Feeling 82Thinking and feeling 84

9 The Past and the Future 87Introduction 87The past 88The future 92Past, present, and future 95

10 Nature and Nurture 98Introduction 98Nature 99Nurture 101Nature and nurture 102

11 A rt and Science 111Introduction 111Social work as science 113Social work as art 116Social work as craft 122

12 Good Relationships and Working Well 127Introduction 127Good relationships 128Working well 131Feel secure then explore 133

13 Freedom and Equality 140Introduction 140Liberty and freedom 141Equality and welfare 143The clash of imperatives and living with moral uncertainty 146

viii Contents


Contents ix

14 Facts and Values 152Introduction 152Facts 153Values 155Knowledge, skills, and values 163

15 On the Whole and Taking Every thing into Consideration 169

Introduction 169Pragmatic social work 172Constructive social work 173Critical best practice 174

16 The Compleat Social Worker 180Introduction 180Curiosity and an interest in people 182Ethics, values, and practical judgement 183Empathy, structure, and process 185Relationship-based work 187Evidence-based and pragmatic practices 189Critical thinking and reflexive practices 191Completing the journey 198

Bibliography 200Author Index 217Subject Index 221


1The Individual and SocietyLooking Both Ways in Social Work

Looking both ways

People, as individuals, take note of what is expected of them by soci-ety. They have responsibilities to raise children safely and well, towork if they are healthy and fit, to care for those who are vulnerableand dependent. Most people behave within the law.

People also have rights. They have the right to be treated fairly, tobe supported when they are old and ill, to enjoy a basic standard ofliving. There is therefore a balance to be struck between individualconduct and social living. Valuing the freedom of the individual hasto be weighed against the good of the community. Societies don’twork unless people are prepared to accept some social duties andobligations.

Society and its agents also take an interest in the individual. Thosewho break the law will be sought and punished. Those who are trou-blesome will be identified, assessed and dealt with – by the police, thecourts, probation officers, child protection agents, mental healthspecialists. People who are a problem for society therefore becomesubject to treatment and control.

Those who are troubled will also be of concern to the state and itsagents. The troubled might include parents who struggle to raise theirchildren, individuals who suffer mental illness, people who have alearning disability, old people who can no longer care for themselves,and families who get into debt and become homeless. Those who findliving in society a problem are likely to become the subject of care andprotection, support and guidance, or, again, treatment and change.

Social workers are one of the groups whose activities take placewithin this busy area between the individual and society. Social

1


2 The Compleat Social Worker

workers therefore find themselves looking two ways as they repre-sent the individual to society and represent society to the individual.

In the nineteenth century, worries about people’s wellbeing aswell as the risks of social unrest began to colour political debates andsocial policy. Calls for something to be done about both the plight ofthe poor and the risks they posed to social stability were one of thefactors that led to social work’s early formation. The profession beganto take shape and grow in the space where the ‘respectable’ classesbrushed up against the ‘dangerous’ classes (Parton and O’Byrne2000: 37). Social workers began to represent the strong to the weakbut also the weak to the strong. In early charity work, for example,social workers ‘represented the humanity of the privileged to thepoor and the essential “goodness” and social nature of the poor to theprivileged’ (Philp 1979: 94).

Modern social work formed as the relationship between the indi-vidual and society, the private and the public became more complex.And as the personal and the political began to meet, an area, a spacewas defined which became known as ‘the social’ (Donzelot 1979). Oneof the main occupational groups who worked in this ‘space’ eventu-ally became known as ‘social’ workers.

It was in this social space that the public face of personal behavioursbegan to be identified, labelled, and classified. Experts and policymakers moved in, offered explanations and made laws. There was agradual shift in approach from simply punishing wrongdoers and poorperformers to demanding their return, both body and mind, to a betterlife, one of social usefulness and value. Social workers were one of theprofessions charged with keeping the vulnerable safe, the dangerouscontrolled, and the distressed and unhappy calm and content.

To help social workers do these things, many in the professionturned to the social sciences for ideas and suggestions about howbest to explain and understand, cure and change, treat and train, carefor and control those whose behaviours lay outside and beyond whatwas seen as socially acceptable or morally defensible.

Thus, people’s minds, and the behaviours these minds prompted,became the objects of professional attention. Social workers, doctorsand educationalists began to treat the actor and not the act, changethe doer rather than punish the deed (Cohen 1985: 139). More andmore behaviours became subject to surveillance, monitoring, andassessment (Donzelot 1979).


The Individual and Society 3

For example, it seemed that if the state was to function and thrive,it mattered how children were raised. Parents and their familiesbecame the subject of scientific as well as political interest. Parentsand families not performing well became a matter of concern. And asso many of these problems arose in the context of poverty andinequality, it was not lost on many social workers that much of theirwork emerged as the rich were obliged to take note of the poor.

Thus, from the outset, social workers found themselves thinkingabout clients in relation to society and society in relation to clients.For example, parents who have learning disabilities and whose ownchildhoods were blighted by abuse and neglect seem good candidatesfor society’s compassion and care. When social workers assess suchfamilies, in part they are making the case – to the welfare authorities,schools, courts – that if the parenting is poor, then the problems areunderstandable and perhaps worthy of concern. But by the sametoken, to the extent that the parenting is also seen as deficient andneglectful, these same families are asked to recognise that they arenot meeting the standards that society requires and expects.

In one and the same case, the social worker presents the family tosociety, and presents society to the family. It is therefore difficult toseparate issues of care and control, change and concern.

It seems unavoidable therefore that social workers find them-selves being pulled in opposite directions. They exist in a state oftension. But here we must note something important. Social work’scharacter and very being are shaped by this self-same tension.Herein lies much of the profession’s make-up and spirit, strengthand vulnerability.

Not surprisingly, then, social work is viewed with ambivalence –by both clients and society. It is all too easy for failing families to seethe social worker as an interfering agent of the state. It is all too easyfor the state to see the social worker as a gullible, do-gooder, hope-lessly naïve as he or she is taken in by dangerous families and ne’er-do-wells.

This leads to the familiar dilemmas in which social workers regu-larly find themselves: they are damned when they do and damnedwhen they don’t. They are castigated in the press as unfeeling bureau-crats when they remove children from supposedly loving families,and ridiculed as credulous fools lacking all common sense when theyleave vulnerable children with hopeless parents.



None of this is to say that social workers don’t sometimes get itwrong, but the point of this book is to recognise social work’s deepernature. Social work is an occupation forged in the heat of the middleground. It arises out of the tensions between society as it struggleswith matters of care on the one hand and issues of control on theother. Little wonder, then, that social work is so often viewed withmixed feelings. Its origins make this inevitable.

However, this should not be a cause for despair or regret. Rather, itshould be embraced as a defining feature of social work’s essentialmake-up. This doesn’t always make the job easy or comfortable. Butit does make the work dynamic. So although social work can bemany things, as we shall conclude, it is never dull.

By embracing the pushes and pulls of the job, and by celebratingthe richness and diversity of what social workers need to know to dotheir work, we might talk of the fully rounded practitioner and recog-nise the idea of the ‘compleat’ social worker who we shall shortlymeet at the end of this chapter.

Agency and structure

Societies are made up of individuals interacting. But it is also possibleto argue that individuals, as psychological selves, only come intobeing in the context of the society in which they find themselves.Putting society first means that the political, spiritual, and economicnature of the society in which the individual finds himself or herselfwill have a profound impact on the kind of psychosocial being anindividual self will become. Collections of interacting individualsmake up society which in turn shapes individuals and the way theyinteract. Relationships and social action therefore both produce soci-ety and are themselves a product of society.

It is immediately apparent from the circularity of this insight thattrying to think about the individual and society, which is what socialworkers have to do all the time, is not easy. The two are difficult toseparate. It’s like looking at an eddy in a stream. The eddy has itsdistinct qualities, but it cannot be understood apart from the swirlingwaters in which it takes form. Of course, one way to think about indi-viduals and society is for one group, psychologists, to look at individ-uals and their behaviour, and another group, sociologists, to look atsocieties and their make-up.



We shall certainly be touching on this classic division in some ofthe following chapters, but before we do, it is worth staying for amoment with the sociologists. They have useful things to say aboutthe relationship between the individual and society and to help themdo this they employ two concepts, agency and structure.

Put rather simply, from one viewpoint, individuals are seen as freeagents who act and interact on a voluntary basis and in so doing bringabout society. People can and do take charge of their own lives. Socialchanges occur because people make them occur.

Social interaction and therefore social relationships arise fromthe fact that the satisfaction of need and the pursuit of interestsrequires the co-operation, collaboration or control of other indi-viduals in a similar position. This leads to the development andconstruction of mutual forms of the regulation and organiza-tion of relationships between individuals that are based uponreciprocity of understanding and expectations which thenlicence and control their interactions with one another. (Walsh1998: 12)

Those who are impressed with the ability of individuals to determinetheir own actions and produce relationships according to their ownneeds and agenda see social life as the sum of all these individualactions and relationships. This view encourages social workers tohelp clients recognise their own strengths and take charge of theirown destiny.

From the other perspective, social structures and society’s institu-tions exist prior to any one individual. We are born into society. Theindividual is shaped, both mentally and culturally, by the world inwhich he or she finds himself or herself – the world of language, laws,customs, institutions. For structuralists, our beliefs, values, interests,expectations, and understandings derive from the culture, class, andsocial norms in which we are raised and have to live. It is inside thesesocial realities that we learn to think, feel, believe, and act in a cultur-ally distinct way. We become socialized. Thinking this way encour-ages social workers to recognise the political and economic realitiesthat shape our lives, and that for many clients, if life is to improvethen change has to be sought and fought at the structural level ofpolitics, economics and ideology.



So, social structures result from the actions and interactions ofindividuals but these interactions and relationships also produce anindependent emergent social reality which exists apart from, andprior to, each of us as individuals. An early version of this was givenby Karl Marx (1852) who said that human beings indeed do make theirown history, but not in circumstances of their own choosing. There isno escape from the idea that the personal is political and the politicalis always personal, and that individual experience can only be under-stood in the social and structural context in which it is to be found.

Either–or, and–both

Being caught in the middle between the individual and societyexplains why social work has such a wide knowledge base.Practitioners need to know something of psychology, sociology, thelaw, human nature, social behaviour, ethics and values, roles and rela-tionships, welfare and justice, policy and politics, art and science.

And herein lies the rub. Many of the things that social workersneed to know and understand are pitched in binary opposites. Theyare polarized into ‘either/or’, as we have already seen with ideas aboutagency and structure, and the personal and political. It seems as if thepractitioner is being invited to take sides (Dickens 2013, Healy 2000).The social, psychological, and political sciences are rife with debatesabout nature and nurture, freedom and equality, quality and quan-tity, professionals and bureaucrats, and it seems that as social work-ers we are forever caught up in these arguments.

But like social work itself, polarizing the debates, and arguing forone side or the other, ignores not only the richness and complexityof life but also the deeper dynamics that underpin and define a thing,a person, a circumstance, or an event. This is true of human growthand development, social behaviour and the demands of livingtogether, what people do and why they do it, as well as social workitself. This is what C. P. Snow thought of split, dichotomous think-ing:

The number 2 is a very dangerous number: that is why dialectic isa dangerous process. Attempts to divide anything into two oughtto be regarded with much suspicion. (Snow 1959/1964: 10)



In the following chapters, we shall present some of these debates inpolarized, binary form, particularly as they have influenced andinformed social work. Each side of each debate will be reviewed inbrief, before a more rounded, integrated picture is drawn in which thetwo sides of the debate will be seen, more often than not, to be twosides of the same coin. Or different takes on the same thing.

The world of people and things is extraordinarily diverse. And soabout any one thing we will find ‘multiple discourses’ with manyvoices saying many things (Fook 2012: 13; Sands and Nuccio 1992). So,rather than speak of either–or approaches, we shall favour a both–andapproach. For example, we no longer speak of nature or nurture, butnature and nurture. Nature and nurture interact in ways that are bothwonderful and complex, helping us to understand the subtlety ofhuman development so much better than nature or nurture couldever do on their own.

Grasping the full and rounded picture, not being afraid toembrace the tensions and conflicts, grappling with division anduncertainty not only makes the subject under study more completebut also makes the social worker who recognises how these subjectsinform and underpin her own knowledge base and practice morecomplete. Social workers who can embrace the whole and who canlive with the pulls and pushes, ambiguities and uncertainties of theirwork might therefore be described as complete social workers. So aquick word, then, about the title of this book and why complete isbeing spelled archaically as compleat.

The word is borrowed from the title of Izaak Walton’s famousbook on fly fishing, The Compleat Angler, first published in 1653 andstill in print today. It celebrates the art, science, and spirit of fishing.Walton recognises that, like ‘mathematicks’ fishing can never be fullylearnt, but for those willing to study and practise the ‘recreation’, heor she will be on the road to becoming a compleat angler. And so it iswith social work. Those willing to ponder, pursue and enjoy the prac-tice of social work in all its fraught glory will be on their way tobecoming compleat social workers. I’ll be sticking with the old spellingthroughout the book, partly to stay true to Walton’s spirit and mean-ing, and partly for the fun of it, so bear with me.

Each of the following 13 chapters follows a set pattern. The subjector topic about which there is debate and divide is introduced. Eachside of the debate is then presented. The final section of each chapter



seeks to find merit in the arguments of both sides in an attempt toresolve some of their differences. However, more ambitiously thisfinal section goes on to suggest that a dynamic relationship betweenthe two sides can also be found out of which emerges a much moreplausible, energetic, and exciting understanding of the subject understudy. This is the first sense in which the social worker’s understand-ing of who she is and what she does might be said to be compleat.

The second sense takes matters one stage further. It distils themajor themes of each chapter into six key elements which, in theauthor’s personal view make up the compleat social worker. So as youread the following pages, you will recognise the importance I give tobeing simply interested in people and remaining forever curious. Youwill understand that making judgements and reaching decisions ispart and parcel of doing social work. If the judgements made anddecisions taken are to be sound, you will need to be clear about thevalues you hold and the principles you espouse. You will appreciatethe therapeutic significance of empathy and the need to practise inways that are structured, ordered, and clear. You will then be in astrong position to establish a good relationship with those withwhom you work. Relationship-based practice is the platform on whichall other interventions need to operate if they are to be successful.The interventions chosen should, whenever possible, have someevidence to support their use and effectiveness. However, much ofwhat social workers do stretches beyond the scientific compass ofevidence-based approaches. This invites you to be pragmatic andcraftful, philosophical and political, reflective and critically reflexive.And so you find yourself back at the beginning – being curious,maintaining your interest, fuelling your passion, asking questions,and challenging assumptions.

The book is not designed as a blueprint or manifesto. Rather, readit for ideas and understandings. Allow it to trigger discussion, debateand disagreement. But most important of all, use it to make you thinkand feel, savour and celebrate what it is to be a good practitioner, acompleat social worker.


2Order and Change

The Purpose of Social Work

Introduction

Much of the legislation and policy that underpins social work is theresult of people who have felt bothered, even outraged about someinjustice, unfairness, or deprivation. These are people who haveturned private troubles into public concerns.

Campaigners who recognise the difficulties that disabled peoplehave negotiating steps and narrow doors, the discriminationsuffered by those with a mental illness, or the poverty experiencedby many old people even after a lifetime of hard work have helpedbring about changes in policy and legislation. Improvements inaccess for disabled people, equal opportunities in the job marketfor those with a mental illness, and the provision of state pensionsfor older people are the result of campaigning individuals andgroups defining problems and recognising needs, and then shout-ing long and loud about them. These welfare reformers demandchange. They challenge assumptions and the status quo. Theypursue causes.

But when the cause has been won and there is recognition that thesituation is unacceptable, the collective will demands that things haveto change. When governments bring in new laws, change policies,and provide fresh resources, different social work talents arerequired. Welfare organizations have to be created to deliver the newservices. Social workers have to learn about disability and old age,legal requirements, and pension rights, children’s development andmental illness. They become agents of the Welfare State deliveringcare, exerting control, providing cures. Their function is to sustainpersonal wellbeing and maintain social order.

9



Personal temperaments and ideological outlooks generally deter-mine whether social workers are more likely to pursue causes orcarry out functions (Lee 1937). This division reflects similar splits inthe social sciences.

Modern society emerged in the late eighteenth and early nine-teenth centuries. Rapid changes were taking place in technology andindustry. Cities were growing at breakneck speed as people left thecountryside to work in factories. The belief in reason and rationalthought that was powering the natural sciences began to inform thesocial sciences. If science could order, tame, and improve nature thensurely the social sciences could bring order, stability, and improve-ments to the social world as populations grew and urbanizationspread.

So, debates in the social sciences in general and social work inparticular have often been pitched in terms of either conflict or order,change or regulation.

Conflict and radical change

Many social and political theorists continue to be impressed by soci-ety’s more restless qualities. They are struck by the constant presenceof tension and conflict in human affairs. These conflicts are usuallydriven by inequalities in the distribution of resources, or injustices inhow people are treated (Pease 2013). Whenever the gap between richand poor, the strong and weak, the powerful and the powerlessbecomes too wide, tension and conflict arise. Instability sets in.Societies begin to break down. The only way to ease these tensions isto reconfigure the social order and narrow the gaps. Money should beshared more equally. Wages ought to be fair. The powers of the priv-ileged should be reined back.

However, there is a tendency for the rich and powerful to organizethe world to suit their interests. The way they frame the laws, controlthe media, assert social values, and allocate resources makes it difficultfor most of us to see that we live in a world defined by the powerful forthe powerful. To the extent that the weak, vulnerable, and disadvan-taged get anything out of society, it is only to keep them quiet andsubdued, and in the case of workers, compliant and productive.

It is only when the differences between the rich and poor, thepowerful and the powerless become too great that dissatisfaction and


Adams, R. 54–5, 117, 193Agosta, J. G. 185Aitkenhead, D. 138–9Allen, J. 85Allis, C. 105Asbury, K. 100

Bailey, R. 11Baldwin, M. 74–5, 126Bamber, M. 14Banks, S. 145, 156, 159–60, 183, 185,

194Baron-Cohen, S. 185Bartels, M. 100Bartlett, H. 16, 117, 169Bateman, A. 85Bateson, M. 102 Baumrind, D. 28Beck, A. 86Beck, U. 50Becker, H. S. 62Beckett, C. 156, 161, 163Bentall, R. 188Berger, P. 55Berlin, I. 58, 143, 149–50Berlant, L. 196–7Beutler, L. E. 130, 185Beveridge, W. 145Bion, W. R. 90, 177Bower, M. 89Bowlby, J. 133Bradbury, H. 74Brake, M. 11Brechin, A. 175Britton, R. 90

Bronfenbrenner, U. 170Brookner, A. 88Brown, G. 105Buchanan, I. 157Burke, B. 158Burrell, G. 14, 62

Callon, M. 46–7Caspi, A. 104Castonguay, L. G. 130, 185Challis, D. 71Cicchetti, D. 95Clark, C. 160Coady, N. 187Cohen, S. 2, 23, 26Cooper, A. 175 Cooper, B. 176Cree, V. E. 41, 56Crittenden, P. 183Cupitt, D. 80

Davenport-Hines, R. 120Davies, B. 71Davies, M. 13, 16–17Department of Health 13, 142,

157de Boer, C. 187de Shazer, S. 173–4Dickens, J. 6, 16, 26, 142–3, 156Dingwall, R. 152–3Doherty, P. 195Donzelot, J. 2, 25–6Douglas, M. 50Downie, R. S. 54, 153–5, 199Duffy, M. 71

217

Author Index


218 Author Index

England, H. 42, 116–22Epstein, L. 74, 130, 132Erikson, E. H. 127Evans, T. 37, 77, 172

Featherstone, B. 26, 34, 50, 162–3, 171Ferguson, H. 158, 176Fine, M. 158Fonagy, P. 85Fook, J. 7, 55, 158, 192, 194–6Forrester, D. 68Foucault, M. 25Freidson, E. 34–5Freud, S. 89–90, 127Frost, L. 26

Gallagher, A. 184–6Gallagher, M. 72Gibson, F. 92Giddens, A. 158Gilbert, P. 21Gladding, R. 64Goldstein, H. 117. 120–1, 169Goodman, S. 171Gould, N. 181Grant, L. 191, 196Gray. M. 34, 54, 56, 121–2, 156,

158–9, 162Graybeal, C. T. 56Gredig, D. 67–9Griffin, S. 186

Habermas, J. 159–60, 194Hardy, M. 77, 172Harris, J. 147Harris, T. 105Hartnett, F. M. 12Hassard, J. 46Healy, K. 6Heidegger, M. 122Heston, L. L. 100Hick, S. F. 191

Hill, M. 37Hinchliffe, S. 50, 53Hofman, S. G. 116Hoggett, P. 26Hohman, M. 134–5, 137Hollis, F. 128Hollway, W. 163Hood, R. 54, 56Houston, S. 159–61, 168Howe, D. 16, 47, 49, 62, 81–2, 85,

91, 121, 129–30, 139, 161, 163,185, 188

Hugman, R. 185Hume, D. 150, 155Hupe, P. 37Hutchinson, A. 22

Ingram, R. 85, 188Irvine, E. E. 120

Jack, G. 170–1Jensen, J. 71Johnson, D. 195Johnson, T. 32–3Jones, E. 127Jones, K. 174. 190Jones, M. A. 71Jordan, B. 116, 130, 163, 173Juffer, F. 96

Kabat-Zinn, J. 191Kagan, J. 104Kahneman, D. 79Kakavelakis, I. 114Kant, I. 156Keeping, C. 176–9Kelly, L. 18, 126Kemshall, H. 45Kendrick, M. J. 12 Kinman, G. 191, 196Kirk, S. A. 54Knott, C. 196.


Author Index 219

Latour, B. 46Lavalette, M. 11, 60Law, J. 46, 48Lazarus, R. S. 84Lee, P. 10–11, 16Leece, J. 13Lehrman, D. S. 102Lively, P. 88, 120Lipsky, M. 36–7Loudfoot, E. 54, 153–5, 199Lousada, J. 175Luckman, T. 55

Macdonald, G. 114–15Macdonald, K. 24, 32, 197Marston, G. 24, 197 Martin, P. 102Martinez-Brawley, E. 121, 123Marx, K. 6Matthys, J. 186Mayer, J. 72–3, 85Maynard, A. 156, 161McDonald, C. 24Miller, W. R. 133, 185Minahan, A. 169Morgan, G. 14, 62Morris, K. 34, 162, 172Mullaly, B. 34, 60, 158Mullender, A. 18Munro, E. 54–5Murdoch, I. 88

Nagel, T. 167, 195Neil, E. 27Neisser, U. 78Nicholson, W. 120Noddings, N. 162Nuccio, K. 7

Oatley, K. 82O’Brien, M. 142O’Byrne, P. 2, 117, 173–4

Olds, D. 71, 114Oliver, M. 13ONS (Office of National Statistics)

11

Parker, J. 91Parrot, L. 156Parsons, T. 14Parton, C. 24, 47Parton, N. 2, 24–5, 42–3, 45, 47,

49–50, 55, 117, 173–4Pease, B. 10Penna, S. 142Perrow, C. 43Peters, R. S. 39, 148Philp, M. 2Piketty, T. 11Pincus, A. 169Plath, D. 189–90Plomin, R. 100, 103–6Pocock, D. 198Popper. K. 143Putnam, R. D. 171

Rabiee, P. 13Rapoport, L. 120Reason, P. 74Rees, J. 92Reid, W. 74, 130, 132Rhodes, M. 161Rickman, H. P. 119Ridley, M. 102Rogers, C. 129, 133Rogowski, S. 146Rollnick, S. 133–4, 136–7, 185Ruch, G. 43Rutter, M. 103Ryan, T. 92

Saleeby, D. 95Salovey, P. 85Sands, R. 7.


220 Author Index

Santayana, G. 88Sapolsky, R. M. 106Schofield, G. 65–6, 72, 175Schon, D. 191–2Schram, S. 143Schutz, A. 55Schwartz, J. M. 64SCIE 157Scragg, T. 196Sennett, R. 123–5Shaw, I. 190–1Sheldon, B. 59, 114–5Sheppard, M. 17, 63Shyne, A. 74Siegel, D. 188. 191Sisman, A. 120Skidelsky, E. 41Skinner, K. 43Smith, P. 158Smith, R. 23Snow, C. P. 6, 112Spector, T. 106Stanley, N. 18Stefansson, H. 100Stein, M. 18Sullivan, W. P. 95Sykes, N. 186

Taylor, C. 181, 192–5Taylor, B. J. 71Teater, B. 126, 135, 185Teram, E. 158Thoburn, J. 72

Thomas, P. 13Timms, N. 72, 116Timms, R. 116Tollefsbol, T. O. 105Tompkins, S. S. 84Tonkiss, F. 15Trevithick, P. 153, 171Tronto, J. 162–3Tsing, A. 197Tversky, A. 79

Valk, M. 120

Walker, R. 92Wallace, S. 41, 56Walsh, D. F. 5Walton, I. 7–8Webb, S. 34, 44–6, 80, 121–2, 156,

158–9, 161, 180–1Weber, M. 29–30Webster, J. D. 92Westmarland, N. 18, 126White, S. 34, 60, 172, 181, 192–5,

198Williams, B. 167Williams, R. 116, 120Wilson, K. 66, 157, 171, 187–8, 192Winnicott, C. 175Wolfensberger, W. 12Woodroofe, K. 128

Ziemkendorf, M. 46Zorita, M-B. 121, 123


221

abuse, child 3, 26–8, 46–9, 96action-oriented research 75active gene-environment

interaction 103actor-network theory 46–9adoption 62, 88, 92, 166affirmative statements 137Age of Enlightenment 57Age of Reason 57agency 4–6anti-oppressive practice 157–8anxiety 82anxiety disorders 105Aristotle 148art, social work as 40, 111–13,

116–22attachment theory 91, 95, 102,

189audit culture 41, 43, 45authoritarian parenting 28authoritative parenting 28

Bacon, Francis 57behavioural genetics 103behavioural social work 41, 59,

92–3, 96, 113, 189belonging 17, 25, 162, 170–1best practice social work 56binary opposites 6–8birth order 104brain, the 107–10brief casework 74bureaucracies 29–31, 43bureaucrats 29–31burnout 197

care 3–4, 20–22, 24–8, 162, 165,184

care ethics 162–3, 184–5care management 22, 46case management 43Casey, Louise 138–9causes, social 9–14, 18–19certainty 41–56change, social 9–19, 59change talk 133–8charity work 2client-centred practice 133closed knowledge-systems 124cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

59, 64, 77, 79, 92, 115–16, 138,189

cognitive bias 79–80cognitive distortion 79cognitive psychology 78–81, 84cognitive revolution 78collaboration 42, 55–6, 73–4, 94,

130, 134, 173, 186common base 169communication of meaning

118–21communitarians 145, 147community care 12, 21–2compassion 21, 25, 36, 44, 64,

127–39compassion fatigue 197Compleat Angler, The 7complexity 42, 52–3, 55–6 Compte, Auguste 59confidentiality 159–60conflict 10–14

Subject Index


222 Subject Index

consciousness-raising 11constructive controversies 195constructive social work 173–4containment 90–1, 177, 188control 1, 3–4, 20, 22–8, 44coping 17, 94, 117–18coping capacity 118–19core conditions 129–30, 134craft, social work as 122–6craftwork 55, 123–6critical best practice 174–9, 190critically reflexive practice 8, 80,

175, 190–8cruel optimism 196–7curiosity 8, 95, 124, 181–3

danger, and dangerousness 45,48–9

day care 75defence mechanisms 89–91,

128–9, 187–8depression 104–5Descartes, René 57development, transactional 102dichotomies 6–8direct payments 13disability 9, 13disasters 50–1discourse ethics 159–60discretion, professional 24, 30, 33,

38–40, 46discrimination 102, 184discursive managerialism 37DNA methylation 105–6domestic coercion 18, 126domestic violence 18, 26, 126Durkheim, Emile 58dysfunctional behaviour 15

ecological approaches 93, 102,169–70

education 37–40

emancipation 74, 192emancipatory politics 158emotional intelligence 82–3, 85,

91, 109, 121, 129, 139, 188emotions 77–8, 82–6, 187empathy 8, 55, 83, 86, 96, 119, 121,

127–39, 177, 184–6, 188empowerment 16, 74, 174epigenetics 105–6equality 140–1, 143–51, 156ethical dilemmas 158ethics 156evaluation research 68evidence-based practice 8, 42, 46,

54, 56, 59, 70–1, 86, 111–16,121, 131, 189–91

evocative gene-environmentinteraction 103

exposure treatments 64, 113extended casework 74

Family Welfare Association 73fateful moments 180fear 82feelings 77–8, 82–6feminist social work 12–13, 20, 162floods 50–1foster care 18–19, 71, 92freedom 1, 140–3Freud, Sigmund 90function, social 9–10, 14–19, 23functionalism 15, 29

gene-environment interactions103–5

genes 79, 98–102

Hebb, Donald 108heuristics 56heuristics and biases 80Hill, Octavia 128human reason 57–60


Subject Index 223

Huntington’s disease 100

identical twins 100immune system 106individual and society 1–4Industrial Revolution 58inequality 10–11, 34, 140–51, 158,

192injustice, social 11inner worlds 65–6, 175insight 77, 89interpretation 61, 119, 152

James, William 59justice 23justice model 23–4

Kant, Immanuel 57

learning disability 3, 12–13, 75, 93.157

learning theory 59, 102leaving care 18libertarians 141–3liberty 140–3life-story work 92

maintenance theory 16–17managerialism 34–40, 47market economics 13, 43, 127,

141–3Marx, Karl 6meaning, search for 61, 119–20,

173–4, 195mentalization-based treatment

(MBT) 85mentalizing 85, 96methylation 105–6mindfulness 191mixed research methods 73moral luck 167

Motivational Interviewing (MI)133–8, 148, 189

narrative self 88, 91–2, 121, 193–5narratives, construction of 193–5,

197–8nature 98–101needs-led approaches 22negative thinking 115–16neglect, child 3, 26–8, 96negotiation 55neo-liberalism 11, 13, 45, 141–3,

146–8neurodevelopment 108–9New Public Management 43Newton, Isaac 57non-shared environments 104nurture 98–9, 101–2

objectivity 57–60, 63–6Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

63–4, 105open-ended questions 136–7open knowledge-systems 124–5order, social 9–19, 23, 59outer worlds 65–6, 175

parenting 3participatory action research 74partnership-based social work 73performance management 43, 45permissive parenting 28personalization 13–14, 142, 157person-centred planning 13–14,

142, 157person-centred practice 129, 133poverty 1–3, 20, 26, 47, 143practical judgments 150–1, 155,

164–5, 199pragmatic social work 56, 124,

172–3, 189–91prejudice 80


224 Subject Index

prevention 47, 71, 109, 114, 146, 189private troubles 9Procrustes 39professionals 31–40professions 31–40Promoting Positive Parenting

programme 96–7psychodynamic casework 77,

88–9psychology 4psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

106public concerns 9punishment 23

qualitative research 67–9, 71–6quantitative research 67–71, 73–6

radical change 10–14radical social work 10–11, 16, 60,

102, 146, 158randomized control trials (RCTs)

70, 189reflective practice 137, 173, 188, 191regulation, emotional 82–3, 85,

90. 109, 119. 188regulation, social 10, 14–19relationship-based practice 8, 41,

56, 66, 77, 91, 127–39, 160, 165,187–8

reminiscence therapy 92residential care 18, 21resilience 83, 94, 109, 188resistance 124–5, 135–6, 187respect for persons 156, 159, 184rights 1risk 41, 43–9, 55risk management 45–9, 51role-jobs 153

safe haven 95, 133, 160safety net 143

schizophrenia 100science and social work 111–16scientific method 58–60, 69–71,

111–16Scientific Revolution 57secure base 95, 133–9, 183, 187–8self, use of 122, 125, 188self-regulation 90semi-professions 33shared environments 104skill-jobs 154social agents 1social brain, the 107–10social capital 170–1social care 13social compliance 23social exclusion 17, 126social facts 58, 60social justice 156–8, 184social reality 5–6, 61–2, 173social role valorization 12social sciences, emergence of 10social stability 2, 17social support 170–1social unrest 2, 10–11social work, as craft 55social work, origins of 2, 10, 23,

25, 144social work process 81socialization 17society, and the individual 1–6sociology 4–6solution-focussed brief approaches

41, 77, 94–5, 138, 148, 173–4,176

street-level bureaucrats 34–40strengths-based approaches 5,

94–5, 138, 147–8, 176, 189stress 26, 50, 65, 79, 82, 85, 102,

104, 106, 118–19, 198structural social work 60, 158, 192structuralists 5, 11


Subject Index 225

structure, practice 77, 80–81, 86,131–3, 185–6

structure, social 4–6subjectivity 57, 60–6, 68, 72–6,

120 summarizing 137supervision 30, 48, 196surveillance 47–9systems theory 169

task-centred practice 41, 74, 77,130–2, 138, 148, 189

temperament 104therapeutic alliance 129–30,

136–9, 187thought 77–81training 37–40transference 90–1trauma 88–9, 106Troubled Families Programme, The

138

troubled people 1, 26troublesome people 1, 26

uncertainty 15, 31–39, 41–56unconscious, theunitary models 169unresolved memories 88–9

value pluralism 168values 8, 149–50, 152–3, 155–68,

183–5virtue ethics 73, 160–1, 184

Walton, Izaak 7–8welfare model 23–4, 143–6Welfare State 45, 142, 144–7women’s refuges 12working alliance 129–30, 187working through 90Wundt, Wilhelm 59


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