Will social work contribute to social development into the new millennium?

Abstract

Social work ought to be able to contribute to social development. However, despite its activity there is increasing marginalisation and social exclusion in society. Neo liberal paradigms have replaced the common good with individual achievement, societies with economies. Social work needs to move from managerial and market paradigms and align itself once more with those that are marginalised and disadvantaged. But how can it do this without taking on romantic notions of community or blindly accepting all diversity as worthy of celebration?

It is argued that social work needs to acknowledge and understand the social and political construction of its knowledge and practice. It is then suggested that social work needs to adopt a critical theory stance to engage in practice that leads to greater liberation. The particular processes that are advocated in this article are those that enable new partnerships and relationships with those social work serves, wherein critical and reflective dialogue leads to negotiations that manage a journey through competing interests and tensions towards social development.