Social Work

Abstract

Unpacking social work's low self-image and even lower social prestige reveals multiple layers of assumptions both within and outside the discipline that coalesce to construct a profession at odds with itself. Social work colludes with social forces which devalue its work while it presents a series of signs that reinforce the negative stereo-types associated with its practices. Social work projects little sign value, and what sign value it has tends toward the negative (e.g., weak, easy, common).

This essay lays out two texts in parallel columns on the page. The right-hand side column “unpacks” via standard discourse while the left-hand side comments via a combination of real and imagined advertising slogans which both spoof and invite an unbranded profession's search for its aesthetic, market niche. Recommendations include a reconstitution of BSW curricula, clarification of the practice continuum, regendering, relanguaging, and re-marketing.

Key Words:

• Symiotics
• commodification
• status/prestige
• sign value