Stephen Cowden
Biographic Data
| ID | 142984 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephen Cowden |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephen |
| FAMILY NAME | Cowden |
| SIGNATURE | COWDEN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Coventry University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2549-8760 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 72 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Ethical Foundations of Social Work
Identity Politics of the Left and Right
Chetan Bhatt is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Social Theory in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics. Chetan’s research has looked at the global rise of religious fundamentalism, the international authoritarian far right, and the power of nationalism and racism historically and in contemporary political movements. Some of this work is discussed in his TED talk: Dare to refuse the origin myths that claim who you are. His…
Decolonial Ethics
Reconciling a Broken Heritage
Guyana's colonial past has left a trail of economic instability, racial polarization, and physical and mental trauma. Despite the progress made since Guyana's independence in 1966, the remnants of this colonial past continue to shape present-day Guyana. As a result, violence and trauma continue to impact the mental health of the population. This is manifest in endemic problems of domestic violence and racialized social divisions which have create…
A New Theory of Human Rights
Contested Narratives of the Pandemic Crisis
This paper seeks to open a discussion about the role played by the extreme right within the contemporary ‘anti-vaxxer’ movement as it has developed during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. While supporters of this movement are politically diverse, we see the far right as having used the Covid crisis as a significant opportunity to place their conspiratorial narrative before a wider audience, where a rhetoric of victimisation around pandemic related r…
Perils of Fundamentalism in France
Caroline Fourest is a French feminist writer, film director, journalist, radio presenter at France Culture, and co-founder and editor of the magazine ProChoix. She has been a columnist with Charlie Hebdo and Le Monde and has written several influential essays on the political and religious right in France and the US. She is the author of a biography of the far-right politician Marine Le Pen and of a number of books including In Praise of Blasphem…
Welfare words
I attended a World Social Work day event a few years ago which was put on by Local Authority where the university I worked in was based. The focus of the event was ‘Building Resilience in the Socia
Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work
Community cohesion, communitarianism and neoliberalism
Policy discourse around ‘community cohesion’ has displaced liberal multiculturalist and anti-racist approaches with a much narrower focus on the promotion of ‘British values’ and, for minority communities, through a ‘faith’ agenda. We argue that these developments derive from the predominance of the doctrine of communitarianism within the contemporary policy terrain, influencing both New Labour and the Conservatives. The convergence of this with …
The intensification of neoliberalism and the commodification of human need – a social work perspective
Marx and Engels (1848) in the Manifesto of the Communist Party explained how the drive towards the commodification of human society could be seen essentially as a manifestation of the territorial expansion of capitalist relations. While this expansion continues apace, this article argues that the contemporary period, often referred to as neoliberalism, can be characterised in terms of the intensification of those very same capitalist social relat…
Part two Response to Tariq Modood – Accommodating religions
A key intention of our original paper was to open up a discussion about the increasing influence that religious groups are having on social policy in the UK. In this regard, we very much welcome Professor Tariq Modood’s response and contribution to the debate on ‘multiculturalism’s new fault lines’. The concern we expressed in our original argument focused on the increasing accommodation of religion within state multiculturalism in both general t…
Multiculturalism’s new fault lines
This paper seeks to critically examine the emergence of contemporary religious fundamentalisms and how they have been able to acquire influence in a way that has opened new ‘fault lines’ within multiculturalist public policy discourse. Specifically, the paper is interested in understanding the curiously paradoxical place of religion and faith based groupings in the contemporary multicultural polity, and the confusion, and in some instances confli…
The social worker as intellectual
This paper examines the state of intellectual activity within social work under the conditions of neo-liberalism. It is motivated by concern with the demise of what previously was termed ‘bottom-up’ social work and a growing sense of despair amongst front line social workers regarding their capacity to engage with users, citizens and communities in ways other than those determined by managerial and regulatory mechanisms. This leads us into a disc…
The ‘User’
‘User Involvement’ has become the new mantra in Public Services with professionals constantly being reminded that ‘user knows best’. The pur pose of this paper is to ask where the preoccupation with ‘the User’ comes from and to pose some questions about what ‘User Involvement’ actually means. Within our paper we see three issues as central within this. The first is a consideration of the historical antecedents of the discourse of ‘User Involvemen…
The ‘User’
‘User Involvement’ has become the new mantra in Public Services with professionals constantly being reminded that ‘user knows best’. The pur pose of this paper is to ask where the preoccupation with ‘the User’ comes from and to pose some questions about what ‘User Involvement’ actually means. Within our paper we see three issues as central within this. The first is a consideration of the historical antecedents of the discourse of ‘User Involvemen…
The social worker as intellectual
This paper examines the state of intellectual activity within social work under the conditions of neo-liberalism. It is motivated by concern with the demise of what previously was termed ‘bottom-up’ social work and a growing sense of despair amongst front line social workers regarding their capacity to engage with users, citizens and communities in ways other than those determined by managerial and regulatory mechanisms. This leads us into a disc…
The intensification of neoliberalism and the commodification of human need – a social work perspective
Marx and Engels (1848) in the Manifesto of the Communist Party explained how the drive towards the commodification of human society could be seen essentially as a manifestation of the territorial expansion of capitalist relations. While this expansion continues apace, this article argues that the contemporary period, often referred to as neoliberalism, can be characterised in terms of the intensification of those very same capitalist social relat…
Multiculturalism’s new fault lines
This paper seeks to critically examine the emergence of contemporary religious fundamentalisms and how they have been able to acquire influence in a way that has opened new ‘fault lines’ within multiculturalist public policy discourse. Specifically, the paper is interested in understanding the curiously paradoxical place of religion and faith based groupings in the contemporary multicultural polity, and the confusion, and in some instances confli…
Community cohesion, communitarianism and neoliberalism
Policy discourse around ‘community cohesion’ has displaced liberal multiculturalist and anti-racist approaches with a much narrower focus on the promotion of ‘British values’ and, for minority communities, through a ‘faith’ agenda. We argue that these developments derive from the predominance of the doctrine of communitarianism within the contemporary policy terrain, influencing both New Labour and the Conservatives. The convergence of this with …
Part two Response to Tariq Modood – Accommodating religions
A key intention of our original paper was to open up a discussion about the increasing influence that religious groups are having on social policy in the UK. In this regard, we very much welcome Professor Tariq Modood’s response and contribution to the debate on ‘multiculturalism’s new fault lines’. The concern we expressed in our original argument focused on the increasing accommodation of religion within state multiculturalism in both general t…
The ‘User’
‘User Involvement’ has become the new mantra in Public Services with professionals constantly being reminded that ‘user knows best’. The pur pose of this paper is to ask where the preoccupation with ‘the User’ comes from and to pose some questions about what ‘User Involvement’ actually means. Within our paper we see three issues as central within this. The first is a consideration of the historical antecedents of the discourse of ‘User Involvemen…
The social worker as intellectual
This paper examines the state of intellectual activity within social work under the conditions of neo-liberalism. It is motivated by concern with the demise of what previously was termed ‘bottom-up’ social work and a growing sense of despair amongst front line social workers regarding their capacity to engage with users, citizens and communities in ways other than those determined by managerial and regulatory mechanisms. This leads us into a disc…
Multiculturalism’s new fault lines
This paper seeks to critically examine the emergence of contemporary religious fundamentalisms and how they have been able to acquire influence in a way that has opened new ‘fault lines’ within multiculturalist public policy discourse. Specifically, the paper is interested in understanding the curiously paradoxical place of religion and faith based groupings in the contemporary multicultural polity, and the confusion, and in some instances confli…
Part two Response to Tariq Modood – Accommodating religions
A key intention of our original paper was to open up a discussion about the increasing influence that religious groups are having on social policy in the UK. In this regard, we very much welcome Professor Tariq Modood’s response and contribution to the debate on ‘multiculturalism’s new fault lines’. The concern we expressed in our original argument focused on the increasing accommodation of religion within state multiculturalism in both general t…
The intensification of neoliberalism and the commodification of human need – a social work perspective
Marx and Engels (1848) in the Manifesto of the Communist Party explained how the drive towards the commodification of human society could be seen essentially as a manifestation of the territorial expansion of capitalist relations. While this expansion continues apace, this article argues that the contemporary period, often referred to as neoliberalism, can be characterised in terms of the intensification of those very same capitalist social relat…
Community cohesion, communitarianism and neoliberalism
Policy discourse around ‘community cohesion’ has displaced liberal multiculturalist and anti-racist approaches with a much narrower focus on the promotion of ‘British values’ and, for minority communities, through a ‘faith’ agenda. We argue that these developments derive from the predominance of the doctrine of communitarianism within the contemporary policy terrain, influencing both New Labour and the Conservatives. The convergence of this with …
Perils of Fundamentalism in France
Caroline Fourest is a French feminist writer, film director, journalist, radio presenter at France Culture, and co-founder and editor of the magazine ProChoix. She has been a columnist with Charlie Hebdo and Le Monde and has written several influential essays on the political and religious right in France and the US. She is the author of a biography of the far-right politician Marine Le Pen and of a number of books including In Praise of Blasphem…
Welfare words
I attended a World Social Work day event a few years ago which was put on by Local Authority where the university I worked in was based. The focus of the event was ‘Building Resilience in the Socia
Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work
A New Theory of Human Rights
Contested Narratives of the Pandemic Crisis
This paper seeks to open a discussion about the role played by the extreme right within the contemporary ‘anti-vaxxer’ movement as it has developed during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. While supporters of this movement are politically diverse, we see the far right as having used the Covid crisis as a significant opportunity to place their conspiratorial narrative before a wider audience, where a rhetoric of victimisation around pandemic related r…
Reconciling a Broken Heritage
Guyana's colonial past has left a trail of economic instability, racial polarization, and physical and mental trauma. Despite the progress made since Guyana's independence in 1966, the remnants of this colonial past continue to shape present-day Guyana. As a result, violence and trauma continue to impact the mental health of the population. This is manifest in endemic problems of domestic violence and racialized social divisions which have create…
The Ethical Foundations of Social Work
Identity Politics of the Left and Right
Chetan Bhatt is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Social Theory in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics. Chetan’s research has looked at the global rise of religious fundamentalism, the international authoritarian far right, and the power of nationalism and racism historically and in contemporary political movements. Some of this work is discussed in his TED talk: Dare to refuse the origin myths that claim who you are. His…
Decolonial Ethics
Sociology (14 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Context (archaeology (3 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (3 works) · Mental Health and Patient Involvement (3 works)