Vishanthie Sewpaul
Biographic Data
| ID | 4159317 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Vishanthie Sewpaul |
| GIVEN NAMES | Vishanthie |
| FAMILY NAME | Sewpaul |
| SIGNATURE | SEWPAUL V |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of KwaZulu-Natal |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1368-1055 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 83 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Linguistic Practices, Poverty and Epistemic Injustice: Unraveling Power, Dominant Discourses and Ethical Conundrums in Child ‘Protection’ Services in the South African Context
Disrupting neoliberalism and human-induced climate change: Emancipatory social work for ecosocial justice
An over-consumptive neoliberal world, fuelled largely by media messages that insidiously lead people to define their worth by their purchasing choices and purchasing power, is contributing to the destruction of the planet and pushing the Earth beyond acceptable tipping points, posing grave threats to human and planetary well-being. If social work is to play a meaningful role in challenging the hegemony of neoliberalism and human-induced climate c…
Understanding the roles and challenges of child protection employees in out-of-home care arrangements for children of minority and immigrant backgrounds in Rogaland, Norway
Confronting the Giants of Neoliberalism, Managerialism, and Positivism: Emancipatory Praxis and the Pursuit of Peace
While conflicts, wars, and structural violence compromise all of the sustainable development goals, the corollary argument is that without reducing environmental degradation, patriarchal power, poverty, hunger, and inequality there can be no peace. This means cutting to the chase of how social criteria such as race, class, ethnicity, and nationality intersect to reproduce exclusions, othering , and structural violence. Explosive inequalities, lin…
Creating spaces for emancipatory praxis with social work students in a diverse classroom context
Against neoliberal and new managerial pushes in higher education, educators have a responsibility to engage students in transformational learning and prepare them for the complex world of work. This article describes the use of emancipatory praxis by engaging students in identifying structural sources of advantages and/or privilege, and reports on the data obtained from the written and oral reports of undergraduate social work students taking par…
Writing in the time of Covid-19: The threads that bind and tear asunder
Located against my positionality as a woman of colour from the global south, I deal with the micro and macro dynamics — particularly the intersections of these — of COVID-19. My grounded-ness on account of an invisible virus, spreading like wildfire within and across nation-states, wreaking havoc, destruction and death, is used to illuminate the ramifications of lockdowns and physical distancing. Governments are placed in invidious positions as t…
Abortion rights and Roe v Wade: Implications for social work – voices from the social work academy
This paper draws together the work of three leading social work academics to look at the question of abortion and a woman’s right to chose in the context of the recent Roe V Wade reversal in the United States
Negotiating ethical dilemmas in research: To act or not to act in the face of the normalisation of gender injustice encountered in the research process
This article focuses on research conducted in relation to the gendered dynamics of access to, and utilisation of, agricultural inputs in the quest for women’s empowerment. The article focuses on the ethical dilemmas that arose during the course of the research in relation to the claim that scientific research, particularly of the logical-positivist tradition, should not cause disruption to people’s lives and that researchers must remain detached …
Special Issue on Diversity and Tensions in Social Work
Neoliberalism, Nordic welfare states and social work
Special issue on Diversity and Tensions in Social Work
The (r)evolution and decolonization of social work ethics: The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles
The approval of the 2014 joint Global Definition of Social Work required that international social work associations review the associated ethical principles of social work. The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles ( GSWSEP) was approved by international social work bodies in Dublin in July 2018. While the previous Statement of Ethics emphasized liberal humanist values common in the European–North American axis, the GSWSEP recognize…
Youth Transitioning Out of Residential Care in South Africa: Toward Ubuntu and Interdependent Living
Informed by the qualitative method and the descriptive-interpretive design, this study, which was underscored by radical humanist goals of structural social work, reflects the voices of 16 youth who had transitioned out of care. The results show that emerging adults, transitioning out of care, are vulnerable and in need of support. This article discusses three main themes derived via an inductive approach: the influence of sociocultural networks,…
School-going teenage mothers and fathers: Gender, challenges and the negotiation of learner-parent roles
Accidental burns in children under five years of age: The gendered burden of care and socio-economic deprivation
The West and the Rest Divide: Human Rights, Culture and Social Work
Neoliberalism
Challenging Dominant Discourses on Abortion From a Radical Feminist Standpoint
The article, which is based on the narratives of 15 women in the Durban metropolitan area, contests liberal feminist views of abortion resting on the free choice of women. Adopting a radical feminist standpoint, it locates the abortion decision within structural constraints on women’s lives, raising the relationship between socioeconomic freedom and women’s reproductive health choices. The article also contests the popular pro-life/pro-choice dic…
Neoliberalism and social work in South Africa
This article deals with the consequences of neoliberalism for social work education and practice, and proposes alternatives based on radical theories and on lessons from the Arab spring and the international Occupy Movement. While grass roots involvement and development are important, the enormous consequences of neoliberalism means that single small-scale community-based initiatives are, in themselves, insufficient to challenge the power of corp…
Inscribed in Our Blood: Challenging the Ideology of Sexism and Racism
Drawing on my experiences and the work of emancipatory theorists, I argue that androcentric and patriarchal thinking is so entrenched in major social institutions that gender and racial discrimination seem to be inscribed in our blood. Confronting the influence of external systems on our thinking and engaging in an ideological critique are the first steps to understanding and undoing oppression and privilege and in working toward radical change. …
A comparison of social work education across South Africa and Japan in relation to the Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training: Social work education in South Africa and Japan
Sakaguchi H, Sewpaul V. A comparison of social work education across South Africa and Japan in relation to the Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 192–202 © 2009 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article draws on a one-year study visit to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, interview…
On national identity, nationalism and Soccer 2010: Should social work be concerned
English There is a wide spectrum of views on the potential socio-economic and socio-political consequences of South Africa hosting the Soccer 2010 World Cup. This article discusses whether this major sports event holds potential to contribute to a strengthened national identity and consciousness and/or to a narrow nationalism, and looks at possible implications for society and social work. French Il existe un large éventail de points de vue sur l…
Empowerment and globalisation in a Nordic social work education context
The Nordic countries have been experiencing paradigm shifts from a focus on problems, pathology and deficits to more strengths‐based, capacity‐building and inclusive approaches, especially in the field of child welfare. This article describes joint Nordic (Nordplus) Master level courses that have been introduced to promote a more inclusive and empowering way of working with children and families. The overall theme of the Nordplus project is democ…
Genocide and its aftermath: The case of Rwanda
English This article describes the experiences of returnees from exile into Kigali, Rwanda and the efforts of the Government of Rwanda (GoR) and the UNHCR to meet the needs of returnees, and to deal with the aftermath of the genocide. Particular attention is paid to the Gacaca courts and the role of social work therein. We identify gaps in services and make recommendations in respect of the refugee phenomenon on the African continent. French Cet …
Challenging East–West value dichotomies and essentialising discourse on culture and social work
All discourse, whether universalistic and/or particularistic, must be subject to contestation, so that we are held accountable for the thinking that we articulate in our writings, and so that we do not reinforce much of the taken for granted assumptions about the world. Critiques such as those of Hutchings and Taylor in this issue of IJSW remind us of social work's commitment to reflexivity and the need to contest discourse that might not be in t…
The West and the Rest Divide: Human Rights, Culture and Social Work
The (r)evolution and decolonization of social work ethics: The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles
The approval of the 2014 joint Global Definition of Social Work required that international social work associations review the associated ethical principles of social work. The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles ( GSWSEP) was approved by international social work bodies in Dublin in July 2018. While the previous Statement of Ethics emphasized liberal humanist values common in the European–North American axis, the GSWSEP recognize…
Global standards for the education and training of the social work profession
This is the final document adopted at the IASSW and IFSW General Assemblies in Adelaide, Australia, 2004. However, as the use, implementation and review of the Global Standards is to remain a dynamic process, please send your comments or recommendations to Vishanthie Sewpaul
Inscribed in Our Blood: Challenging the Ideology of Sexism and Racism
Drawing on my experiences and the work of emancipatory theorists, I argue that androcentric and patriarchal thinking is so entrenched in major social institutions that gender and racial discrimination seem to be inscribed in our blood. Confronting the influence of external systems on our thinking and engaging in an ideological critique are the first steps to understanding and undoing oppression and privilege and in working toward radical change. …
Global standards: Promise and pitfalls for re‐inscribing social work into civil society 1
This article critiques the modernist logical‐positivist ideology that has underscored social work, and interrogates the promise of the development of global standards to re‐inscribe social work into civil society at the global level. The potential pitfalls and dangers of such an initiative are also examined. The development of global standards was born out of an assumption that there is a common core to social work on a global level and on an ess…
Challenging East–West value dichotomies and essentialising discourse on culture and social work
All discourse, whether universalistic and/or particularistic, must be subject to contestation, so that we are held accountable for the thinking that we articulate in our writings, and so that we do not reinforce much of the taken for granted assumptions about the world. Critiques such as those of Hutchings and Taylor in this issue of IJSW remind us of social work's commitment to reflexivity and the need to contest discourse that might not be in t…
Understanding the roles and challenges of child protection employees in out-of-home care arrangements for children of minority and immigrant backgrounds in Rogaland, Norway
Genocide and its aftermath: The case of Rwanda
English This article describes the experiences of returnees from exile into Kigali, Rwanda and the efforts of the Government of Rwanda (GoR) and the UNHCR to meet the needs of returnees, and to deal with the aftermath of the genocide. Particular attention is paid to the Gacaca courts and the role of social work therein. We identify gaps in services and make recommendations in respect of the refugee phenomenon on the African continent. French Cet …
Challenging Dominant Discourses on Abortion From a Radical Feminist Standpoint
The article, which is based on the narratives of 15 women in the Durban metropolitan area, contests liberal feminist views of abortion resting on the free choice of women. Adopting a radical feminist standpoint, it locates the abortion decision within structural constraints on women’s lives, raising the relationship between socioeconomic freedom and women’s reproductive health choices. The article also contests the popular pro-life/pro-choice dic…
Disrupting neoliberalism and human-induced climate change: Emancipatory social work for ecosocial justice
An over-consumptive neoliberal world, fuelled largely by media messages that insidiously lead people to define their worth by their purchasing choices and purchasing power, is contributing to the destruction of the planet and pushing the Earth beyond acceptable tipping points, posing grave threats to human and planetary well-being. If social work is to play a meaningful role in challenging the hegemony of neoliberalism and human-induced climate c…
Confronting the Giants of Neoliberalism, Managerialism, and Positivism: Emancipatory Praxis and the Pursuit of Peace
While conflicts, wars, and structural violence compromise all of the sustainable development goals, the corollary argument is that without reducing environmental degradation, patriarchal power, poverty, hunger, and inequality there can be no peace. This means cutting to the chase of how social criteria such as race, class, ethnicity, and nationality intersect to reproduce exclusions, othering , and structural violence. Explosive inequalities, lin…
Neoliberalism, Nordic welfare states and social work
School-going teenage mothers and fathers: Gender, challenges and the negotiation of learner-parent roles
Neoliberalism and social work in South Africa
This article deals with the consequences of neoliberalism for social work education and practice, and proposes alternatives based on radical theories and on lessons from the Arab spring and the international Occupy Movement. While grass roots involvement and development are important, the enormous consequences of neoliberalism means that single small-scale community-based initiatives are, in themselves, insufficient to challenge the power of corp…
On national identity, nationalism and Soccer 2010: Should social work be concerned
English There is a wide spectrum of views on the potential socio-economic and socio-political consequences of South Africa hosting the Soccer 2010 World Cup. This article discusses whether this major sports event holds potential to contribute to a strengthened national identity and consciousness and/or to a narrow nationalism, and looks at possible implications for society and social work. French Il existe un large éventail de points de vue sur l…
Empowerment and globalisation in a Nordic social work education context
The Nordic countries have been experiencing paradigm shifts from a focus on problems, pathology and deficits to more strengths‐based, capacity‐building and inclusive approaches, especially in the field of child welfare. This article describes joint Nordic (Nordplus) Master level courses that have been introduced to promote a more inclusive and empowering way of working with children and families. The overall theme of the Nordplus project is democ…
Feminism and globalisation: The promise of Beijing and neoliberal capitalism in Africa
This article discusses the impact of neoliberal capitalism on women and reviews the promises of Beijing against the realities of women's lives in Africa. The focus is on South Africa post-1994, the impact of Growth Employment and Redistribution, and the neoliberal discourses contained in the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Against this contemporary analysis, the article calls for radical structural changes, a move towards social democra…
Culture Religion and Infertility: A South African Perspective
This paper contains data pertaining to cultural views on fertility and infertility, and the use of traditional healing in infertility, from a sample of twenty-four case studies of infertile participants and from twelve religious leaders representative of the faiths of the infertile participants. This is followed by a discussion on the impact of religion on the handling of infertility. The unique differences between the Indian and African world vi…
Culture Religion and Infertility: A South African Perspective
This paper contains data pertaining to cultural views on fertility and infertility, and the use of traditional healing in infertility, from a sample of twenty-four case studies of infertile participants and from twelve religious leaders representative of the faiths of the infertile participants. This is followed by a discussion on the impact of religion on the handling of infertility. The unique differences between the Indian and African world vi…
Global standards: Promise and pitfalls for re‐inscribing social work into civil society 1
This article critiques the modernist logical‐positivist ideology that has underscored social work, and interrogates the promise of the development of global standards to re‐inscribe social work into civil society at the global level. The potential pitfalls and dangers of such an initiative are also examined. The development of global standards was born out of an assumption that there is a common core to social work on a global level and on an ess…
Global standards for the education and training of the social work profession
This is the final document adopted at the IASSW and IFSW General Assemblies in Adelaide, Australia, 2004. However, as the use, implementation and review of the Global Standards is to remain a dynamic process, please send your comments or recommendations to Vishanthie Sewpaul
Feminism and globalisation: The promise of Beijing and neoliberal capitalism in Africa
This article discusses the impact of neoliberal capitalism on women and reviews the promises of Beijing against the realities of women's lives in Africa. The focus is on South Africa post-1994, the impact of Growth Employment and Redistribution, and the neoliberal discourses contained in the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Against this contemporary analysis, the article calls for radical structural changes, a move towards social democra…
Regional Perspectives… from Africa
Challenging East–West value dichotomies and essentialising discourse on culture and social work
All discourse, whether universalistic and/or particularistic, must be subject to contestation, so that we are held accountable for the thinking that we articulate in our writings, and so that we do not reinforce much of the taken for granted assumptions about the world. Critiques such as those of Hutchings and Taylor in this issue of IJSW remind us of social work's commitment to reflexivity and the need to contest discourse that might not be in t…
Lessons from Rwanda
Before a recent visit to Rwanda, all that the country held for me, as with most people, was the spectre of genocide, war, poverty and starving children. My brief visit to the city of Kigali challenged my widely held assumptions about the country. Kigali was the epicenter of the genocide in Rwanda, where about one million people experienced murderous tyranny within a space of 100 days, that wreaked havoc upon the country and left millions of peopl…
Empowerment and globalisation in a Nordic social work education context
The Nordic countries have been experiencing paradigm shifts from a focus on problems, pathology and deficits to more strengths‐based, capacity‐building and inclusive approaches, especially in the field of child welfare. This article describes joint Nordic (Nordplus) Master level courses that have been introduced to promote a more inclusive and empowering way of working with children and families. The overall theme of the Nordplus project is democ…
Genocide and its aftermath: The case of Rwanda
English This article describes the experiences of returnees from exile into Kigali, Rwanda and the efforts of the Government of Rwanda (GoR) and the UNHCR to meet the needs of returnees, and to deal with the aftermath of the genocide. Particular attention is paid to the Gacaca courts and the role of social work therein. We identify gaps in services and make recommendations in respect of the refugee phenomenon on the African continent. French Cet …
On national identity, nationalism and Soccer 2010: Should social work be concerned
English There is a wide spectrum of views on the potential socio-economic and socio-political consequences of South Africa hosting the Soccer 2010 World Cup. This article discusses whether this major sports event holds potential to contribute to a strengthened national identity and consciousness and/or to a narrow nationalism, and looks at possible implications for society and social work. French Il existe un large éventail de points de vue sur l…
A comparison of social work education across South Africa and Japan in relation to the Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training: Social work education in South Africa and Japan
Sakaguchi H, Sewpaul V. A comparison of social work education across South Africa and Japan in relation to the Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 192–202 © 2009 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article draws on a one-year study visit to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, interview…
Neoliberalism and social work in South Africa
This article deals with the consequences of neoliberalism for social work education and practice, and proposes alternatives based on radical theories and on lessons from the Arab spring and the international Occupy Movement. While grass roots involvement and development are important, the enormous consequences of neoliberalism means that single small-scale community-based initiatives are, in themselves, insufficient to challenge the power of corp…
Inscribed in Our Blood: Challenging the Ideology of Sexism and Racism
Drawing on my experiences and the work of emancipatory theorists, I argue that androcentric and patriarchal thinking is so entrenched in major social institutions that gender and racial discrimination seem to be inscribed in our blood. Confronting the influence of external systems on our thinking and engaging in an ideological critique are the first steps to understanding and undoing oppression and privilege and in working toward radical change. …
Challenging Dominant Discourses on Abortion From a Radical Feminist Standpoint
The article, which is based on the narratives of 15 women in the Durban metropolitan area, contests liberal feminist views of abortion resting on the free choice of women. Adopting a radical feminist standpoint, it locates the abortion decision within structural constraints on women’s lives, raising the relationship between socioeconomic freedom and women’s reproductive health choices. The article also contests the popular pro-life/pro-choice dic…
Neoliberalism
Accidental burns in children under five years of age: The gendered burden of care and socio-economic deprivation
The West and the Rest Divide: Human Rights, Culture and Social Work
School-going teenage mothers and fathers: Gender, challenges and the negotiation of learner-parent roles
Youth Transitioning Out of Residential Care in South Africa: Toward Ubuntu and Interdependent Living
Informed by the qualitative method and the descriptive-interpretive design, this study, which was underscored by radical humanist goals of structural social work, reflects the voices of 16 youth who had transitioned out of care. The results show that emerging adults, transitioning out of care, are vulnerable and in need of support. This article discusses three main themes derived via an inductive approach: the influence of sociocultural networks,…
Neoliberalism, Nordic welfare states and social work
Special issue on Diversity and Tensions in Social Work
The (r)evolution and decolonization of social work ethics: The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles
The approval of the 2014 joint Global Definition of Social Work required that international social work associations review the associated ethical principles of social work. The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles ( GSWSEP) was approved by international social work bodies in Dublin in July 2018. While the previous Statement of Ethics emphasized liberal humanist values common in the European–North American axis, the GSWSEP recognize…
Special Issue on Diversity and Tensions in Social Work
Negotiating ethical dilemmas in research: To act or not to act in the face of the normalisation of gender injustice encountered in the research process
This article focuses on research conducted in relation to the gendered dynamics of access to, and utilisation of, agricultural inputs in the quest for women’s empowerment. The article focuses on the ethical dilemmas that arose during the course of the research in relation to the claim that scientific research, particularly of the logical-positivist tradition, should not cause disruption to people’s lives and that researchers must remain detached …
Writing in the time of Covid-19: The threads that bind and tear asunder
Located against my positionality as a woman of colour from the global south, I deal with the micro and macro dynamics — particularly the intersections of these — of COVID-19. My grounded-ness on account of an invisible virus, spreading like wildfire within and across nation-states, wreaking havoc, destruction and death, is used to illuminate the ramifications of lockdowns and physical distancing. Governments are placed in invidious positions as t…
Sociology (29 works) · Political science (27 works) · Law (21 works) · Law (20 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (14 works) · Politics (11 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (10 works) · Work (physics (10 works) · Political economy (9 works) · Psychology (9 works)