Social Work, Modernity and Post Modernity

Bibliographic Data

ID3236923
AuthorsGraham B Mcbeath (University of Dundee), Stephen A Webb (0000-0001-7693-537X, University of Dundee)
Year1991
Volume39
Issue4
Pages745-762
Publication date1991-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-954x.1991.tb00874.x
OpenAlexW2124742120
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited10

In this article we argue that current reform proposals coming from Robert Pinker and others are challenging the universalist premises of generic social work. Pinker et al. argue that social work should, for the sake of efficiency and performance, be a connected set of specialist activities. This 'determinate dispersal' which we recognise as falling within the remit of postmodern strategies, we contrast with the far more libertarian ideas of the noted post-modern theorist J.F. Lyotard. Thus we site the political and cultural meanings of Pinker's ideas between generic social work which upholds ideas of universal ethical values and universal provision, and those of Lyotard whose anti-foundationalism proposes a radically heterogeneous society with no central value-structure. We express our concern that the 'new specialist' remit may allow too much power to the social worker. Thus we have considerable sympathy for Lyotard's call for a radical anonistics - a field wherein the inequalities of power between say, a worker and her client, to some extent can be redressed

Epistemology · Late modernity · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Postmodernism · Power (physics) · Social science · Sociology · Sympathy · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Philosophy · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice

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