Radical Social Work Today

The radical social work movement of the 1960s–70s critiqued conventional theory and practice, but the 1980s brought new challenges. This book (1989) examines how unemployment, poverty, and new right policies transformed theories and methods of radical social work and asks: what are the essential elements of a radical strategy for the 1990s?

In the 1960s and 1970s, the radical social work movement advanced a wide-ranging critique of conventional theory and practice, which had a major impact on all those involved in the emerging profession of social work. In the 1980s, unemployment, growing poverty, and the austere social policies of the new right transformed the context of social work. First published in 1989, Radical Social Work Today examines the implications of these changes for the theories and methods of radical social work and asks: what are the essential elements of a radical strategy for the 1990s?The contributors address issues which received little attention in the early radical social work texts, including racism and social work, unemployment and health care, privatization, patch systems of social work, and work with older people. The book also reaffirms the importance of feminist perspectives in radical social work and reconsiders the difficulties of radical practice in probation work, community work, and residential care. The strong practical emphasis of the book makes it an ideal text for students and social workers who want to know what radical strategies really involve.