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Call for Papers. Special Number "100 Years of Social Work: Discussions and Perspectives on the Discipline's Past, Present and Future". Submissions in Spanish or English until the 30th October 2024 for publication in April 2025 (Issue 9). For more information please see the following link.
Social work in the global neoliberal context: solidarity and resistance from a radical perspective
Authors
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Vasilios Ioakimidis
University of Essex
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0457-6782
Abstract
Neoliberal capitalism has had a brutal impact in terms of increasing inequality throughout the world. This is closely related to the mental health problems growing among the general population, including social workers. In this article, I propose that there cannot be critical social work based genuinely on the search for social justice that does not emphasize human relationships; nor can there be social work based on human relationships that does not aspire to the promotion of social justice on a structural level. To argue around this position, discussions about neoliberalism and its impact on human relationships are addressed as a broad framework to think about social work today. The professional past is problematized and the current conditions in which the intervention of social workers takes place are analysed, which lead to reecting on the possibility of resistance. Based on the analysis of the acts of resistance of social workers in some European countries, a radical project of social work is proposed, which puts solidarity and care at the centre as a transforming impulse in our societies.Keywords:
critique, resistance, social work, neoliberalismReferences
Ferguson, I. (2017). Politics of The Mind; Marxism and Mental Distress. Bookmarks.
Ferguson, I., Ioakimidis, V. & Lavalette, M., (2018). Global Social Work in a Political Context, Radical Perspectives. Policy Press.
Hart, E., Greener, J. & Moth, R. (2019). Resist the Punitive State: Grassroots Struggles Across Welfare, Housing, Education and Prisons. Pluto Press.
International Federation of Social Workers. (2014). Global Definition of the Social Work Profession. https://www.ifsw.org/what-is-social-work/global-definition-of-social-work/
Ioakimidis V. & Trimikliniotis, N. (2020). Making Sense of Social Work’s Troubled Past: Professional Identity, Collective Memory and the Quest for Historical Justice. The British Journal of Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa040
Ioakimidis,V., Cruz Santos, C. & Martinez Herrero, I. (2014). Reconceptualizing Social Work in times of crisis: An examination of the cases of Greece, Spain and Portugal. International Social Work, 57(4), 285-300.
Ioakimidis, V. (2013). Beyond the dichotomies of cultural and political relativism: arguing the case for a social justice based ‘global social work’ definition. Critical and Radical Social Work, 1(2), 183-199.
Ioakimidis, V. & Teloni, D. (2013). Greek social work and the never-ending crisis of the welfare state. Critical and Radical Social Work, 1(1), 31-49.
Muñoz Arce, G. (2020). Chilean Social Work and the Legacies of the Dictatorship. Social Dialogue, 22. https://www.iassw-aiets.org/es/get/social-dialogue-magazine-issue-22/
Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2017). Monitoring mental health systems and services in the WHO European Region: Mental Health Atlas, 2017.
https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/396765/EMH-Atlas-6.pdf
Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. (2020). Time to care; Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620928/bp-time-to-care-ine quality-200120-en.pdf
Ravalier, J. & Boichat, C. (2018). UK Social Workers: Working Conditions and Wellbeing. https://www.basw.co.uk/system/files/resources/Working%20Conditions%20%20Stress%20% 282018%29%20pdf.pdf
Wilkinson, R.G. & Pickett, K. (2010). The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Every- one. Penguin.
Ferguson, I., Ioakimidis, V. & Lavalette, M., (2018). Global Social Work in a Political Context, Radical Perspectives. Policy Press.
Hart, E., Greener, J. & Moth, R. (2019). Resist the Punitive State: Grassroots Struggles Across Welfare, Housing, Education and Prisons. Pluto Press.
International Federation of Social Workers. (2014). Global Definition of the Social Work Profession. https://www.ifsw.org/what-is-social-work/global-definition-of-social-work/
Ioakimidis V. & Trimikliniotis, N. (2020). Making Sense of Social Work’s Troubled Past: Professional Identity, Collective Memory and the Quest for Historical Justice. The British Journal of Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa040
Ioakimidis,V., Cruz Santos, C. & Martinez Herrero, I. (2014). Reconceptualizing Social Work in times of crisis: An examination of the cases of Greece, Spain and Portugal. International Social Work, 57(4), 285-300.
Ioakimidis, V. (2013). Beyond the dichotomies of cultural and political relativism: arguing the case for a social justice based ‘global social work’ definition. Critical and Radical Social Work, 1(2), 183-199.
Ioakimidis, V. & Teloni, D. (2013). Greek social work and the never-ending crisis of the welfare state. Critical and Radical Social Work, 1(1), 31-49.
Muñoz Arce, G. (2020). Chilean Social Work and the Legacies of the Dictatorship. Social Dialogue, 22. https://www.iassw-aiets.org/es/get/social-dialogue-magazine-issue-22/
Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2017). Monitoring mental health systems and services in the WHO European Region: Mental Health Atlas, 2017.
https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/396765/EMH-Atlas-6.pdf
Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. (2020). Time to care; Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620928/bp-time-to-care-ine quality-200120-en.pdf
Ravalier, J. & Boichat, C. (2018). UK Social Workers: Working Conditions and Wellbeing. https://www.basw.co.uk/system/files/resources/Working%20Conditions%20%20Stress%20% 282018%29%20pdf.pdf
Wilkinson, R.G. & Pickett, K. (2010). The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Every- one. Penguin.
