Critical social work theory, what is it, why do I love it.
Theories help us to understand, engage with and explain the world we live in and the people and communities that live within it.
Life is complex is a big understatement. How many times have you received a referral with a listed concern, to then go out and meet the client and their network and you get back to the office with a spiderweb of interconnected issues. Theories can help us get a little bit of order and explain what’s going on. Theories then also help us with how we analyse the information we have and engage with the clients.
The main theory that I align with as a social worker is a critical theory of social work. Critical theory explains the world through the perspective of power. I won’t go all Foucault on you, he is a good read, but to quickly summerise it is how social inequalities, such as access to resources are built in to our societal structures. Critical theory in social work is to question how these inequalities from historical contexts and current social situations emerge and then the important bit, how we address it.
These inequalities can be differences in access to resources and treatment for people of different genders, different ages, sexual orientations, cultural backgrounds, differing abilities. To list a small number of the spectrum of ways that people can be grouped.
How this then plays out in practice is through approaches including, but not limited to:
- Strengths-based: focuses on identifying and using an individual's and their network’s strengths, resources, and capabilities to create change
- Feminist practice: looks at the importance of understanding and addressing gender-based inequalities and to create positive change for women and girls
- Trauma-informed: recognises trauma and adverse childhood experiences on people and aims to focus on healing and resilience
- Anti-oppressive: aims to dismantle all the systemic inequalities that are pervasive at an individual and structural level in society. Burn it down.
Each of these approaches has a critical lens. They locate the person within their wider societal context and asks is there a concern here, or is the person a product of their environment and the way the world is treating and defining them? Then it goes, how do we change this to be better in the future?
