Alice Salomon: critical social work pioneer

Abstract

ABSTRACT Early pioneers of critical social work have not always been recognised as such. This paper examines the theory and practice of early German social work researcher, activist, social work author and educator, Alice Salomon (1872–1948) with reference to Fook’s understanding of critical social work. Salomon’s work is characterised by her orientation on social justice, her internationalism, her concern with the structural inequalities that shape clients’ lives, her sensitivity to oppression in society, and her commitment to feminist social work. Acknowledging that Salomon’s theory is still underappreciated in her home country, this paper, published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of her birth, uses her own words and ideas, many translated into English for the first time, to present the case for regarding her as an early pioneer of critical social work. We argue that her approach to social work practice, in which the practitioner is constantly mindful of their own potential biases, of questions of gender, ethnicity and poverty, and of the grave inequalities and injustices facing the client, anticipates modern anti-oppressive, feminist and critical social work.