Beyond Anti-Oppressive Practice: Investigating Reflexive Social Relations

Abstract

Anti-oppressive practice is promoted with increasing frequency as a foundation for social work practice. This article develops a critique of anti-oppressive practice by drawing on tools from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Against anti-oppressive practice, it is suggested that inquiry must be informed by an abiding attention to the explication of members'; local and congregationally enacted social interactions. It is argued that anti-oppressive practice redirects social workers'; attention from consideration of the ineffable ambiguity, paradoxes, and puzzles of our clients'; and our own lives in favor of formulaic “discoveries” of oppression.