Abstract
There can be little doubt that neoliberalism has replaced social democracy as the political consensus across Europe and globally. This has led to levels of inequality and relative poverty unprecedented since the post-war social democratic consensus. It has also led to a common sense, neoliberal narrative essential in garnering support for policies that weaken workers’ rights, deregulate corporations and businesses, and cut budgets for welfare and public services. Essentially, the narrative is that people should be completely self-sufficient and that to depend on welfare or the state in any way is a sign of poor character, laziness and of membership of the ‘underclass.’ It is a ‘moralising self-sufficiency’ narrative (Marston, 2013). Much of social work activity is concentrated in areas of unemployment, poverty and deprivation and what will happen to our values of respect, compassion and care if social workers unquestioningly internalise the above narrative? Maybe a form of authoritarian social work that treats people as ‘less than human’ (Smithson and Gibson, 2016)? Grasso et al (2018) undertook a study using British Attitudes Study data and found that the generation known as ‘Millennials’ were more right-wing authoritarian than all previous generations. What might happen if that trajectory continues? The authoritarian attitudes of our current generation of post-Millennial students, labelled as iGen by Twenge (2018), were studied in one Scottish university and the results will be shared in my talk today. What might the implications be for social work education and are we up to the challenge?
Highlights
I am writing as a social work academic from the University of Dundee in Scotland
I suppose that my worry is that as neoliberalism becomes the absolute unquestioned common sense ideology of our times, and the ‘underclass’ are not, as Bauman pointed out, deserving of our care in a neoliberal framework, maybe the undeserving narrative might be resurrecting itself with our newer generations of social work students
Lorenz (2017) explains that neoliberalism has had a profound effect across Europe and said the following about the post-world war 2 consensus and commitment to welfare in all Western European countries: These hopeful developments almost came to a halt by the turn of the Millenium...war and its devastating consequences had become a distant memory and economic achievement rather than socio-political measures could be ideologically portrayed as the foundation and guarantor of well-being; and with the ‘defeat of communism’ the need for maintaining public social protection as a competitive measure had disappeared
Summary
I am writing as a social work academic from the University of Dundee in Scotland. Dundee is a city of about 150,000 (compared to Madrid which has population of 3,174 million) and there are only about 5.5 million people in the whole of Scotland. One of the uniquely Scottish features, is that work with this group, like all other groups of social work service users, is underpinned by the Social Work (Scotland) Act (1968) which has the duty to promote social welfare at its heart. This is absolutely in keeping with social work values, and a radical idea of social work at that, encompassed in the belief that improving someone’s material circumstances will help them thrive and flourish, including desisting from crime.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
