Lena Dominelli, 2012

Abstract

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Lena Dominelli, a leader in British social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2012, for contribution to international social work education. Following education in sociology, she worked as a community worker in a UK government programme, eventually closed down because it stimulated activism. Later, community work became distanced from social work in the UK. Important publications focused on class, gender and racism, and she worked on critical theory and to promote social work as a research-led discipline. Current issues of concern are to embed human rights and social and environmental justice in social work theory and develop involvement in disaster work. During her career, social work changed for the worse by becoming more bureaucratic and managerialist, but among positives are improvements in the profession's status and greater emphasis on user involvement. She would like to see social work become a universal service.