Revolution in the everyday: using Gramsci to inspire hope and change with social workers

Abstract

This article is a discussion about using the work of Antonio Gramsci in social work supervision. Gramsci can offer a challenge to the political ideology of the neoliberal era. Through focusing on his concepts of hegemony and common sense, an understanding of social work practice in the neoliberal era can start to be discerned and can provide a platform for developing practice that centers on people’s actual lived experience. Gramsci’s theory can also provide social workers with a way of challenging neoliberal common sense views and can, consequently, have the potential to inspire optimism and hope.