Risk Rationalities in Contemporary Social Work Policy and Practice

Abstract

Social work and risk have become increasingly linked, and contemporary social work has been significantly influenced by the risk paradigm. However, the concept of ‘risk’ in social work is by no means uniform or uncontested. This paper will review the varying rationalities of risk currently deployed in social work, and will contrast the differing policy responses and practices such differing rationalities of risk give rise to. Differing rationalities of risk constitute the social work subject differently, as ‘the rational actor’ or the ‘responsibilised’ user, although the extent to which subsequent practice responses actually differ is a moot point. Limits to the prudential actor are explored, for both users and practitioners, and the notion of situated rationality is offered as a more useful concept for understanding responses to risk in social work. In addition, risk rationalities are rarely translated into policy or practice in pure form; various ‘firewalls’ and barriers to transfer mediate such transference, and the paper will identify the most salient in contemporary policy.