The personal is political: reframing individual acts of kindness as social solidarity in social work practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper develops the theoretical position proposed by Zygmunt Bauman that one of the greatest contemporary ‘social evils' or injustices we face in society, is the total marketisation and individualisation of our lived experience. Bauman with Harvey, argues that the last forty years of social, political, and economic reform under the zeitgeist of neoliberalism have transferred the burden of care from the state to the individual. This paper will explore the position that the dominant neoliberal culture within social work, in the form of ‘new managerialism’ has reconstituted social work institutionally as one where interventions now focus on minimum statutory interventions emphasising; risk management, resource allocation, and audit culture. Despite the current landscape the research highlights the importance of the personal reframed as the political, and the nuanced ways in which acts of defiance and resistance against the prevailing orthodoxies have been adopted by social workers on the front line.