Utopian Thinking, Social Work, and Homelessness: Critiquing Ideas Regarding Welfare Dependence

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article social policy theorist Ruth Levitas’s utopian method is employed in critiquing and proposing alternative ways of thinking about and responding to homelessness in Australia. Ideas embedded in contemporary policy responses to homelessness are challenged regarding welfare dependence and homeless identities. Levitas’s method provides an important tool for social workers and social policy activists to rethink policy approaches to homelessness and confront considering neoliberal agendas emphasising individual responsibility and welfare dependency. IMPLICATIONS Homelessness is a major social issue in Australia and needs advocacy for social change. It is critical that social workers contribute to public debate and policy change that challenges dominant constructions of homeless people as welfare dependent. Utopian thinking offers an important tool for social workers to evaluate and critique dominant discourses regarding individualised and deficit-based discourses regarding homeless people.