The discourse of emotional regulation is a dominant narrative in contemporary psychotherapy and clinical social work practice, framed as essential to psychological well-being and adaptive functioning. However, through a critical theory and narrative therapy lens, emotional regulation reveals itself as a technology of neoliberal governance that individualizes distress and obscures sociopolitical contexts. Drawing from Foucauldian ideas, feminist theory, critical social work, and narrative therapy practices, this article critiques emotional regulation as a disciplinary discourse that upholds normative ideals of an emotionally self-governing subject. It highlights how such discourse disproportionately burdens marginalized communities and pathologizes resistance, dissent, or grief. Narrative therapy offers a politicized and relational alternative that centers meaning-making, deconstructs emotional norms, and foregrounds social justice. Implications for anti-oppressive therapeutic practice are discussed.

Translating recovery-oriented practice with children and their families is complex and fraught. Limited research has investigated how social workers navigate competing systemic agendas that can legitimise biomedicalised and depoliticised recovery approaches in everyday practice. This Australian exploratory study used Action Learning Sets (ALS) to co-create knowledge with social workers working in child and youth mental health services. Preliminary exploration shows many contradictions in recovery-oriented work and the challenging practice terrain social workers traverse in attempting to work in partnership with children and their families. The analysis illustrates how social workers have reconceptualised adult-centric and individualised notions of recovery to work in systemically, developmentally responsive, trauma and attachment-informed ways when working with the child, their family and the whole system. The study, however, also shows the fine line that social workers’ tread in enacting relational recovery-oriented practice. Neoliberal, biomedical and ‘evidence-based’ approaches can easily dominate, which leaves unaddressed the intersecting structures of oppression that perpetuate children's distress. The need to investigate recovery rhetoric and find critical social work practices of possibilities within the contradictions was underscored

ABSTRACT Co-designing with service users is an increasingly common practice in social and community service organizations and one that graduate social workers are likely to encounter. The potential benefits of using co-design for social work are that service users become active participants in problem solving and develop creative solutions to social issues that may not be achieved by more traditional methods of intervention. However, co-design in social work education is considered a novel approach to working with diverse stakeholders to address issues of mutual concern. Therefore, graduates may not be equipped to engage with co-design and other forms of design thinking are through a critical lens. Herein lies a challenge. How might social work academics equip students with co-design skills in ways that complement critical social work ethics, practices and values? This paper analyzes the alignment of critical social work with the problem-solving focus of co-design and examines the implications for social work academics when preparing graduates to work in critical and creative ways within organizations employing social workers. This article makes an original contribution to the emerging literature on social work education and co-design in neoliberal contexts.

This article analyzes ways to transition toward transformative social work by drawing from the historical, social, political, and economic contexts of Filipino migrant workers and their organizing praxis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides an overview of how the inequitable impacts on migrant and racialized populations by systems shaped around neoliberalism and racial capitalism only intensified the vulnerable conditions that Filipino migrants faced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Mutual aid networks burgeoned as a response to systemic failures and the need for communities themselves to provide basic needs, combat isolation, and advocate for systemic change. These networks build from existing forms of solidarity and support that communities often excluded from dominant discourses already have in place. These communities continually revitalize forms of collective action through cultural and local knowledge systems and histories of resistance, such as the Filipino notion of Bayanihan. The authors critically reflect on their participation in two mutual aid and community organizing initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic drawing from Filipino epistemologies of Bayanihan and research on mutual aid, critical social work, community organizing, and social movements. Through these reflections, the authors unveil some of the practices and epistemological orientations that may help guide the profession toward its transformation by learning from community organizing and social movement praxis.

Summary This article navigates the critical crossroads facing contemporary social work, characterized by the schism between the “Empirical Highway” and “Postmodern/Critical Off-Ramp.” By exploring the evolution of scientific thought and its influence on social work—noting the adage that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, the article advocates for critical realism. This promising metatheory offers a “middle path,” avoiding the well-trodden routes of empirical rigidity and postmodern relativist turn. Critical realism elevates social work to its highest potential, harmonizing with the field's core values to catalyze profound transformation and fulfill its most ambitious ideals. Findings Critical realism synthesizes various research methods within a unified metatheoretical framework, effectively transcending traditional divides such as individual versus structural changes and quantitative versus qualitative methodologies. Rather than eclectically merging research paradigms, critical realism offers a distinctive perspective that acknowledges the inherent partiality and fallibility of all knowledge. This not only fosters collaboration across diverse research traditions but also significantly reshapes the worldview of social workers. Applications Adopting critical realism steers social work onto a transformative, emancipatory path, providing practitioners with tools to analyze and address both individual and structural realities. This approach champions high-impact research that is methodologically rigorous and aligned with social work's goals, focusing on actionable strategies to significantly improve the lives of equity-deserving groups by tackling the structural and underlying root causes of issues, not just effects. This ensures that social work research and practice drive meaningful and enduring policy and societal change.

ABSTRACT Reported in this article are research findings about effective mental health practices for young people involved with child protection services. Five care-experienced young people and 45 stakeholders were interviewed to gather stories of effective mental health practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. The results illustrated what trauma-informed practice can look like throughout the mental health engagement, assessment, and intervention stages. The foundation of trauma-informed mental health care for this population is a deep understanding of the impact of trauma upon young people, recognition of care-experienced young people as a priority population, and a commitment from mental health services to responsively serve these young people. IMPLICATIONS Well-resourced specialised trauma-informed mental health care is important for young people who have been involved with child protection services, many of whom face inequitable barriers in accessing quality mental health care. Trauma-informed clinicians, including social workers, recognise trauma responses as adaptive behaviours rather than a reason to decline mental health service provision. Trauma-informed mental health interventions are based on principles of choice and predictability. Systemic trauma-informed care aligns with critical social work perspectives and antioppressive practice.

The power of the birkenstocks: Critical social work and the denzin a/effect

In this [special] issue…. Critical social work and the Denzin a/effect

The murder of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on 25 May 2020 sparked global outrage and resulted in some of the largest Indigenous-led protests against social injustice in the history of Australia. Investigation into Australian media revealed Andrew Bolt’s influential coverage of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. Using critical discourse analysis, drawing on Fairclough and Foucault, this research exposes the discursive techniques used by Bolt to smear the political and ideological objectives of the protestors in order to persuade audiences to resist the call for change. Using a critical social work lens, the analysis reveals discourses of racism, nationalism and populism. We argue that exposing Bolt’s techniques of power could result in influential people who have a role in advocating for progressive social change, such as social workers, politicians, journalists, academics and researchers, becoming more critically aware and supporting more emancipatory representations of Indigenous Australians.

ABSTRACT Social work is uniquely positioned as a profession concerned with people in their environments, social justice, the intersection of mental and physical health, food insecurity, poverty, inequity, racism, and the ongoing impact of trauma and traumatic events. As a profession we recognize growing eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, and climate grief in response to escalating climate change, global warming, environmental disasters, and the destruction of finite resources. People, young people especially, are feeling more hopeless, overwhelmed, and helpless in the face of daily alerts about the state of the planet. It is becoming harder to simultaneously hold space for grief and hope, or indeed to know what to do with intense feelings and worries. Anxiety and depression in young people are an epidemic and climate grief has a significant role to play in the growth of mental health concerns. Climate grief, much like grief in general, is not well understood, nor is it often addressed in social work education, clinical practice or in grief groups dealing primarily with individual losses while many in attendance may simultaneously be carrying mourning for a home that is in dire straits. The calls for grief activism, resilience, action, and hope can lead to less sense of personal, or collective power, and not more, as people struggle to find ways to contribute to the fight to halt the speeding train of climate change and global warming. Pro-environmental behaviors are gaining acceptance and increasingly being adopted, following role models, embracing minimalism and simplicity, being more mindful of veganism and vegetarianism, the tiny home movement, reducing reliance on coal and oil, sustainability efforts, reaffirming Indigenous worldviews and ways of being, managing pollution and carbon emissions, a return to bartering, creating, upcycling, reusing, and recycling all help. Accelerated efforts to reforest, consume energy mindfully, substitute green products, promote electric vehicles, and push back against rampant consumerism and untethered capitalism have made inroads. However, even these seem inadequate when they are not taken up by large segments of the population or are directly scoffed at by climate change deniers. As a result, critical social work, environmental social work, eco-social work and those skilled in grief and bereavement work have attempted to push back against an individualistic worldview that allows for the ongoing destruction of our home. Social work can teach about grief, loss, ritual, and community in ways that address the growing despair we are all feeling. This talk will outline climate grief and ecoanxiety and detail ways we as social workers can support, educate, and inform ourselves, our colleagues, students, friends, families, and clients. Discussion and problem solving will be welcomed wholeheartedly.

This study examines the accessibility, quality, and effectiveness of social work support services for survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Despite the existence of legal frameworks such as the Domestic Violence Act (2007) and the Sexual Offences Act (2012, amended 2019), survivors continue to face significant barriers in accessing psychosocial support due to weak institutional coordination, limited integration of social workers into national SGBV response mechanisms, and entrenched socio-cultural norms. Using a qualitative research design grounded in feminist and critical social work theory, the study draws on in-depth interviews with survivors and key informants from government and non-governmental institutions. Findings reveal widespread mistrust in formal systems, fragmentation among service providers, and a lack of awareness about the role of social workers. The paper identifies the urgent need to professionalize and institutionalize social work within SGBV frameworks through national policy reforms, survivor-centered approaches, community engagement, and inclusive practices that address the intersecting identities of survivors. Recommendations include the establishment of a national regulatory body for social work, improved stakeholder coordination, and targeted training for trauma-informed, gender-sensitive service delivery. The study contributes to the discourse on localized and professionalized responses to gender-based violence in post-conflict Sierra Leone.

ABSTRACT Social work educators must integrate anti-racism and anti-oppressive theories and practice frameworks into the curricula to ensure future practitioners develop social justice awareness, knowledge, and actional skills to combat racial and social injustice. However, there has been an increase in federal and state legislative efforts to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion content in higher education. This increasingly hostile environment has a significant impact on schools of social work, particularly as it relates to critical pedagogy. The purpose of this article is to explore the ways three professional social work educators navigated the current socio-political landscape, characterized by anti-DEI legislation, in their classrooms by using individual and collective reflexivity as a means of creating a counterspace for resistance. A qualitative approach using autoethnography was used to capture these professors’ perspectives teaching critical social work theories and anti-oppressive practice frameworks amidst increased political pressure to teach from a place of neutrality. Thematic analysis uncovered core themes related to the impact on instructors’ perceptions and approaches, the influence on classroom dynamics and student interactions, and the integration of current events into the curriculum.

The research, "Case Study Analysis of Substance Abuse in Schools within Critical Social Work Practice," examines the complexity of substance abuse among students within a social work framework. It highlights how social, economic, and psychological factors contribute to students’ substance use, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Through Alex’s case, the study illustrates how family instability and socio-economic hardships can lead to substance abuse as a coping mechanism. The paper advocates a critical social work approach, grounded in Marxist theory, humanism, and critical thinking, to address systemic issues influencing substance use. This approach emphasizes a shift from punitive measures to supportive interventions within schools and communities, including collaboration with families and policy advocacy. By focusing on socio-economic determinants and the need for structural change, the study provides a framework for creating supportive educational environments that address the root causes of substance use and promote positive behavioral change among students.

ABSTRACT While resistance by social workers to unsustainable practices and unjust neoliberal policies has been well explored in the field of radical and critical social work, there is less research on the resistance by service users within personal social welfare services, even though the dynamics of care and control are always present in these services. This literature review examines the scholarly understandings of service user resistances in the context of personal social welfare services. In this study, peer-reviewed journal articles were sourced from five databases and 1,085 articles were screened for eligibility by two authors. The final dataset includes 53 papers which thematize resistance by service users in the context of formal personal social welfare services. Our findings reveal a wide range of understandings of service user resistances. Despite the variety of reviewed articles presenting multiple explicit and implicit definitions of the concept, we argue that the core understandings can be organized along a continuum from individual to relational and political perspectives. The key distinctions among these conceptualizations are centred on views of power relations, subjectivity, knowledge and change. Based on this literature review, we argue that service user resistance should not be perceived as a problem to be solved but rather as a distinct ontological phenomenon that has a natural part in the relationship between service users and social services, which is shaped by power relations. The concept of resistance has the potential to serve as an important theoretical tool in social work research when explored as inherently intertwined with power.

ABSTRACTThere is a growing body of critical social work research that calls for alternative and more reflexive approaches to dealing with ‘risk’ in the domain of child protection and welfare. This paper responds to this call by proposing rhetorical studies as a fruitful theoretical and methodological perspective to examine the constructed, contested and discursive nature of risk and risk‐based professional practice in youth care. Our contribution is based on a qualitative study of how risk rhetorically operates in a residential youth care facility in Flanders (Belgium). Building on the method of rhetorical fieldwork and additional focus groups with practitioners, we examine the constitutive and persuasive functions of risk discourse as well as potential instances of ‘speaking back’ against dominant risk discourses. Our analysis reveals three main findings: (1) the constitution of ambiguous youth as/at risk identities, (2) risk as a procedural, spatial and institutional construct and (3) reflexive re‐constructions of risk. Given that even more reflexive professional approaches in our data remain largely structured around the notion of ‘risk (calculation)’, we discuss what rhetoric can offer in the challenge of developing reflexive practices that move beyond risk and/or invite rather than avoid risk and uncertainty in youth care.

ABSTRACT In the UK social work with abused children and their families has long been subject to changing conceptions, policies and practices. Post-war concerns about child cruelty, ‘battered child syndrome’ and non-accidental injury have been superseded by the current concern with child protection. Such changes are linked to the dominance of neo-liberalism and associated managerialism, resulting in a narrower, truncated role for social work as practitioners concentrate on speedily completing bureaucracy. Now the overall priority is to ration resources and assess/manage risk together with changing the behaviour and lifestyles of parents/carers under the threat of losing their child(ren) to adoption. In contrast, this article calls for a critical child protection, a relationship-based practice which acknowledges social justice issues and works towards a more just and equal society. Despite challenges arising from the neo-liberal world, such critical social work involves a humane practice of working alongside children and families with parents/carers supported and encouraged regarding the issues of concern.

In this article, I show the connections between critical social work and the thought of Norman Denzin. The connection is pragmatist philosophy whose roots are European. Denzin came to pragmatism through C. Wright Mills’ notion of the sociological imagination whose focus is the intersection of biography and history. This notion is analogous to social work’s person-environment interactions. I illustrate the intersections of history and biography through telling stories about my first professional job teaching health and family life in a suburban Rhode Island high school. I analyze the stories through the perspectives of pragmatist principles and critical discourse analysis. I was naïve and blithely sailed into teaching human sexuality as I understood it and wanted others to, oblivious to what my teaching would mean to those who didn’t share my perspectives and oblivious to the consequences for me. Other faculty told me that students were spreading rumors that I was a slut who talked dirty in class. I became a sexualized joke at my hometown bowling alley. The principal asked me to resign at the end of the school year. A few years later, a friend of my brother’s decided I was rape-worthy. These experiences did not derail my life. I used several democratic discourses to define myself and to resist the definitions of hegemonic sexuality, such as slut. I carried on. Through stories and analysis, I show connections between my personal life, my career, and culture-wide beliefs and practices.

In this collective autoethnography two academics who live in Israel explore the possibility of friendship across different social positions, religions and nationalities. The article describes how autoethnography and Denzin’s scholarship have made this friendship possible and deepened it. To this end, the article explores their journey within neoliberal Israeli, dominantly Jewish, academia, investigate the (im)possibility of authentic dialogue between an Israeli Jewish woman and a Palestinian Israeli woman in Israel in this moment of violence in Israel, and examine how Denzin’s scholarship and conferences have allowed them to explore these questions using autoethnography. Inspired by Denzin’s scholarship we use collective autoethnography as a methodology that is grounded in love, care, hope and forgiveness to dwell together in a fractured discussion about shattered time and space. Our time is fractured by past and present traumas and the fear of what the future holds. Our space has been damaged by violent conflict. The article concludes by discussing the importance of Denzin’s scholarship for critical social work researchers during violent conflicts.

ABSTRACT Resilience is widely viewed as integral to social work practice because of the emphasis on strengths-based approaches with clients and their ability to overcome challenges. However, it is crucial to recognize that resilience is not solely an individual issue but is deeply intertwined with broader structural inequalities and disadvantages. As academics working in field education, we understand that social work students often face significant challenges, including the financial and emotional strain of completing long, mostly unpaid placements. This article highlights the strategies employed by social work students to cope with these challenges. Drawing on data from 409 social work students across five universities, students reported relying on support from educators and family, enabling them to problem solve during placement. Despite these efforts, many students admitted to struggling and feeling overwhelmed and had to sacrifice their wellness to meet placement requirements. From a critical social work perspective, the findings underscore the difficulties students face in managing their competing demands whilst on placement in the current economic climate and questions the usefulness of measuring resilience in this context. Social work students instead focused on resistance as a strategy to cope with their study and other commitments during placement which has resulted in collective action and lobbying for change.

The article focuses on the social phenomenon of violence against women and family violence, which marks the everyday life of society in different spheres. Critical social work through its theoretical frameworks and critical reflection has been contributing for decades to raising awareness regarding human rights issues and social phenomena, such as violence against women and domestic violence, but also of the challenges faced by individuals, social workers, and social structures that essentially occupy the central place of critical social work theories. This paper presents research results into systems solutions and project activities in the Republic of Srpska through the prism of theoretical approaches and perspectives of critical social work. The results showed that the system’s response to violence against women and family violence is framed by the normative (international and national) framework in the Republic of Srpska, where the Istanbul Convention and the The Law on Protection from Violence in the Family of RS are crucial normative, as well as that significant steps have been taken to criminalize violence as a criminal offence in the The Law on Protection from Violence in the Family of RS. The results show that in the past few years, a series of project activities have been carried out that have contributed to implementation of laws, policies and programs in the area of protection from domestic violence and violence against women. The theoretical framework offers an understanding of structural and post-modern approaches to critical social work in the analysis of the social phenomenon of violence against women and domestic violence. Also, the perspectives of critical social work have been used in the discussion on the results of this research concerning the project activities and systemic solutions in combating violence against women and family violence.