High time for postcolonial analysis in social work

The article discusses colonialism and its legacies in social work, summoning them primarily through the particular contexts of colonial India (as a case of a formerly colonized area) and Finland, as well as other Nordic countries (places often thought to have weak, if any, colonial ties). While India, the former ‘crown jewel’ of the British Empire, is known as one of the locations of active research and debate on postcolonialism, the Nordic countries were, despite common assumptions, in many ways party to colonialism. The Nordic involvement in colonial relations was often subtle and shifting, its broader manifestation being a general adherence of the hegemonic worldview of colonialism and taking the colonial order as natural. While social work's relationship to colonialism remains largely unexplored to the extent that it seems silenced, this article suggests that emerging social work practices across the Northern Atlantic were linked with colonial activities, especially with the civilizing mission, which was a central element of the colonial project. Similarly, recent scholarship indicates that the Nordic countries have not yet gone through a clear process of critiquing colonialism and its subtle legacies in everyday encounters and environments, including those of social work. The article argues for the importance of postcolonial analysis in understanding social work and its practices, also in Nordic contexts.