The New Politics of Social Work Practice: Understanding Context to Promote Change

During the past several decades, social work practice in the USA and the industrialised world has become increasingly politicised—a consequence of political-economic, ideological, demographic and cultural changes. This new political environment is reflected in all aspects of social work practice, including its underlying assumptions, theoretical bases, research methods and educational foundation. It influences how all participants in the service process define needs, implement alternative strategies of helping and evaluate their effectiveness. Persistent misunderstandings about the meaning of politics and its relationship to professional practice, however, present major obstacles to the development of effective responses to this dramatic transformation. At the organisational and societal levels, these misunderstandings discourage challenges to the institutional status quo. At the micro level, they rationalise existing hierarchies between social service agencies and service users, and between workers and clients. To counteract these tendencies, this article conceives of politics as those relationships and activities that reflect power and value differences and which influence critical decisions about the distribution of resources, rights, access, opportunities and status. It examines the forces altering the politics of practice, in both the USA and other industrialised nations, and suggests ways social workers can create effective responses in the areas of education, practice theory and research.