Introducing critical theories for social work in a neo-liberal context

When we were in the process of writing the first edition of this book and discussing the project with academic colleagues and practitioners, we were sometimes asked: Is there still a need to articulate a 'critical' social work? Is not all social work 'critical' in the sense of being committed to social as well as individual transformation? Some contemporary social work writers at the time believed that to be so. Ife (1997), for example, argued that 'social work is, by its very nature radical' (1997: 178) and he stressed the importance of bringing radical social work in from the margins of the profession. He argued that the task was to 'conceptualise social work in such a way that its inherent radicalis1n is recognised and incorporated into "mainstream" understandings of social work practice' (1997: 178). Alston and McKinnon (2001) have argued similarly that professional social work is concerned with human rights, social justice and support for marginalised people. We still believe, however, that the notion of a social work as a 'radical profession' is as elusive now as it was when Rein (1970) wrote about this possibility almost 40 years ago. This issue is even more crucial six years on from the first edition, as critical social work has, regrettably, not made a significant impact on mainstream social work and there is still reticence by many organisations in which social workers are employed to engage with critical emancipatory frameworks