New times or same old story? Risk, reflexivity and social control in child protection

The paper addresses some recent attempts to reassess the child protection system as potentially liberating. These are, firstly, discussions of child protection in the context of theories of reflexive modernisation and the risk society, and secondly, post-modernist feminist writings. After initial theoretical debate about some of these perspectives, the authors go on to present ethnographic research evidence showing that social control is alive and well in child protection work. The paper concludes that whilst these recent optimistic accounts of the child protection system are welcome contributions, they have overstated the liberating potentials of the current system