Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care
Recent attempts to 'modernise' social work have emphasised the importance of collaboration, partnership, and participation with individual users of services and the wider community. However, technical-rational aspects of managerialism have proved dominant. Managerialist approaches to s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Social Work & Society
2004-01-01
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| Series: | Social Work and Society |
| Online Access: | https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/237 |
| _version_ | 1818360514648997888 |
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| author | Gabrielle Meagher |
| author_facet | Gabrielle Meagher |
| author_sort | Gabrielle Meagher |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent attempts to 'modernise' social work have emphasised the importance of collaboration, partnership, and participation with individual users of services and the wider community. However, technical-rational aspects of managerialism have proved dominant. Managerialist approaches to social service administration and delivery threaten important dimensions of social work; specifically its caring and democratic-transformative dimensions. However, social work theorists have only recently begun to re-engage with ideas of care. We argue that closer attention to feminist debates about the ethics of care can make a significant contribution to not only rehabilitating the ideal of care for social work but also to moving forward the modernisation agenda itself. We develop a feminist critique of managerialism, and argue that the discourse of the ethics of care offers useful ways of framing arguments to counter some damaging impacts of managerial reforms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T21:02:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e2d8a814acb34d02b6254355bad756ee |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1613-8953 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T21:02:00Z |
| publishDate | 2004-01-01 |
| publisher | Social Work & Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Work and Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-e2d8a814acb34d02b6254355bad756ee2022-12-21T23:31:35ZengSocial Work & SocietySocial Work and Society1613-89532004-01-0121Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of CareGabrielle MeagherRecent attempts to 'modernise' social work have emphasised the importance of collaboration, partnership, and participation with individual users of services and the wider community. However, technical-rational aspects of managerialism have proved dominant. Managerialist approaches to social service administration and delivery threaten important dimensions of social work; specifically its caring and democratic-transformative dimensions. However, social work theorists have only recently begun to re-engage with ideas of care. We argue that closer attention to feminist debates about the ethics of care can make a significant contribution to not only rehabilitating the ideal of care for social work but also to moving forward the modernisation agenda itself. We develop a feminist critique of managerialism, and argue that the discourse of the ethics of care offers useful ways of framing arguments to counter some damaging impacts of managerial reforms.https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/237 |
| spellingShingle | Gabrielle Meagher Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care Social Work and Society |
| title | Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care |
| title_full | Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care |
| title_fullStr | Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care |
| title_full_unstemmed | Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care |
| title_short | Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care |
| title_sort | modernising social work and the ethics of care |
| url | https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/237 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gabriellemeagher modernisingsocialworkandtheethicsofcare |