Abstract

The following account provides reflective analysis of an ongoing rationalization operation that entails the eventual closure of my placement agency. This politically motivated undertaking demonstrates some of the inequities that exist within the complex and ‘ ... evolving relationship between the state and theindividual’, which forms the principal domain of social work practice (Howe 1996, p. 77). The closure of this service carried consequences not only for the agency’s personnel and service users but also for the service users’ immediate social systems and the wider community. My involvement in this matter, which was analogous to Schon’s ‘swampy lowlands’ of problematic social work activity, required me to introspect and deliberate rigorously as I strived to address practice implications, social injustice, difficult value judgements, conflicts of professional and organizational interests and dilemmas concerning personal ethics and official directives (Schon 1983, p. 42). Written from a perspective that is both humanistic and pragmatic, this account avoids reference to religious belief systems and prescriptive models of reflection in favour of a flexible format, compatible with this rapidly unfolding, highly emotive situation. The names and other identifying features of all service users, staff, establishments, services and agencies have been changed.