The question of education for democratic ‘empowerment and liberation’, and how this might guide pedagogic practice is seldom raised and extremely challenging for social work education today. This chapter takes up the proposition that social work, through its educational practices, ‘can’ deliver on its promise of ‘democratic practice’ if democracy is understood as a process and not a predefined product. We argue that such a process and its embodiment in institutions cannot exist without the formation of (...) radically democratic subjects, people (including social workers) capable of questioning dominant social forms and of creating new forms and practices. Accordingly, this chapter explores the educational implications for social work of the work of the revolutionary theorist, Cornelius Castoriadis (1921–1997). Castoriadis’ philosophy accords a crucial role to democratic pedagogy (paideía) as an essential form of praxis in the creation of a radically democratic, egalitarian and sustainable society. In particular, we examine his idea (against (neo)liberal individualisation) that ‘autonomy’ is simultaneously an individual and social project that begins in, and is always dependent upon, individual and collective self-reflection. This argument is illustrated by examples from the authors’ classroom experiences of teaching both critical reflection and critical social theory to social work students in Australian universities, on the premise that both are indispensable in social work education as a democratic practice for ‘empowerment and liberation’. The chapter outlines a brief discussion of Castoriadis, his main ideas and the pedagogic dimensions of his philosophy before bringing the latter to bear on the authors’ teaching experiences. (shrink)

Social work is a contested tradition, torn between the demands of social governance and autonomy. Today, this struggle is reflected in the division between the dominant, neoliberal agenda of service provision and the resistance offered by various critical perspectives employed by disparate groups of practitioners serving diverse communities. Critical social work challenges oppressive conditions and discourses, in addition to addressing their consequences in individuals’ lives. However, very few recent critical theorists informing (...) class='Hi'>critical social work have advocated revolution. A challenging exception can be found in the work of Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–97), whose explication of ontological underdetermination and creation evades the pitfalls of both structural determinism and post-structural relativism, enabling an understanding of society as the contested creation of collective imaginaries in action and a politics of radical transformation. On this basis, we argue that Castoriadis’s radical-democratic revisioning of revolutionary praxis can help in reimagining critical social work’s emancipatory potential. (shrink)

The second edition of this text has been thoroughly revised and updated to ensure that it continues to provide a comprehensive survey of social work practice and theory. New chapters covering the changing nature of social work and advocacy and empowerment approaches have been included, and the editors have added a new conclusion in which they reflect on the past, present and future of social work. All of the chapters have been revised to cover (...) the most recent debates and developments in research and practice. (shrink)

Possibilities for critical social theory and Foucault’s work: a toolbox approach The benefits and constraints of philosophical frameworks using the work of Michel Foucault and critical social theorists, such as Fay, Giroux and McLaren, are examined in the light of their traditions. The reasons nurse researchers adopt these frameworks are explored, as are the tensions between the respective theories. A complementary ‘toolbox’ approach to the research process addresses some of the theoretical and methodological challenges (...) presented by each framework. Such an approach provides distinctive insights into nursing practice that the other has ignored or missed. It is argued that by converging the two frameworks into a toolbox approach, it is possible to examine or deconstruct existing practices, whilst also providing an avenue for nurses to reconstruct or change such practices. (shrink)

This paper argues the case for taking a critical realist (CR) approach to social work research. The normativity in social work is often under-communicated in the social sciences, resulting in research that has an unclear value base as its starting point. Social work practice promotes social change and people's development, empowerment, and liberation. By taking a CR of view as a starting point for researching social problems, the focus shifts towards (...) explaining phenomena by revealing and discussing the mechanisms through which they are produced and maintained. Child welfare issues are argued to be “wicked problems”, on top of which the practice of social work itself is a complex field. Two studies from the field of child and family welfare are presented here to illustrate how CR has been fruitfully applied in research on such complex phenomena. These two studies comprise research on child protection assessment and parental high conflict. (shrink)

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work traverses new territory by providing a cutting-edge overview of the work of classic and contemporary theorists, in a way that expands their application and utility in social work education and practice; thus, providing a bridge between critical theory, philosophy, and social work. Each chapter showcases the work of a specific critical educational, philosophical and/or social theorist including: Henry Giroux, Michel (...) Foucault, Cornelius Castoriadis, Herbert Marcuse, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Joan Tronto, Iris Marion Young, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci and many others to elucidate the ways in which their key pedagogic concepts can be applied to specific aspects of social work education and practice. The text exhibits a range of research-based approaches to educating social work practitioners as agents of social change. It provides a robust and much needed, alternative paradigm to the technique-driven ‘conservative revolution’ currently being fostered by neoliberalism in both social work education and practice. The volume will be instructive for social work educators who aim to teach for social change, by assisting students to develop counter-hegemonic practices of resistance and agency, and reflecting on the pedagogic role of social work practice more widely. The volume holds relevance for both postgraduate and undergraduate/qualifying social work and human services courses around the world. (shrink)

This paper argues that education policy sociology, as presently constituted, is limited in its theoretical, disciplinary and strategic concerns. Specifically, it urges those working in the field to establish a more critical social scientific approach to their work through increased engagement with feminist and antiracist literature.

Social work ethics provide practitioners with guidance on how to promote social work values such as respect, social justice, human relationships, service, competence, and integrity. Students entering the profession need to develop a real-world understanding of how to apply these values in practice while also managing the dilemmas that arise when social workers, clients, and others encounter conflicting values and ethical obligations. Ethics and Values in Social Work offers a comprehensive set of (...) teaching and learning materials to help students develop the knowledge, self-awareness, and critical thinking skills required to handle values and ethical issues in all levels of practice--individual, family, group, organization, community, and social policy. BSW and MSW students will particularly appreciate how complex ethical obligations and theories have been translated into plain language. Additionally, the comprehensive set of case examples and exercises provides realistic scenarios to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills across a range of practice situations. (shrink)

Gesellschaftskritik, or social philosophy that aims to provide firm criticism of pathological social practices, requires normatively grounded evaluative principles. In this article, we assess different possibilities for such principles with focus on a model that takes specific patterns of intersubjective interaction as its point of reference. We argue that in order to understand the full significance of this ‘intersubjective turn’ for social philosophy, and to strengthen the normative foundation of social philosophy, we need to distinguish several (...) levels of intersubjectivity and, in particular, focus on the somewhat neglected level of primary intersubjectivity. The article will discuss the account of primary intersubjectivity in Honneth’s work. We show that Honneth’s account runs into difficulties, and drawing on recent findings in developmental psychology, we suggest a rethinking of elementary recognition in terms of ‘affective proximity’. This both renders the account less susceptible to criticism and provides a normative perspective that can effortlessly enter into interdisciplinary collaboration. (shrink)

This book offers a much-needed critical overview of the concept of social justice and its application in professional social work practice. Social justice has a rich conceptual genealogy in critical theory and political philosophy. For students, teachers and social workers concerned with empowerment, social change and human rights, this book provides a guide to the key ideas and thinkers, crucial historical developments and contemporary debates about social justice. It synthesises interdisciplinary knowledge (...) and offers a new framework for practice, including a clear and practical exposition of four domains of skills and knowledge important for social justice informed social work. The book also contributes to social work pedagogy by offering a comprehensive set of learning outcomes that can be used to design curriculum, teaching and learning, and further research into social justice praxis. This book provides a range of philosophical and critical perspectives to support and inform social work professional knowledge and skills. In its tight knitting together of theory and practice this book links philosophical and moral principles with an understanding of how to engage with social justice in a way that is relevant to social work. (shrink)

Critical theory has left an indelible mark on postwar social thought. But what are the relations between critical theory and 'the cultural turn' ? How did critical theory inform later French critical theorists, such as Lefebvre, Barthes and Baudrillard? This accomplished and accessible book: - Demonstrates the origins of critical theory in the Marxian analysis of the capitalist mode of production and Freudian psychoanalysis - Clearly explains the main achievements of critical theory - (...) Elucidates how critical theory defines culture as a system that constrains and alienates the individual - Explores the potential for social change and personal emancipation in the critical heritage. The author locates the importance of myth and reason, the significance of sexuality, the place of work, the difference between art and entertainment, the nature of everyday life and the relationship between knowledge and action. The result is a lucid and informative text which will appeal to all students interested in the critical traditions of social thought. (shrink)

Is there a corporate social work? Do business corporations as a part of their ‘social responsibility’ aim to socially empower the community by enhancing their basic ‘capability’ registers? While the newly acquired critical conscience has made social work ethics self-reflexive and thus interrogative about a lot of concept-metaphors taken for granted in traditional social work discourse, the language of ‘empowerment’ seems to have still bullied this apocalyptic, experimental eye. All the negative effects (...) of power are lost in the blood of positive nonchalance that seems to promise the granting of power to the people people’s empowerment)—as if. Corporate social responsibility leading to social empowerment which we term as—Corporate Social Work —thus is affirmed in more ways than one. This article—instead of an external disavowal—offers through a theoretical and an empirical problematic—an internal unpacking of the concept metaphor ‘empowerment’—where ‘empowerment’, ‘doing empowerment’ and ‘being empowered’ are demonstrated to be completely separate registers awaiting an ethical reckoning. Having completed this separation—however, the article proposes a discourse ethical monitoring of the capability approach where empowerment participates only as a fractured phrase in dispute. (shrink)

This paper argues that education policy sociology, as presently constituted, is limited in its theoretical, disciplinary and strategic concerns. Specifically, it urges those working in the field to establish a more critical social scientific approach to their work through increased engagement with feminist and antiracist literature.

This is _the_ leading introduction 200to professional values and ethics in social work. Frederic G. Reamer provides social workers with a succinct and comprehensive overview of the most critical issues relating to professional values and ethics, including the nature of social work values, ethical dilemmas, and professional misconduct. Conceptually rich and attuned to the complexities of ethical decision making, _Social Work Values and Ethics_ is unique in striking the right balance between history, theory, (...) and practical application. For the third edition, Reamer has updated the content and strengthened the relevance of the case material. Also new to the third edition: o Discussion of the moral dialogue between practitioner and cliento Coverage of virtue ethicso Practical discussion of concepts underlying social work ethicso Expanded application of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics to ethical dilemmas in the professiono A look at the historical evolution of ethical standards in social worko New vignettes, illustrating difficult ethical decisionso More guidance on informed consent and termination of serviceso Discussion questions at the end of each chaptero A section on how to conduct a social work ethics audit. (shrink)

Georg Lukács was one of the most important intellectuals and philosophers of the 20th century. His last great work was an systematic social ontology that was an attempt to ground an ethical and critical form of Marxism. This work has only now begun to attract the interest of critical theorists and philosophers intent on reconstructing a critical theory of society as well as a more sophisticated framework for Marxian philosophy. This collection of essays explores (...) the concept of critical social ontology as it was outlined by Georg Lukács and the ways that his ideas can help us construct a more grounded and socially relevant form of social critique. This work will of special interest to social, moral and political philosophers as well as those who study critical theory, social theory and Marxism. It is also of interest to those working within the area of social ontology. (shrink)

Examining the situations of African Americans in the U.S.A., Lucius Outlaw's essays illustrate over twenty years of work dedicated to articulating a 'critical theory of society' that would account for issues and limiting-factors affecting African-descended peoples in the U.S. Outlaw envisions a democratic order that is not built upon racist projections of the past, but instead seeks a transformative social theory that would help create a truly democratic social order.

The paper aims to review critically the concept of discipline and observe from it the classifications have been proposed to organize the subfields belonging to social sciences in Chile. Reflection begins by reviewing the concept of discipline, from its different meanings it has had to its current use in the academic world as a field or area of knowledge. Under the latter sense can be seen that there are two disputing senses, one with emphasis on epistemic order, and other (...) on factors of socio-historical nature. It analyses the different taxonomic proposals used to group and classify sub disciplines is social sciences by governmental institutions, as well as the Faculties of Social Sciences. Finally a review is made to studies on the development and establishment of social sciences in Chile, while excluding social work discipline. El artículo tiene como propósito hacer una revisión crítica en torno al concepto de disciplina y a partir de éste observar las clasificaciones que se han propuesto para organizar las subdisciplinas pertenecientes al campo de las ciencias sociales en Chile. Se inicia la reflexión revisando el concepto de disciplina, a partir de sus diferentes acepciones que ha tenido hasta su actual uso en el mundo académico, como campo o área del conocimiento. Bajo esta última acepción se aprecia la existencia de dos metasignificados que disputan su sentido, uno con énfasis en cuestiones de orden epistémico, y otro, en factores de naturaleza sociohistóricos. Se analiza las diferentes propuestas taxonómicas que se utilizan para agrupar y clasificar las subdiciplinas del área de las ciencias sociales por parte de instituciones gubernamentales encargadas del desarrollo de la educación y las ciencias del país, así como de las Facultades Universitarias de Ciencias Sociales. Finalmente se elabora una crítica a los estudios realizados sobre el desarrollo y constitución de las ciencias sociales en el Chile, en tanto se excluye al Trabajo Social como disciplina. (shrink)

This timely book provides a critical look at the profession's rise and subsequent fall.

It is vital that social workers have a deep and critical understanding of the social work value-base, and are able to analyse and apply values and ethics to their everyday practice. This fully-revised edition of one of our best-selling titles identifies current issues in social work and then applies an ethical dimension. These issues are then investigated further within an anti-discriminatory framework and against the background of the code of practice for social care (...) workers and employers. Traditional value perspectives are clearly explained and current developments in virtue theory and the ethics of care for social work are also introduced. (shrink)

It has always been recognised that the practice of social work raises ethical questions and dilemmas. Recently, however, traditional ways of addressing ethical issues in social work have come to seem inadequate, as a result of developments both in philosophy and in social work theory and practice. This collection of thought-provoking essays explores the ethics of social work practice on the light of these changes. Ethical Issues in Social Work provides (...) up to date critical analyses of the ethical implications of new legislation in community care and criminal justice, and of trends in social work thought and policy, such as managerialism, user empowerment, feminism and anti-oppressive practice. This study provides important and stimulating reading for social work students and their teachers, and for all practitioners and managers who are concerned about the ethical dimensions of their work. (shrink)

The paper is about objectification in and of social work. Drawing on a decade-long cooperation with a Copenhagen social workers network focused in the organization Wild Learning, and starting from an Internet essay this organization has provided, the problems with objectifying social work are discussed. Viewed as basically a wholistic subjectification, social work cannot easily be endowed with objectivity in the form of scientific standards, and the objects representing it are often like novels, (...) uniqueness mass-produced; they can be said to ideologically confirm rather than scientifically model its activities and communities. The approach to objectification must dig a level deeper. It is considered how objectifications in social work – and the Internet essay is taken as example – can be approached critically as ideological objectifications and at the same time, in the cultural-historical tradition, as prototypes with some scope of relevance. (shrink)

This article aims to contribute to a critical ontology of social objects. Recent works on collective intentionality and norm-following neglect the question how free agents can be brought to collectively intend to x , although x is not in their own interest. By arguing for a natural disposition to empathic understanding and drawing on recent research in the neurosciences, this article outlines an ontological framework that extends collective intentionality to questions of oppression and status asymmetries. In a contribution (...) to this journal, Wisnewski (2005) unfortunately mischaracterizes the problem of meaning in social criticism. Implementing status problems in studies of collective intentions and construing social facts as both subjective and objective in character helps explain why agents can have persistent "misunderstandings" of social objects. (shrink)

Beginning with the influential discussion of the dialectic of progress found in Amy Allen’s The End of Progress, this paper outlines some difficulties encountered by critical theories of normative justification drawing on the early Frankfurt School. Characterizing Adorno and Horkheimer’s critical social theory as a dialectical reflection eschewing questions of normative foundations, I relate their well-known treatment of the dialectic of enlightenment reason and myth to their critique of capitalist society as a negative totality. By exploring the (...) concepts of historical development used by Adorno and Horkheimer to describe both the progressive domination of capitalism, and the formation and cultivation of reflective consciousness, I trace the importance of progression and its inseparable relationship to regression in these early versions of critical theory. The dialectical social theory found here recognizes the persistence of social contradictions on both a methodological level and on the level of theory’s development and expression, a connection potentially obscured by a division of historical progress according to its temporal orientation. Particularly in Adorno’s later work, an opposition to the negative social totality requires notions of cultivation and learning which work against the prevailing forms of conceptual thinking, including the concern for the stability of rational foundations. (shrink)

This article deals with the concept of vulnerability in social work and how social work students understand the concept of professionalism. The article is based on an empirical study of social worker students and on analysis of the literature used in the education. Theoretically, the article rests upon vulnerability theory as elaborated by Martha Fineman. The analysis suggests that the social worker students share an understanding of the client as vulnerable, and of the (...) class='Hi'>social worker as not vulnerable. This entails a view that the social worker is objective and somewhat distanced from his/her clients. The article argues that this understanding runs the risk of producing non-reflexive social work practitioners that are not aware of their own vulnerable position. In conclusion, we state that an understanding of professionalism centred on a shared vulnerability of all beings could bridge the often-used dichotomous understanding of the social worker as either “helper” or “authoritative bureaucrat” and thus lead to a more resilient concept of professionalism. (shrink)

In order to foster pro-environmental behavior in the midst of a global ecological crisis, current research in environmental psychology is often limited to individual-related factors and theories about conscious processing. However, in recent years, we observe a certain discontentment with the limitations of this approach within the community as well as increasing efforts toward broadening the scope. In our work, we aim for a closer investigation of the relations between individuals, societal factors, and pro-environmental actions while considering the role (...) of the unconscious. We hereby draw on the work of critical social psychology. From a life course perspective, we emphasize the important role of socialization, institutional and cultural contexts for mindsets and related perceptions, decisions and actions. This link between the individual and the society enables us to understand biographical trajectories and related ideologies dominant within a society. We seek to show that the approach of CSP is helpful for understanding why efforts of establishing pro-environmental actions on a large scale are still failing. In this article, we discuss the theoretical links between environmental psychology and CSP as well as possible implications, paving the way for a comprehensive future research agenda. (shrink)

This article seeks to explicate one form of technical rationality (ie the technological development of robotics) in social work education and practice. As advances in robotics evolve, questions are raised about the role of technicist education in reducing social work practice to a set of tasks that are repeatable, formulaic and linear (ie tasks that robots are capable of performing). We conduct a critical synthesis of the literature to explore how these parallel processes potentially create (...) a seamless transition for social robots to replace the human social work workforce. Our analysis suggests that social workers need to reclaim a broader understanding of social work education and practice if we intend to retain human social work practitioners into the future. We argue that this is vital because critical social work practitioners are more capable than robots of meeting the espoused social justice values of social work. (shrink)

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a relatively recent incarnation in social work's long history of valuing evidence as a basis for practice. Few argue with the ethics and usefulness of grounding practice in empirically tested interventions. Critics of EBP instead focus on how it is defined and implemented. Critiques include what counts as evidence, who makes decisions regarding research agendas and processes, and the lack of attention to context. This essay reflects on such critiques and suggests that social (...) work, as a profession that values human diversity, equality, and self-determination, is well situated to shed light on such debates about EBP. As a profession that supports a person-in-environment perspective, we must examine not only the theory but the practice of EPB in academic, institutional, and societal settings. It is also argued that, owing to our professional mission, it is not enough to acknowledge the risk of oppression and harm; we are obligated to take them seriously and include such potential for harm in our assessment of so-called best practices. (shrink)

This article debates the possibility that social work as a profession can, if it is not vigilant to the underlying premises of social development, contribute to the promotion of social injustice towards the same people it sets out to empower by unwittingly depleting and destroying the environment. Social development with its strong focus on economic development is driven mainly by modernity as a worldview. Values from this view underline aspects such as the natural environment as (...) resource, economic growth and domination over nature. Although some definitions of social development might include the concept of sustainability, thereby implying that the environment is an important issue, this level of work does not require social workers to practise from an eco-spiritual or a deep ecological point of departure. An eco-spiritual social work approach is harnessed to try and explain social work's contribution to the critical issue of the survival of all species. Guidelines and possible actions from an eco-spiritual social work approach are indicated for a shift from that of fitting in with modernity to one of sustainability and participation in the creativity of the environment. (shrink)

In this paper, three racialized social work educators unsettle our settled colonial silences as acts of self-decolonization and as a way of responding to the call to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Hailing from the uneven manifestations of global capitalism and coloniality in Morocco, Vietnam, and Ethiopia, we draw on various critical theories to interrogate our unique entanglements with the imperial project of entwined settler colonialism and white supremacy. We narrate our embodied coloniality (...) and how the virulent materiality of global processes of displacement and dispossession plays out in each of our personal stories, everyday encounters, and practices as educators. With the aim of teaching for social justice by modeling, we share the processes of unsettling our colonial settlerhood and puncturing our racialized innocence. Each story addresses three themes: contact and colonial relations with Indigenous peoples of Canada, complicity in global coloniality, and responsibility in responding to the TRC call to action. The first story provides a broad outline of our struggles with the Indigenous/Settler binary created to perpetuate the various forms of displacement and dispossession in settler colonialism. The second story probes the complexities in the Settler category by engaging difference-making as a central technology of dispossession. The third story probes the complexities in the Indigenous category through interrogating the perils and promises of recognition and reconciliation in the context of global hierarchies of nation-states and global Indigenous resistance. We conclude bymoving beyond our divergent trajectories and offering shared critical remarks on the human rights framework, the nation-state framework, and the coloniality of social work. (shrink)

Resumen: La construcción de una ciencia del Trabajo Social constituye un debate que ha adquirido intensidad disciplinar en la última década. Ello es resultado de los esfuerzos progresivos de vigilancia y depuración epistemológica que se ha venido produciendo allí dónde el Trabajo Social tiene presencia. Para contribuir a dicho proceso, este artículo propone un vértice analítico organizado en tres momentos. El primero de ellos se adentra en cuestiones epistémicas mostrando las construcciones internas que el Trabajo Social ha (...) venido discutiendo con relación a la naturaleza del conocimiento que produce. El segundo momento incide asuntos relativos al poder y en las relaciones asimétricas interdisciplinares que experimenta el Trabajo Social en las Ciencias Sociales. El tercero introduce la necesidad de atender la feminización del sujeto constructor de la disciplina como parte de su identidad epistémica secular. Se concluye que la autonomía como disciplina científica depende de las comunidades epistémicas que conviven en Trabajo Social puedan hacer explícitos sus debates que rescaten saberes ausentes, olvidados, postergados y subalternos en las jerarquías de la sociedad de conocimiento, tanto por cadenas internas como por condicionantes externos que limitan la consolidación del ethos disciplinar.: The aim of the article is to analyse a long-standing challenge in the field of social work related to its historical struggle to be taken seriously as a scientific discipline. The paper identifies a tripartite conceptual framework to guide the discussion of the science of social work. The first part describes debates in contemporary social work about the nature of knowledge, considering that social work has experienced researchers who bring critically important perspectives to bear in national and international venues. The second part focuses on the social work’s subordinate academic status within the social sciences and its historical positioning as an applied rather than research-oriented discipline and the impacts relating its power and interdisciplinary asymmetric relations experienced in social work. Finally, the article raises questions about the anonymity of women in the profession’s history. In that sense, expertise in care, social help and service to the other, are feminized components of the socio-professional identity of social work and a crucial issue to consider in understanding the discipline’s standing among other social sciences. The article argues there is evidence of a large variety of positions within the history of social work concerning issues of scientific production within the field. (shrink)

Ziege’s book focuses primarily on the two main empirical studies carried out by Max Horkheimer’s Institute of Social Research during its exile in the United States in the 1940s: a relatively unknown and never-published study of anti-Semitism among American workers and the much better known, five-volume Studies in Prejudice. Ziege poses and successfully answers the question of why the Institute began to focus more on empirical studies and anti-Semitism in the 1940s. Her thorough archival research illuminates as never before (...) the Institute’s relations to the main organizations that funded its ambitious empirical projects during this time: the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Labor Committee. She also provides the richest existing account of how the experience of American exile affected the Institute’s theoretical premises and empirical work. By distinguishing between the Institute’s ‘esoteric’ theoretical assumptions, which maintained a large degree of continuity with its earlier work, and a willingness to work at the ‘exoteric’ level with many scholars who didn’t share these assumptions, Ziege explains how the Institute made certain concessions to mainstream American academic culture without ever abandoning the radical intentions of Critical Theory. (shrink)

© 2016 Philosophy Documentation Center. The aim of this article is to argue for an interdisciplinary social theoretical approach to the technicity of human agency. This approach covers the spectrum of individual and social action from a perspective that logically precedes techno-optimism and techno-pessimism, and is intended to be both descriptively and normatively plausible. The study is anchored in a critical reading of Aristotle's thought on techné and phronésis, as his work is the precursor of action (...) theory and phenomenological hermeneutics, the central methodological orientations of this study. The importance of the "disposition formed under the guidance of reason" as the unifying trait of agency is affirmed with, and against, Aristotle. The article advocates reactivating and developing this trait of agency for a descriptive and critical discourse on the technicity of action, providing an outline of how to accomplish this task. The technicity of the individual agent is examined, reflecting on rule-following, the relation between technicity and creativity, and the interpretative moment of technicity. Next, the interwovenness of the skilful body with biological, social and symbolic aspects of human existence and with systems of technical artefacts is clarified. Finally, a case is made for the critical potential of this "technology," reverting to Aristotelian means of normative thought. (shrink)

What does social justice require in contemporary societies? What are the requirements of social democracy? Who and where are the individuals and groups that can carry forward agendas for progressive social transformation? What are we to make of the so-called new social movements of the last thirty years? Is identity politics compatible with egalitarianism? Can cultural misrecognition and economic maldistribution be fought simultaneously? What of the heritage of Western Marxism is alive and dead? And how is (...) current critical social theory to approach these and other questions? Much of the most productive work done in recent social theory has revolved around such issues, in particular, around those concerning the relationship between the politics of recognition and the politics of distribution. After the intense theoretical focus over the last fifteen years or so on the issues of recognition politics—multiculturalism, multi-nationalism, identity politics, group-differentiated rights, the accommodation of difference, and so on—some social theorists have worried that attention has been diverted from important issues of distributive equality—systematic impoverishment, increasing material inequality, ‘structural’ unemployment, the growth of oligarchic power, global economic segmentation, and so on. While some critics seem to have adopted a blunt ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ line of criticism,1 others have attempted to develop an overarching, integrative theoretical framework adequate to the diverse issues concerning both economic and cultural justice. For example, Axel Honneth proposes that a suitably developed and normatively robust theory of intersubjective recognition can adequately integrate an analysis of apparently diverse contemporary struggles: those for a just division of labor and hence, a fair distribution of resources and opportunities, as well as those for a culture free of identity-deforming disrespect and denigration. (shrink)

The contemporary sociology of morality is a form of descriptive ethics that shrinks away from any sort of prescriptive ethics. Building on the moral philosophies of John Dewey, and also of Alasdair MacIntyre and Paul Ricoeur, and in dialogue with recent work by Stefan Bargheer, this article proposes a more ambitious program of critical social ethics that connects concerns with character and the common good but tempers them with attention to alienation and oppression.

PARLOUR R and MCCORMACK B. Nursing Inquiry 2012; 19: 308–321 Blending critical realist and emancipatory practice development methodologies: making critical realism work in nursing researchThis paper examines the efficacy of facilitation as a practice development intervention in changing practice within an Older Person setting and in implementing evidence into practice. It outlines the influences exerted by the critical realist paradigm in guiding emancipatory practice development activities and, in particular, how the former may be employed within an (...) emancipatory practice development study to elucidate and increase understanding pertinent to causation and outcomes. The methodology is based upon an emancipatory practice development approach set within a realistic evaluation framework. This allows for systematic analysis of the social and contextual elements that influence the explication of outcomes associated with facilitation. The study is concentrated upon five practice development cycles, within which a sequence of iterative processes is integrated. The authors assert that combining critical realist and emancipatory processes offers a robust and practical method for translating evidence and implementing changes in practice, as the former affirms or falsifies the influence that emancipatory processes exert on attaining culture shift, and enabling transformation towards effective clinical practice. A new framework for practice development is proposed that establishes methodological coherency between emancipatory practice development and realistic evaluation. This augments the existing theoretical bases for both these approaches by contributing new theoretical and methodological understandings of causation. (shrink)

Midstream modulation is a form of public engagement with science which benefits from strategic application of science and technology studies (STS) insights accumulated over nearly 20 years. These have been developed from STS researchers’ involvement in practical engagement processes and research with scientists, science funders, policy and other public stakeholders. The strategic aim of this specific method, to develop what is termed second-order reflexivity amongst scientist-technologists, builds upon and advances earlier more general STS work. However this method is focused (...) and structured so as to help generate such reflexivity—over the ‘upstream’ questions which have been identified in other STS research as important public issues for scientific research, development and innovation—amongst practising scientists-technologists in their specialist contexts (public or private, in principle). This is a different focus from virtually all such previous work, and offers novel opportunities for those key broader issues to be opened up. The further development of these promising results depends on some important conditions such as identifying and engaging research funders and other stakeholders like affected publics in similar exercises. Implementing these conditions could connect the productive impacts of midstream modulation with wider public engagement work, including with ‘uninvited’ public engagement with science. It would also generate broader institutional and political changes in the larger networks of institutional actors which constitute contemporary technoscientific innovation and governance processes. All of these various broader dimensions, far beyond the laboratory alone, need to be appropriately open, committed to democratic needs, and reflexive, for the aims of midstream modulation to be achieved, whilst allowing specialists to work as specialists. (shrink)

In this article, a poetical and performative narrative is shared to examine how the use of stories to critically self‐reflect on oppression facilitates an understanding of critical social theory in nursing education and impacts social justice. A fusion of prose with a poetical narrative is employed; the latter is reserved to capture the immediacy of personal, emotive, and embodied storied experiences. This deeply intimate and dialogical story begins with a pedagogical experiment created to facilitate nursing students' understanding (...) of critical social theory. Drawing upon Paulo Freire's work, the nursing teacher in a professional development course attempted to deconstruct power relations and cultivate an open and safe learning environment by sharing a poem that depicts her oppression. Students then anonymously wrote a word/statement about their oppression. The teacher created a composite poem from students' words and shared it with the class; it was a powerful moment that highlighted their shared humanity. As a way to further explore stories and consider how to preserve these words, a small group of students and the teacher formed the ‘the oppression group’. Towards the end, we conclude an unfinished story by realizing that the chains of oppression are loosening and humanity is surfacing. There is still a camouflaging of an authentic self. There are still stories to be told. The group is not yet certain if a social representation of an authentic self is possible and if all stories can be told. It has become apparent that the personal can play out in social justice as enacted in the classroom between teacher and students and provides an entry point into the development of the capacity to be social agents in nursing. The group simultaneously concludes the story with both an ending and a threshold of social justice. (shrink)

"We owe a large debt to Axel Honneth for uncovering some of the theoretical affinities between the work of the Frankfurt School and that of Foucault.

Axel Honneth's Critique of Power is a rich interpretation of the history of critical theory, which clarifies its central problems and emphasizes the "social" factors that should provide that theory with a normative and practical orientation.Honneth focuses on the dialog between French and German social theory that was beginning at the time of Michel Foucault's death. It traces the common roots of the work of Foucault and Jürgen Habermas to a basic text of the last generation (...) of critical theorists - Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment - and draws from this connection the outline of a program that might unite and surpass their seemingly irreconcilable methods of critiquing power structures. In doing so, Honneth provides a constructive and nonpolemical framework for comparisons between the two theorists. And he presents a novel interpretation of Foucault's analysis of social systems.Honneth traces the internal contradictions in critical theory through an analysis of Horkheimer's early programmatic writings, the Dialectic of Enlightenment, and Adorno's later social-theoretical writings. He shows how Habermas and Foucault in their distinctive ways reinserted the social world into critical theory but argues that neither operation has been wholly successful. His cogent analysis redirects critical social theory in ways that can draw on the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the two approaches.Axel Honneth is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Konstanz. (shrink)

The recent and dramatic emergence of digital and other electronic technology in social work?such as online counseling, video counseling, avatar therapy, and e-mail therapy?has tested and challenged the profession's longstanding and widely accepted perspectives on the nature of both clinical relationships and core ethics concepts. These developments have transformed key elements of social work practice and require critical examination of the meaning and application of relevant ethical concepts in diverse cultures. This article explores pertinent ethical (...) implications related to social workers' commitment to clients; privacy/confidentiality; client self-determination and professional paternalism; informed consent; and professional?client boundaries and dual relationships. The author discusses the need for social workers to re-examine time-honored ethics concepts and explore their implications for the profession's ethical standards pertaining to the practitioner?client relationship. (shrink)

The main goal of critical social justice is to ensure the agency of citizens, which enables them to take part, not only in public discussions about how resources are distributed, but also about matters such as what should be produced, how to do it and through what kind of production, among others. Critical social justice can be best formulated within the foundation programme of discursive ethics, in particular within Apel's version specified in his principle of co-responsibility. (...) This principle establishes a telos that operates as a normative guide to formulate the constructive question about which the necessary conditions are for someone to be able to become a subject of dialogue. Answering this question leads, on the one hand, to the development of some constitutive elements of critical social justice and, on the other hand, to the identification of the social relations and structures that undermine the possibilities of a person to effectively participate in the discussion of the topics they consider relevant. As its constitutive elements, I propose reciprocal recognition autonomy, the metric of capabilities and a sufficientarian principle of justice, which work together with the well-known difference principle. These elements constitute a normative net that allows contemporary societies to be criticized from the perspective of justice. (shrink)