The Cause of Poverty?

This blog leads to a couple of very interesting articles on the history and creation of poverty. In a nutshell: the roots of poverty as we experience it today began with the Enclosures of 18th Century Britain, colonialism and slavery, and the modern systems of market management, capitalism, attitudes to money, and the loss of community values.

Austerity is a Political Choice not Economic Necessity

Think Left

By Prue Plumridge

Last week Matthew Lyn (a columnist for Bloomberg) wrote in an article published in Money Week that, “the policies on offer under Corbynomics would quickly ruin the economy”. This was followed shortly afterwards with another written by no less than a Labour councillor and published on Labour List which assured us that “Cutting the deficit, healthy public finances, running a budget surplus, fiscal responsibility, and prudence [..] are not Tory ideological dictums but sound economic strategies that had served Labour well in the past. Embracing these goals and persuading Britain that we can be trusted on economy is a key to winning power.”

However, if were to take the trouble to understand how our economic and money systems actually work we would soon learn that such statements are either born of economic illiteracy or wilful deceit in order to pursue specific political agendas. This can largely…

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The New Politics of Social Work (book review)

The New Politics of Social Work – Edited by Mel Gray & Stephen A Webb [2013]; Palgrave Macmillan (www.palgrave.com); Paperback. £23.99. ISBN 978-0-230-29678-7

Starting with ‘justice as a normative value’, Gray and Webb want to bring about a new level of political awareness and action, laying out here the need for a new vision that will take social work beyond capitalism, neoliberal economics and managerial control and provide the foundations for a new proposal: a “New Social Work Left”.  They challenge the inherent unfairness of a capitalist society based on greed and poke at the gap that has opened up in the aftermath of the relatively recent global financial crisis.

Anyone who has only known social work in the last two decades may well find themselves looking anew at what they thought were the foundations of the modern social work profession, only to realise the extent to which right wing politics underpins their theory, practice and values.  Some may find it uncomfortable reading, others may disagree.

Broken down into three parts, Part I largely maps out the political terrain of social work and is certainly not a ‘first reader’ in politics.

The four chapters that make up Part II (Critically Reflective Practice, Critical Management, Critical Best Practice and Critical Discourse Analysis) will be of value to students preparing for their first or subsequent practice placement.

Part III expands on the political impact on some key social work issues.  However, it is Iain Ferguson’s chapter on Social Workers as Agents of Change that provides what is probably the most lucid and damning account of the effect of two decades of neoliberal managerialism and a profession in crisis.  If in doubt, start here.