ABSTRACT

Almost everywhere across the world, economic inequality has been rising within and across national borders. The vision of a fairer world embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being assailed by the advance of conservative ideology aided by vitriolic right-wing populism sweeping across the globe. Neoliberal ideology has had a profound impact in the shaping social work and human services at the frontlines.

This book contributes to scholarship in critical practice and theory. It does so by exploring a practice approach steeped in the critical tradition that has hitherto received inordinately nominal attention in social work literature. The book features accounts of consciousness-raising in a variety of contexts – caste relations, race and religion, gender and sexuality, disability and social class. The narratives are meant to tease out conceptions and potential applications of consciousness-raising as an approach for critical practice. It will be of interest to practitioners, educators and students of social work, community development, social development and social pedagogy as well as those engaged in the promotion of human rights and social justice.

chapter 2|5 pages

Touching the untouchable

Dalit empowerment through consciousness-raising in an Indian village

chapter 4|14 pages

Consciousness-raising among rural women in Bangladesh

A study of the BRAC’s Microfinance Program participants

chapter 5|13 pages

Gendered violence in the Australian context

Feminist consciousness-raising

chapter 6|18 pages

Colliding identities

Gay Muslim men in a liberal secular society

chapter 7|17 pages

“We could have, you know, a revolution”

Consciousness-raising and self-advocacy for people with intellectual disability in 1980s Victoria

chapter 8|22 pages

Paulo Freire and education for liberation

The case of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST)

chapter 10|14 pages

Critical consciousness and social change