ABSTRACT

Developing sustainable and effective practice within organisations requires practitioners to navigate oppressive social structures to promote inclusivity. Supervision can be an effective mechanism to achieve this outcome. Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts, habitus, field, and capital provide a critical framework for understanding social relations at both organisational and community levels in practice and supervision. Drawing on research findings, this chapter applies a Bourdieusian framework to a study of supervision within community social services in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Within the current neoliberal climate, supervision can provide a creative space to stimulate critical reflection, promote social justice, and support professional sustainability within the workplace.