Introduction

In the 1970s a loose-knit radical social work movement, containing a variety of Left hues, pitted a socialist paradigm against the reformist social democratic paradigm which had dominated social work's development within the British post-war welfare state. Although the position of social workers had become central to the radical social work paradigm's analysis, consideration of management and management processes was noticeably absent. This absence was particularly noticeable in relation to front-line management and is puzzling for two reasons. First, if social work management was controlling the work of state social workers as part of an overall trend within capitalist Britain, the front-line manager's experience of these developments was likely to be a particularly pertinent vantage point from which to view them. Secondly, the front-line manager's own experience of managerial control was an area which had been skirted around in the radical social work texts. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.