ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the challenges and opportunities of the new urbanism. It suggests what this means for expanding the repertoire of critical social work. The chapter argues that the new entanglements and encounters of the city offer a prospect for the emergence of a new paradigm of practice built on methodologies that focus on place/scale/ and equi-collaboration to produce impact and sustainability. The critical social work tradition should invite reconsideration but suffers from an introspection and insularity that shields the profession from a responsive positioning to the demands of ‘an urban age’. Prioritising the urban agenda is critical to extending the historic mission of social work and its four core orthodoxies: enhancing and facilitating sociality, social support and care, social justice and sustainability. Critical social work underpinned by critical urban studies has as its historical echo the Chicago School collaborations between academics, practitioners and publics working together on the urban question.
