ABSTRACT
It seems fitting to end the reader with a chapter on post-modern approaches, because ‘post-modern’ probably sums up best the condition in which we find ourselves, in society and in social work. As outlined in Part I, social work today takes place in a fragmented, risky and changing policy and practice context. Some of the certainties which encouraged us to make claims on behalf of social work theory and knowledge look decidedly shaky, and social work practice is pulled simultaneously in a number of competing directions; its future, as ever, uncertain. But post-modernism is not just a counsel of despair. If everything is changing, then, as I have argued previously (Cree 1995, 2008), we can do something about it. We, as practitioners, service users, students and academics can come together to make social work the positive, enabling, strengths-based, community-focused resource it can be. The extract is taken from Barbara Fawcett’s chapter in an edited collection. Fawcett has written extensively on post-modernism and social work. She is Professor of Social Work who is originally from the UK and is now based in Australia.
From M. Gray and S. Webb (eds) Social Work Theories and Methods, Sage: London (2009): 119–28.
