ABSTRACT
Social work operates at the intersection of the personal and the social and, as such, has the potential for either reinforcing or challenging inequalities, the processes of discrimination that sustain them and the forms of oppression that result from them. In recent years considerable efforts have been invested in developing forms of practice that challenge, rather than reinforce, discrimination and oppression - in short, emancipatory practice. However, what has tended not to receive adequate attention in the overall scheme of things has been the development of an underpinning theory base. It is therefore my aim in this chapter to explore the basic building blocks of a theory of emancipatory practice, drawing specifically on existentialist thought.
