ABSTRACT
Social work practitioners can be perceived as part of 'enabling' networks assisting individuals who are considered self-excluded due to their irresponsible choices to work on themselves so as to constitute 'entrepreneurial' selves. Importantly, it is argued that social workers are far from passive actors, but have the ability to craft their roles in order to foster solidarity amongst themselves and with those for whom they provide services. It examines how governing forms of neoliberal rationality serve to generate the specific ways in which social workers interact with 'clients' in moment-to-moment interactions. Fittingly, the special issue concludes with an article from Edgar Marthinsen, the convenor of the Trondheim initiative, in which he focuses on the challenges facing social work. The author also furnishes an outline of the history of resistance in social work against neoliberalism and goes onto analyze the coupling of neoliberal policy and social investment policy.
