ABSTRACT
Social work emerged to contest the cruelties of capitalism and liberalism – cruelties since renewed under neoliberalism. Theodor Adorno, a member of the Frankfurt School of Social Research, addressed that challenge. He considered liberalism’s contribution to the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust and how to prevent their recurrence. He critiqued liberalism’s emphasis on independence and its resulting neglect of ‘external’ influences – the manner in which liberalism blames and disciplines its victims. Adorno demonstrated how liberalism’s purported value-neutrality obscures those ‘external’ influences and the harm following from their neglect. His works suggest a radical, accessible, pedagogy that reveals liberalism’s inadequacies and promotes the recognition of the influence of the ‘external’ and of the role of values in the conceptualisation and treatment of those influences – a pedagogy that promotes essential social work and democratic capacities, including skills in critical analysis, critical reflection and working with difference, guided by a ‘critical compass’ of core values. Adorno’s works also offer much to social work practice in promoting equitable, inclusive casework and supports for resisting neoliberal and managerialist influences, including collaborations with community organisations dedicated to providing witness about, and advocacy against, oppression.
