AI and the Disruption of the Social: Challenges for Social Work Education and Practice

AI and the Disruption of the Social analyses digital automation and the disruption of both the social and social work, in response to rapid advances in digital technology, automated decision-making, and artificial intelligence (AI) within systems of governance, work, education, and everyday life.

Establishing that we’re now entering a ‘fourth industrial revolution’ driven by late capitalism, this volume approaches technological advancements with a critical lens, exploring how digital automation is disrupting the social, and particularly the lives of the most vulnerable. Contributors suggest that AI systems are amplifying existing socio-economic, gender, and racial biases and stereotypes in our society, suggesting that an ethical and progressive political response is needed to counteract this. Arguing that digital advancements represent a push to commodify human ‘intelligence’ while advancing state surveillance projects and coercive control, this work explores how automation is transforming the knowledge and skills required to thrive in human services roles and within a civil society.

This book highlights important philosophical, epistemological, ethical, educational, and practice challenges for governments, human services practitioners, and educators and will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, social policy, and sociology.

Goetz Ottmann is a Senior Lecturer at Federation University in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of several books, book chapters, and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles. His research interests include critical social theory, authoritarian ‘welfare’, social policy, and aged and disability care. His latest co-authored books include The Challenge of Right‑wing Nationalist Populism for Social Work (2020), Post‑Pandemic Welfare and Social Work: Reimagining the ‘New Normal’ (2024), and AI and the Disruption of Welfare (2026), published by Routledge.

Carolyn Noble is a Professor Emerita at ACAP, Sydney, and Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. She is the author of several books, chapters, and peer reviewed articles. Her latest co-authored and co-edited books include The Challenge of Right‑wing Nationalist Populism for Social Work (2020), Post‑Pandemic Welfare and Social Work: Re‑imaging the ‘New Normal’ (2024), The Routledge International Handbook of Feminisms in Social Work (2024), and AI and the Disruption of Welfare (2026). She is the current editor‑in‑chief of IASSW Social Dialogue: https://socialdialogue.online/.