Engaging with Social Work: A Critical Introduction

Social work practitioners must be prepared to respond to emerging social problems in a rapidly changing world. Engaging with Social Work provides an introduction to critical social work, helping students to cultivate their own understanding of the structures and discourses of oppression and disadvantage, while exploring the role of the social worker. The third edition contains updated content on emerging social issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, broken systems – such as aged care and child protection, increasing wealth inequality, threats to democracy and the decolonisation of social work. Chapters include margin definitions of key terms, reflective exercises and case studies. Perspectives on Practice are integrated throughout the text. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives are also included throughout, providing an understanding of their experiences. Written by experienced practitioners, Engaging with Social Work is an approachable resource for students, providing them with foundational knowledge in critical concepts and theories.

Christine Morley BSW (Hons) Ph.D. is Professor and Head of Social Work and Human Services at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She is a passionate advocate of critical social work and has published more than 100 articles in this area. Her research involves strategies for improving practice across a range of fields including mental health, wealth inequality, women who have experienced trauma – particularly sexual assault/domestic violence – and grief and loss (including those who have lost companion animals). More recently, her work has focused on the impact of neoliberalism on social work and higher education, how critical pedagogy might equip practitioners to work in challenging professional contexts and addressing placement poverty. Her other books include Practising Critical Reflection to Develop Emancipatory Change (2014) and The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work (with Phillip Ablett, Carolyn Noble and Stephen Cowden, 2020). She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has received a National Citation from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Committed to connecting research, teaching and practice (including activism and advocacy) as part of a holistic approach, she has inspired colleagues and students to become critical analysts of inequality. Her contributions have impacted policy and expand the critical scholarship of the social work discipline in a way that furthers a social justice agenda.

Phillip Ablett BA (Hons), MSW, Ph.D., has taught into social and community work programs at the University of the Sunshine Coast and the Queensland University of Technology, where he is currently Coordinator of the BSW program, for over two decades. Coming from a working-class background in Victoria during a period of social reform in the 1970s, he was the first in his family to attend university. Initially studying sociology, he earned a doctorate focused on political repression in the Philippines and the social movements (including many church-based, social and community workers) aiming to eliminate oppression and institute conditions under which people might flourish. This has led to a lifelong engagement in social activism, human rights advocacy and fact-finding, leading interfaith and cultural diversity programs, and various community development projects, amid which he completed a Master of Social Work. His social work practice and research involve linking critical theory to transformative social work education and macro-practice, particularly in community development and in the social work contribution to 'policy-practice'. He is currently working on a collaborative project, entitled Real Utopias for Social Work, concerning the role of social workers in formulating, and promoting, social policies to address the issues faced by their service user constituencies.

Selma Macfarlane, BSW, Ph.D. has been involved in social work education for over twenty-five years, mainly at Deakin University, Geelong. Originally from northern California, she grew up in a time and place characterised by social activism and alternative world views. Coming to Australia in her early twenties, she studied social work as a mature age student and mother concerned about social inequality and the ways in which people's lives were shaped by wider social structures, systems and discourse. Her Ph.D. dissertation explored people's experiences in a therapeutic community aimed at supporting individuals in their mental health journeys. In the academic world, Selma has developed curricula across BSW and MSW courses, taught and published across diverse subject areas, worked with students and colleagues in research and field education programs and continued to learn and think about the meaning and practice of critical social work.