Pushing Boundaries in Social Work Around the World : Policy and Global Perspectives

This book provides examples of how social workers have pushed back against neoliberalism, attempts to co-opt or silence social workers, and reproduce philosophical and ethical assumptions that divide humans from each other and from the natural world.

This is the second book of a two-volume set that focuses on how authors have pushed boundaries in a particular field of practice, research or policy in social work. The books are culturally, gender-, and geographically inclusive, with contributors from every inhabited continent. It is future-focused, hopeful, and inspiring: it focuses on solutions rather than merely elaborating problems. The book includes chapters from a continuum of experienced practitioners and early career researchers; this provides a nuanced and accessible view of boundaries from both ends of the career path.

The global definition of social work says that the discipline ‘promotes social change and development, social cohesion and the empowerment and liberation of people’ but in many nations where social work exists, social workers are expected to act as agents of social control, ensuring that people—particularly ‘the poor’—conform to established political and social norms. Most often social workers are initially attracted to the discipline because they want to empower and liberate vulnerabilised and marginalised people and communities. In order to accomplish these high-minded goals, social workers must occasionally push boundaries that confine their practice. 

This volume contains eight chapters from social workers who are challenging policy and the way social work is practiced in their national settings. Authors in this book interrogate the notion of national boundaries and contemporary populist self-interest. Not only are political boundaries considered, but the boundaries between humans and their natural environments are reconsidered. The book concludes by setting out key decisions that the global social work discipline must make in order to create its future, and identifies key markers on the path to that future.

Pushing Boundaries in Social Work Around the World, Vol. 2: Policy and Global Perspectives invites social workers to reconsider their assumptions about policy practice and boundaries themselves. It encourages them to rediscover the spark that originally drew them to their work.

Mark Henrickson, MDiv, MSW, PhD is retired Professor of Social Work at Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. He has published extensively on HIV, sexual and cultural diversity, and international social work. His books include The Origins of Social Care and Social Work: Creating a Global Future, Vulnerability and Marginality in Human Services, and the edited books Getting to Zero: Global Social Work Responds to AIDS, and HIV, Sex and Sexuality in Later Life.  

Darla Spence Coffey, PhD, MSW is a Senior Leadership Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and a Distinguished Scholar at the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.  She served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) from 2012-2022.  Her current teaching, writing and research focus on leadership development, interprofessional collaboration, and global social work education.