Radical Hope in Social Work (Routledge Advances in Social Work)

This book broadens the concept of hope used in social work research, education, policy and practice. Moving beyond individualist analyses of hope that construct social workers as givers and holders of hope, it draws on intersectionality to argue that individualist articulations of hope in social work need to be interrogated to make visible structural and social contexts that are often marked by intersecting social and systemic oppressions and inequalities.

Discussing multidisciplinary research and conceptualisations of hope as a multidimensional concept that includes both individual and radical structural and social change in social work, this book theorises the importance of engaging with critical, radical and utopian conceptualisations of hope across social work research and practice. It also highlights how radical notions of hope are envisioned in different activist campaigns and across diverse fields of social work practice, including in revolutionary, abolitionist and system reform campaigns associated with Indigenising social work, incarceration, child protection and advocating for a greener world.

By theorising hope as an integral component in critical and radical social work’s commitment to social justice, in the context of the hegemony of neoliberal thinking, this book will be of interest to all scholars, students and practitioners of the subject.

Carole Zufferey is a Senior Lecturer in social work at the University of South Australia (now Adelaide University). She publishes in the fields of intersectionality, home, social work and homelessness. Carole has previously published sole-authored and edited books with Routledge, as well as with Policy Press. She was also a research team member on the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) lived experience research project led by Professor Robyn Martin at RMIT University.

Chris Horsell is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of South Australia (now Adelaide University). He has been researching, teaching and writing in the areas of utopian thinking, homelessness, social inclusion and disability for numerous years. He has published two books with Routledge: Zufferey, Carole and Horsell, Chris (2022) The Complexities of Home in Social Work; and Horsell, Chris (2025) Utopian Thinking and Social Work.