Synopsis
As social workers face a crucial challenge, intensified by global economic recession, of balancing the need to be effective and evidence-based with promoting critical and emancipatory change, the debate about what constitutes good social work practice has become highly contested. More than ever, social workers need a good knowledge of the social sciences and practice theory, the capacity for critical reflection and analysis, and the skill to translate all of this into effective intervention. For those seeking to understand social work, the second edition of this best-selling text offers a systematic examination of different methods, models, and practice theories, written by a range of respected academics and practitioners. The book sets these ideas in a clear and accessible framework of practice in changing political, economic, and social contexts, and it considers future developments in an international context. It will stimulate debate and critical reflection about social work and how theory can enhance and enrich practice everywhere in ways that promote effectiveness and social justice.
About the Author
Deirdre Ford is a qualified social worker and Lecturer in Social Work who for ten years combined an academic career at Exeter University with practice, working with people who have a learning disability and mental health problems, prior to taking up a full-time post at Plymouth University in 2002. She has worked extensively with service user and carer groups in both social work education and practice. Recent research interests and publications stem from practice developments related to Safeguarding Adults, and Downs Syndrome and dementia. Paul Stepney has recently been appointed as an adjunct Professor of Social Work and Kone Foundation Research Fellow at the University of Tampere in Finland. Prior to this he has taught at universities in Hull, Manchester, Exeter and more recently Wolverhampton, UK. For many years he worked as a community worker, generic social worker and during the 1990s combined university teaching at Exeter University with a hospital social work post. He has researched and published in the area of critical practice developing strategies of prevention alongside protection. He has published a number of articles on critical practice in Australian, UK and US journals, and has recently set up a comparative research project in two European cities to investigate these issues and explore how preventive practice might be developed. He is co-author of two books: (i) co-editor with Deirdre Ford Social Work Models, Methods and Theories: A Framework for Practice, (Russell House Publishing, 2000); (ii) co-author with Keith Popple Social Work and the Community: a critical context for practice, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
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