Social Workers, the Community and Social Interaction

Social workers are called upon to perform their varied tasks in a wide range of social settings, often involving intensely intimate contact with, and intervention in, a person's private moral and social world. Offering insights into the lives and motives of social work service users, Social Workers, The Community and Social Interaction demonstrates the practical relevance of recent sociological research for good social work practice. The book examines such topics as:

· how social work is taught, managed and delivered
· the interaction between clients and social workers
· the nature of social life in institutions
· how stigmatisation shapes social interaction
· 'deviancy' and its policing
· informal care and how social work can relate to it
· everyday ideas and beliefs about poverty, inequality and illness.

The author argues that sociology is an undervalued resource for social work training and education, and, emphasising the importance of competences in social work, shows how a greater awareness of sociological issues can help improve services for clients.

John Offer is Senior Lecturer in Social Administration and Policy at the University of Ulster, Coleraine.