Post-Anthropocentric Social Work - Critical Posthuman and New Materialist Perspectives

This book seeks to trouble taken-for-granted assumptions of anthropocentrism and humanism in social work - those which perpetuate human privilege and human exceptionalism. The edited collection provides a different imaginary for social work by introducing ways of thinking otherwise that challenge human exceptionalism.

Social work is at heart a liberal humanist project informed by a strong human rights framework. This edited collection draws on the literature on affect, feminist new materialism and critical posthumanism to critique the liberal framework, which includes human rights. Disrupting the anthropocentrism in social work which positions humans as an elite species at the centre of world history, this book develops an ethical sensibility that values entanglements of humans, non-human life and the natural environment.

The book provides new insights into environmental destruction, human-animal relations, gender inequality and male dominance, as well as indigenous and settler/colonial issues and critical and green social work. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, community development, social policy and development studies more broadly.

List of contents

1. Towards Post-Anthropocentric Social Work. Part 1: Philosophical Foundations of Post-Anthropocentric Social Work. 2. What Comes After the Subject? Towards a Critical Posthumanist Social Work. 3. An Invitation into the Trouble with Humanism for Social Work. 4. Restorative and Regenerative Relational Praxis Must Include the Non-human. 5. A Philosophy of Social Work Beyond the Anthropocene. 6. Feeling the ‘Weight of the Body’: Posthumanism and De-liberalising Social Work. Part 2: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Doing Post-Anthropocentric Social Work. 7. Propositions for Slow Social Work. 8. Ecofeminism to Feminist Materialism: Implications for Anthropocene Feminist Social Work. 9. Fostering Non-Anthropocentric Vulnerability in Men: Challenging the Autonomous Masculine Subject in Social Work. 10. Return of the Posthuman: Developing Indigenist Perspectives for Social Work at a Time of Environmental Crisis. 11. More-Than-Human Community Work: The Affirmative Biopolitics of Life in a Glasgow Neighbourhood. 12. Posthumanism, Sexualities Education and the Production of Citizenship. Part 3: More-than-Human Sites of Practice in Post-Anthropocentric Social Work. 13. Animals as Domestic Violence Victims: A Challenge to Humanist Social Work. 14. Towards a Critical Posthumanist Social Work: Trans-Species Ethics of Ecological Justice, Nonviolence and Love. 15. Encountering Interspecies Homelessness: Resisting Anthroparchy in Social Work and the All-Too-Human Services. 16. Natureculture Dilemmas in Northern Finland: Guiding Post-Anthropocentric Social Work Through the Mire. 17. Hauntology, History and Heritage: Intergenerational Trauma in South African Displaced Families.

About the author

Vivienne Bozalek is Emerita Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of the Western Cape, and Honorary Professor in the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning at Rhodes University, South Africa.
Bob Pease is Adjunct Professor in the Institute for Social Change at the University of Tasmania and an Honorary Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University.

Summary

This book seeks to trouble taken-for-granted assumptions of anthropocentrism and humanism in social work - those which perpetuate human privilege and human exceptionalism. The edited collection provides a different imaginary for social work by introducing ways of thinking otherwise that challenge human exceptionalism.
Social work is at heart a liberal humanist project informed by a strong human rights framework. This edited collection draws on the literature on affect, feminist new materialism and critical posthumanism to critique the liberal framework, which includes human rights. Disrupting the anthropocentrism in social work which positions humans as an elite species at the centre of world history, this book develops an ethical sensibility that values entanglements of humans, non-human life and the natural environment.
The book provides new insights into environmental destruction, human-animal relations, gender inequality and male dominance, as well as indigenous and settler/colonial issues and critical and green social work. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, community development, social policy and development studies more broadly.

Product details

• Authors: Vivienne Pease Bozalek
• Assisted by: Vivienne Bozalek (Editor), Bob Pease (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9780367349653
• ISBN: 978-0-367-34965-3
• No. of pages: 228
• Series: Routledge Advances in Social Work
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general)