Decolonizing Social Work - From Theory to Transformative Practice

This open access edited collection provides a long-overdue examination of a practice that is continuously involved in managing, regulating, and subordinating individuals and communities. While it is well established that neoliberal systems of population management are designed to target the "constructed other," there is considerably less research examining how social work in particular interacts with the vestiges of colonialism to further this practice. Gathering social work scholars and practitioners from around the world, this collection offers a geographically diverse array of ambitious and insightful theoretical, conceptual, and practical discussions of how social work can perpetuate the afterlives of colonialism and of how this can be reversed. In so doing, this book not only provides in-depth, empirically grounded critiques of - and antidotes to - various policies for managing people at the margins of society, it also makes a compelling case for always keeping the complexity of colonial continuity in conversation with neoliberal systems of governance. As these chapters show, it is only by keeping the full complexity of such confluences in mind that social inequality and institutional racism can be understood and that possibilities for change can emerge. For its fundamental contributions to the literature on postcolonial social work, this is essential reading for social work researchers and postgraduates; and for its plainspoken tone and practical recommendations, it is a go-to source for social work practitioners eager to align their own everyday work with the demands of global justice. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.

Product details

• Authors: Robel Abay, Robel Afeworki Abay, Anna- Klages, Anna-Lisa Klages, Tanja Kleibl, Lug
• Assisted by: Robel Abay (Editor), Robel Afeworki Abay (Editor), Robel Afeworki Abay (Editor), Anna-Lisa Klages (Editor), Anna-Lisa Klages (Editor), Tanja Kleibl (Editor), Sara Rodríguez Lugo (Editor), Robel Afeworki Abay (Editor), Sara Rodríguez Lugo (Editor), Tanja Kleibl (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 30.04.2026
• EAN: 9781350366473
• ISBN: 978-1-350-36647-3
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Social Work, Colonialism & imperialism, Social Work, Colonialism and imperialism, Civil rights & citizenship, Human rights, civil rights, National liberation & independence, post-colonialism, Decolonisation and postcolonial studies, community; colonialism; decolonial