Full Description
Focussing on the epistemic - the way in which knowledge is understood,
constructed,
transmitted and used - this book shows the way social work
knowledge has been constructed from within a white western paradigm, and
the need for a critique of whiteness within social work at this epistemic level.
Social work, emerging from the western Enlightenment world, has privileged
white western knowledge in ways that have been, until recently, largely unexamined
within its professional discourse. This imposition of white western
ways of knowing has led to a corresponding marginalisation of other forms
of knowledge. Drawing on views from social workers from Asia, the Pacific
region, Africa, Australia and Latin America, this book also includes a glossary
of over 40 commonly used social work terms, which are listed with their epistemological
assumptions identified. Opening up a debate about the received
wisdom of much social work language as well as challenging the epistemological
assumptions behind conventional social work practice, this book will be
of interest to all scholars and students of social work as well as practitioners
seeking
to develop genuinely decolonised forms of practice.
Contents
PART 1
Introduction: Sonia Tascón and Jim Ife
Chapter 1: Critical Whiteness: Communicating Social Work: Sonia Tascón
Chapter 2: Whiteness from Within: Jim Ife
PART 2
Chapter 3: The white saviour complex: The danger of the "single story" about Africa & Africans in Social work Practice: Kathomi Gatwiri
Chapter 4: Straddling the Gap: Australian Social Work and First People: Sue Green
Chapter 5: Decolonising Social work in Uganda by Starting from the Community: Sharlotte Tusasiirwe
Chapter 6: Refractory inventions: The incubation of Rival Epistemologies on the Margins of Brazilian Social Work: Iris Silva Brito, Goetz Ottmann
Chapter 7: Mutuality and creativity: Knowing and Being as a Pasifika social work scholar: Tracie Mafile'o
Chapter 8: Supporting the development of Pacific Social Work across Oceania - critical reflections and lessons learnt towards disrupting whiteness in the region: Jioji Ravulo
Chapter 9: Una aproximación al trabajo social desde la decolonialidad y la interseccionalidades: Larry Alicea Rodríguez
Chapter 10: Islamic and Local Knowledge on Social Work in Malaysia: Zulkarnain A. Hatta, Isahaque Ali, Mohd Haizzan Yahaya, Mat Saad
PART 3
Decolonising the Language of Social Work
