Full Description
How are identities formed among social workers, many of whom perform complex, challenging and ambiguous public sector functions on a regular basis? Why does identity come to matter for professional social work? This book, the first of its kind in the field, examines professional identity in relation to social work by asking how practitioners think of themselves as a "social worker", a professional self-concept often entangled in a range of relations, beliefs, values and experiences.
Bringing together the perspectives of an internationally renowned group of specialists, the collection addresses a range of issues associated with professional identity construction and "being professional" in the context of a rapidly changing inter-professional environment. It introduces new concepts to social work, including materiality, enactment, performance, affect, entanglement, capital and worth, to consider the vexed issues surrounding matters of professional identity in social work.
This will be an essential guide to all those keen to debate the challenges and possibilities confronting contemporary social work through the lens of professional identity, whether they are students, educators, practitioners, researchers, managers, policy-makers or associated professionals. It will also appeal to those interested in social theory, organisational sociology and leadership as well as anyone working in related fields of health and education.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Chapter 1 Matters of Professional Identity and Social Work
Stephen A. Webb
PART 1 Key concepts and perspectives
Chapter 2 Perspectives on Professional Identity: the changing world of the social worker
Mike Dent
Chapter 3 What is professional identity and how do social workers acquire it?
Fran Wiles
Chapter 4 Materiality, Performance and the Making of Professional Identity
Torben Elgaard Jensen
Chapter 5 Constructing the social, constructing social work
Elizabeth Harlow
PART 2 Location, context and workplace culture
Chapter 6 Vocation and professional identity: Social workers at home and abroad
Mark Erickson and Jem Price
Chapter 7 Risk work in the formation of the 'professional' in child protection social work
Emily Keddell and Tony Stanley
Chapter 8 Identity formation, scientific rationality and embodied knowledge in child welfare
Melissa Hardesty
Chapter 9 Field, Capital and Professional Identity: Social Work in Health Care
Liz Beddoe
Chapter 10 Interprofessional collaboration: strengthening or weakening social work identity?
Julia Emprechtinger and Peter Voll
Chapter 11 Commitment in the making of professional identity
Stewart Collins
Chapter 12 Professional identity in the care and upbringing of children: towards a praxis of residential child care
Mark Smith
PART 3 Professional education, socialisation and readiness for practice
Chapter 13 Shaping Identity? The Professional Socialisation of Social Work Students
Julia Wheeler
Chapter 14 Credible performances: Affect and professional identity
Jadwiga Leigh
Chapter 15 Making Professional Identity: Narrative Work and Fateful Moments
Maura Daly and Martin Kettle
Chapter 16 Professional Identity as a Matter of Concern
Stephen A. Webb
References
Index
