Book chapter
Afrocentric ways of ‘doing’ social work
Disrupting Whiteness in Social Work, pp.58-73
Routledge, 1
2019
Metrics
43 Record Views
Abstract
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. 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.
Details
- Title
- Afrocentric ways of ‘doing’ social work
- Creators
- Kathomi Gatwiri (Author) - Southern Cross University
- Contributors
- Sonia M Tascón (Editor of compilation)Jim Ife (Editor of compilation)
- Publication Details
- Disrupting Whiteness in Social Work, pp.58-73
- Publisher
- Routledge; S.l.
- Edition
- 1
- Number of pages
- 1 online resource.
- Identifiers
- 991012834400202368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Health; Social Work; School of Arts and Social Sciences
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter