Читать книгу The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 150

Stanley L. Witkin and Christopher Hall

The overall aim of this chapter is twofold: first, to inform readers about fundamental tenets of social work practice and their congruence with social constructionist positions and concepts, and second, to illustrate how social constructionist concepts have informed (or could inform) different social work practices. Although social workers are a significant provider of services across a range of social issues, they have not been highly represented in the social constructionist literature. Therefore, this chapter addresses this lacuna by describing how social construction does and can influence social work practice.

The chapter begins with a discussion of how social work practices are inclusive of, and differentiated from, other practices, for example, group work or psychotherapy. Following this exposition, we discuss similarities and differences between social work and social construction, for example, the meaning of ‘social’. This is followed by illustrations of how social constructionist concepts are (and have been) used to inform social work practice issues such as cultural competence and practice approaches addressing a range of issues. These illustrations will be gleaned from the existing literature (e.g., Witkin, 2012) and from Chris Hall's own practice.