Читать книгу Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice - Prospera Tedam - Страница 79

Privilege is something that a person is either born into or acquires during the course of their life which gives them power over others. There is a close relationship between privilege and authority. Privilege has been described as invisible to people who have it because they come to normalise it. People who are privileged are often the ones with the power and authority in society. The BASW Code of Ethics requires social workers to use authority in accordance with human rights principles. This requires social workers’ understanding of the authority inherent in their role and ensures that this authority is used in a responsible, accountable and respectful manner at all times (BASW, 2019, online).

As a profession committed to social justice, it is imperative that we interrogate the ways in which social work is positioned to challenge unearned privilege and the misuse of authority which are in contradiction to anti-oppressive practice principles.

According to Fook (2012, p55),

People do not fit easily into ‘powerful’ or ‘powerless’ groupings, sometimes having membership of both at the same time. The very same experience can be empowering for some and disempowering for others.