Objective Subjectification: The Antimethod of Social Work

Nissen, Morten

doi:10.1207/s15327884mca1004_5

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The epistemology implied could be, and was, articulated with social practice theory (as in Mørck [2010]). Rather than certain formal procedures and structures we have a community of practice; pitting 'practice' against 'organization', one might hold up the 'anti-method' (Nissen 2003) of historical and personal singularity against the tide of standardization. This would be close to how members of The Crew and its derivatives would understand the form of knowledge they practiced.…”

Section: Singularity Performance and Symbolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The constitution and the singular identity of the collective: who, ‘we’?

Nissen

2018

Subjectivity

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Faced with problems of organizational belonging, it is necessary and relevant to approach singular collective identity: The 'who, we?' question as indexical. For this, approaches from social theory outside of the 'organization' field are employed in the analysis of three cases suggested as prototypical. First, the Narcotics Anonymous is seen to mystify its essential workings with a religious metaphor added to its appearance as a standardized civil society association. Second, a grassroots based collective of social youth work is viewed as struggling for recognition through a performative branding hidden behind a radically situated selfconception. Finally, a web-portal is modeled as co-authoring counselling with art and research and as reflecting itself as at once concrete and universal. This casts a new light on the issue of organizational belonging, which could not be sufficiently grasped in the dominant functionalist approaches, nor in the systemic, institutionalist, or post-structuralist theories that oppose them.

show abstract

Section: Singularity Performance and Symbolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The constitution and the singular identity of the collective: who, ‘we’?

Nissen

2018

Subjectivity

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, the mundane language, where "youth" and "intoxicants" 4 are normalizing linguistic standards that accentuate the pleasurable effects of drugs and enroll the youths in semantic networks about youth life, rather than diagnosis. The strategy of using youth/adolescence as a lever for a post-psychological approach can also be recognized as a recurring standard in social work (Nissen, 2003b).…”

Section: Post-psychological Standards In Drug Treatment: the U-turn Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enacting (post)psychological standards in social work: From regimes of visibility to user-driven standards and affective subjectification

Bank

2016

Theory & Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article contributes to the general theme of standards and subjectivity by developing a governmental strategy for analyzing how different traditions in psychology are used to produce different standards for subjectification and different ontologies in social work practices. The empirical material is taken from a drug treatment center for young people, where professionals have a critical, reflexive awareness about how standards derived from 20th-century psychology subjectify and organize practices. The article analyzes how professionals in these practices draw on postmodern and critical traditions in psychology-in particular narrative, systemic, and solution-focused therapy-in order to develop alternative "post-psychological," "user-driven," and "affective" standards. These standards expand the field of intervention by modulating on users', relatives,' and professionals' gazes and affective ways of relating. The article articulates an affirmative critique of how post-psy standards can be used reflexively by professionals in social work practices to empower users and enact a "post-psychological" ontology of becoming.This article contributes to the general theme on standards and subjectivity by analyzing how different traditions in psychology are used to produce different standards for subjectification and enact different ontologies in social work and drug treatment practices (Mol, 2002). Drug treatment, deviance, and social work are classical areas for studying a culturally mediated production of subjectivity (Donzelot, 1979;Foucault, 1977;

show abstract

“…8.1a). In fact, the subjectification process described in chapter 7 arises precisely in this manner from the re-inscription of the relation to the Self on the part of the subject (Nissen 2003). 8.1b).…”

Section: Understanding and Analyzing Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%