Social Work, Place, and Power: Applying Heterotopian Principles to the Social Topology of Social Work

Ratliff, G. Allen

doi:10.1086/706808

Cited by 9 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 113 publications

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“…In contrast, social researchers deploying a methodological framework derived from Bourdieu (Fogle, 2011) or Bhaskar’s (Cole and Mirzaei Rafe, 2018) critical realism, might look to understand social topology in terms of the construction of habitus, dialogue, and how constrained social relations might affect the local social landscape through their shapes. Researchers working with Foucault’s (e.g., Ratliff, 2019) discourse analysis will present social topology in terms of its historical genesis, and conflicting means of expression, and this resulting discourse shape might have an important impact in places such as Claymore. Deleuze/Guattari’s (1988) cartographic method looks to set up relations as fluid, interchangeable, and hybrids of forces in time that cross over and become immanent to one another, as Guattari (2013) expresses it in his four zones of the unconscious diagram and as assemblage (shape diagrams).…”

Section: What Is Social Cartography?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The flash of a van: A cartography of a mobile educational initiative in the Claymore district of Sydney

Cole

Moustakim

2021

European Educational Research Journal

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Modern cities produce areas of poverty, despite their overall wealth. These pockets of living can exacerbate societal problems, especially because the opposite end of the societal spectrum is often close by. This paper examines an educational initiative in one such district, called Claymore, in the suburbs of outer Sydney. The project deployed a mobile youth van equipped with high-tech educational hardware and software, and encouraged local youth to take advantage of the van, to further high-tech skills acquisition. This paper offers a Deleuze/Guattari (1988) cartographic approach to mapping the effects of the van extracted from their opus maxima, 1000 Plateaus. This approach is a mode of social topology that deepens the type of discourse analysis that one may take from Foucault and its uses in educational research (e.g., Ball, 2012). The social cartography that one might derive from Deleuze/Guattari involves producing a ‘plane of immanence’ and assemblages about the phenomena under scrutiny, in the case of this article, the mobile van initiative in Claymore. This does not mean that hierarchies are diminished, but that they are reset for the purposes of analysis, so that their complex relationships are realized and understood. This paper looks to describe and analyse what is immanent to the situation in Claymore, and what effects the mobile van might have given this state of affairs.

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Section: What Is Social Cartography?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The flash of a van: A cartography of a mobile educational initiative in the Claymore district of Sydney

Cole

Moustakim

2021

European Educational Research Journal

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“…In "Social Work, Place, and Power: Applying Heterotopian Principles to the Social Topology of Social Work," G. Allen Ratliff (2019) points out another gap in social work's theoretical foundation: insufficient attention to social topology-that is, the relationship among power, space, and place. Using Foucault's (1986) concept of heterotopia as a framework, Ratliff discusses the role of space and place in the construction of social welfare systems, and how place more than personal qualities or cultural traditions affects the quality of life for both individuals and communities, particularly marginalized populations.…”

Section: The Role Of Social Work Knowledge and Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the expansion of social welfare and the growth of the social work profession during the past century, this imbalance still exists. Ratliff (2019) maintains that the use of an analytic lens based on the concept of heterotopias can help explicate how power imbalances operate in the social services and provide the basis for the development of emancipatory forms of practice. Citing Sousa and colleagues (2019), he draws attention to the relationship between space and institutional and interpersonal violence, and of the role that a theoretical explanation of place might play in fostering collaboration and reducing long-standing structural inequities (Bronstein 2003).…”

Section: Social Work Practice and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons from Social Work’s History for a Tumultuous Era

Reisch¹

2019

Social Service Review

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For more than a century, political-economic, demographic, and ideological forces have shaped US social work. Torn between social justice and status enhancement, the profession vacillated between advocating for social reform and seeking elite support. Ongoing contradictions between empowerment and expertise, social change and social control, and collaboration with and coercion of constituents reflect this tension. During the past 4 decades, neoliberalism, antiwelfare perspectives, and hyperpartisan politics transformed social work practice and its research and knowledge base. The 2016 election rocked the profession and produced significant changes for the people with whom we work and the nature of social work. New social movements, such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, and global action over climate change and gun violence have also posed new challenges. Social workers must now reexamine long-standing assumptions about practice and evidence; their relationship to power, place, and context; and their role in shaping the future of US society.

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“…Furthermore, public authority that gives social workers control over the private lives of service users is another relevant factor. Social workers deliver social services in ways that reflect the desire for governments to control its citizens (Carson et al, 2015;Ratliff, 2019). Clients use violence to resist the control, leaving social workers in an unfamiliar powerless position.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Anxiety, frustration and understanding’. Swedish personal social service workers’ cognitive appraisals of encounters with violent clients

Munobwa

Ahmadi

Öberg

2021

Nordic Social Work Research

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Workplace violence and threats from social service users towards social workers (client violence) is a problem in Sweden and internationally. This article explores the circumstances that make client violence stressful to social workers who exercise public authority in Swedish individual and family social services. The empirical data are based on qualitative interviews with social workers (n = 19) who, according to their own perception, have been threatened or assaulted by a client in relation to work. Theory on cognitive appraisal of threat and harm is used. The results, analysed by Inductive Thematic Analysis, show that client violence is stressful because it poses a threat to social workers' professional identity and private life, and occurs in uncertain and repetitive ways. The results suggest that a negligent safety culture in social service agencies, characterized by normalization of client violence and limited organizational support, may contribute to stress related to client violence. The results are discussed in light of how social workers and social service agencies transact and affect each other.

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Social Work, Place, and Power: Applying Heterotopian Principles to the Social Topology of Social Work

Cited by 9 publications

References 113 publications

The flash of a van: A cartography of a mobile educational initiative in the Claymore district of Sydney

The flash of a van: A cartography of a mobile educational initiative in the Claymore district of Sydney

Lessons from Social Work’s History for a Tumultuous Era

‘Anxiety, frustration and understanding’. Swedish personal social service workers’ cognitive appraisals of encounters with violent clients

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