Working social assemblages: Towards a new geography of social work

Abstract

This paper explores possibilities for extending the geographical imagination in academic studies of social work. It notes how current "geographical" research is extensive and diverse-including interests in social and natural environments, practice settings, and global issues-but argues for a change whereby it is more explicitly informed by, and cast as, human geography. Part of this change would involve a transition in basic enterprise, whereby researching social work geographically shifts from being a one-way effort on the part of academic social workers, to being a two-way project also involving geographers. Another part would be

Towards geographies of child protection

“…In contrast to recent post‐human approaches to social work in geography (Andrews, 2020), we draw upon a Foucauldian approach which emphasises the organising and disciplinary functions of child protection social work but also encompasses the sometimes messy, contradictory discourses and processes inherent in these systems. We now explain how conceptualising the operation of these structures, systems and practices as a dispositif can help to shed light on these processes.…”

“…Andrews (2020, p. 11) recently called for consideration of which ‘types of political‐economic, institutional, family, and socio‐cultural processes aid or obstruct … social work assemblages?’ The impact of austerity has particular implications for the operation of social work practices, particularly in reference to child protection. Describing poverty as the ‘elephant’ in the room in cases of child neglect, Gupta (2017) notes that current discourses of child protection largely ignore contextual factors, such as the contribution of austerity to rising poverty levels, and tend to blame both families and social workers for not addressing child neglect and harm.…”

“…Key to, and inherent in, all of these processes and phenomena are child protection systems, working in varying degrees of effectiveness. While geographic interest has touched upon many of these areas, even specific engagement with social work (see Andrews, 2020), the role of child protection systems, and the practitioners that work within these, do not explicitly feature within this work. Child protection work involves spatial activities at a number of scales (Jeyasingham, 2014).…”

Velomobilities: Cycling geographies and well‐being

“…Health geographers, such as Fleuret and Atkinson (2007), Atkinson (2013), Schwanen and Atkinson (2015), Foley (2017), Smith and Reid (2018), and Andrews (2019, 2020) alongside political scientists (for example Duff, 2014) and sociologists (for example Fox, 2011), are advocating for assemblage thinking to invoke ‘well‐being’ as a more‐than‐human achievement, rather than a medical consideration. Indeed, Schwanen and Atkinson (2015, p. 99) conceive of well‐being as sensed ‘out of assemblages of materiality, discourse, practices, techniques and affective intensities’.…”

Entornos investigativos del trabajo social en el territorio boyacense

“…Las condiciones geográficas de un territorio estructuran los modos de vida de sus pobladores (Andrews, 2019). Las características de cada lugar recrean las interacciones del ser humano con la naturaleza y configuran determinadas redes de relaciones en las maneras de habitar un entorno (Green, 2003).…”