WHAT IS A MODERN SOCIAL WORKER COMFORTABLE WITH - UNIVERSALISM OR RELATIVISM? A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE ARTICLE, “POSTMODERNISM, CRITICAL THEORY AND SOCIAL WORK” BY JIM IFE
Journal Title: Social Affairs - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 5
Abstract
The author, Prof. Jim Ife, starts this article claiming that, “in the current social, economic and political climate of change and instability, many of the old certainties of social work practice no longer seem relevant. The apparently unproblematic commitment to ideals such as human rights and social justice, the idea that empirically verifed social science could guide practice, and the assumption of a universalist and prescriptive code of ethics no longer seem to meet the needs of practitioners” (p. 211). In such a situation, the author believes, the postmodern worldview provides a comfortable practice framework. However, while postmodernism provides some comfort, the most serious concern is that it too may contradict certain social work values. In it, the oppressive power of “Meta Narratives” which reinforce the notion of a universal reality is rejected. Instead it accepts the multiple realities proposed by Relativism. It does not focus on human factors interpreted through positivist or empirical social sciences because of the belief that human factors cannot be understood by being away from them. It must be a subjective interpretation and a process of understanding in which they are deconstructed and reconstructed. Postmodern thinking rejects the notion that there is no single medicine for all human “ill-beings” prescribed by a uniform and dominant discourse of modernist thinking which is characterized by economic rationalism, managerialism, professionalism and conservatism.
Authors and Affiliations
Sarathchandra Gamlath
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP31428
- DOI -
- Views 306
- Downloads 2
POVERTY, YOUTH AND POLITICS; A THREE DIMENSIONAL VIEW OF YOUTH IN SLUM AREAS OF SOLAPUR CITY
The present study is an empirical study conducted in selected slum areas of Solapur city in the Maharashtra State of India. The study was conducted to fnd out the relationship between poverty, politics and youth develo...
WASAGAMA (SURNAME) AND INDIVIDUAL NAME CHANGES AMONG THE SINHALESE OF SRI LANKA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
There appears a good number of newspaper notices to effect changes in surname (Wasagama) and individual names by the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka. Surname and name indicate the social status of an individual in the broad lin...
THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON ARCHAEOLOGY
In the early decades of the 20th century, archaeology was introduced as a subject in Pirivena education which mainly consisted of a segment of epigraphy. In the 1950s, the Department of History, University of Ceylon of...
SOME ETHNO-ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES OF THE VEDDAS IN SRI LANKA
Veddas are considered to be the indigenous people of Sri Lanka. A century ago, the Veddas were scattered across the Eastern Province, and some parts of the North-Central and Uva Provinces, although at present they are...
APPROACHES TO CIVIL WARS: ‘HOW DO LEADERS LEAD, AND WHY DO FOLLOWERS FOLLOW?’
This paper analyses the theories of civil wars as envisioned by three civil war theories presented by Stathis Kalivas (2000, 2009), Michael Brown (1996) and Fearon and Laitin (2003). The paper begins with the defnition...