Trying to understand how the world looks through the eyes of individuals and groups and how it shapes the ways they think and act is something social workers do all the time. It is what social theorists do too. This book identifies and explains in a highly accessible manner the absolute value of social theory for social work. Drawing on the theoretical ideas and perspectives of a wide range of classical and modern social theorists, the book demonstrates the insights their work can bring to bear on a wide range of social work practice scenarios, issues and debates. Departing with the work of the classical theorists, the book covers a diverse range of theoretical traditions including phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, feminism and globalization theory. Putting to work ideas from these different perspectives, a range of social work scenarios, issues and debates are opened up and explored. The final chapter brings together the various theoretical strands, and critically considers the contribution they can make towards realizing core social work values in a rapidly globalizing world. Demonstrating exactly how and in what ways social theory can make important and enduring contributions to social work, Social Theory for Social Work is essentialial reading for social work students, practitioners and professionals alike.

In order to work effectively, social workers need to understand theoretical concepts and develop critical theory. In Social Work and Social Theory, Paul Michael Garrett seeks to bring the profession into dialogue with the anticapitalist movement and encourages a new engagement with theorists such as Antonio Gramsci, Pierre Bourdieu, and Nancy Fraser. It provides an accessible and exhilarating introduction for practitioners, students, and social work academics interested in social theory and critical social policy. It will be a vital resource aiding anyone intent on creating a more radical social work and a useful teaching tool to spark lively classroom discussion.

The definition and measurement of social welfare have been a vexed issue for the past century. This book makes a constructive, easily applicable proposal and suggests how to evaluate the economic situation of a society in a way that gives priority to the worse-off and that respects each individual's preferences over his or her own consumption, work, leisure and so on. This approach resonates with the current concern to go 'beyond the GDP' in the measurement of social progress. Compared to technical studies in welfare economics, this book emphasizes constructive results rather than paradoxes and impossibilities, and shows how one can start from basic principles of efficiency and fairness and end up with concrete evaluations of policies. Compared to more philosophical treatments of social justice, this book is more precise about the definition of social welfare and reaches conclusions about concrete policies and institutions only after a rigorous derivation from clearly stated principles.

Social Theory, Social Change and Social Work has two inter-related themes. First to account for and analyse current changes in social work and secondly, to assess how far recent developments in social theory can contribute to their interpretation. Representing the work of a range of academics all involved in research and teaching in relation to social work, it considers issues of central significance to everyone interested in the theory, policy, and practice of social work.

`An excellent book that provides a good deal of valuable material to stimulate debate and to alert readers of the need to engage more critically with the wider world in which social work is located′ - Professor Keith Popple, Professor of Social Work London South Bank University This exciting book draws together the key contemporary theories, theorists and perspectives used in social work and explains how they are applied in practice and critiqued by social workers. It provides: - An outline of the contribution made by a key theorist, theory or perspective to social work - A selective bibliography of each thinker or approach - A glossary defining key traditions, with cross links to key theorists and perspectives - A timeline of key publications - Study questions at the end of each chapter. The book will be valuable for undergraduate, graduate students, post qualifying students and researchers in social work.

The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Theory provides an interdisciplinary and international introduction to social work theory. It presents an analytical review of the wide array of theoretical ideas that influence social work on a global scale. It sets the agenda for future trends within social work theory. Separated into four parts, this handbook examines important themes within the discourses on social work theory, as well as offering a critical evaluation of how theoretical ideas influence social work as a profession and in practice. It includes a diverse range of interdisciplinary topics, covering the aims and nature of social work, social work values and ethics, social work practice theories and the use of theory in different fields of practice. The contributors show how and why theory is so important to social work and analyze the impact these concepts have made on social intervention. Bringing together an international team of leading academics within the social work field and newer contributors close to practice, this handbook is essential reading for all those studying social work, as well as practitioners, policymakers and those involved in the associated fields of health and social care.