Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Policy Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Eight International social work or social work internationalism? Radical social work in global perspective

  • and

Abstract

Radical social work aimed to provide a series of arguments for, and about, radical social work in Britain. It did not look at social-work engagement beyond Britain’s shores. International social work attempts to look at a range of social problems that social work can address, at local ‘indigenous’ practices and the way(s) in which they can be incorporated into professional and regulated modes of social-work delivery. This chapter argues that international social work has an ambiguous history. First, it examines one aspect of social work’s less-savoury history: the intersection of post-World War II international social work, the Marshall Plan, and the United States’ imperial interests in post-war Greece. The chapter then discusses the distinction between ‘official social work’ and ‘popular social work’, the formative years of international social work, the impact of imperialism on social work, and social-work internationalisation versus internationalism.

Abstract

Radical social work aimed to provide a series of arguments for, and about, radical social work in Britain. It did not look at social-work engagement beyond Britain’s shores. International social work attempts to look at a range of social problems that social work can address, at local ‘indigenous’ practices and the way(s) in which they can be incorporated into professional and regulated modes of social-work delivery. This chapter argues that international social work has an ambiguous history. First, it examines one aspect of social work’s less-savoury history: the intersection of post-World War II international social work, the Marshall Plan, and the United States’ imperial interests in post-war Greece. The chapter then discusses the distinction between ‘official social work’ and ‘popular social work’, the formative years of international social work, the impact of imperialism on social work, and social-work internationalisation versus internationalism.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. Notes on contributors iv
  4. Acknowledgements vii
  5. Foreword ix
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Case Con and radical social work in the 1970s: the impatient revolutionaries 11
  8. The best and worst of times: reflections on the impact of radicalism on British social work education in the 1970s 27
  9. Social work and women’s oppression today 45
  10. The jester’s joke 59
  11. LGBT oppression, sexualities and radical social work today 79
  12. Radical social work and service users: a crucial connection 95
  13. Why class (still) matters 115
  14. International social work or social work internationalism? Radical social work in global perspective 135
  15. Rediscovering radicalism and humanity in social work 153
  16. Re-gilding the ghetto: community work and community development in 21st-century Britain 165
  17. Resisting the EasyCare model: building a more radical, community-based, anti-authoritarian social work for the future 187
  18. Bibliography 205
  19. Index 231
Radical social work today
This chapter is in the book Radical social work today
https://doi.org/10.56687/9781847428196-012

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. Notes on contributors iv
  4. Acknowledgements vii
  5. Foreword ix
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Case Con and radical social work in the 1970s: the impatient revolutionaries 11
  8. The best and worst of times: reflections on the impact of radicalism on British social work education in the 1970s 27
  9. Social work and women’s oppression today 45
  10. The jester’s joke 59
  11. LGBT oppression, sexualities and radical social work today 79
  12. Radical social work and service users: a crucial connection 95
  13. Why class (still) matters 115
  14. International social work or social work internationalism? Radical social work in global perspective 135
  15. Rediscovering radicalism and humanity in social work 153
  16. Re-gilding the ghetto: community work and community development in 21st-century Britain 165
  17. Resisting the EasyCare model: building a more radical, community-based, anti-authoritarian social work for the future 187
  18. Bibliography 205
  19. Index 231
Downloaded on 7.5.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.56687/9781847428196-012/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button