Risk & Social Work

Draft – Not For Circulation or Quoting Risk and Social Work Interest in the concept of risk in the context of social work research, theory, education and practice has grown almost exponentially in the past ten to fifteen years. A simple key word search for ‘risk’ in the titles of major articles published in the British Journal of Social Work (excluding book reviews) illustrates this growth. From two articles published in the five-year period April 1993-March 1998, there were six published in the following five-year period from April 1998-March 2003 and then fifteen in the period from April 2003-March 2008. Eight of these articles were published in the past year alone. Over this time, interest in the concept of risk has encompassed an increasingly wide range of issues. These have included debates about how risk should be defined; the implications of attempts to balance ‘risks’ with ‘rights’; detailed empirical work on the processes involved in risk assessment in relation to specific service user groups, and macro level theoretical analysis of social work in the ‘risk society’. Far from being limited to social work and its cognate disciplines in the social sciences, the increasing level of interest in the concept of risk is also evident across other disciplines and practice environments, such as medicine and engineering, and even extends to the government’s Cabinet Office (Cabinet Office Strategy Unit 2002). The picture internationally confirms that preoccupation with risk is not just a ‘British disease’. Recent work from Australia, for example, confirms that “Risk assessment and risk management have emerged as central organising principles for an increasing number of health and welfare programs” (Green 2007) Turning to social work in particular, colleagues in Spain observe that the ‘technical dimensions’ of social work practice now appear to take priority over its fundamental principles and value-dimensions, and that this is one outcome of the domination of concerns about risk arising from social change such as shifting patterns of immigration and population ageing (Sáenz de Ugarte and Martín 2007). The level of international interest in risk and social work has been highlighted by the inclusion of a stream focusing on this area at the International Sociological Association conference in Barcelona (http://www.isa-sociology.org/barcelona_2008/tg/tg04.htm). The eleven papers to be presented in this stream represent a diverse range of relevant issues. They include theoretical papers examining: • the development of the preventive-surveillance state in children’s services • social work and ‘the risk society’ • the shift from social workers as ‘assessors of risk’, to being ‘at risk’, on to being perceived as ‘a risk’ • social work, risk and power, encompassing an analysis of the paradoxes at the heart of social work practice in contemporary society. Empirical papers to be presented explore: • violence against social work staff • the management of risk in a therapeutic community • the notion of ‘risk as ideology’ through a study of the use of risk technologies • the construction of risk in child trafficking discourses in the wake of the Victoria Climbié inquiry. There are also papers focusing on social work education, that consider: • the experiences of student social workers and their learning around risk • the process of student admissions to social work training, where risk concerns are an increasingly dominant feature

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Draft – Not For Circulation or Quoting The raised risk consciousness that is now so prevalent in social, political and cultural life means that risk can be regarded as being everywhere but perhaps nowhere properly understood. The stream at the ISA conference provides one opportunity to distil what is known about risk in the context of social work and to act as a springboard to critically explore and elaborate further the major themes that have emerged in this area of interest over the period of time in which it has come to occupy centre stage in our field. We would argue that risk currently poses both a challenge and opportunity for social work in relation to our ongoing attempts to engage research, theory and practice in mutually reinforcing ways. The focus on risk in policy and practice has increasingly profound implications for the rights of many service users and therefore for the value-base of social work itself. Theoretical developments need to be tested perhaps more directly than ever before because considerations of ‘risk’ clearly involve decisions about what to do in specific situations, along with concomitant dangers of making the ‘wrong’ decisions. Practitioners, managers and policy makers not only face the challenges of determining who or what is ‘a risk’ or ‘at risk’ and how these risks should be managed. They must also be increasingly transparent and accountable for their actions, in managerial cultures that seek to contain risk and minimize uncertainty within technical-rational mechanisms and procedures. At the same time, those concerned with practice are presented with evidence of the political and moral nature of judgements involved in determining which risks are selected as the focus for concern. The notion of ‘objective’ neutral decision-making about risk, while all the more valorised in policy and procedures, becomes harder to sustain in this light. Major themes for consideration at the conference and beyond: • • • •

How theories of risk might inform a critical stance on the challenges of risk decisionmaking and the effects of raised risk consciousness in social work How and why ‘risk’ has superseded ‘need’ as the central organising concept in social work practice How risk consciousness has translated into ‘defensive practice’ in social work How risk has become a key consideration in the selection of candidates for social work training.

The aims of the conference stream and future activities for participants: • •

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To provide an opportunity to reflect critically on the centrality of the concept of risk in social work research, theory, education and practice. To engage in and extend contemporary debates about the nature of risk in social work, informed both by theoretical perspectives, empirical research and practice considerations To provide a forum for contributors to engage with risk from a range of perspectives, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of knowledges that might usefully inform our understanding of risk in relation to social work.

References Cabinet Office Strategy Unit (2002) Risk: Improving Government’s Capability to Handle Risk and Uncertainty, Cabinet Office: London Green, D (2007), Risk and social work practice, Australian Social Work, Vol 60, Issue 4 2

Draft – Not For Circulation or Quoting

Sáenz de Ugarte, L and Martín, I (2007), Social Work and Risk Society. Paper submitted to the International Sociological Association Conference Thematic Group 4: The End of Rationality? The Challenge of New Risks and Uncertainties in the 21st Century, Barcelona September 2008. Jo Warner Elaine Sharland May 2008

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