Drawing on Foucault's later work on governmentality, this book traces the effects of 'the rise of risk' on contemporary social work practice. Focusing on two 'domains' of practice mental health social work and probation work it analyses the ways in which risk thinking has affected social work's aims and objectives, methods and approaches.Introduction 1. Enduring Debates in Social Work 2. Accounting for 'the Rise of Risk' 3. Mental Health Social Work: A Case in Point 4. The Probation Service: Pragmatism in Practice? 5. 'An Analytics of Social Work' 6. A Technical Identity? 7. Risk, Uncertainty and Blame in Contemporary Practice 8. Conclusion: Doing Justice to Social Work
Mark Hardy is Lecturer in Social Work at the University of York, UK.