Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice. Prospera Tedam

We can already see that in my community, the dominant race is White and I am Black, placing me in the minority position in relation to race. The rationale behind this exercise is to enable you to visualise how close or distant you are from the dominant identities in our communities.

      Figure 3.1 The Power Flower

      Source: The Power Flower from Arnold et al., 1991. Used with permission of the publisher.

      Activity 3.3

      Complete the Power Flower above for

       yourself;

       your service users.

      Discuss or reflect on what you see and propose strategies for working anti-oppressively with what you have discovered.

       Were there any surprises or confirmations about the power and privilege of yourself and others?

      Privilege, authority and influence in social work

      Privilege is something that a person is either born into or acquires during the course of their life which gives them power over others. There is a close relationship between privilege and authority. Privilege has been described as invisible to people who have it because they come to normalise it. People who are privileged are often the ones with the power and authority in society. The BASW Code of Ethics requires social workers to use authority in accordance with human rights principles. This requires social workers’ understanding of the authority inherent in their role and ensures that this authority is used in a responsible, accountable and respectful manner at all times (BASW, 2019, online).

      As a profession committed to social justice, it is imperative that we interrogate the ways in which social work is positioned to challenge unearned privilege and the misuse of authority which are in contradiction to anti-oppressive practice principles.

      According to Fook (2012, p55),

       People do not fit easily into ‘powerful’ or ‘powerless’ groupings, sometimes having membership of both at the same time. The very same experience can be empowering for some and disempowering for others.

      Activity 3.4

       In what situations and contexts are you most aware of your own privilege?

       In what situations and contexts are you most aware of your own power?

      Chapter summary

      The social work profession challenges the exercise of power which is oppressive, discriminatory and damaging. Acknowledging and understanding the impact of their own informal and coercive power is crucial, as is recognising how their teams and organisations may perpetuate the oppressive use of power through their policies and guidelines. It remains unclear about the extent to which social work qualifying programmes prepare students for working constructively with power and understanding the role of power in their daily interactions with service users and their families. It may well be that, as a student, you fail to understand how power is exercised in practice, or you may be unaware of the power that your role as a social worker gives you.

      In this chapter, I have tried to demonstrate how complex and contested the concept of power is, and the different ways in which it manifests in social work interventions and interactions. Power is not a commodity to be given away; hence, when social workers talk about empowering service users, it is not ‘giving’ power, but rather it is supporting service users to gain control of their lives and the decisions affecting them. Within the context of anti-oppressive practice, power will continue to be an ever-present consideration for social work students and practitioners alike.

      Further reading

      Bundy-Fazioli, K, Quijano, LM and Bubar, R (2013) Graduate students’ perceptions of professional power in social work practice. Journal of Social Work Education, 49(1): 108–21.

      In this article the authors assert that it is important to understand the power that underpins the helper–helpee relationship, and that social work students need to better understand the uses and abuses of power in their practice.

      Tew, J (2006) Understanding power and powerlessness: towards a framework for emancipatory practice in social work. Journal of Social Work, 6(1): 35–51.

      This article provides information for social workers to map out and work with issues of power and powerlessness more effectively in their everyday practice.