Governing Risk Care and Control in Contemporary Social Work

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. It critically interrogates the claim that the logic of actuarialsim is implicated in a shift from 'care' to 'control' and argues the case for a distinctive approach to understanding and undertaking social work which does justice to the reality of contemporary practice.

Mark Hardy is Lecturer in Social Work at the University of York, UK.

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