Constructing Clienthood in Social Work and Human Services

Christopher Hall is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Childhood Studies, University of Huddersfield. Kirsi Juhila is Professor of Social Work at the University of Tampere, Finland. Nigel Parton is a Professor in Child Care and Director of the Centre for Applied Childhood Studies, University of Huddersfield, and visiting professor at the University of Tampere. Tarja Pösö is Professor of Social Work at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Tampere.All the authors have experience in social work practice and teaching and have published widely in the areas of social work, social policy, and social constructionist and discourse approaches to social work.

• Preface. 1. Introduction: Beyond a universal client. Kirsi Juhila, University of Tampere, Tarja Pösö, University of Tampere, Chris Hall and Nigel Parton, University of Huddersfield, UK. Part I. Constructing Client Identities and Morals. 2. Legitimating the rejecting of your child in a social work meeting. Christopher Hall, University of Huddersfield, Arja Jokinen and Eero Suoninen, University of Tampere. 3. Caring but not coping: Fashioning a legitimate parent identity. Christopher Hall and Stef Slembrouck, University of Ghent, Belgium. 4. Negotiating clienthood and the moral order of a relationship in couple therapy. Katja Kurri and Jarl Wahlström, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Part II. Categorizing and Negotiating Clienthoods. 5. Creating a `bad' client: Disalignment of institutional identities in social work interaction. Kirsi Juhila. 6. Parental identity under construction: Discourse and conversation analysis of a family supervision order. Carol van Nijnatten, University of Utrecht, Netherlands and Gerard Hofstede, Youth Care Policy Officer, Southern Netherlands. 7. The absent client: Case description and decision-making in inter-professional meetings. Pirjo Nikander, University of Tampere. 8. The dilemma of victim positioning in group therapy for abusive men. Terhi Partanen, University of Jyväskylä. Part III. Client work in professional contexts. 9. Trafficking in meaning: Constructive social work in child protection practice. Ah Hin Teoh, Jim Laffer, Nigel Parton, University of Huddersfield and Andrew Turnell, Independent Social Worker, Australia. 10. Complicated gender. Tarja Pösö, University of Tampere. 11. The social worker and moral judge: Blame, responsibility and case formulation. Sue White, University of Huddersfield. 12. Writers', clients', counsellors' and readers' perspectives in constructing resistant clients. Gale Miller, Marquette University, USA. 13. Client, user, member as constructed in institutional interaction. Søren Peter Olesen, University of Aalburg and Danish National School of Social Work. 14. Conclusion: Yes, but is any of this any use? Christopher Hall, Nigel Parton, Kirsi Juhila and Tarja Pösö. Appendix. References. Index.

This reader should be of interest to social work students, and to existing social work staff who want or need to reflect on their practice…nicely illustrated with examples.