Exploring Social Work

Linda Bell is an anthropologist and retired Associate Professor, now a Research Fellow and Visiting Academic in the School of Health and Education, Middlesex University.

• Who are “social workers”? Why do we need them? Getting involved: an auto-ethnographic enquiry;Time and change : UK social work and comparative social work cultures since 1990;Becoming: being admitted, trained and accepted as a social worker;Identifying: professional identity/ies;Valuing and transgressing: practice and research values, and ‘becoming unfit’ to practice;Practising and relating: Social workers and relationships;Partnering: Social workers, other professionals and clients/ service users;Knowing and evidencing: building a research base, mapping and modelling;Symbolising: cultural representations in theory and in practice;Organising: the development of national and international associations;Changing: Social work and the public, anthropological reflections & conclusions on an ever changing profession – the future?

“A unique anthropological approach that explores the diversity of social work and the intricate processes that motivate and shape people into social workers.” Marek Perlinski, Umeå University