Resistance In and Outside the Workplace: Ethical Practice and Managerialism in the Voluntary Sector
2017
Drawing on comparative international data from Canada and Australia, this
chapter looks at a number of practice examples to explore some of the ways
that social workers struggle to incorporate their commitment to social justice
into increasingly managerialised work in the voluntary sector. Though the
voluntary sector has long thought of itself as an arena in which workers have
opportunities to build close ties with communities, participate strongly in
agency decision making, and advocate for socially excluded and exploited
peoples, new forms of workplace organisation imposed by government
funding have reduced or removed many of the opportunities for these kinds
of practices. Instead, social workers are increasingly required to follow tight
scripted practices and meet performance targets rather than building the
capacity of service users and communities to defend and expand their rights.
The vignettes show that practitioners maintain their sense of integrity and
ethics through ongoing resistance within and outside the workplace. The
chapter concludes with a discussion of ways to foster critical thought and
resistance as central components of social justice practice and ethics.
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