Social work and social control

Transforming Society podcast

Social work exists in a constant tension between caring and protecting vulnerable people, and the control mechanisms within the broader context social workers operate in. Where are the lines drawn in its dual role as an instrument of the state and an advocate for social justice?

In this episode Malcolm Carey and Gurnam Singh, guest editors of the Critical and Radical Social Work special issue on social work and social control, speak with Richard Kemp about this paradox of care and control.

They discuss the extreme scrutiny faced by unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, the higher standards parents with a learning disability face and the many ways social workers exercise empathy to work both with, and around, the system to help those who need it the most.

Dr Malcolm Carey is Associate Professor in Social Work at Liverpool Hope University. Dr. Gurnam Singh is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick.

Read the special issue: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/crsw/13/1/crsw.13.issue-1.xml

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/03/11/podcast-social-work-and-social-control/

Timestamps:

1:20 - What do you mean when you say these articles are a comprehensive exploration of how social work operates at the intersection of care, control, governance and resistance?

3:39 - How has the hollowing out following austerity affected the working classes?

6:33 - How does the lack of training for assessing parents with learning disabilities play out in day to day life?

11:33 - Where does the culture of holding parents with learning disabilities to higher standards come from?

13:15 - Are the demands on social workers effecting whether people want to get into social work as a profession?

16:05 - What's fuelling the narrative of the deserving citizen and the undeserving migrant?

23:27 - What are support workers doing to support young people against this hostile system?

30:00 - How can we ensure that social work is focused on safeguarding and not on perpetuating prejudices over vulnerable people?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

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