What is it about?
This paper attempts to describe how 'risk' obscures thinking in child protection social work. It argues that the focus on risk orients thinking onto the concerns of the professional and away from the experiences of the people who use social work services. In doing so the profession is permeated by a mood of anxiety, which is unhelpful.
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Why is it important?
This paper adds to the growing critique of risk as the dominant paradigm
Perspectives
I also use this paper to argue that phenomenology is a useful perspective on social work as both are concerned with the situated lived experience.
Dr Joe Smeeton
University of Sheffield
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “A murky business”: A phenomenological ontology of risk in child protection social work, Qualitative Social Work, November 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1473325018815732.
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