Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive of over 1,500 titles.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
This first chapter of the final part of the book begins the process of considering the practices of a rights-focused social work by focusing on assessment. Common theoretical approaches to social work assessment are presented, as well as some key policy developments relating to assessment in child and family work. They are argued to tend to focus on what information should be collected, and while the importance of analysis is often emphasised, it is rarer for there to be a focus on how to do such analysis. The chapter argues that assessment is a form of evidence-informed theory development. The idea of realist social work assessment is introduced, and suggested to be a strong foundation for a practice that allows the rights-focused social worker to combine the views of the individuals, the social mandate and the professional view of the social worker into a provisional theory.
Formulation is introduced as a way of developing working theories in social work assessment. The theory and practice of formulation are introduced, and additional considerations for a rights-focused formulation are presented. The practice of formulation is then illustrated through an extended case study.
The chapter adopts a historical perspective to investigate changing perspectives of Muslim families. It begins by considering the significance of colonialism and empire and related post-Second World War patterns of migration. Moving on to the mid- to late 20th century, the chapter considers how Muslim family life increasingly attracted unfavourable attention due to criticisms of the political project of multiculturalism and emerging connected arguments about cultural and religious incompatibility. It explores how the changing politics of identity led to enhanced, discriminatory interest in the private domain of Muslim family life. The final section identifies two related processes of representation which work to position Muslim families as a problem to be addressed.
The final chapter brings together the various arguments presented in the book, summarizing each of the book’s main contributions. These are: developing a framework for theorizing Muslim family life, critically evaluating ideas of collectivism and familism, challenging the regime of truth about Muslim family life, taking account of the enduring role of Islam and Muslim identity, tackling poverty and inequality, and addressing exclusions. In doing so, it offers an agenda for further exploration of Muslim family life.
While Social Work theory tends to emphasise helping individuals and challenging social injustice, the reality of practice is characterised by challenge and conflict. This text offers a new concept of Social Work that explains the nature of these conflicts and moves beyond them, with an inspiring and practical vision of what Social Work is and should be.
Placing rights at the heart of practice, this introduction to social work will be useful to practitioners and students with a substantive contribution to the theoretical literature that emphasises the role of social work when rights may be in conflict, enabling students and workers to become more confident dealing with the uncomfortable realities of practice.
The Enlightenment idea of individual rights is placed into its historical context. Key criticisms of human rights and the idea of the three generations of rights, with rights broadly related to liberty, equality and connection, are reviewed. While acknowledging the importance and validity of many of these critiques, it is argued that individual rights are nonetheless a key part of a good society. This provides the background for subsequent chapters, which consider different types of rights in more depth with a focus on their practice implications.
Chapter 6 again focuses on gender relationships, explaining the value of adopting a relational approach to exploring Muslim family life. It argues for centring caring roles and responsibilities and the connected emotional, intimate dimensions of people’s family lives. It begins by exploring men’s lives, which are commonly overlooked, and presents a case for closer examination of Muslim masculinities and connections between the public and private domain. The chapter then considers women’s lives, paying specific attention to motherhood as well as diverse femininities. It reflects on changes in the gendered and structural dynamics of Muslim family life and implications for gender inequality. Lastly, the chapter engages with non-normative family life by exploring albeit limited evidence of a growing diversity of relationship practices.
Chapter 7 focuses on changing generational relationships, roles and responsibilities, taking account of intersections and traditional, hierarchical relationships. First, it explores young people and prominent ideas of generational conflict before moving on to consider adulthood, a life-course stage which has attracted less attention. It investigates independence, productivity and caring responsibilities as distinguishing features of adulthood which shed light on the structure and arrangement of Muslim family life. It then considers older people and intergenerational transmission of resources, including an assessment of multigenerational families and households. The chapter engages with the book’s core argument that extended family is a privileged marker of difference for Muslims. It reflects on concerns about increased individualism, weakening family ties and impact of changing family formations.
The chapter starts by considering the idea that rights tend to individualise people rather than seeing them in connection. It is argued that rights are closely tied to human needs, and humans need connection, and that therefore this is an artificial distinction. The point is illustrated in relation to social work practice, with support for family time, retaining connections and working with the wider network being examples of rights-focused work that moves beyond the individual. The chapter then turns to examine the nature of the relationship between workers and the children and adults they work with. bell hooks’ idea of a love ethic is introduced and explored as a basis for rights-focused social work through a case study.
Key theories to underpin rights-focused practice are introduced in this second part of the book. The first is the humanist tradition. This is traced back from psychology into social work. The key features of a humanist orientation, its historical antecedents and the challenges and opportunities it poses for contemporary social work practice are presented. It is argued that it is consistent with rights-focused practice because it emerges from the same broad Enlightenment tradition as individual rights, but that it can result in a tendency to over-individualise problems. This leads to the need for a broader social lens, as explored in the next chapter.
