How Capitalism Seeks to Define the Relationship Between Social Workers and Their Clients
Conference Year
January 2020
Abstract
Abstract
This paper examines how the capitalist paradigm affects the relationships between social workers and the individuals they serve. Social work as a profession emerged as the industrial revolution and neoliberalism impacted the sociocultural environment. At the same time, the power dynamics inherent in capitalism shaped economic and governmental policies that institutionalized social inequity. For social work to function within a paradigm of institutionalized inequity, it had become entrenched within the very institutions it recognized as perpetuating social injustice. To navigate inside the systems the profession wished to change without becoming subsumed by other agendas, seven national social agencies combined to form the National Social Workers Association (NASW). The NASW created a code of ethics. The code was put in place to ground social workers as they piloted within the three spheres of the profession: individual casework, social administration, and social action. While it is important to understand how capitalism shapes the attitudes and beliefs of the community’s social workers serve, it is vital that social workers remain vigilantly aware of the effect capitalism has on their professional lens.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Susan Comerford
Status
Graduate
Student College
Graduate College
Program/Major
Social Work
Primary Research Category
Social Sciences
How Capitalism Seeks to Define the Relationship Between Social Workers and Their Clients
Abstract
This paper examines how the capitalist paradigm affects the relationships between social workers and the individuals they serve. Social work as a profession emerged as the industrial revolution and neoliberalism impacted the sociocultural environment. At the same time, the power dynamics inherent in capitalism shaped economic and governmental policies that institutionalized social inequity. For social work to function within a paradigm of institutionalized inequity, it had become entrenched within the very institutions it recognized as perpetuating social injustice. To navigate inside the systems the profession wished to change without becoming subsumed by other agendas, seven national social agencies combined to form the National Social Workers Association (NASW). The NASW created a code of ethics. The code was put in place to ground social workers as they piloted within the three spheres of the profession: individual casework, social administration, and social action. While it is important to understand how capitalism shapes the attitudes and beliefs of the community’s social workers serve, it is vital that social workers remain vigilantly aware of the effect capitalism has on their professional lens.