On Your Marx…? A World to Win or the Dismantlement of a Profession? On Why We Need a Reckoning

Abstract

Abstract This essay adds to the debate started by Chris Maylea, who called for ‘an end to social work’, and subsequently joined by Paul Michael Garrett, who offered a riposte to Maylea’s call, whilst also illustrating the possibility of ‘dissenting social work’. Whilst not constructed as a direct response to either, this essay does engage with each and enters similar territory in the hope of extending the debate. The main thrust of what is presented here then suggests that rather than dismantling the profession and before imagining a new social work paradigm, we would do well to examine how social work is currently defined and whether or not this definition is reflective of contemporary social work practice, particularly in the liberal welfare states of the anglosphere. Effectively, I argue that it is not and that this is evident through what I term ‘the unfulfilled promise of social justice’. On this basis, I want to argue for a more expansive understanding of social work as an act of reclamation that challenges how social work has become ensconced within repressive state apparatuses. In doing so, I suggest that we should move to ‘reclaim’ our radical roots by turning to ‘ideas lying around’.