Revitalising radical social work

Abstract

The call to radicalise social work is not new. Some of us are “mature” enough toremember Bailey and Brake’s 1975 treatise on the subject. Radical concepts slip and slide around the social work agenda in a semisustainable way. But its enduring presence is masked by terms that fit less controversially into the conservative world order: critical, structural, and transformative among them.In this comment piece, I argue that we do not need to merely revitalise the radical but to name it, proudly and loudly.