Globalization and the technocratization of social work

Abstract

Few commentators have focused on how globalization has impacted on social work practice. This article demonstrates the significance of global ization on the process of intervention and the labour process in social work. As a result of global market forces, needs-led assessments and re lationship building have given way to budget-led assessments, increased managerial control over practitioners and bureaucratised procedures for handling consumer complaints. Led by the purchase-provider split in service provision as the British state's response to the market discipline imposed by the privatization of the welfare state, these changes seek to reorient social work away from its commitment to holistic provisions and social justice towards technocratic competencies which are the purview of the externally direct bureaucrat.