The doctor, development and (un)sociable monkey: An autoethnography of a social worker

Abstract

This article is a critical autoethnographic investigation in which I explore development and social work vis-à-vis my own life episodes. I examine various tensions, for example, (1) becoming and being a colonial development subject; (2) encountering social work and compliance to it; (3) a U-turn, in disagreement with social work; and (4) a doctoral journey, reinvigorating my ‘social worker self’ through conceptualisation of a model of ‘decolonised, developmental social work’. This autoethnography leads me to critical discourses not only to question development and social work but also to uncover the ‘sense of (my) becoming and being’ regarding those two.