Neoliberalism and austerity have led to a growing inequality gap and increasing levels of poverty and social harm. In this short form book, part of the Critical and Radical Debates in Social Work series, Chris Jones and Tony Novak look at consequences of poverty and inequality and the challenge they pose to the engaged social work academic and practitioner. There are many studies of poverty that look at competing definitions (and some of the consequences) of poverty in modern society. Here the authors argue that, especially for a profession with a claimed commitment to values based on equality, social justice and meeting human need, poverty and immiserisation impose a requirement on social workers to speak out and not to collude with social policies that make the plight of the impoverished even harder and their lives even worse.
A propos de l’auteur
Chris Jones and Tony Novak have worked together teaching, researching and writing about British social policy since 1970. Tony’s main focus is social security and poverty and Chris’ is social work. Their Marxist and radical perspectives are well known and are reflected in many joint publications including Poverty, Welfare and the Disciplinary State (Routledge, 1999).