Open AccessThe new social work radicalism
Author(s) -
Iain Ferguson
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
aotearoa new zealand social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2463-4131
pISSN - 1178-5527
DOI - 10.11157/anzswj-vol29iss2id404
Subject(s) - grassroots , austerity , social work , government (linguistics) , political radicalism , project commissioning , variety (cybernetics) , work (physics) , mental health , action (physics) , sociology , resistance (ecology) , public relations , publishing , political science , psychology , law , psychiatry , engineering , politics , mechanical engineering , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , biology
On a cold January morning in 2017, a group of social workers, service users, claimants, psychologists, counselors and others gathered outside the annual meeting of the British Psychological Society (BPS) taking place that year in Liverpool. Those present represented a wide variety of grassroots organisations including the Social Work Action Network, Psychologists against Austerity and the Mental Health Resistance Network (SWAN). They were there to protest the BPS’s involvement in the UK government’s use of “psycho-compulsion” as a tool for getting people off benefits.