Race, Racism and Social Work

"contains much of what a social worker needs to know about social work and racism today...recommend[ed]...for further reading and discussion at universities as well as by the public." European Journal of Social Work

"The book offers ideas and arguments that can contribute to a more critical and reflective stance on race and racism and the beginning of more informed, sensitive, and anti-racist methods of social work practice. Strengths include an excellent glossary of terms and definitions." Choice

"The significance of this book is that it reasserts that social work needs to adopt a more radical approach to social work intervention and that this intervention needs to draw on anti-racist theories and practices." Critical and Radical Social Work

“The growth of Islamophobia over the past decade alongside the rise of anti-Roma racism and increasing attacks on the idea of multiculturalism make it vital that we revisit and re-assess the role of anti-racist social work in the 21st century. This book makes an invaluable contribution to that re-assessment”. Iain Ferguson, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, University of the West of Scotland

"This book, which is currently needed more than ever, offers a valuable new generation of critical thinking about race, racism and social work. I hope it will help both social workers and those they work with to reverse these damaging times." Professor Peter Beresford, Brunel University

Michael Lavalette is Professor of Social Work at Liverpool Hope University. He has written several books and articles for all the main social work journals. He has also edited a wide range of books on a variety of social policy and social work themes, most recently Radical Social Work Today (2011, The Policy Press) and Social Work in Extremis (2011, The Policy Press). He is co-editor of Critical and Radical Social Work, launching in 2013.

Laura Penketh is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Liverpool Hope University. She has taught in Higher Education for over 20 years. Her first post was at the University of Central Lancashire (1999-2003); she then moved to the University of Manchester (2003-2009), before joining Liverpool Hope University in September, 2009. She has written widely about issues of social work and oppression, including an analysis of CCETSW’s anti-racist initiative called Tackling Institutional Racism (2000, The Policy Press)

Introduction: Race, Racism and Social Work ~ Michael Lavalette and Laura Penketh;

Rethinking anti-racist social work in a neoliberal age ~ Gurnam Singh;

The growth of xeno-racism and Islamophobia in Britain ~ Liz Fekete;

The catalysers: 'black' professionals and the anti-racist movement ~ Charlotte Williams;

"Same, same, but different" ~ Philomena Harrison and Beverley Burke;

Antisemitism and anti-racist social work ~ Barrie Levine;

Anti-Roma racism in Europe: past and recent perspectives ~ Špela Urh;

In defence of multiculturalism? ~ Gareth Jenkins;

Social work and Islamophobia: identity formation among second and third generation Muslim women in north-west England ~ Laura Penketh;

Institutionalised Islamophobia and the 'Prevent' agenda: 'winning hearts and minds' or welfare as surveillance and control? ~ Michael Lavalette;

'Street-grooming', sexual abuse and Islamophobia: an anatomy of the Rochdale abuse scandal ~ Judith Orr;

My people? ~ Dave Stamp;

Twenty-first century eugenics? A case study about the Merton Test ~ Rhetta Moran and Susan Gillett;

The role of immigration policies in the exploitation of migrant care workers: an ethnographic exploration ~ Joe Greener;

Conclusion: Race, racism and social work today: some concluding thoughts ~ Laura Penketh and Michael Lavalette.