The Doctoral Research of Dr. Brian Carty, PhD

“An Institutional Ethnography of the Work Experiences of Critical Social Workers in Applying Critical Social Work Praxis in their Workplaces”

BY LINDA TURNER, PHD, RSW

In September 2017, the social work community of the Maritimes lost Dr. Brian Carty, beloved St. Thomas University professor, strong social justice advocate, and dedicated friend and ally.

Dr. Carty influenced many social workers through his teaching, and his research is relevant to social workers everywhere. He acknowledged: “the incredible contributions of all social workers who work hand in hand with service users, policy makers, and others, toward structural change with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life for service users.”

Dr. Carty’s research question was, “Given theneoliberal agenda – to what extent are criticalsocial workers able to operate from a social justice lens and work on social change?”

In May 2018, social work professors Dr. Merlinda Weinberg of Dalhousie University, who served as external examiner of his PhD dissertation committee, and Dr. Laurel Lewey, a long-time STU colleague and PhD supervisory team member, presented the research. The occasion provided an invaluable opportunity for attendees to learn, to celebrate his accomplishment, and to reflect on their own practice and interactions.

Dr. Weinberg identified intersection points between Dr. Carty’s findings and her own important research on ethical practice, in which she articulates key paradoxes, ethical struggles and the concept of “ethical trespass” (Weinberg, 2016). Dr. Lewey shared the research study’s methodology, themes, conclusions and implications. They have graciously shared their material.

METHODOLOGY:

The research was conducted within an institutional ethnography framework using feminist scholar Dorothy Smith’s work (1999). Fifteen social workers were interviewed, with a focus on their critical social work praxis. Data was analyzed alongside 4 key texts (NBASW Code of Ethics; the Family Services Act; the (2012) Strategic Plan/Vision Statement of the NB Department of Social Development, and the “Structured Decision Making System” (SDMS), an electronic assessment tool used to assess levels of risk and increase safety in child protection cases). All documents were identified by participants as connected to their daily work.

THEMES:

1. “Challenging the system”: meaning putting the clients first.

2. “Flying under the radar”: knowing when and how to push boundaries.

3. “Bludgeoned by paperwork”: how the processes of documentation generated enormous amounts of paperwork and also reproduced dominant social practices and constituted social relations.

4. “Rules, rules, rules!”: the necessity to work through numerous layers of bureaucracy; following some rules results in prohibiting service users from accessing services and slows response time.

5. “Stressed to the max”: not by service users, but by layers of administration that workers sometimes have to fight against and by being made to do things they don’t agree with.

6. “You’re gonna institute change in an incremental way –small victories”

CONCLUSIONS:

1. Pervasiveness of a neoliberal and managerialist ideology;

2. Institutional processes framed within neoliberal discourse tended toward individualizing social problems, “blaming the victim” and “deficit constructions of service users”;

3. The four texts that framed institutional processes and social work practice lacked coherence and demonstrate contradictions across the texts, leading to ethical dilemmas and consequences for service users;

4. Texts used by social workers on a daily basis have a powerful influence on the provision of social work services;

5. Dr. Carty emphasized the following finding: In spite of these barriers, the presence of personal agency, even when enacted covertly, is a way to resist standardized practices and to pursue interventions that meet the need of service users and are consistent with the ability to work toward structural change.

IMPLICATIONS:

1. Social Work Policy: “New policies should be developed with a critical eye to ensure they meet their intended purpose and these policies must also be regularly evaluated to maintain their continued effectiveness in meeting the requirements of service users”

2. Social Work Practice: “More than half of the participants spoke about the importance of having the opportunity to reflect on and debrief about their experiences working from a critical praxis; allotting time for regular reflection with colleagues could reduce the pressure of day-to-day activities, and would assist critical workers in findings alternative and less oppressive ways of working.”

3. Social Work Education: Need for greater knowledge of standard government processes before beginning employment and a need for students to gain knowledge of how government policies and processes reflect particular ideologies and discursive practices and their potential impact on service users.

4. Further Research: Qualitative research with service users to learn more about how neoliberal policies shape their everyday lives and the provision of services; research that reveals the multiple dimensions of service users’ lives including gender, race, class and social status, and analysis of social workers’ work-related experiences, to expose variations of work place settings and multiple intersecting complexities; experiences of managers in neoliberal environments; social workers’ understanding of court processes, discourse of those processes and experience of service users; and the impact of new technologies and documentation practices.

Dr. Weinberg’s conclusions provide further food for thought. On behalf of herself and Dr. Carty,she acknowledged that to focus on social justice in today’s neoliberal environment is difficult.

The research noted the value of: “a critical discourse analysis of the language of professional social work and the power/knowledge contained within, both historically and in the present, to discover how the profession constructs subjectivities to which workers and service users are expected to conform.”

Dr. Weinberg’s conclusions provide further food for thought. On behalf of herself and Dr. Carty, she acknowledged that to focus on social justice in today’s neoliberal environment is difficult. It is necessary to recognize the potential of ethical trespass, despite intentions. At the same time, there is an essential need to resist the shrinking role of social work, to expand what we understand as ethics to include the political and relational, and to include social justice as a primary value in the profession and to fight for it.

Her closing assertion is echoed in Dr. Carty’s dissertation study: the importance of recognizing that despite the constraints it is possible to resist the current trends.

LINDA TURNER, PhD, RSW, is currently with the NS Department of Health and Wellness, Continuing Care Department and lives in Pictou. She has taught in Social Work programs at St. Thomas University, Dalhousie and UNE in Armidale Australia.

REFERENCES

1. Carty, B. (2018) “An Institutional Ethnography of the Work Experiences of Critical Social Workers in Applying Critical Social Work Praxis in their Workplaces”. Fredericton, NB: UNB. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation.

2. Smith, D.E. (1999) Writing the social. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

3. Weinberg, M. (2016) Paradoxes in Social Work Practice: Mitigating Ethical Trespass. NH: Routledge.