Canonical critiques and geopolitical shifts: Addressing the neoliberalism/collective dichotomy in social work

Abstract

This article problematizes the disciplinary ‘black-boxing’ of the concept of neoliberalism, and the concomitant idealization of community as antidote, within social work scholarship. Our central claim is that an oppressive neoliberalism/authentic community dichotomy cannot adequately represent the major problems and solutions facing state-sponsored social work today. We argue that the thought behind ‘neoliberalism’ is much more complex and nuanced than is widely assumed, and that making this complexity visible provides a means of developing forms of critique crucial to addressing the contemporary problems of increasingly illiberal societies.

Keywords

• Neoliberalism
• Community
• Critical Social Work
• Mont Pèlerin Society
• Politics