Social Work in Authoritarian Times: Engaging with Marginalized Communities Under Attack

Catalog description

We live in troubling times. A surging wave of authoritarianism, both in the U.S. and across the globe, has energized discriminatory orientations towards marginalized communities, subjecting them to an expanding regime of punitive cultural and institutional practices. The current landscape of social work practice is marked by shrinking resources for social services, a weakening of institutional diversity and inclusion policies, accelerating violence aimed at impoverished communities, and retaliations directed towards those who advocate for social justice. In other words, the need for Social Work to step up to the challenges shaping this era has never been more urgent. Traditional social work responses to the needs of our communities however, may not be sufficient to address emerging hurdles, and in some cases, might even be exacerbating the crisis. How are we to understand the evolving sociopolitical forces that shape the macro, meso, and direct modes of engagement with our communities? What are the dynamic and emerging barriers confronting marginalized communities? What are clinical, community-level, and structural interventions that might be effective responses in these authoritarian times? What are the creative subjective and material resources, strategies, and protocols that social workers might deploy to collaborate with communities in order to resist marginalization? Drawing on examples and readings from the U.S. as well as global contexts, and in conversation with social workers and activists who are currently negotiating the crises of our times, this class seeks to engage students in a collective process that lays the groundwork for an effective social work response (macro, meso, and clinical) to emerging vectors of oppression.