SOC WORK 740 / Changing Social Service Organizations: Implications for Workers and Service Users

Prerequisite(s): Must be enrolled in Graduate Plan in Critical Analysis OR Graduate Plans in Critical Leadership in Social Services and Communities.

Examines the broad contextual forces shaping practitioners’ work lives and practices: ongoing economic globalization; welfare restructuring and the erosion of social programs; the rise of managerialism and imperatives towards individual responsibility. Explores how these forces are embedded in everyday work relations and the social organization of direct practice, including such areas as recording, documentation, accountability mechanisms and risk management. Identifies the tensions and dilemmas generated by these organizing forces for practitioners, citizens and service users.