Universality or diversity
An interesting exchange of papers in the International Journal of Social Welfare, in which Stephen Webb, recently a scourge of all sorts of trendy posturing in social work, takes an intellectual axe to people who say diversity is a right, and who promote the politics of difference. And a reply, cautiously pointing out that we need to balance the need for accepting and acknowledging difference within social work practice, while looking at the universality of the human condition as well.
You’ll gather from the titles below that the debate is in fairly high-flown terms, but many practitioners will appreciate an occasional debate about the extent to which diversity has always to be accepted and valued (rather than just recognised), and universality of understanding is also to be valued, rather than knee-jerk ‘let it all hang out’ political posturing.
Webb, S. A. (2008) Against difference and diversity in social work: the case of human rights. International Journal of Social Welfare 18(5): 307-16.
Sohlberg, P. (2009) Is there nothing beyond postmodernism and ‘the theoretical Other’?… International Journal of Social Welfare 18(5): 317-22.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Thanks for raising this important duality and paradox. This is just another example of the “rub” we face in social work. I think most of us prefer to bury our heads in the sand and hope the conflict goes away rather than acknowledge and join in the debate. Thanks for raising these important questions and for the citations. I will read them today.